Vote for your 2014 Belgian GP Driver of the Weekend

2014 Belgian Grand Prix

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Which F1 driver was the best performer during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend?

Review how each driver got on below and vote for who impressed you the most during the last race weekend.

Belgian Grand Prix driver-by-driver

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – Despite missing second practice due to an engine problem Vettel qualified ‘best of the rest’ behind the Mercedes pair in third place. He got ahead of Rosberg at the start but his optimistic attempt to pass Hamilton at La Source didn’t pay off and dropped him behind Rosberg. He then made another mistake at Pouhon which allowed Ricciardo past. Dropping behind Raikkonen at the first round of pit stops did more damage to his race, but he emerged from a hectic battle with Alonso and the McLarens to take fifth.

Daniel Ricciardo – Had to settle for fifth in qualifying after almost losing control at Blanchimont as the track dried in Q3. He was on it in the race, however, slipstreaming past Alonso early on then taking advantage of his team mate’s mistake to claim second. Rosberg’s front wing change handed him the lead, but he made full use of the opportunity and treated his tyres carefully in the final stint to claim his third win.

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – Pole position number seven counted for little as he made a poor start, falling to third behind Hamilton and Vettel. He swiftly regained second place and attacked his team mate for the lead on lap two – rather too literally as it turned out. He then had to cope for a damaged front wing for his first stint, but after having it replaced at his first pit stop he was still in with a chance of winning. However a lock-up while battling Vettel proved costly – Bottas took the opportunity to overtake him and Rosberg had to make an early second pit stop, forcing him onto a three-stop strategy which left him three seconds shy of Ricciardo at the flag.

Lewis Hamilton – Was in contention for pole position but a glazed brake in Q3 meant he had to settle for second behind Rosberg. He was immediately into the lead at the start, but Rosberg was quicker around the end of the first lap and made his now-infamous bid to get past. Hamilton was blameless in the incident and came off by far the worst. But though his chances of gaining any points that afternoon were remote from that point on, he seemed a little too eager to throw in the towel.

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – Took an excellent fourth on the grid in the rain-hit qualifying session, splitting the Red Bulls. But it seemed his team had wrecked his efforts as several of them were still attending to his car after the 15-second signal was given at the start of the race. A five-second pit lane penalty was a surprisingly light sanction, though it dropped him behind Raikkonen, Bottas and Magnussen at the first round of pit stops. Was clearly ‘fouled’ by Magnussen on the run to Kemmel, though his attempts to pass the McLaren around the outside of Bruxelles assumed a level of co-operation Magnussen clearly wasn’t willing to extend, which ultimately cost him a place to Button.

Kimi Raikkonen – Said he made mistakes on his last run in Q3 which left him eighth on the grid. With Alonso needing to take his penalty and therefore better served by running long at his first pit stop, Raikkonen came in early as part of an aggressive two-stop strategy. He reaped the dividends, running quickly while out of traffic and only losing third place to Bottas with five laps to go.

Lotus

Romain Grosjean – The pace of the Lotus was “much better than expected” according to Grosjean, but he lost part of his front wing when he was squeezed between Bianchi and Hulkenberg on the first lap, forcing him to pit. He got back into the race and was running 17th when he stopped for good. “We picked up some damage later on from debris on the track,” he explained. “We lost a lot of downforce as a result so we retired the car.”

Pastor Maldonado – Continues to exacerbate Lotus’s persistent technical problems with failures of his own. This time he at least confined it to practice, but needlessly driving with two wheels off the track for as long as he did clearly invited a crash. His engine failed shortly after the start.

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McLaren

Jenson Button – Locked up on his Q3 lap which left him tenth on the grid. Overtook Massa soon after the start, but never looked like getting ahead of his team mate. He had a chance in the closing stages, but Magnussen firmly shut the door. However Button re-passed Alonso on the final lap for seventh, which became sixth after his team mate’s penalty.

Kevin Magnussen – Out-qualified his team mate and raced well against a trio of world champions. The only blot was an overly strong move against Alonso on the Kemmel straight, which deserved a penalty. The 20-second sanction had a strong effect, dropped him from sixth to twelfth.

Force India

Nico Hulkenberg – Tried to get through Q1 with one set of intermediate tyres but admitted he made mistakes on his final run which meant he failed to get to Q2 for the first time this year. However a strong start brought him within two places of Perez, which was where he finished. Having been 11th at the flag he was promoted into the points by Magnussen’s penalty.

Sergio PerezOut-qualified Hulkenberg for only the third time this year. He raced with the McLarens but felt he took too much life out of his tyres doing so, and had to fend off Kvyat in the closing stages.

Sauber

Adrian Sutil – Believed 14th was the bet his car was capable of after spending much of the race stuck behind Massa’s Williams, which the Ferrari-powered car was no match for on the straights.

Esteban GutierrezWas very unhappy on Saturday after his qualifying was ended by yet another technical problem. He made it to the chequered flag, however, one place behind his team mate.

Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne – Said he could have qualified in the top ten but for a problem with his exhaust in Q2 – a frequent problem for Toro Rosso this year. In the race he felt his car was out-gunned on the straights – both Force India and Sutil passed him at the start. However he regained places from Sutil and Massa in the final stint, and Magnussen’s penalty left him one place short of the points. Needed more from his first race since Toro Rosso confirmed he won’t be driving for them next year.

Daniil Kvyat – Wasn’t happy with his car’s handling after qualifying but nonetheless started in front of Vergne. Spent much of the race trying to attack one Force India while fending off the other – Hulkenberg was less than four-tenths of a second behind him at the flag.

Williams

Felipe Massa – Blamed traffic in Q3 for an indifferent lap which left him behind his team mate. He was badly compromised in the first first half of the race after picking up debris from the Rosberg/Hamilton collision, which the team did not remove until the second pit stop. Once they did he was much quicker, but it was too late for him to salvage any points.

Valtteri Bottas – Passed Alonso on lap eight and led a lap before his first pit stop. Took advantage of Rosberg’s struggles with Vettel to demote the Mercedes driver during his second stint, though Rosberg ultimately got back ahead once more via the pits. The Williams’ strong straight-line speed helped him pass Vettel and Raikkonen easily in the final stint to take third – his fourth podium finish this year.

Marussia

Jules Bianchi – When conditions are tricky in Q1, Bianchi is the driver you look out for, and once again he did not disappoint, putting his Marussia in Q2 for the third time this year. But he picked up a puncture in his first-lap contact with Grosjean which ruined his race. He was classified despite stopping with a gearbox problem five laps from home, prior to which he had inevitably been lapping quite a bit quicker than Chilton.

Max Chilton – With Bianchi falling by the wayside, Chilton upheld team honours by passing Ericsson two laps from home. But he very nearly wasn’t in the car at all – Marussia announced on Thursday he would be replaced by Alexander Rossi. They then reversed their position during the first practice session, by which time Chilton had already issued a contradictory statement claiming he had voluntarily given up the seat so allow them to sell it. Not a shining moment for him or the team.

Caterham

Andre Lotterer – Parachuted in to take over Kamui Kobayashi’s seat despite not having driven an F1 car in over a decade. However his World Endurance Championship and Japanese Super Formula experience stood him in good stead, and he duly out-qualified Ericsson by almost a full second, although he had the benefit of some new parts. His race lasted just one lap however before the car came to a stop – possibly because he had hit a kerb too hard at Blanchimont.

Marcus Ericsson – “We were in the wrong place on track all the time so I didn’t get a single clean lap,” he said after qualifying last. Managed to get ahead of Chilton at the start and nearly stayed there until the end, but the Marussia driver eventually slipped by.

Qualifying and race results summary

DriverStartedGap to team mateLaps leading team matePittedFinishedGap to team mate
Sebastian Vettel3rd-0.194s4/4435th+52.196s
Daniel Ricciardo5th+0.194s40/4421st-52.196s
Lewis Hamilton2nd+0.228s1/383
Nico Rosberg1st-0.228s37/3832nd
Fernando Alonso4th-0.994s15/4427th+24.347s
Kimi Raikkonen8th+0.994s29/4424th-24.347s
Romain Grosjean15th-0.363s0/13
Pastor Maldonado17th+0.363s1/10
Jenson Button10th+1.097s10/4426th-19.682s
Kevin Magnussen7th-1.097s34/44212th+19.682s
Nico Hulkenberg18th+0.601s9/44210th+1.404s
Sergio Perez13th-0.601s35/4428th-1.404s
Adrian Sutil14th-2.363s28/44314th-8.378s
Esteban Gutierrez20th+2.363s16/44215th+8.378s
Jean-Eric Vergne12th+0.428s6/44211th+6.573s
Daniil Kvyat11th-0.428s38/4429th-6.573s
Felipe Massa9th+1.129s0/44313th+47.943s
Valtteri Bottas6th-1.129s44/4423rd-47.943s
Jules Bianchi16th-1.515s0/39218thNot on same lap
Max Chilton19th+1.515s39/39216thNot on same lap
Marcus Ericsson22nd+0.969s0/1217th
Andre Lotterer21st-0.969s1/10

Review the race data

Vote for your driver of the weekend

Which driver do you think did the best job this weekend?

Cast your vote below and explain your choice in the comments.

Who was the best driver of the 2014 Belgian Grand Prix weekend?

  • Marcus Ericsson (0%)
  • Andre Lotterer (3%)
  • Max Chilton (0%)
  • Jules Bianchi (0%)
  • Valtteri Bottas (12%)
  • Felipe Massa (0%)
  • Daniil Kvyat (1%)
  • Jean-Eric Vergne (0%)
  • Adrian Sutil (0%)
  • Esteban Gutierrez (0%)
  • Nico Hulkenberg (0%)
  • Sergio Perez (0%)
  • Kevin Magnussen (6%)
  • Jenson Button (0%)
  • Pastor Maldonado (0%)
  • Romain Grosjean (0%)
  • Kimi Raikkonen (17%)
  • Fernando Alonso (2%)
  • Lewis Hamilton (2%)
  • Nico Rosberg (7%)
  • Daniel Ricciardo (48%)
  • Sebastian Vettel (2%)

Total Voters: 559

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2014 Belgian Grand Prix

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Images © Red Bull/Getty, Ferrari/Erocole Colombo, McLaren/LAT, Williams/LAT, Sauber, Marussia

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85 comments on “Vote for your 2014 Belgian GP Driver of the Weekend”

  1. Went for Kvyat this time. Quietly impressive all the weekend.

    1. Yes but I just voted Rosberg because I think he showed some round things this past weekend, not tyres.

      1. But in the process of exposing himself he let a slower car win.

  2. Went for Vettel on this one.

    Given that he missed FP2, where most of the race setup work is done, for him to qualify P3, in front of his Team-mate and race to finish P5 was a fantastic job.

    1. he missed fp2, but didn’t do enough to get driver of the race, he made mistakes, and was 50 seconds behind his teammate…

  3. Daniel Ricciardo, of course. No one really shone this weekend apart him. Didn’t qualify very well, but more than made up in the race grabbing opportunity to win.

    Looks like he is turning into race-monster-type driver like Alonso.

    1. In my eyes, he is the younger version of Alonso. In 8 years time, he will be the one who will still be the best driver in not the best car, exactly like how Alonso is right now

    2. @osvaldas31 I absolutely agree.

      And I find it amazing that he is the only driver this year to be able to grab those opportunities and win when he can. He has grabbed the bull by the horns.

    3. Me too, Bottas was only alternate choice for me but Ricciardo was perfect on Sunday.

    4. Daniel Ricciardo here too. He continues to impress.

      Thought about Bottas as he had a very good, solid weekend and race.

      Honorable mention to Kimi.

    5. Dennis the menace (@)
      26th August 2014, 10:25

      Wow that’s a massive wrap but I think you may be right. He is sensible but still aggressive and seems to be able to consistently get results better than his car should allow.

  4. Lotterer – Didn’t make a single mistake all weekend and duly shone when it mattered. Furthermore, when was the last time a driver with such limited F1 experience beat his teammate? Experienced drivers like Fisichella and Kovalainen couldn’t.

    1. Beating rookie Ericsson is not really worth the comparison against challenge on Raikkonen and Grosjean, though…

      1. Ericsson isn’t as awful as people make out, he had shown some flashes of speed in the junior series. I reckon Lotterer would of matched Kobayashi.

        1. If he gets beat by Max Chilton then he is exactly as awful as people make him out to be.

          1. Chilton isn’t awful either, remember Bianchi is meant to be the next big thing

    2. he did well to beat his teammate in qualifying, but his performance over the whole weekend is not worthy of driver of the weekend surely.

    3. Given how little attention the backmarkers get, I can understand if you think “wow, a rookie beat Ericsson with one second!” but really unless we look closely we seldom get the real picture of things. Look at Ericsson’s comments, he said he was on the same piece of track as Alonso, Ricciardo, Rosberg etc. so on almost every lap he had to let someone through. I think he set two laps, the first which was faster than both Marussia drivers’ first lap and then he improved it somewhere in the middle of the session. And that on a drying track. It was Lotterer’s debut so surely it was impressive not to be miles off, unfortunately we never saw what he could do in the race, but I think you can’t really talk about that “1 sec faster” because it’s not really relevant.

  5. Kevin for defending superbly against Alonso most of the race. He deserved a penalty however, but he showed what he is capable of and he showed that he has the willpower and ability to defend and fight. And he qualified faster than Button.
    Also thumbs up for Ricciardo, Bottas and Kimi, who also did well.

    1. driver of the weekend for defending?? defending which went too far and landed him in 12th position? well done Kevin!

      1. Everyone who is anyone knows that penalty is a joke and further proof Ferrari get unfair advantages.

        1. Alexander (@)
          26th August 2014, 8:23

          You can’t be serious?! Alonso had to go onto the grass on the Kemmel straight at like 320km/h because of Magnussen pushing him wide, penalty totally deserved. However at other times his defending was great.

      2. @kpcart: If You don’t consider defending against faster cars is a skill needed by a great driver, then You haven’t understood what racing is about. And as a spectator trackside at Spa I found the duel between Magnussen and Alonso the most exciting of the race. Even if I used the F1 App to great effect to maintain the full overview of the race.

  6. Magnussen was going to get it, but his penalty which was rightfully given pushed it away from me. I went for Bottas again. Outqualified Massa and starred yet again in the race. Him and Ricciardo (who I would have gone with if he outqualified Vettel, same with Raikkonen/Alonso) were truly exceptional in the race. I would have gone with Rosberg too but he had his share of the blame in costing Mercedes a 1-2.

    1. Oh, honourable shout to Bianchi also for that mega Q1 performance.

    2. YEah, I guess for me its Bottas as well @craig-o. Ricciardo didn’t manage to outqualify Vettel this time, although his race was another one right up there. Kimi finally did show why he should be in a good car, but its still too little for a champion IMO, and he started behind Alonso, might have been ahead at the flag too if not for Alonso getting that drive through. Rosberg did a very good job in qualifying and the race as well, but that incident (guess not many votes are going to him this time) …
      Shame about the push on Alonso from KMag, apart from that I thoroughly enjoyed seeing him in the thick of the battle

  7. Not alot of really outstanding performances. Many drivers made some sort of error at least once this weekend. Voted Ricciardo in the end.

    1. I agree. I went with Kvyatt, because he managed well with a car unsuited to the track and didn’t have any big slip-ups. Would have been Ricciardo except I feel others made it a bit easy for for him. Probably unfair of me, but credit for saving that huge moment through Blanchimont.

  8. No one really shone throughout the whole weekend. Went for Bottas, outqualified Massa and did what he needed to get on the podium. Perhaps if he’d qualified better he may have had a shout for the win.

  9. Ricciardo all the way, AGAIN he was the one who capitalised when Mercedes dropped the ball.

    Relatively unspectacular in practice/quali, and his Q3 mistake arguably cost him 3rd on the grid but his sublime race outshone everyone else by a mile.

    Also he’s now being talked about in whispers as a potentially realistic title challenger….

  10. Gideon Hadi (@)
    25th August 2014, 14:55

    i rethink about what I said yesterday that Ricciardo and Flying Finns deserved DOTW top 3. but I went for Magnussen, he really don’t deserve the penalty and I think his defence on Alonso was superb, considering McLaren was quite slower than Ferrari. and you know how good Alonso is

    1. Alexander (@)
      26th August 2014, 8:29

      His defending was superb, but the incident from which he got the penalty was on the Kemmel straight where he pushed Alonso onto the grass at very high speeds, most find that quite dangerous so hence the penalty. Deserved IMO…

  11. Bottas the only choice for me. The only one who got the maximum out of his package over both qualy and race. Some say qualifying 6th was poor but they forget that the Williams always is less competitive in the wet, and he was faster than his team-mate too. Something Ricciardo hasn’t managed to do. In the race Bottas did all the overtaking required to get the maximum result possible without any mistakes whatsoever. the only 10/10 performance of the weekend

    9/10 include Ricciardo, Alonso, Kimi, Magnussen and Andre Lotterer

  12. Ricciardo for mine. Yet again showing why the pundits rate him the best driver on the grid.

  13. Bottas impressed me this weekend.

    Riccardo, yes very good win again but out qualified by Vettel.

  14. I voted Ricciardo, once again showed how to steal it from Mercedes. I dont understand why Raikkonen is receiving so many votes, he had a lacking qualifying and finished in an average position, considering Alonso’s performance. Maybe this is a reaction to him finally doing a decent job, I dont know.

    1. yeh, Raikonnen is driving like a has been. throws in 1 decent performance, but that is not enough 1 in 10 races, you have to do it every week like Alonso. Raikonnen only finished ahead of Alonso because of Alonsos penalty. Alonso wouldn’t have been driven off the road by rookies not for the penalty as he would have been ahead.

      1. First of all Raikkonen had a fantastic race in Hungary climbing 10 positions. Second of all Kimi jumped ahead of everyone but Ricciardo who were ahead of him. So clearly he would’ve jumped ahead of Alonso as well and don’t forget that Alonso’s penalty was only 5 seconds yet he was nearly 25 seconds behind Kimi at the end of the race. Nothing to show here that Alonso would’ve been ahead.

  15. Kimi? Really? Had it not been for alonso’s penalty, he would have definitely lost out to his teammate.
    Bottas. But no standout performances though.
    Except Ricciardo who got outqualified, so…

    1. Alexander (@)
      26th August 2014, 8:34

      Didn’t you notice Kimi was second after the first pitstops, he would have jumped Alonso too even without the penalty… Hah Alonso would have been ahead by team orders perhaps.

      1. I think Kimi was given the better startegy by Ferrari because Alonso was anyway going to get the penalty… Kimi drove very well but I doubt He would’ve beaten Alonso if not for the penalty .. ( I think alonso would’ve boxed before Kimi if there was no penalty)…

  16. Who on earth is voting for Rosberg?

    1. probably those who want to get a niggle in against Hamilton. you must admit, he did well to extend his advantage in the championship :)

      1. You’re right kpcart. It takes real skill and intelligence to take your teammate out on purpose and then calmly cruise to victory. Very Machiavellian of him. :)

    2. Formula Indonesia (@)
      25th August 2014, 16:29

      yeah, at least he tried something diffrent to get victory

    3. Roughly 20 loonies, at the time of this comment.

    4. He’s giving us the best stories this year. Monaco, Hungary, now Spa… how can you not love that?

    5. probably those that are sick of Hamilton’s theatrics and glad Rosberg finally showed him he won’t just be pushed of the track. Hamilton cost himself this race, all he had to do was not fall into the “needing to prove a point’ to Nico so early on, as funny enough, Nico was thinking exactly the sae thing, to ‘prove’ he wouldn’t be shoved out of the way.

      If lewis left him the tiniest bit more space and not been so over theatrical with his ‘chop’ (he knew Nico was still there, perfect mirror angle) I bet Nico wouldn’t have thought ‘try it again I dare you, i’m not moving my nose this time’ & Lewis would have not lost his rear tyre. But he HAD to prove a silly little point in his and Nico’s peeing contest didn’t he?

      And that ladies and gentleman is how F1 championships are won or lost. Its all in the mind so unfortunately all of Lewis’ incredibly gifted driving and he will always still struggle unless he gets on top of his own head.

      1. This. Rosberg pulled a page from Hamilton’s (and mine) F1 idol. Rosberg simply left Hamilton with the choice of “your race or your position.” Nico is done being polite and letting Hamilton be the only one to act like Senna. From the angle, Rosberg wasn’t looking to punt Hamilton off-track, he was merely not backing down. As they called it on NBC Sports, it was 50/50, and a racing incident. Taking this as a racing incident, second after suffering wing damage, plus pole, was enough to justify DOTW.

      2. It isn’t a chop if you move towards the apex when the other driver has such a tiny part of his car alongside. That’s just racing as it’s understood by every reasonable driver and fan.

    6. If the situation was reversed, would you ask the same question for Hamilton?

  17. as much as i like him, ricciardo doesn’t deserve the vote. qualified only 5th, for my vote he’d need to qualify 3rd at least.

    bottas was good as always, raikkonen did very well, too. neither of them got my vote though, i voted for kevin magnussen. first of all, he outqualified his team mate who is a world champion but mainly because his defence was truly amazing and to hold alonso behind for such a long time was astonishing. i don’t care how many of you will try to prove me wrong, but i think the penalty was unjustified and it’s a shame that such great performances get denied by the stewards. we all know it wouldn’t have been a penalty if he did that to a sauber. it’s ridiculous.

    1. Gideon Hadi (@)
      25th August 2014, 16:01

      agree about Magnussen, but Qualy only counts 30%, the race 70%

    2. Magnussen held Alonso back with dirty driving, Pastor Maldonado would be impressed.

    3. What a logic… Not voting race winner because he wasnt in top3 in qualifying. Last years, people didnt vote Vettel because he was on pole, lol.

    4. Are you aware that qualifying is only a means to an end to get you with the best chance of victory on a Sunday? What an odd way of deciding a driver of the weekend, but oh well I tip my hat to you for being an individual!

  18. Raikkonen. He weighed up in a race for the first time this year. Big up for Ricciardo and mentions to Bottas, Kvyat and Lotterer.

    1. Went for Raikkonen too, but it was a close call between him and Magnussen.

      Was fast in Q1 and Q2 despite having missed some of the FP running and made an agressive two-stop strategy work, nursing the tyres (it reminded me a bit of his Australia 2013 race). For the first time of the year, he didn’t look slower than his team-mate.

  19. Bottas. It’s obviously a close fight between Ricciardo and Bottas. I do feel however Bottas had to work harder for his third.

  20. Driver of the weekend (and driver of the season): Daniel Ricciardo.

    Credit also to Bottas and Magnussen (possibly his best race since Australia).

  21. So who voted for Rosberg?

  22. There were no spectacular performances, so my pick was amongst VET, RIC, RAI and BOT, and I leant towards VET.
    Even though all of them made some mistakes, I chose VET because:
    1. He was the best of the rest in Q3, and in the wet.
    2. He pulled out of thin air some good defensive moves against ROS, and that finally forced the last one to flat spot his front-left, and the Merc Team to change their tyre strategy, which I think was a big aid for RIC´s win, since ROS then lost position to BOT, and then had to make ground again, finishing on P2 and just 3 sec behind RIC.
    3. After a bad pit stop strategy, he came from the back and won the battle with ALO, BUT, and MAG; and took P5.
    And at last but not least, I think it’s worth mentioning that he did all that with a car that was not 100%, as we could see on Friday, and as stated by Christian Horner.
    It´s very clear that this is not “his” year, but is also clear that he is not giving up.

  23. Difficult choice this week. Most of the drivers that impressed in qualifying were anonymous in the race. I went for Alonso in the end, without his penalty he probably would have finished in front of Raikkonen, instead he got stuck in traffic and couldn’t make much progress with Ferrari’s lack of straight line speed. Some of his wheel to wheel racing was excellent too.

    Honourable mentions to Ricciardo, Bottas, Kvyat and Raikkonen.

    1. So let me get this straight. Alonso got a 5 second penalty and because he finished 7th despite starting P4 he is DOTW? How does that make any sense at all? 5 second penalty is not that much.

  24. Person of the weekend is whoever did the set-up on the Red Bulls, they were (pun intended) nearly flying out there!

    Makes me think, what if williams or merc would have sacrificed some downforce for a slimslim set-up, would they actually have benefited?

    1. slimslim rear wing etc*

  25. I voted for Rosberg just because he took out Hamilton \o/

  26. I was thinking of Räikkönen and Ricciardo but both of them slightly messed up their qualis, so I went for Lotterer. Beating your team mate with a huge margin in a tricky conditions with so little experience is really astonishing achievement. Too bad he was unlucky in the race.

    1. Then again the teammate was Marcus Ericcson. Not much better than someone like Sakon Yamamoto.

  27. None of them were special. Ricciardo is getting every superlative thrown at him but the sum of his race was inheriting positions. No harm in that but nor does it really qualify him for DotD in my opinion.

  28. Bottas was quietly brilliant this weekend. Trouble-free, fast and competitive through out the weekend, unlike many others who either made mistakes in the race or put themselves out of play in qualifying. His move on Kimi signals a change of the title “Flying Finn” in F1…

  29. I think it’s very hard to choose for once.

    Ricciardo – patient, faultless driving on Sunday, rather rugged on Saturday.
    Rosberg – never in contention after two driver errors on Sunday…
    Bottas – like Ricciardo, good (not imprssive) on Sunday, left a lot of time in his quali lap… although because of bad gapping by the pit wall. He might get it.
    Räikkönen – excellent on Sunday, rugged on Saturday.
    Vettel – couple of driver errors on Sunday (although likely because of no Friday running experience).
    Button – good, faultless, but beaten by teammate.
    Alonso – handy-capped by low top speed and worse traction than the McLaren, plus the team error on the grid, good quali effort despite also being in traffic on out-lap… Contender.
    Pérez – excellent start, fended off Kvyat and the Hulk, both of whom had better pace. OK-ish quali… Contender.
    Kvyat – great race, but couldn’t get past Pérez… Good quali despite being angry of himself afterwards…
    Magnussen – excellent during the whole weekend, but like in Hockenheim at the start, took it a bit too far once…

    Um. A lot of them impressed, but all were on a rough patch for a little while – some of those moments might have been beyond their control (such as the Ferrari setup for Alonso), but who knows, really.

    …I go for Bottas. Having to do his out-lap in traffic on Saturday was 100%, or 99% beyond his control, I guess.

  30. Voted for KevMag. Fantastic driving to hold the champions behind him.

  31. F1 fans showing some sense of humor for once and voting for Rosberg. Hehe. You are so funny.

  32. Kimi, he had a nice race.

  33. I know Daniel lost out to Seb in qualifying but at the end of the day winning is all that matters..

  34. VBottas first time for me to vote for him but he constantly gets a lot out of a mediocre car. Glad to see SVettel and Kimi showing some grit and getting in the mix a little. DRicciardo should be making the Mercedes team nervous even though it is a bit remote Daniel could be the champ with that absolutely ridiculous double point rule for last race. thanks, rnr PS GO NicoR gooooooooooo

  35. Has to be Rosberg for me. Caused a crash to take out his biggest competitor and then weaseled out of it.

  36. The man grabbing all the headlines (and probably votes) is Daniel Ricciardo but despite another great race I’ve avoided voting for him due to his mistake in qualifying, probably costing him P3, and his relatively straightforward race to the flag.

    Looking at who got the most out of both qualifying and the race, my DotW is Valtteri Bottas. The Williams isn’t a great car in the wet, so I think 6th behind the two untouchable Mercs, two RedBulls, and one Ferrari, which all have higher downforce (even with skinny wings on the bulls) was a good result. He then had a solid race, some nice overtakes, and finished a good minute ahead of his teammate (Massa’s debris issues notwithstanding). Strong weekends also worthy of mention from Raikkonen and Kvyat.

    1. I also voted for Bottas and I also considered Ricciardo, but I did not ditch it because of his last lap error in quali as his combined best time showed he was not fast enough to take 3rd or beat Vettel anyway (combined best obviously does away with that error). I simply ditched him because he was beaten by his team-mate in that quali.

  37. This poll pretty much proves the hate for Hamilton 7% for Ros lol, are you kidding me. I also notise a few of the same who said no pren for Ros agree with KMag pen. What did Alo lose compared to Hamilton again?

  38. Have to take these polls with a grain of salt. There are “rusted on” fans who will not vote for anyone except their favourites, and then spend copious space justifying their decision. Generally, the larger explanation the more obtuse the reasons.

  39. Ricciardo and Magnussen deserve it both. Ricciardo gets it from me for winning.

  40. The stand out drivers for me were Ricciardo Bottas and Magnussen.

    Without his penalty I probably would have voted for Magnussen, I wasn’t sure who to choose between Ricciardo and Bottas but used the fact that Bottas out qualified his teammate whereas Ricciardo didn’t to choose Bottas.

    It was nice to see Raikkonen more competitive, but we will have to wait to see if it lasts or if it was a one off at Spa.

    I am surprised that Rosberg is getting so many votes (currently 7% and fourth in the vote), he certainly delivered on Saturday but on Sunday he was rather poor, even ignoring the headline incident of hitting Hamilton, Rosberg had a poor start and if he hadn’t made a mess of trying to get past Vettel and flat spotted his tyres he probably would have had a better chance of getting the victory considering the performance advantage the Mercedes had.

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