Carlos Sainz secures first F1 victory in British GP as Zhou Guanyu survives dramatic crash

By Ben Church, CNN

Updated 1700 GMT (0100 HKT) July 3, 2022

Carlos Sainz waves a Spanish flag as he celebrates his win.

(CNN)Carlos Sainz secured his first victory in F1 during a dramatic British Grand Prix on Sunday where Alfa Romeo's Zhou Guanyu survived a huge crash on the first lap.

The race had to be restarted after Zhou's car was flipped upside down and crashed into a fence having been clipped shortly after the start. It caused a lengthy delay but the driver was eventually declared fit after being assessed at the medical center. After the race restarted, Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez sustained damage to their cars and dropped down the pecking order allowing Ferrari's Sainz and Charles Leclerc to establish a strong lead. But a safety car with 10 laps to go allowed Perez to get back in touch and both he and Lewis Hamilton overtook Leclerc in an exhilarating end to the race to secure second and third respectively. Read MoreSainz, who had also overtaken his teammate after the safety car, struggled to hold back his emotions after crossing the line first. «I don't know what to say, it was amazing,» an emotional Sainz said after the race. «It was a very special day that I will not forget.»It was not easy, I struggled quite a bit with balance [...] but even with all that I stayed believing."Sainz crosses the finish line first to win the British Grand Prix.Horror crash There was plenty of excitement ahead of the race with a plethora of global stars busying the grid before the start. Shortly after racing began, however, that excitement turned to nerves after the huge collision stopped proceedings on the first lap. Footage showed Zhou's Alfa Romeo flipping upside down in a dramatic incident that also