All eyes at the start of the 2022 F1 British GP were on the front, where Carlos Sainz was defending pole against Verstappen, Leclerc and Checo Pérez . The Dutchman, on soft tyres, asserted his advantage to steal first place, but it was a clean start in that area.
However, on arrival at the first corner, chaos broke out from behind, with up to five cars affected. Live on television we could see one of them overturned and traveling many meters upside down, towards the protections of the first turn.
In the replays it could be seen that on the main straight Guanyu Zhou was on the left, with Pierre Gasly in the center and George Russell on the right. The Briton in Mercedes dived to the left, closing in on Gasly, who had to ease off the throttle, and Russell ended up crashing into Zhou’s car, which was ejected.
Also, from behind, Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon were also affected.
Cameras quickly showed Russell ‘s Mercedes damaged to the rear, Albon ‘s Williams affected, Tsunoda ‘s AlphaTauri with no front wing and Ocon ‘s Alpine with its right front wheel ripped off.
However, there was no footage of Guanyu Zhou, the driver who had flipped his Alfa Romeo, and the race was quickly red-flagged . As soon as he got out of the car, George Russell ran to the accident area, although the cameras did not focus on that point on the Silverstone circuit.
Alfa Romeo confirmed that they have already been able to remove the Chinese driver from the car, who is conscious and was treated at the medical center. Alexander Albon also had to go to the medical center after being hit by several cars after a touch from Sebastian Vettel.
The first images showed that the car had been embedded between the tire barrier and the track’s protection mesh, after jumping the protection wall made up of tires.
After the red flag, all the cars returned to the pitlane. Max Verstappen had become the leader of the race, and was going to have the option of changing tires and matching the strategy of the Ferraris, who came out with means (Carlos Sainz had placed second and Charles Leclerc, fourth after being overtaken by Lewis Hamilton) .
However, applying the regulations, race management announced that since the red flag was before passing the first sector of the track, the starting positions would be taken, so Carlos Sainz is first, Verstappen second and Leclerc third .
Among the injured, Esteban Ocon managed to reach the pit lane on three wheels and will continue in the race. For their part, Russell, Albon and Zhou have dropped out .
