Sebastian Vettel was voted Driver of the Weekend for the second time this year following his victory in the Canadian Grand Prix.
1. Sebastian Vettel
Started: 1st
Finished: 1st
Qualifying produced mixed conditions and Vettel mastered them, breaking Mercedes’ run of pole positions.
On race day he quickly established himself at the head of the field. Despite a brush with a barrier and an off-track moment at turn one he delivered his third victory of the year and pulled further ahead in the championship.
It has to be Vettel as he was in a class of his own. He did make two mistakes but that was down to him going at every lap as hard as possible as opposed to playing it safe.
@PeteBaldwin
It can’t be anyone other than Vettel in my opinion. For the first time this season we’ve seen Vettel drive to the absolute limit 100% of the race (hence the brush with the wall and his run-off at turn one).
Sure the RB9 was the best car out there this weekend, but that drive and that crushing gap to second were all Vettel’s “fault”.
Antonio Nartea (@Tony031r)
I voted for Vettel because you can’t really take away from his superb performance over the weekend. This season has so far demonstrated that converting a pole to victory isn’t as easy as is often assumed yet Vettel looked dominant from the start and you can’t really fault any aspect of his performance.
Adam Kibbey (@Kibblesworth)
2. Fernando Alonso
Started: 6th
Finished: 2nd
The last time Fernando Alonso qualified outside the top five at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve he was wearing Minardi overalls.
But he bounced back in the race, picking off Valtteri Bottas on the first lap then claiming Mark Webber and both Mercedes to take second place.
I would have picked Vettel except for his two unforced-but-lucky gaffes on race day. Seemed to lose concentration, perhaps. I went with Alonso – sixth to second on race day.
I was at the track all three days and the weather on Friday and Saturday was miserable for setting a car up: wind changing direction and speed, on-and-off rain, cold, a driver and race engineer’s nightmare. So I excuse qualifying performance. But on race day, Alonso doggedly chased down and passed four guys in front of him.
Tom Davidson (@Wacamo)
I’ll give it to Alonso for his sheer relentlessness, after a compromised qualifying, in hunting down and passing quality drivers and cars in front of him without errors. Without that, the race would have not been very exciting. Respect to Hamilton’s defense and holding out as long as possible – he described it like being pursued by “a bull”, nice.
Bonus: I got to meet both Alonso and Vettel at the autograph session, and they ended up one-two in the race, sweet…
@LordOfFunk
3. Jean-Eric Vergne
Started: 7th
Finished: 6th
Jean-Eric Vergne’s career-best sixth place saw him earn a top-three place in the Driver of the Weekend voting for the first time in his career. He beat Paul di Resta by just three votes.
Vergne reached Q3 for the second weekend in a row and squeezed past Bottas early on. That proved decisive, as it kept him out of the clutches of his pursuers. The result gave his championship position a boost moving him ahead of his team mate – and Sergio Perez!
Outstanding drive by Vergne’s standards, even for an anonymous race to sixth. About all he had to do was pass Bottas early on but he did that decisively then stayed clear of more fancied drivers behind – Sutil, Massa, the Lotuses, McLarens and the rest. Also some great laps on a drying track in practice and qualifying.
@Tomsk
2013 Driver of the Weekend results
| Race | First | Second | Third |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australian Grand Prix | Kimi Raikkonen (51.2%) | Adrian Sutil (17.9%) | Jules Bianchi (13.6%) |
| Malaysian Grand Prix | Mark Webber (34.2%) | Sebastian Vettel (17.4%) | Nico Rosberg (13.6%) |
| Chinese Grand Prix | Fernando Alonso (47.0%) | Daniel Ricciardo (18.2%) | Kimi Raikkonen (15.6%) |
| Bahrain Grand Prix | Sebastian Vettel (32.2%) | Paul di Resta (17.8%) | Fernando Alonso (11.9%) |
| Spanish Grand Prix | Fernando Alonso (61.4%) | Felipe Massa (10.8%) | Kimi Raikkonen (10.5%) |
| Monaco Grand Prix | Nico Rosberg (54.3%) | Adrian Sutil (22.2%) | Kimi Raikkonen (9.6%) |
| Canadian Grand Prix | Sebastian Vettel (36.8%) | Fernando Alonso (24.6%) | Jean-Eric Vergne (14.0%) |
2013 Canadian Grand Prix
- 2013 Canadian Grand Prix team radio transcript
- Second Driver of the Weekend win for Vettel
- Perfect score for Yud in Canadian GP predictions
- Top ten pictures from the 2013 Canadian Grand Prix
- 2013 Canadian Grand Prix fans’ video gallery
Image © Red Bull/Getty
Kingshark (@kingshark)
20th June 2013, 17:13
Where’s Monaco?
That being said, so far the drivers’ of the weekend awards have been pretty generic. Apart from Malaysia, the winner of the race has always received the DotW award. On the opposite side of the spectrum, look back to 2011, when everyone would always vote for anyone other than Vettel. :p
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
20th June 2013, 17:18
Added it back in.
dkpioe
20th June 2013, 17:22
Vettel did what no other drivers in this generation can do… start from pole and dominate. – he could do it in any top 3 car – his car isnt much better then the mercedes or ferrari, as proven by Webber who is a world-class driver in his own right. Vettel is something special, heading to a 4th championship at 25 years of age. haters will say it is all the car, maybe it was a bit like that in 2011, but apart from that it is the driver and the car – perfect combination. I think he will be a 10 time champion with 100 poles and 80 wins. by the way he is not my favourite driver, I would prefer to see Alonso, Webber and Raikonnen to win.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
20th June 2013, 17:37
There are plenty of drivers capable of doing that. Alonso did it 4 times in a row back in 2006. Hamilton has done it too, so has Raikkonen, Rosberg, Webber, Button, and Massa. Of course, Vettel does it often, but to say that he’s the only driver of this generation capable of doing so is laughable.
Don’t count out Nando yet. ;-)
Wow, calm down, lol. I’m pretty sure people were saying the same about Hamilton back in 2008. Anything can happen.
rambler
20th June 2013, 20:05
Hamilton is a great driver on a good day. Vettel is a great driver every day. That’s the difference
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
20th June 2013, 17:45
Mark Webber is a world class driver ?? Then Massa has to be the greatest of all time !!!!
crr917 (@crr917)
20th June 2013, 18:26
Too bad Massa wastes his talent on secret Pirelli tests :D
Marciare_o_Marcire (@marciare-o-marcire)
20th June 2013, 18:45
What the heck are you talking about? Massa never attended a secret Pirelli test. Pedro De La Rosa was driving that day. And it wasn’t a secret test, nor was it a Pirelli test: it was a Ferrari test, during which Pirelli tyres were used. Did you expect them to use Bridgestones? The Mercedes test, on the other hand, was a Pirelli test, during which a Mercedes was used. And there’s more than just a semantics difference between the two.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
20th June 2013, 22:25
@marciare-o-marcire It emerged during the Tribunal today that Massa did one in 2012, separate from the test Ferrari also conducted this year involving De la Rosa.
celeste (@celeste)
20th June 2013, 20:29
hahahahahaha
tmax (@tmax)
20th June 2013, 22:02
+1 . Massa had a disastrous start/First half of the season last year. Now with this news it looks like his turnaround came after the secret Pirelli tests. Was it a 2012 car that he used for the rest ?
I am eager to hear the comments from @sniffpetrol in Twitter about Massa’s secret Pirelli test LOL !!!!
Nomore (@nomore)
20th June 2013, 18:40
+1
Lance (@lancelot)
20th June 2013, 18:41
Agreed. I had my doubts about Vettel, but recently I’ve changed my opinion. It’s not the car. He’s really something special.
tmekt (@tmekt)
20th June 2013, 17:48
It seems that nowadays race winner is automatically regarded as the DOTW. Unless of course his name is Sebastian Vettel. The winner also gets about or well over 50% of the votes, every time. Unless of course his name is Sebastian Vettel.
D (@f190)
20th June 2013, 18:15
But Vettel just won then DOTW vote and he won the race. This makes your point completely incorrect and pointless.
MNM101 (@mnm101)
20th June 2013, 18:22
No it doesn’t, it’s very true
D (@f190)
20th June 2013, 18:46
“It seems that nowadays race winner is automatically regarded as the DOTW. Unless of course his name is Sebastian Vettel. ”
How can that be true when Vettel won the race and was just voted driver of the wweekend ? @Mnm101 ? It simply cannot be true as it hasn’t happened ? Don’t you see that ? Wow.
tmekt (@tmekt)
20th June 2013, 19:56
@f190
Because he won in Malaysia but wasn’t elected as the DOTW
Lance (@lancelot)
20th June 2013, 18:39
True. That’s kind of sad. But no one can deny Vettel greatness.
caci_99
20th June 2013, 19:20
So Vettel gets driver of the weekend for the second time, yet some are not pleased. What should he get? 99.99% of the votes? What is this, the elections in some dictatorship country?
tmekt (@tmekt)
20th June 2013, 20:07
Just pointing out that he’s still the only race winner this year to not receive anywhere near 50% of the votes.
SeaHorse (@seahorse)
21st June 2013, 6:53
@tmekt I suppose it perhaps is due to the fact that Vettel is one among the good performers during a race weekend in the races he has won this season so far (whether he is better or the best of the lot is different topic altogether). Hence his low score. But I consider Malaysian DOTW results to be skewed against Vettel because of what happened with the multi 2-1 agreement.
verstappen (@verstappen)
20th June 2013, 22:20
I guess people got annoyed by his finger when he pointed it at his head after colliding with Webber in Turkey.
Aya (@ayatoybox)
21st June 2013, 3:22
So It’s like playing video game Vettel is the unbeatable BOSS villain and the rest is the heroes who fight him :P
David-A (@david-a)
21st June 2013, 6:06
@temkt – This certainly applied in 2010/11/12 (where he won 19 races since DOTW was introduced, but won the vote a measly 5 times, the same as Mark Webber), but is starting to improve, as he has won it for his last 2 race wins.
David-A (@david-a)
21st June 2013, 6:06
I mean @tmekt
DaveF1 (@davef1)
20th June 2013, 18:32
Bout time JEV got some recognition.
xjr15jaaag (@xjr15jaaag)
20th June 2013, 20:44
+1; Vergne is really driving extremely well, and if he can sustain these performances throughout the season and hold this margain of superiority over Ricciardo, then Vergne should be the one to replace Webber
bludragon
20th June 2013, 20:58
Interesting to see that Hamilton has not made it into the top 3 yet.
John H (@john-h)
20th June 2013, 22:35
Must be this British biased website :)
HiPn0tIc (@hipn0tic)
20th June 2013, 21:15
Vettel is a wonderful driver. Does the car helps? Yes but all tha great drivers in the past had great cars too, you cannot add one and subtract the other.
Vettel deserves the DOTW.
Whenever Vettel is nominated DOTW the winner percentage and the opinions diverge from Seb, but you cannot take credit.
tmax (@tmax)
20th June 2013, 22:18
@hipn0tic I agree. Senna himself won all his championships in a super good car all the three years. In fact in 1993 knowing well that the McLaren was not competitive enough he had a race by race contract !!!
Toxic (@)
21st June 2013, 0:31
There is one “small” difference though, Senna’s teammates.
D (@f190)
20th June 2013, 21:26
@tmekt
Basing your argument on Malaysia is unfair as many had valid reasons to nothing vote for Vettel. He ignored team orders and many didn’t feel he deserved the win. Did you ever think that on the occasions Vettel won other drivers also had really great races ?
Feuerdrache (@xenomorph91)
20th June 2013, 22:53
In my view, he did deserve the win (now totally letting the “ignoring team order” argument aside which I think is pointless anyway due to having Mark Webber as team “mate”): he saved more fuel than Webber in the early stages when having to drive behind him and secondly he saved another set of fresh medium tyres in Q2 – taking the risk to not make it into Q3! Why shouldn’t he use those advantages? And team order against Vettel is totally senseless in the second round of a 19 race season.
If it would have been Alonso, he would be hailed as great and ruthless. I guess it has to do with fans being used to Alonso having a team that only is there for him (Renault with Fisichella, now Ferrari with Massa).
tmekt (@tmekt)
20th June 2013, 23:13
@f190
The whole team-order thing is debatable but the fact remains that Vettel is the only race winner this season who wasn’t voted the DOTW. He sure wasn’t winning any employee-of-the-month awards but how well he behaves within the team hierarchy doesn’t have anything to do with this in my opinion. Rosberg obeyed team-orders with millimeter accuracy and where is he if that’s how you’re supposed to win these things? Would Webber have deserved the win any more than Vettel if Vettel had to hold back even though he still had more performance left to use and thus “letting” the slower car win? If Webber had been the one to disobey team orders, would the reaction have been the same towards him?
You could point out many amazing performances from other drivers at any race but they don’t usually affect the winner’s score as much as they apparently do with Vettel’s. Take the Barcelona race for example: Massa and Räikkönen both had near perfect races but neither of them could even challenge Alonso who happened to score the highest score of the year so far with the 61.4% share of the votes he had (and he was even rather unimpressive in the quali). I’m sure you can find more examples if you do some research.
Matt (@spartacvs)
20th June 2013, 23:48
Wow! I have to read the headline again to make sure I was reading it correctly. This can’t be, how could this be possible, Vettel winning 2 driver of the weekend in the last few races. There must be something wrong with the voting system Keith, you might wanna check it out. I can’t believe the Samurai didn’t win Driver of the Weekend, again just wow, I’m flabbergasted by this turn of event.
DaveF1 (@davef1)
21st June 2013, 10:29
Not entirely sure what point you’re trying to make there. Alonso has only won the DotW in races he won, just like Vettel. I think if there is anything to be surprised about its how Raikkonen isn’t in the top 3 simply for turning up again.