'A day I will not forget!' declares victorious Sainz

40

If claiming his maiden Formula 1 pole position in qualifying on Saturday represented a career high for Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, then claiming his first race win in 150 starts took his delight to whole new levels.

Sainz initially lost the lead at the start Max verstappen, but an immediate red flag for a huge accident involving Zhou Guanyu meant everything was reset for the restart almost an hour late.

This timeSainz was able to tough it out and fend off Verstappen through the opening corners - only to buckle under the intense pressure and run wide on lap 9, allowing Verstappen to take control.

Read also: Sainz wins drama-packed British GP in thrilling finish

"It was not easy," he told the media in parc ferme afterwards. "I struggled quite a bit with the balance, especially on the Medium tyres. Max was forcing us to push a lot through the high-speed corners,"

Verstappen subsequently fell out of contention and Sainz' main rival for the race win was his Ferrari team mate Charles Leclerc, despite the Monegasque suffering front wing damage in the opening laps.

Leclerc appeared faster and be heading to victory until a late safety car for Esteban Ocon's retirement gave Sainz a chance to switch to soft tyres and seize back the, successfully racing away to safety in the final laps.

"Throughout I kept believing and I tried to stay in the race," he said. "And then the safety car gave me the opportunity to get back on it.

"You can imagine my nerves on that safety car restart and then getting it done and then the win!" he added.

"I don't know what to say," he said afterwards as he basked in his breakthrough success. "The first race win 150 races later, with Ferrari at Silverstone, I cannot ask for more.

"Silverstone is a special place for me.," he explained. "I got my first ever win here back in Formula BMW back in 2010, and now I've achieved exactly the same in F1 with Ferrari.

"It's amazing," he continued. "It's a very special day, a day I will not forget, a very special weekend in general."

Sainz victory proved very popular with the race fans at Silverstone. Short of a win for local hero Lewis Hamilton, who finished third behind Sergio Perez, there couldn't have been bigger cheers than for Sainz as he stepped up to the top of the podium.

"Thank you to everyone for the support and the cheers," he acknowledged. "Lewis was on it today, I heard. It was one of his days. But we managed to hold on and I am incredibly happy."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.