British Grand Prix: 2 winners and 2 losers from Silverstone

The British Grand Prix was won by Carlos Sainz on Sunday afternoon as the Spaniard sealed his first-ever Formula 1 victory at Silverstone.

Sainz started the race from pole and, at the second attempt following the restart, he held onto the lead and would go onto win – though he was given a little bit of a helping hand by Max Verstappen hitting trouble when taking P1 and by Ferrari’s decision not to pit Charles Leclerc under the Safety Car.

Even so, Sainz deserves a bit of fortune and a win has been a long time coming, so he kicks off our winners and losers piece this time around…

Winner – Carlos Sainz

Sainz produced a stellar lap time in the wet on Saturday in qualifying to seal his first-ever pole in the sport, and then completed the job by taking his maiden Grand Prix victory at Silverstone.

A popular driver in the paddock and with fans, few would begrudge him victory here.

Yes, Max Verstappen had taken the lead off of him after a mistake and may well have taken victory had he not suffered damage to his car running over debris, but that is all academic now and when Sainz saw the chance to take victory from Charles Leclerc on worn tyres in the closing stages, he pounced.

Loser – Charles Leclerc

On the flipside, Charles Leclerc was naturally a little frustrated to say the very least post-race.

He had been leading but Ferrari decided not to bring him in for fresh tyres under the late Safety Car following on from Esteban Ocon’s retirement just before Copse.

The Scuderia said that they felt they could not pit both drivers at the same time as they would have lost their one-two, and Leclerc was on fresher tyres at the time so he was sacrificed but, given he was leading and has the better chance in the championship, surely this