Vote for your 2014 Italian GP Driver of the Weekend

2014 Italian Grand Prix

8th September 2014, 13:1625th March 2015, 6:10 | Written by Keith Collantine

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

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

Italian Grand Prix driver-by-driver

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – Started in front of Ricciardo but finished behind him. Red Bull used an aggressively early pit stop to jump him ahead in the queue, but he fell prey to Ricciardo at the end of the race.

Daniel Ricciardo – Started poorly but came on strong late in the race, picking off a string of other cars before finally out-foxing Vettel with a cunning move at the Roggia chicane to take fifth.

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – Missing final practice due to a technical problem didn’t help his cause but he generally seemed to be a couple of tenths slower than Hamilton, who at any rate was even less well served by Mercedes reliability. Messed up the chicane twice during the race, and each time took the conservative option of going down the run-off area, as to do otherwise would have risked a second pit stop and an even lower finish which would have sacrificed more points to his team mate.

Lewis Hamilton – Consistently the quicker of the two Mercedes drivers – but for a technical glitch in second practice he would probably have headed every session. On pole position for the first time since May, he kept his cool when his start mode failed and patiently passed Magnussen and Massa before closing on Rosberg. Using his initiative he spurned the team’s advice to look after his tyres at the beginning of the second stint, instead bringing pressure to bear on Rosberg which provoked the mistake which decided the race.

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – The highest non-Mercedes-powered qualifier on the grid, he held his seventh place until an ERS failure put him out.

Kimi Raikkonen – Failed to make the cut for Q3 but edged into the points in the race. “As soon as I got close to the cars ahead of me, I lost aerodynamic downforce and the car was sliding all over the place,” he said.

Lotus

Romain Grosjean – The E22’s handling looked even more dire than usual – both drivers struggled to get it stopped at the chicanes during practice. Grosjean’s qualifying was compromised by a technical problem so he failed to reach Q2, then a poor start left him last. Gutierrez inexplicably swiped his car during the race, but Grosjean continued to finish 16th.

Pastor Maldonado – Qualified and finished ahead of Grosjean, but couldn’t get close enough to the Toro Rossos to attack and finished a lap down. Beating the Saubers was an achievement under the circumstances.

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McLaren

Jenson Button – Magnussen pipped him by six-hundredths of a second in qualifying and Button finshed behind him on the track as well, before his team mate’s penalty. Scrapped furiously with Perez but crossed the line behind his former team mate. “I had an amazing battle with Checo,” he said. “We took the first Lesmo side by side, which doesn’t happen very often. It’s a pity I couldn’t get past him – I tried so many times – but he was so strong under braking that to match him into the turns I was locking up the fronts and the rears, which left me struggling for position on the exits.”

Kevin Magnussen – Made a beautiful start from fifth on the grid and passed Massa for second at the first corner. He kept it clean when the Williams and Hamilton inevitably came passed him, and was unable to keep Bottas behind as well. He was somewhat hard done by with his penalty, but there’s no escaping the fact Bottas was ahead of him as they reached the corner and Magnussen elbowed him off.

Force India

Nico Hulkenberg – Unlike in Belgium he made it as far as Q2, but no further. “The main issue was the heavy traffic on my out lap going into the final corner, which really hurt my preparation,” he said. “Everybody was backing up so I had to slow down and lost tyre temperature and pressure, and could not improve my time.” Despite a great start he never figured in the race – afterwards Hulkenberg revealed the team had discovered damage on his car which hampered his performance.

Sergio Perez – Got his car into Q3 and must have taken some satisfaction from beating both the McLarens. His fight with Button was superb, hard-but-clean stuff, and Perez showed restraint by not getting stuck into Magnussen who he did not need to fight.

Sauber

Adrian Sutil – Didn’t think the car was capable of a higher qualifying position than his 14th place, and he finished one place lower after being passed by Maldonado at the start.

Esteban Gutierrez – Lined up behind Sutil after making a mistake at Ascari during qualifying. Unnecessarily made contact with Grosjean, which was dangerous, and deserved a tougher punishment than his largely inconsequential 20-second penalty.

Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne – Started nine places ahead of his team mate and finished behind him. Vergne admitted afterwards he’d been struggling for pace all weekend.

Daniil Kvyat – Said he wasn’t comfortable with the car on Friday, and the next day it emerged he would have to take a ten-place penalty for an engine change. That left him 21st on the grid, but by making a late pit stop he was able to pass his team mate in the second stint and get within range of the points. Unfortunately a brake disc then failed, and Kvyat did well to avoid having a major crash at the Rettifilio.

Williams

Felipe Massa – Finally delivered his first podium finish of the season after a clean weekend. Qualified behind Bottas but got a clean start, though Magnussen muscled past him at turn one. Massa soon overtook the McLaren but was then told not to use his engine’s overtake mode, after which Hamilton got by. After that he had a quiet run to the flag.

Valtteri Bottas – Out-qualified Massa to take third but lost eight places with a horrible start. Drove a race of recovery from then on, patiently making his way through the field to take fourth. Lapped quickly in clean air at the end of the race – a glimpse of what might have been.

Marussia

Jules Bianchi – Was disappointed to qualify behind Kobayashi and was unable to beat the Caterham in the race as well, having lost some time scrapping with Grosjean.

Max Chilton – The usual qualifying performance – half a second off Bianchi – was followed by an unusual retirement when he launched his car off a kerb and into a gravel trap at the Roggia chicane.

Caterham

Kamui Kobayashi – Demonstrated his class on his return for Caterham, beating Ericsson by almost nine-tenths of a second in qualifying (despite having to give his car to Roberto Merhi in first practice) and beating the Marussias in the race.

Marcus Ericsson – Qualified last, then ordered to start from the pits and given three penalty points on his licence for failing to slow for yellow flags during final practice. Therefore it was no surprise to see him running last at the flag.

Qualifying and race results summary

Driver	Started	Gap to team mate	Laps leading team mate	Pitted	Finished	Gap to team mate
Sebastian Vettel	8th	-0.273s	38/53	1	6th	+9.656s
Daniel Ricciardo	9th	+0.273s	15/53	1	5th	-9.656s
Lewis Hamilton	1st	-0.274s	27/53	1	1st	-3.175s
Nico Rosberg	2nd	+0.274s	26/53	1	2nd	+3.175s
Fernando Alonso	7th	-0.585s	27/28	1
Kimi Raikkonen	11th	+0.585s	1/28	1	9th
Romain Grosjean	17th	+0.112s	0/52	1	16th	+35.99s
Pastor Maldonado	16th	-0.112s	52/52	1	14th	-35.99s
Jenson Button	6th	+0.065s	2/53	1	8th	-3.108s
Kevin Magnussen	5th	-0.065s	51/53	1	10th	+3.108s
Nico Hulkenberg	13th	+0.416s	0/53	1	12th	+10.088s
Sergio Perez	10th	-0.416s	53/53	1	7th	-10.088s
Adrian Sutil	14th	-0.104s	39/51	1	15th	Not on same lap
Esteban Gutierrez	15th	+0.104s	12/51	3	20th	Not on same lap
Jean-Eric Vergne	12th	+0.087s	35/53	1	13th	+1.909s
Daniil Kvyat	21st	-0.087s	18/53	1	11th	-1.909s
Felipe Massa	4th	+0.168s	52/53	1	3rd	-15.76s
Valtteri Bottas	3rd	-0.168s	1/53	1	4th	+15.76s
Jules Bianchi	19th	-0.509s	5/5	1	18th
Max Chilton	20th	+0.509s	0/5	0
Kamui Kobayashi	18th	-0.891s	49/51	1	17th	Not on same lap
Marcus Ericsson	22nd	+0.891s	2/51	1	19th	Not on same lap

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 Italian Grand Prix weekend?

Marcus Ericsson (0%)
Kamui Kobayashi (2%)
Max Chilton (0%)
Jules Bianchi (0%)
Valtteri Bottas (11%)
Felipe Massa (8%)
Daniil Kvyat (5%)
Jean-Eric Vergne (0%)
Adrian Sutil (0%)
Esteban Gutierrez (0%)
Nico Hulkenberg (0%)
Sergio Perez (12%)
Kevin Magnussen (2%)
Jenson Button (0%)
Pastor Maldonado (0%)
Romain Grosjean (0%)
Kimi Raikkonen (0%)
Fernando Alonso (1%)
Lewis Hamilton (39%)
Nico Rosberg (0%)
Daniel Ricciardo (18%)
Sebastian Vettel (1%)

Total Voters: 700

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2014 Italian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine

Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...
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157 comments on “Vote for your 2014 Italian GP Driver of the Weekend”

Formula Indonesia (@)
8th September 2014, 13:19
I will go radical and pick Pastor. He actually very impressive considering he had a lot of pressure and then comfortably ahead of Grosjean and surprisingly beat a Sauber. It was really good feat considering Lotus was 9th or 10th fastest. kvyat and Perez also did a decent job
1. sato113 (@sato113)
  8th September 2014, 17:44
  yeah much better than Hamilton, Bottas, or Ricciardo’s recovery drives…
  1. Chicane85 (@ramysennaf1)
    9th September 2014, 11:40
    well, how many times have danni ricciardo got ahead of vettel this season is simply astonishing, shows that ricciardo is much much better than vettel as an overall driver, adapts extremely well to new environments
Sven (@crammond)
8th September 2014, 13:20
Daniil Kvyat
He qualified better than his teammate and well enough to avoid taking over the grid-drop penalty to following races, and then he raced from P21 to what would probably been at least P9 if not for the late brake-disc-failure. Did very well to avoid any damage on that occasion.
1. Aditya (@adityafakhri)
  8th September 2014, 16:49
  this guy is quite phenomenal. every other drivers has at least a down in this weekend due to their own, either that’s a poor quali, poor start, can not overtake, defend too hard, missed the braking point, etc..
  but Kvyat is charging through there, despite 10 grid penalty and brake failure. it would be amazing to see what could have happen if he’s really started from 11th. there was a youngster before in that same banner pulled a miracle in Monza but in wet track, and then became 4 time champions. Given it’s a dry race and the amount of setback he had, I rate Kvyat’s performance as high as Vettel’s on six year ago.
  maybe I’m exaggerating but I have to say, what a performance from the Russian.
2. Jethro (@jethro)
  8th September 2014, 18:08
  Agreed. Fantastic qualy and (up until the last few laps) a great race. He still finished ahead of his teammate while nursing a failed brake disc. Heck, probably deserves DotW just for making the save of the season.
3. @HoHum (@hohum)
  8th September 2014, 22:52
  Another weekend where no one driver stood out as faultless and outperforming his machinery in every session, LH is the obvious choice but I am sure he will be happy enough even if he does not win DOTW, so I to voted Kvyat, fantastic recovery drive even without that incredible opposite lock correction and save on grass.
Jake (@jleigh)
8th September 2014, 13:20
Hamilton. Easiest vote of the year.
1. Formula Indonesia (@)
  8th September 2014, 13:23
  Nice joke mate, he did not even finished ahead of Rosberg by more than 5 seconds considering fp3 advantage, sure he did a good job but he’s not DOTW and if you see from front to back its actually one of the hardest one because there’s a contender at Front runners, midfield, and Backmarkers
  1. Michael C
    8th September 2014, 13:35
    I think it is you who is joking!
    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      8th September 2014, 20:31
      +1
      1. Nitin (@nguru)
        9th September 2014, 17:56
        +1
  2. Jake (@jleigh)
    8th September 2014, 13:37
    @f1indofans for me, it was easy. He was fastest in every practice session, except when he was held up in S3. He was fastest in each quali session, moving Rob Smedley to call his pole lap “quite stunning”. He fell back at the start due to a technical failure, and did very well not to fall further back on one of the longest runs to turn 1. He pulled off what was for me, the best overtaking move of the race, around the outside of T1 on Massa. He then went against his teams advice, using his racing instinct to put pressure on Rosberg forcing a mistake. He then cruised to the finish (you get the same points winning by 4 seconds as you do by 40, so why push the car) while setting the fastest lap of the race.
    1. Formula Indonesia (@)
      8th September 2014, 13:43
      @jleigh I understand that Lewis did a good job but in my opinion, it was not easy, you cannot say it was the easiest, because some drivers also did a better job, I’m not saying that Lewis race is poor, its decent race actually, but you can’t judge based on front runners, sometimes you need to see midfield and even backmarkers
      1. Jake (@jleigh)
        8th September 2014, 13:48
        @f1indofans I respect that you didn’t find it an easy choice, but I can say it was the easiest, because I felt it was taking into account every driver. I also found it easy to choose Perez as my next best driver, with Kvyat 3rd (showing I do look at midfield and back markers)
      2. Formula Indonesia (@)
        8th September 2014, 13:51
        @jleigh Ok, if that was your DOTW you shouldn’t say it was the easiest, but anyway I also respect your choice
      3. D (@f190)
        8th September 2014, 13:58
        @f1indofans
        if @jleigh found it the easiest vote of the year, why is he wrong to say that ? The whole vote is based on personal opinions after all.
  3. JCost (@jcost)
    8th September 2014, 13:54
    @f1indofans Autosport’s Edd Straw agrees with @jleigh though… Lewis was the only driver getting 10 points from him…
    http://plus.autosport.com/premium/feature/6179/autosport-italian-gp-driver-ratings/?_ga=1.250577860.318236777.1409815076
  4. Trenthamfolk (@)
    9th September 2014, 18:12
    +1
2. Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
  8th September 2014, 17:26
  @jleigh Why is that? Yes, Lewis was on top of his game and there wasn’t many perfect weekends in Italy but there was Perez doing great and Kobayashi returning but in the end all boils down to this. Mercedes had pretty much the easiest weekend ever since they have levelled their power-plant to their mercedes costumers in Canada.
3. Irejag (@irejag)
  9th September 2014, 0:02
  Of course Hamilton has the most votes… He is British and over half the people who read this site are British…
  1. 6Speed (@6speed)
    9th September 2014, 0:30
    I suspect half is a conservative estimate. :)
    1. Irejag (@irejag)
      9th September 2014, 2:13
      I suspect you are correct. I have nothing against the British, I love the British, I just find that the votes can be highly biased. @Kieth if there is a mathematical formula that can be applied to the voting system on this site, I think you should go ahead and use it. It would be a lot more interesting to see the vote results when the scales are not completely tipped in Britain’s favor. Just saying. :)
      1. dutchtreat (@dutchtreat)
        9th September 2014, 3:06
        In a democracy, you can vote for whoever the hell you want!!
      2. TribalTalker (@tribaltalker)
        9th September 2014, 9:13
        British bias? So far, Button 0%, Chilton 0%. That’s not bias, that’s objectivity. This week, there were five or so stand out drivers. One of them also did the triple (pole, fastest lap, win) and not so surprisingly lots of us think that’s a sign of being Driver of the Weekend.
Lewis McMurray (@celicadion23)
8th September 2014, 13:22
Hamilton. This was his weekend all the way. Led two out of three practice sessions (would have probably been all three if not for his FP2 glitch), led all three quali sessions, won the race, fastest lap. He also stayed calm after his RS mode problems and went on to prove that racer’s instinct trumps strategist’s analysis.
He couldn’t have done any more to prove that he was completely over what happened in Spa, and he’s given Rosberg a lot to think about.
Honourable mentions to Bottas and Ricciardo for overtaking about three million cars each.
1. JCost (@jcost)
  8th September 2014, 13:56
  Massa did pretty good too.
HS (@hsvdt15)
8th September 2014, 13:23
So sick of the bias towards HAM and against ROS. Why can’t ROS get DOTW for dominating Germany, yet HAM gets it here straight away?
1. Lewis McMurray (@celicadion23)
  8th September 2014, 13:28
  Because all Rosberg had to do to dominate Germany was not break down or crash, given that the other W05 started from the back of the grid then compromised its performance by taking his endplate off
  1. Breno (@austus)
    8th September 2014, 13:40
    so because Hamilton spearheaded into Button, Rosberg shouldnt ve dotw?
    1. HS (@hsvdt15)
      8th September 2014, 14:07
      @celicadion23 yet I’m sure if the tables were turned and Rosberg had to drive through the pack while Hamilton cruised, Hamilton would get DOTW.
      1. Jake (@jleigh)
        8th September 2014, 14:27
        I actually very much doubt it. Hamilton didn’t get it in China for example.
      2. dex
        8th September 2014, 15:59
        Yes
      3. Patrickl (@patrickl)
        8th September 2014, 16:00
        Seeing how Rosberg “overtakes”, it’s highly unlikely that he would manage a recovery like Hamilton had to perform multiple times this season already.
  2. Nitin (@nguru)
    9th September 2014, 18:00
    +1, and then they say we are biased
2. ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
  8th September 2014, 13:43
  @hsvdt15
  ROS should be the DoTW. Haven’t seen a driver perform calculated error perfectly before. And he did it twice! Unlucky for me that HAM recovered quickly, I wanna see it more…
  1. bosyber (@bosyber)
    8th September 2014, 15:24
    That’s why ROS is going for DottSeason @ruliemaulana :) No, not DotW for me, there are several others that impressed me more, like Kvyat, Perez, Massa, Hamilton.
3. ADD (@addimaf1)
  8th September 2014, 14:11
  Ros shouldn’t have driver of the weekend for Germany, his only rival was on a recovery drive from the back of the grid, had Hamilton started second to him in finished second I would agree, all he went on was a lovely drive in his home country Hamilton had to beat someone this weekend, I’m not sure about driver of the weekend yet I’m thinking Ricardo but Hamilton was miles better in Italy than Rosberg in Germany.
4. Girts (@girts)
  8th September 2014, 14:11
  I do not think that Germany is the best example as Rosberg’s team mate suffered a break failure in qualifying there and we cannot know if the German would still have defeated Hamilton without it. Moreover, there were brilliant performances from other drivers, particularly Bottas and Alonso.
  I voted for Rosberg in Australia because I did not think that anyone else had done better there and in Canada because that was a truly impressive performance. I basically agree that Rosberg is often underrated, while in reality there is little to choose between him and Hamilton.
5. Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
  8th September 2014, 14:29
  @hsvdt15 Besides jumping to call a result when there’s barely 100 votes in, you’re ignoring the fact there are 20 other drivers on the grid. Rosberg may not have won Driver of the Weekend for Germany but neither did Hamilton.
6. Russ
  8th September 2014, 14:53
  Because we are voting on the race at Monza.
Oli (@dh1996)
8th September 2014, 13:23
Ricciardo, no doubt.
1. Jake (@jleigh)
  8th September 2014, 13:31
  For being out qualified by his teammate? His race was good, but mainly because his teammate was (unintentionally) sacrificed, making most pit too early and leave him with much fresher tyres than his competitors.
2. ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
  8th September 2014, 13:36
  Yup. I had no second thought choosing him. RIC move on VET and K-Mag was mega!
  Honorary mention to Kvyat.
  1. drmouse (@drmouse)
    8th September 2014, 18:28
    I would put him in contention for driver of the race, but not the whole weekend.
Formula Indonesia (@)
8th September 2014, 13:26
People shouldn’t biased by Daniel and Lewis. Daniel did not had a good Qualy and Lewis was impressive but not quite for DOTW. Kobayashi, Kvyat, Maldonado, and Perez are perfect examples who got a decent race and Qualy
1. pSynrg (@psynrg)
  8th September 2014, 14:39
  @f1indofans I disagree about all the drivers you’ve listed.
  1. Formula Indonesia (@)
    8th September 2014, 14:48
    why, explain your reasons?
    1. pSynrg (@psynrg)
      8th September 2014, 15:52
      @f1indofans simply because you tend to disagree with everyone else’s choices. Annoying isn’t it?
      1. Formula Indonesia (@)
        8th September 2014, 16:13
        My choices are diffrent, My view is diffrent than yours and I think they did a nice job. And once again i’m not saying that Daniel and Lewis is poor, they actually really good but in my view there’s still better @psynrg
      2. Formula Indonesia (@)
        8th September 2014, 16:29
        its OK if Hamilton and Ricciardo wins, but in my view there still some drivers better than them. I will respect if Lewis wins and Ricciardo come second. I just wanted to show a comparison with the backmarkers and midfield that they’re actually more impressive. Look at Maldonado and Kobayashi gap to their teammates, and they beating team that they’re slower (Lotus<sauber, caterham<marussia) and then Kvyat recovery was stunning considering where JEV finished. And Perez consistently out-performed Hulk and amazing defense on Button. While Hamilton was quick, i expect him to finished ahead of Rosberg by a bigger margin considering fp3 miss, and Ricciardo had a poor Qualy and poor start, even though an amazing recovery at the end. To be honest these are very close, and most people did not vote for backmarkers
      3. pSynrg (@psynrg)
        8th September 2014, 17:27
        @f1indofans Which of course is absolutely fine because that’s what you want to believe.
        In other words please allow others to believe what they want to believe. That was my point.
  2. Formula Indonesia (@)
    8th September 2014, 15:00
    @psynrg
Koni (@mariosf1)
8th September 2014, 13:29
For me Massa!
He was on top form,made a good start,passed magnusen,managed to hold off Hamilton for a couple of laps and then he was managing his pace and tyres perfectly.At the end a well deserved podium and hope many will follow!!
1. dex
  8th September 2014, 16:04
  Yes, it was good to see Massa back on the podium.
2. Bruno (@bminasi)
  8th September 2014, 17:04
  Yeap, Massa made a great and clean race, and deserved that podium!
  Driver of the weekend no doubt!
3. spoutnik (@spoutnik)
  9th September 2014, 8:23
  Went for it too! Go Felipe :) It was good to see him on the podium, and those Williams were working great there. He surely needed that, Williams confirmed its lineup right after :)
Michael C
8th September 2014, 13:33
Hamilton, Kvyat and Kobayashi all 9 or 10/10 this weekend.
Chris (@tophercheese21)
8th September 2014, 13:33
Toss up between Lewis and Ricciardo.
Lewis drove fantastically all weekend, fastest in 2/3 practice sessions, qualified on pole and then overcame a poor start do to a software glitch, to go on to win the race in a fantastic example of a “racers” drive.
Ricciardo on the other hand, didn’t have a great weekend apart from the race, where he yet again proved he’s quickly becoming the king of strategy, and quite possibly overtaking.
The moves he pulled in the closing stages of the race were nothing short of astonishing, especially the one on his team mate Mr. Vettel.
I’ll go with Hamilton as driver of the weekend, but Ricciardo was my driver of the race.
1. Patrickl (@patrickl)
  8th September 2014, 16:08
  Vettel was going very slowly cruising around in the 1:30 range because his tyres were pretty much done. Ricciardo was still easily doing high 1:28’s.
  It was a highly entertaining overtake, but he was going well over a second per lap faster.
Pete (@repete86)
8th September 2014, 13:34
Hamilton. Faultless all weekend, comfortably quicker than his teammate, and was only held back by technical failures outside of his control. Won anyway.
1. zippyone (@zippyone)
  8th September 2014, 13:38
  Agree, went for Lewis too. Riccardo close second.
2. juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
  9th September 2014, 11:37
  Perez. Faultless all weekend, comfortably quicker than his teammate, and had to battle with other cars for position in a slower car. Didn’t get his place handed to him on a plate. Fantastic stuff.
Nick (@npf1)
8th September 2014, 13:38
Went with Hamilton. Fast in Free Practice, fast in qualifying and despite a poor start, went on to win the race.
Ricciardo qualified behind Vettel which kind of rules him out of me. Bottas however is a close second, great Qualy and a fine race, but finished behind the Williams we usually see fall behind.
Kvyat and Perez had good weekends as well, but ultimately Perez finished where I expected a Force India to finish and Kvyat had the pace all weekend to easily finish in front of the Caterhams, Marussias, Saubers and Lotuses, so I’d only say him finishing in front of JEV is really of note.
1. Ivan B (@njoydesign)
  9th September 2014, 10:21
  he was about to finish ahead of Ferrari if not for the brake disk failure, starting from P21 at that. That’s quite a feat in my view, so I cast my vote for him.
HK (@me4me)
8th September 2014, 13:39
For me Ricciardo was the driver of the weekend. Im aware of the fact that his team mate was quicker all weekend, and that Hamilton was unbelievably fast all weekend. But the race craft Ricciardo showed beats the raw pace Vettel, Hamilton or anybody else showed in my opinion. Yes he was on better tires, but that doesn’t make the moves he put on Button and Vettel etc any less impressive. In my oppinion he had an “Alonso 2012” kind of race.
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
8th September 2014, 13:39
I think anyone who closely followed Caterham the last month should vote for Kobayashi. He was dropped by Caterham first, didn’t get to test the new parts, got called up only on Wednesday when he was still in Tokyo, doesn’t have a safe future, doesn’t get any payment from his team, missed FP1 once more to have limited time with the new parts… Then he beat his teammate by 9 tenths of a second in qualifying and both Marussias as well, and in the race kept a Lotus behind for 27 laps, was within 2 seconds of Sutil for 18 laps, beat Bianchi by 13 seconds and Ericsson by 40. If Caterham wants results and not just sponsorhsip money, then it has to keep him.
1. Madi Murphy (@ladym)
  8th September 2014, 13:58
  I agree. Nothing against Jules Bianchi, whom I think has the potential to be a phenomenal F1 driver, but I am baffled by the fact that his great performances in a back-of-the-pack car garner so much praise while Kobayashi’s excellent drives go largely unnoticed. This year’s Caterham is a very poor car indeed, even relative to the Marussia; compound that with the fact that Kamui’s situation within the team is precarious at best (his recent statements in the press have demonstrated his unhappiness at the way he has been treated) and the fact that before FP2 at Monza, the guy hadn’t even been in the car since Hungary. After all of this, Kobayashi managed to out-qualify his teammate and both Marussias, and beat them in the race as well. Fantastic performance.
  1. bosyber (@bosyber)
    8th September 2014, 15:28
    @ladym and @hunocsi, I have to say you do make a compelling case for Kobayashi, I agree he did quite well. Sad that it probably won’t help him much though.
2. dam00r (@dam00r)
  8th September 2014, 14:54
  Agree.
  Also voted for Koba!
3. Lawrence Adekoya (@ladekoya)
  8th September 2014, 19:33
  COTD
Master firelee (@master-firelee)
8th September 2014, 13:45
I think quite a few drivers did well this weekend, such as Hamilton, Bottas, Perez, Ricciardo, Kobayshi and Mag but I went for Perez since he had a good quali’ and I think compared to the other cars on the weekend put him self where he shouldn’t be and the same would go for the race as he had a great defensive battle with Button.
1. BS (@bs)
  8th September 2014, 17:08
  Same.
  Perez thoroughly outqualified Hulkenberg, which is no easy feat then did a great job in the race with a car that didn’t seem as fast as the McLaren. Managed to keep Button at bay and caught up to Magnussen to claim an eventual 7th.
  Hamilton, Riciardo and Bottas were good, but I felt Perez was the only one who outperformed his car and teammate consistently.
  Plus his duel was by far the most exciting of the race. :)
2. George (@george)
  8th September 2014, 18:47
  I went for Perez too, he really impressed me this weekend.
  Firstly he thoroughly outperformed Hulkenberg – who admittedly had his own issues – and secondly he raced with his head for once. Too often with Perez he makes aggressive moves (like Magnussen in this race) and gets himself into trouble, but this week he was rock solid against Button. I hope he can continue to show that maturity in future.
  Special mentions to Hamilton, Kvyat and Ricciardo.
  1. JackySteeg (@jackysteeg)
    8th September 2014, 19:09
    My thoughts exactly.
    1. Toxic (@)
      9th September 2014, 0:30
      +1. He was keeping me on top of my seat thorough this race. Great calculated battle with Button. I especially liked the re-passing moves.
Akhilesh (@graywizzard)
8th September 2014, 13:45
Definitely Perez.. What a battle he had with button and he kept him behind even though he was struggling with his rear tyres.
Brian (@bealzbob)
8th September 2014, 13:46
Bottas for me. He was messed up by Hamilton’s rubbish start and yet fought back from 11th to finish just behind a team-mate who had an uneventful race. Hamilton on the other hand, quite apart from being in a dominant car, made a hames of the start and fought back from 4th to beat his team-mate. A good race but nothing like what Bottas had to do.
1. D (@f190)
  8th September 2014, 13:53
  You do understand that Hamilton had a car issue at the start and it wasn’t driver error ?
2. Patrickl (@patrickl)
  8th September 2014, 14:04
  Bottas messed up his own start. Or rather he faced a similar problem like Hamilton had.
  Only if Hamilton had blocked Bottas would you have a point. Bottas never came close to Hamilton.
Diceman (@diceman)
8th September 2014, 13:52
Only driver that really stood out for me was Perez. He did absolutely brilliant job by keeping Button behind, and showed that he can fight hard but fair. I really enjoyed watching his driving.
Craig Woollard (@craig-o)
8th September 2014, 13:54
Honourable mentions to Hamilton, Bottas, Magnussen, Ricciardo and Perez but it has to be Daniil Kvyat and it was a pretty easy decision.
He was quicker than his team mate in qualifying but his grid slot was compromised due to no fault of his own. After this, he made his way up to a brilliant 11th (which would have been tenth due to Magnussen’s penalty) until a brake failure. His car control at that point was nothing short of phenomenal to avoid taking himself and Kimi Raikkonen out. He also finished ahead of his team mate who was absolutely anonymous.
1. Craig Woollard (@craig-o)
  8th September 2014, 13:58
  Oh, and Kobayashi too.
Formula Indonesia (@)
8th September 2014, 13:55
look at the that Kamui, Gutierrez and Pastor were clear leader of their teammates, I think its usual for Kamui, and Gutierrez puncture, but for Pastor it was a really nice job and considering he finished ahead of Sauber, he did it on merit I say
Mayank (@mjf1fan)
8th September 2014, 14:01
Sebastian Vettel
Drove very nicely throughout the weekend and got the maximum from the opportunity provided to him. Although he finished behind his teammate but that was due to strategy mistake made by his team.
Other mentions – Perez, Massa and Kobyashi for having a solid weekend.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
8th September 2014, 14:02
Really has to be Hamilton this time. Didn’t put a foot wrong all weekend. Even when adversity struck again, by a failing start system, he stuck with it and fought his way back. Which helped him display his masterful racing skills with an exceptional overtake on Massa.
Also amazing how he piled on the pressure on Rosberg by going 7 tenths a lap faster on the outlap after the pitstop and then as much faster again on the next lap. Unfortunately Rosberg chocked and faltered. Which meant that again Hamilton was robbed of an opportunity to overtake his team mate on track.
Ricciardo and Bottas both had great drives with lots of (good) overtakes. In the case of Ricciardo though he had only himself to blame for his lowly qualifying position. Although in the end he wouldn’t have finished up higher anyway, so it didn’t actually cost him any.
tgu (@thegrapeunwashed)
8th September 2014, 14:10
There were a number of superb drives throughout the weekend, in particular Ricciardo and Bottas showed great skill and attacking talent. In fact both the times I hit replay were to re-watch Ricciardo dummying first Perez then Vettel.
But what Hamilton did this weekend was amazing. A one-stop strategy gave him no opportunity to throw the dice and try something different, his climb from 4th to 1st relied entirely on speed – and on catching a teammate who had been running in clean air since lap 1 turn 1. After the pitstops he was catching his teammate at well over 0.5s per lap, little wonder that Rosberg overcooked it into rettifilio.
kpcart
8th September 2014, 14:16
ricciardo. he went from 10 seconds behind teammate halfway through race and finished 10 seconds ahead. Hamilton was about 3 seconds behind, and only finished about 4 seconds ahead, in the first stint when Hamilton got to 1 second behind rosberg, he could not get any closer – same thing might have happened not for rosbergs mistake after pitstop, rosbergs error contributed to hamiltons result. ricciardo was the best driver out there again, put him in the Mercedes please – let rosberg and Hamilton have this easy season to themselves, and lets hope to see the best drivers at the top again next year.
1. tgu (@thegrapeunwashed)
  8th September 2014, 14:32
  Before the stop Hamilton went from 2.2s to 1.4s behind Rosberg, despite having worked his tyres much harder to overtake three cars. After the stop he caught Rosberg by about 0.6s per lap until Rosberg’s error. Hamilton trounced Rosberg this weekend, even Nico admitted he just wasn’t fast enough.
Julien (@jlracing)
8th September 2014, 14:21
Difficult choice really. Massa, Kvyat, Magnussen, Kobayashi and Ricciardo drove great but my vote goes to Perez. Usually I don’t rate him very high, but this weekend he outqualified Hulkenberg and then drove a great race. His battle with Button was fantastic.
Verstappen GP (@verstappengp)
8th September 2014, 14:28
Voted on Kobayashi, Ericsson is not a good comparison but he did drive in front of the Marussia’s.
Atticus (@atticus-2)
8th September 2014, 14:44
For me it’s between Hamilton, Pérez, Kvyat, Kobayashi and Alonso. All five had a faultless weekends from a driver’s perspective, meaning no errors and beating their teammates. Literally everybody else had some issues on either of those two fields.
I’ll vote for Hamilton, because I think, considering the pressure fighting for the win and the championship means, he had the hardest task of those five.
Pérez, for me, is a very very (very very) close second for what he had to endure during the weekend (impeccable quali needed to beat the Mecas, inch-perfect pit stop to jump Button, keeping the Briton behind while saving fuel [based on radio], fending off one of the top 5 performers [for me] this year, twice).
Some counters against popular picks:
– Ricciardo: had an awful start (crucially, his own fault, unlike in the case of Hamilton), which basically enabled him to go long with his first stint and make that strategy work by having free air to race in early on.
– Massa: was slower than his teammate all weekend long. Nuff said.
– Bottas: like Ricciardo, messed up his start on his own and potentially thrown away another podium. Excellent recovery drives, marvellous to see (from both), but it was exactly that: recovery from a high-cost error.
1. Tyler (@tdog)
  9th September 2014, 7:21
  @atticus-2 as far as I knew, Williams and Red Bull were looking into why Bottas and Ricciardo respectively had poor starts.
  I wasn’t aware of anything reported in the media in which the teams had identified driver error as the cause.
  I am not saying you are wrong, but can you point to why you blame the driver in each case?
  1. Atticus (@atticus-2)
    9th September 2014, 10:53
    @tdog My impression from the article which said Williams are looking into Bottas’ poor start was that they think the car was alright.
    We’re looking into it. At the moment it’s not 100 per cent clear. Initially we thought it was a clutch problem, but then looking at the clutch delivery and the torque delivery on both cars, they seem to have worked OK. He just seemed to have an awful lot of wheelspin.
    That’s Rob Smedley. But Bottas himself thought the clutch may have been set too aggressive – he blamed it on Lewis’ slow getaway even for the formation lap, in which case it’s rather the team which should’ve accounted for that in choosing the settings, so in retrospect, I give it a benefit of doubt. (Smedley’s kind of reassuring initial quote was in contrast with the article title and that may have misled me. And I only put the pieces together now.)
    As for Ricciardo, I haven’t seen any bit or piece which suggests they were seriously looking into it and think it was anything related with the car.
    Thanks for the comment, it was because of this I managed to dif deeper into the Bottas story.
Adrian Chavez Lopez (@adyel)
8th September 2014, 14:47
I went for Checo Pérez becouse he had a great weekend overall. On track he fought hard and clean. On the last few GP’s he have shown an improvement in his performance, been the best of the rest in several oportunities.
Bleu (@bleu)
8th September 2014, 14:59
Few drivers made multiple overtaking moves in the race but they were forced to do so because they (Hamilton, Bottas, Ricciardo) all fluffed the start. So in all that was more like returning where they were, apart from Ricciardo who beat McLarens who started ahead of him.
That leads to my choice, Daniil Kvyat. Faster in qualifying and was high enough to avoid his penalty to continue into Singapore. Even from there, he managed to beat his team-mate and would have been in points without brake issue on the penultimate lap. 4th fastest lap also highlights his performance. You may say about him being on better tyres at the end, but no one else on drivers who started on harder tyre did anything similar than Kvyat.
ColdFly F1 (@)
8th September 2014, 15:00
I could have gone Hamilton (great WE); Bottas (great overtaking in race); Magnussen (well driven and no cracking under pressure); Ricciardo (same as all weekends lately); Kvyat (he should have scored), but ended up voting for Perez:
– great racing,
– good overtaking;
– beating highly rated team-mate in quali and race;
– keeping calm;
– he deserves the praise.
– and extracting some superb driving from Button.
Adam (@rocketpanda)
8th September 2014, 15:08
Voted for Bottas as watching him is a treat. For me it was certainly him or Ricciardo, but I would give credit to Hamilton and Perez too. Oh and to Kvyat for some excellent control there!
Ricardo Ferreira (@yes-master)
8th September 2014, 15:12
Would be easy to vote for Ham, but he was the quickest all the weekend, and he didn’t do anything special to win, as Nico was determined to fail under pressure. Ric failed the qualification, so I had to risk him.
So, for me, was Mag or Perez. Mag did an excellent jog again. But again he had to be penalized for just racing. Something I can’t understand. But even so, I believe Perez was perfect. He made it to Q3 and in the race he did everything he could with huge determination. He fought amazingly well, giving the circumstances. And he deliver us great F1 racing moments against Button.
So my vote is for Perez.
1. petebaldwin (@)
  8th September 2014, 16:20
  Totally agree with Perez -he got my vote too.
  Hamilton drove a great race but against who? Rosberg who had an off day.
  The DOTW vote always makes me smile though. Bottas (13%) is currently beating Massa (8%) at the time of writing. If the Mercs had broken down in the closing laps, Massa would have won the race. Do you think Bottas would be beating Massa in that scenario? Suddenly Massa would been judged to have driven better than Bottas because 2 other cars broke down!?
  Ricciardo, Bottas, Hamilton, Alonso and Kimi always get an extra bit on top when they have good weekend that Vettel, Rosberg, Massa etc don’t.
  If Hamilton dominates, it’s because he is great. If Nico dominates, it’s because his car was faster than the rest and he didn’t have to do anything in the race.
  1. Mayank (@mjf1fan)
    8th September 2014, 17:57
    @petebaldwin
    Even i dont understand how people vote so diferently in similar scenarios. At the time of writing this post, Ham is leading with 39% votes, which is obvious because he was fastest throughout the weekend. Ric is second with 18% and Per & Bot with joint 11%. I cannot understand how Ric is getting so many votes as he was behind his teammate throughout the weekend. He only finished ahead of him coz of bad strategy given to Vet. Just because Ric made 2 scintillating passes doesnt mean he should be awarded DOTW.
    If anything Per did much better job than Ric, Bot considering the car he was driving and still he is joint third, when he should be a clear cut 2nd in votes if not leading the poll.
Vijilio (@kvijilio)
8th September 2014, 15:14
Lewis! Very easy for me.. Mega qual lap and good recovery in race as well.
Fixy (@)
8th September 2014, 15:24
Come on, it’s Magnussen! He qualified excellently, started brilliantly, drove surperbly and defended determinedly (and correctly I think, despite the stewards’ contrasting opinion). He was the most aggressive driver along with Bottas, one had to defend and the other attacked, both brilliantly. But of course with a strong car beneath you attacking is easier than defending on a slower one, and Bottas has more experience to help him.
Hamilton was very strong but that’s always been the case at Monza, Rosberg was careless and Ricciardo unimpressive until a good strategic call meant he once more showed the way to a much better Vettel, in my opinion. Kobayashi deserves a mention too this weekend.
andae23 (@andae23)
8th September 2014, 15:26
Voted Hamilton: even after his FP2 problems, he managed to still snatch pole position. Then he had that problem at the start that bogged him down, meaning he had to pass two cars AND overtake Rosberg. He got around Magnussen with ease, and Massa didn’t put up much of a fight (team orders, as revealed by Mark Hughes). He had more pace than Rosberg, forced him into making a mistake and took the lead. A perfect weekend, as far as driving is concerned.
The other two who really impressed me were Ricciardo and Perez. Ricciardo managed to recover from a poor start and eventually overtook his team mate (who was on a worse strategy, but nonetheless). Perez benefited from his early stop, but couldn’t help dropping a number of places in the second part of the race. Also, I think his performance is a little bit exaggerated by Hulkenberg’s poor qualifying and the lack of pace due to damage in the race.
1. PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
  8th September 2014, 15:37
  @andae23 No mentions for Kvyat? He came from last place to almost score a point in a Renault driven STR. Brake failure was what ruined all that though.
  1. andae23 (@andae23)
    8th September 2014, 16:11
    @xtwl Kvyat did very well, but it’s difficult to say exactly how well he did. Of course, he cut through the traffic in no-time (helped by Toro Rosso’s high top speed with respect to his opponents) and seemed to have good pace during the first and second stint, but then again drivers on a similar strategy (Ricciardo and Bottas stopped very late as well) seemed to have the edge over the rest of the field as well. So the reason I didn’t mention him is that it’s just tough to be impressed by someone you didn’t see for most of the race.
2. Formula Indonesia (@)
  8th September 2014, 15:41
  actually Maldonado and Kobayashi quietly impressive too, unfortunately People occasionally vote for backmarkers (except monaco).
  1. andae23 (@andae23)
    8th September 2014, 16:14
    @f1indofans I suppose the reason backmarkers get fewer votes is because people don’t see them. How good was Bianchi’s performance in Monaco with respect to other tracks? No clue, so I didn’t vote for him at the time.
    1. Formula Indonesia (@)
      8th September 2014, 16:17
      Maybe backmarkers need to have a good results so people can vote them, but anyway Lewis is decent too
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
8th September 2014, 15:35
Massa – did everything he could in race and Q. I honestly believe there was nothing more possible for him on sunday and saturday.
1. Jake (@jleigh)
  8th September 2014, 17:46
  He could have out qualified his teammate.
tmax (@tmax)
8th September 2014, 15:46
I voted for Daniel Ricciardo. I felt he drove great in the Race. I know it is the DOW contest, but could not help ignore his massive late charge although on fresher tires. The Renault engine was nothing compared to the Mercedes. Still he bought the horse ( Bull) home pretty well !!!
I must also admit this. I am a fan a Nico Hulkenberg, but the way Perez is driving is making me think that maybe Nico is not as good as Perez. Perez has improved a lot in general and is showing great promise. Nico has consistency which is a big deal though.
petebaldwin (@)
8th September 2014, 16:04
Sergio Perez for me. Had the better of his very quick teammate all weekend and his battle with Button was fantastic to watch. Breath-taking racing.
It’s hard to judge him against someone like Hamilton. Was Hamilton great this weekend or was Rosberg poor? Who knows – without another team able to compete with them, it’s like they race in a superior catigory!
DOTW from Cat 1 – Hamilton
DOTW from Cat 2 – Perez
Neil (@neilosjames)
8th September 2014, 16:12
I went with Hamilton, as he performed extremely well under a fair old whack of pressure, got a hat-trick and breathed a little bit of life back into the title fight.
But Kvyat would be my second choice, and Bottas, Kobayashi and Ricciardo all deserve mentions. As does Perez, for some very good defending and not losing his nerve despite being covered in his own brake dust for the last 20 or so laps. And Magnussen… lots of drivers I could have gone for, now I think about it.
Ryan (@rgbargie)
8th September 2014, 16:12
Sergio Perez.
A little left field, considering Hamilton’s pole and victory plus Bottas’ comeback. But to be that dominant over Hulkenberg all weekend, along with a decent finish and a fantastic clean scrap with Jenson, I think Sergio deserves more praise personally and gets my vote.
1. petebaldwin (@)
  8th September 2014, 16:27
  @rgbargie – Don’t forget that for the 2nd half of the race, Perez would have been doing some serious brake management!
AlexTR (@petrucci)
8th September 2014, 16:16
Note to some commentators: Driver of the Weekend means who do you consider that did the best job THROUGHOUT the weekend, not just the race… Please understand the difference so we can have a meaningful conversation
Jarnooo (@jarnooo)
8th September 2014, 16:23
Why does Bottas have more votes than Massa? Massa was quicker all weekend and had a clean race to 3rd. Sure Bottas made some great overtakes, but overall, Massa had the better performance.
1. petebaldwin (@)
  8th September 2014, 16:31
  @jarnooo – Mentioned it above. People like Bottas so he will get votes for nothing. It happens every time. The fact is that if both Mercs failed to finish, Massa would have won the race and would have picked up DOTW. Would it be fair to say that him doing better than his teammate or not was dependant on two other cars? Not really……!
  As an alternative, how about swapping the roles around. If Bottas had just had Massa’s weekend and vice-versa, who do you think would be leading out of the two? :)
  1. Jarnooo (@jarnooo)
    8th September 2014, 16:39
    Probably still Bottas lol. I like Bottas too, but it is clear that Massa had a great weekend.
Connor McDonagh (@conmcdonaghf1)
8th September 2014, 16:46
I voted Massa, overtook when he needed too, perfect, clean race.
Not sure why Bottas has more votes, he messed up the start, so it was his doing, really he should have been in Massa’s position. So do not understand the logic behind it. Yes, he recovered, but the reason he was in that place in the first instance was because of his bad start.
1. AldoH
  9th September 2014, 5:20
  Bottas is slowly becoming one of my favourite drivers this season, but I can´t understand how can he receive more votes than Massa on this race. Yes, he recovered from 11º to 4º, but I didn’t see any merit in his overtakes: having a car 40 or 50 Km/h faster than the others on the straights, it was like driving on a french motorway. A couple of the drivers even moved to the right to let Bottas pass as the difference in speed was ridiculous. (In one case, he left the Parabolica behind another car and it was in front already before the pits exit……) So yes, Bottas overtook maybe 12 or 14 cars, several of them more than once, but not once the overtake was due to a risky maneuver but only due to the sheer engine power and the car aero efficiency. Gosh, how I hate DRS. In the only overtake maneuver in which he enter the chicane side by side with another car, he ended up off the track.
  Before the race (I can’t remember at which TV network) Bottas made comments about the clutch settings, and after the race he blamed the clutch settings for his bad start, but then Williams informed that there was nothing wrong with the clutch. So maybe he just made a mistake, so what? He is a brilliant young driver, but his teammate had a better weekend.
Broke84 (@broke84)
8th September 2014, 16:50
This was really hard. Bottas, Hamilton,Ricciardo, Kvyat and Massa all deserve a shout out. I gave it to Hamilton in the end, if this was driver of the race then I would have given it to Ricciardo due to his overtakes, but for whole weekend it has to be Lewis.
Uzair Syed (@ultimateuzair)
8th September 2014, 16:59
Hamilton gets my vote.
Honorable mentions to Ricciardo, Bottas, Perez and Kvyat.
Robbie (@robbie)
8th September 2014, 17:01
Went with LH. He did everything right, everything he had to to start clawing back the points deficit.
Jorge Lardone (@jorge-lardone)
8th September 2014, 17:13
Hamilton. Also good work by Bottas, Perez, Ricciardo, Kvyat, Massa, Maldonado, Magnussen.
montreal95 (@montreal95)
8th September 2014, 17:48
Lewis Hamilton for me was the best. However he was only one of 4 drivers with 10 out of 10 perfect weekends.But what tipped the scales and made me choose him over Kobayashi, Perez and Alonso was the fact that he trusted his racing instincts and believed in his sheer speed advantage over Rosberg to disregard the team and pressure Rosberg early in the stint which has won him the race
Others worthy of mention:
KK-10/10. Take that HRT 2!
Perez-10/10. Perfect qualy, perfect racecraft. When he’s good, he’s brilliant. Pity it happens about 3 times a year…
Alonso-10/10-in stark contrast to Perez there are maybe 3 races a year, when he’s merely good, not brilliant. THis was not one of them
9.5/10-Maldonado. I dislike him very much, but he used 110% of that useless car’s potential to beat the Saubers and Grosjean had nothing for him all weekend
9.5-Kvyat. Superb recovery to 10th place(after KMag penalty) and crazy car control over the grass in the process of losing it
9/10-Vettel. Was faster than Ricciardo all weekend. There was no need for that over-aggressive strategy
9/10-Ricciardo. Fantastic race performance but slower than Vettel all weekend
9/10-Bottas. Faster than Massa. Start wasn’t his fault. Did what he had to do afterwards in perfect fashion
Honorable mention to Magnussen
Overall a great performance by the F1 field at Monza. Can’t remember the last time when I needed to chose between 4 perfect performances and when I thought that 10 drivers did a splendid job overall. Thumbs up!
1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
  8th September 2014, 20:42
  Agreed- there were a lot of talented drivers out there strutting their stuff!
2. Theo Parkinson (@theo-hrp)
  9th September 2014, 1:56
  Agreed. Only Hungary was more impressive, as the top 3 were all amazing that the ace.
Marcel (@mreis)
8th September 2014, 18:28
Massa.
Decent job all weekend with no mistakes and no bad luck as usual.
On sunday, was able to set good laps from start to the end and manage the pack.
Great stuff from Bottas and Ricciardo, apart their mistakes.
Bobby (@f1bobby)
8th September 2014, 18:38
Hamilton. Perez and Ric were great too.
Liam Radford (@)
8th September 2014, 19:08
I don’t know whether to go for Ricciardo, Bottas, or Perez
RACERNORRISKI (@racernorriski)
8th September 2014, 20:03
I thoroughly enjoyed the race, even though my least favorite driver won the race. I voted for FMassa mostly an emotional vote (pretty much like everyone else) as for once Filipe did not have anything or anyone take him out of the race and he showed that he can be a contender if all things are fairly equal. I could of just as easily voted for Kvyat, Perez, DanielR, and Mag….. LH and NR did what was expected and this does not make a winner in my book, need to overcome some adversity (like a mediocre car) and show tenacity and good attitude even when things go in the toilet…. Was sorry to see Alonso break …. hoped Kimi would do better but did not ….. Go NicoR Thanks, RnR
1. Theo Parkinson (@theo-hrp)
  9th September 2014, 1:59
  So Hamilton didn’t show strength in adversity when he lost a practice session but went on pole then had a glitch at the start and won the race.
Strontium (@strontium)
8th September 2014, 20:09
Was so close between Bottas, Ricciardo, Hamilton, and Perez.
In the end I realised Bottas and Hamilton had the best cars in their respective battles, and Perez’s fight with Button just impressed me too much, so I went for Perez.
1. Strontium (@strontium)
  8th September 2014, 20:11
  And Felipe Massa was in the shortlist too. Just a steady drive but a solid well deserved podium with no mistakes.
2. Strontium (@strontium)
  8th September 2014, 20:13
  ooh not to forget Max Chilton for that that memorable moment where the kerb got in his way.
DaveD (@daved)
8th September 2014, 20:14
For me, there were a lot of deserving drivers this weekend, but as everyone says: it’s DoTW, not driver of the race. Lewis dominated most of the weekend, even with car problems and overcame the electronics issue with his start sequence and pressured Nico into a mistake by coming at him like gang busters. It was a beautiful drive of skill and control and he made the right strategy decision despite what the team told him (not against team orders, but against engineering advice). And he proved clearly to be correct.
I’ll also say that wow, Ricciardo is a good freaking driver. If he was in a Merc this year…he might be unstoppable. And I clearly was one of those who thought RBR was wrong to select him last year but I’ll gladly eat my words now. He deserves that seat.
Timothy Katz (@timothykatz)
8th September 2014, 20:54
Well, I’m not sure I understand.
At the time of writing, exactly 400 people have voted and 1% have voted for Alonso and that must mean 4 people think he did the best job all weekend. Alonso is a phenomenal driver who can drag an extra second a lap out of any car, but this weekend he was invisible. In fact, I think the only tv coverage he received was his technical retirement problems. I don’t think he passed anyone, did he? Perhaps the four people who voted for him did so because he outqualified his teammate, or perhaps they are his immediate family members . . . or did I miss something?
Note to Keith and his helpers. These floating gif ads at the bottom of the screen make it very difficult to click ‘post comment’
1. AldoH
  9th September 2014, 5:25
  An enigma for me, too. Alonso was nowhere the whole weekend. I guess for some people Alonso is so good, so good, that he is awesome even at being slow.
Harry (@hazzwright)
8th September 2014, 22:37
Ricciardo all the way. Plenty of drivers had great drives, but considering a Mercedes, Williams 1-2-3-4 was a given finishing 5th was great. Not to mention he had probably the best overtakes, very exciting to watch.
Other than that I’d say Bottas. Had a great recovery drive, and watching him scythe through the field was fun.
Ed Marques (@edmarques)
8th September 2014, 23:07
Hamilton.
Fastest all weekend. Pole Position, Fastest Lap and Race Win.
Great overtake on Massa and great race call when he decided to up the pace instead of falling 2,5 secs bedind.
Sepecial mention to Bottas and Massa.
SauberS1 (@saubers1)
8th September 2014, 23:46
It’s a hard question, maybe Hamilton.
Jon (@johns23)
9th September 2014, 3:49
Hamilton never looked like loosing this weekend. Fantastic all weekend, so DOTW for him. Fantastic for Massa, really proud of him, he deserved a podium especially in Italy were it looks like hes had great memories
AMR (@aiera-music)
9th September 2014, 4:37
Daniil Kvyat. Not only did he pick his way through the field from 21st into a near-points-scoring position, some seriously skillful handling avoided what could have been a very nasty collision when his brakes went. I really, really hope he doesn’t suffer the typical Toro Rosso syndrome, and finds himself a more competitive seat!
dee blue
9th September 2014, 5:08
DR world champion drive way better than the 4 times world champion! I would say he is in LH and FA class snd VB not so far behind? Would have gave it a 7!
Aleksi Jeskanen (@alexjes)
9th September 2014, 5:19
Felipe was best. No mistakes and he’s speed was good all time. Maximum result
BlueChris (@bluechris)
9th September 2014, 5:38
I gave it to bottas because mainly he gained all this positions but i saw something that people don’t mention it nowhere and this was how he was turning in parabolica, he wasnt taking the turn like all the others and in many laps he was locked wheels in entry thats why in exit he was so faster than the front guy and all the passes seemed easy after. Kudos to him for this balls turning.
Nimba (@nimba)
9th September 2014, 8:25
No One better than Sergio “checo” Perez to pick in this vote… tremendous ballsy racing while retaking his lost position twice from JB.. now that is a man with a mission.
simonjb
9th September 2014, 9:10
Strategically Rosberg, gives lead to faster car eliminating fight for lead and any possible danger. Only sacrifices 7 points cruises to 2nd. Keeps championship win in place.
Miko-Jarvinen (@miko-jarvinen)
9th September 2014, 9:16
Bottas.
Once again showed us that he can drive very maturely and use the strengths of that Williams extremely well.
And he’s pace was really good through the entire race.
458rr (@458rr)
9th September 2014, 10:27
Massa. He finally showed his strength from 2008, even though the race for him was somewhat boring and alone. But he was consistent and when ROS, HAM, BOT, made mistakes, he was error free. Yes HAM won from a poor start and BOT gained many places, it may seem unfair but mistakes are still mistakes.
1. Adam Hardwick (@fluxsource)
  10th September 2014, 12:09
  @458rr It’s probably more accurate to say the we didn’t see any mistakes. Massa got very little coverage, and was no-where near anyone else, so unless it was a major mistake we’re unlikely to have been shown it.
  I would put money on Massa making some kind of mistake at some point during the race. The only reason Hamilton’s lock up was show was because Rosberg was 4s behind.
the_sigman (@sigman1998)
9th September 2014, 11:59
Wow, such a hard choice. You have Hamilton, Bottas and Ricciardo recovering perfectly from bad starts, Perez beating Hulk easily and getting good points, Magnussen having a very good race (I disagree with the penalty), but my star is Kvyat. Just an awesome weekend, beating Vergne in quali, but starting from the back due to an engine penalty. Up to P11 and with the penalty of Magnussen and probably passing Raikkonen he could go to P9, a great result. Sadly he had a brake failure, but he delivered one of the highlights of the season. What a save!
DaveF1 (@davef1)
9th September 2014, 12:05
Not sure why Bottas has so many votes considering his awful start gifted his teammate a podium. Anyway I went for Perez, outshone his teammate in qualifying for the second race in a row and then did a good job battling with the faster McLaren of Button. Looked like he was also battling with serious tire deg too.
Alex Brown (@splittimes)
9th September 2014, 13:16
Lewis, because fastest everywhere.
Honourable mention for Kvyat, who flew to UK on from Milan on our plane (economy) and was most gracious when my brother asked for his autograph on the way back from the loo.
PJA (@pja)
9th September 2014, 18:26
My driver of the weekend was Hamilton followed by Bottas and then Ricciardo, with honourable mentions to Perez, Kobayashi and Kvyat.
Both Hamilton and Bottas got the most out of their cars in qualifying and both fought their way back after suffering bad starts in the race.
Ricciardo was impressive with his overtakes after taking his pit stop late and managed to be the first non-Mercedes powered car home in the race. But he wasn’t as good as Hamilton or Bottas in qualifying