Vote for your Abu Dhabi GP Driver of the Weekend

2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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

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

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix driver-by-driver

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – Both Red Bull had to start from the pits following their exclusion from qualifying. Vettel started behind his team mate in the pits and followed him through the field until they reached Magnussen. Ricciardo passed but Vettel got stuck behind him, which ultimately determined how their races panned out – Vettel ending up stuck behind the Force Indias.

Daniel Ricciardo – Exactly how Ricciardo got past Magnussen appears to have been missed by the television director which is a pity, because it was a pivotal moment in his race. It was one of several passes he made on his was to fourth having start in the pits, and certainly the most significant.

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – Despite the pressures of the championship showdown Rosberg delivered a weekend which was fairly typical of his 2014 performance. Error-free when it mattered in qualifying, he comfortably beat his team mate at another track previously thought of as a Hamilton stronghold. But he fluffed his start and never seemed to have the pace to challenge Hamilton for victory. The manner in which his malfunctioning car progressively deteriorated was a cruel way to end his title bid.

Lewis Hamilton – Qualifying slip-ups have been a feature of Hamilton’s 2014 campaign, and having led the way in Q1 and Q2 he missed out on pole position again. But his start was so good he might have taken the lead from the third row with it. He kept Rosberg out of range and was eager to reduce his own pace when the other car hit trouble, but nonetheless brought the car home for his eleventh win of the year – and with it his second world championship.

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – Following Alonso’s second technical fault in as many Saturdays the team were sufficiently concerned about his limited engine life to re-use an old unit for quick run in final practice, then change the unit before qualifying. That done, he made it into Q3 but only could only take tenth place. An early pass on Raikkonen gave him the advantage when it came to strategy, but with both Ferrari hampered by technical niggles there was little he could do to prevent his slide back to ninth.

Kimi Raikkonen – Had few complaints about his car’s balance after the race, putting Ferrari’s lack of competitiveness down to a simple lack of performance – which was highlighted by his inability to lap quicker than Kamui Kobayashi’s Caterham.

Lotus

Romain Grosjean – Demoted to last on the grid and given a drive-through penalty before the race even started which he described as a “cruel symmetry” to “what we started with at the beginning of the year in Melbourne”. Ditched a planned three-stop strategy in the race and, with better pace than his team mate, got ahead of the Caterhams and Saubers, and demoted Rosberg on his final lap.

Pastor Maldonado – As they expected before the race, Lotus were not competitive at Yas Marina and Maldonado struggled with front brake locking during qualifying. Had it not been for his fiery end to the race he could have been caught by Grosjean – despite his team mate’s penalty – before the end of the race.

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McLaren

Jenson Button – Promoted to sixth on the grid by Red Bull’s exclusion, a rapid start got him up to fourth. His early first pit stop cost him a place to Bottas, though he would have struggled to keep the Williams behind anyway, and the same goes for Ricciardo’s Red Bull. It’s hard to see what more he might have done.

Kevin Magnussen – Narrowly failed to gain a place in Q3 after struggling for rear grip and losing time behind Perez. He thought his car was damaged after tangling with Sutil on the first lap, but his team told him to carry on. After switching to super-softs for the middle stint he was passed by Vettel – McLaren admitted they may have told him to manage his pace too much. He finished out of the points behind the two Ferraris.

Force India

Nico Hulkenberg – Force India suspected they solved an aerodynamic problem prior to the race, a diagnosis which seemed to be borne out by them taking their best result since round three, with both cars in front of both Ferraris. Hulkenberg led them, despite fuming at a five-second penalty for pushing Magnussen off on the first lap.

Sergio Perez – Edged Hulkenberg in qualifying but was passed by him at the start and never got back ahead again. Finished the race under attack from Vettel.

Sauber

Adrian Sutil – Despite missing Q1 (Adderly Fong drove his car) Sutil was happy with the balance of his car in Q1, but less so in Q2 when the track temperature began to fall. He accused Magnussen of hitting him at the start of the race, and like his team mate fell behind the Lotuses early on. He persevered to the end – of the race, and the season.

Esteban Gutierrez – Narrowly fell short of passing the wounded Rosberg at the end of a long final stint. He ended his last race for Sauber a disappointing 15th ahead of Sutil, who is also on his way out.

Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne – Started tenth with his eye on a points finish in what may have been his last race. He was passed by the Force Indias ad Gutierrez at the start, but he got back ahead of the Sauber within a few laps. The Force Indias left him further behind as the race went on and he finish out of the points. “The pace was just not good enough,” he said.

Daniil Kvyat – Took a strong seventh on the grid and believed he could have done better – which would have meant beating one of the Red Bulls. It got better after qualifying, when Red Bull’s exclusion promoted him to fifth. Like his team mate he lost ground initially at the start then fought back, passing Raikkonen. But shortly after his first pit stop a transmission problem put him out.

Williams

Felipe Massa – From fourth on the grid, directly behind Hamilton, he made a similarly good start and took third from Bottas. he lurked not far behind the Mercedes pair and was perfectly placed to collect second when Rosberg hit trough. A late switch to super-softs was a valiant attempt to put Hamilton under pressure, but it didn’t quite pay off.

Valtteri Bottas – A bad start ensured he would end the race behind his team mate, but by making his first pit stop late he was able to regain a lot of lost ground. That allowed him to claim fourth at the end ahead of the closing Ricciardo.

Caterham

Kamui Kobayashi – Picked up where he left off after two races away. His race pace was surprisingly strong, but four laps after setting his fastest tour he reported a vibration had made the car “undriveable” and he parked up in the garage, as he had done last time out in Russia.

Will Stevens – The newcomer was on course to improve by a second on his last qualifying run when he slipped up at turn 17, but nonetheless ended up a respectable 0.5s off Kobayashi in his first race weekend. He was a similar margin behind in the race, though he tended to lose more time while being lapped. He got the car to the flag, however.

Qualifying and race results summary

DriverStartedGap to team mateLaps leading team matePittedFinishedGap to team mate
Sebastian Vettel20th+0.626s0/5528th+34.808s
Daniel Ricciardo19th-0.626s55/5524th-34.808s
Lewis Hamilton2nd+0.386s53/5421stNot on same lap
Nico Rosberg1st-0.386s1/54214thNot on same lap
Fernando Alonso8th+0.63s49/5529th-2.007s
Kimi Raikkonen7th-0.63s6/55210th+2.007s
Romain Grosjean18th-0.092s1/26213th
Pastor Maldonado15th+0.092s25/261
Jenson Button6th-0.323s40/5525th-30.042s
Kevin Magnussen9th+0.323s15/55211th+30.042s
Nico Hulkenberg12th+0.145s29/5526th-8.912s
Sergio Perez11th-0.145s26/5527th+8.912s
Adrian Sutil13th-0.073s9/54316th+16.715s
Esteban Gutierrez14th+0.073s45/54215th-16.715s
Jean-Eric Vergne10th+0.125s7/14312th
Daniil Kvyat5th-0.125s7/141
Felipe Massa4th+0.094s55/5522nd-26.304s
Valtteri Bottas3rd-0.094s0/5523rd+26.304s
Kamui Kobayashi16th-0.555s42/422
Will Stevens17th+0.555s0/42217th

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 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix?

  • Will Stevens (2%)
  • Kamui Kobayashi (1%)
  • Valtteri Bottas (1%)
  • Felipe Massa (19%)
  • Daniil Kvyat (0%)
  • Jean-Eric Vergne (0%)
  • Adrian Sutil (0%)
  • Esteban Gutierrez (0%)
  • Nico Hulkenberg (3%)
  • Sergio Perez (0%)
  • Kevin Magnussen (0%)
  • Jenson Button (9%)
  • Pastor Maldonado (0%)
  • Romain Grosjean (0%)
  • Kimi Raikkonen (0%)
  • Fernando Alonso (0%)
  • Lewis Hamilton (28%)
  • Nico Rosberg (4%)
  • Daniel Ricciardo (33%)
  • Sebastian Vettel (0%)

Total Voters: 606

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2014 Abu Dhabi 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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    84 comments on “Vote for your Abu Dhabi GP Driver of the Weekend”

    1. Has to be Ricciardo finished the season off by making Vettel look average again, well done to him

      1. Should have voted for Ric, but just this once I let my emotions take control and voted Lewis

      2. Seconded, although it would be nice to see exactly how he passed Magnussen. I would be less quick to suggest he made Vettel look average if it happened to be a fortunate move, rather than one of pure skill.

        Driver of qualifying, the race and the season for me.

      3. +1
        outqualified and outraced his 4 time world champion teammate.

      4. agree – unfortunately a lot of people will take it as Vettel being average and not RIC being that good. Imo, he had a huge advantage in switching on the tires and make them last, which is probably going to be a bigger advantage next year when they ban the blankets.

        1. He seems to have managed to do what Vettel himself did last year; namely conserve tyre life while retaining pace. Therefore, other’s tyres degrade faster for the same pace, hence his relative pace becomes exponentially faster.

          I imagine that will be due to various stylistic factors: particularly mid-corner, as that is where Vettel appears to have struggled to adapt thus far. He is not able to rotate the car on the apex as he was with the blown diffuser.

          Perhaps a move is exactly what he needs, as it will be an effective blank canvas on which to develop a fresh style. We shall see how that transpires in reality.

    2. I’ve voted for Daniel Ricciardo.

      Comprehebsively beat Vettel in qualifying before the penalty and a storming drive through the field to fourth in the race. Didn’t have the speed to beat the Williams or Hamilton but got the absolute maximum he could.

      I see everyone before me voted for Massa but can’t agree with that. Beaten by Bottas in qualifying and largely beat him because of his poor start. Had good pace towards the end but only threatened because Merc and Hamilton backed off to preserve the car.

      1. I voted for Ricciardo too, however I just wanted to note that having a good start is part of racing. You shouldn’t diminish Massa simply because Bottas had a bad start.

        1. @trublu Well yes but a good start is formed of two things: the driver and the car. And when the car is not performing as it should, you can’t blame the driver. Source: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/116922
          But yes it is a team sport and driver have to suffer from these kinds of things now and then..

        2. It’s also largely something that is set up by the mechanics before the start. If the mechanics get it wrong, the driver looks stupid, but he can’t do much about it either.

      2. I’m trying to work out in my mind what the impact of the rules transgression should be on RIC’s rating for driver of the weekend. His race was a great performance, relative to VET. But do I dock him for the Friday and Saturday because of his team’s, er, mistake? It may be unjust, but I can’t easily bring myself to vote for a representative of a team who broke the rules.
        Ah well, it’s just a fun fan poll, right?

      3. In my book, Massa has done a better job.

      4. Common Guys..stop blaming Massa everytime..If he drives a perfect race you will tell because of somebody else poor start..If someone crashes into Massa,,it is Felipe’s fault..The question here is to vote driver of the weekend..but not to agree/disagree on others votes.

      5. It has to be RIC for me. Finishing 4th from the pit lane was a fantastic achievement.

        My heart wanted to say HAM, but he just cruised to victory (except for that incredible start!)

        MAS also pulled at my heart strings, but I couldn’t take it from RIC.

        1. Also BUT, but that was just because it could be the last chance. Again, I couldn’t take it away from RIC.

    3. I may never get the chance to do it again, so I voted for Jenson Button. Once again he proved that he has still got it, by outqualifying and outracing his team mate and the revitalised Force Indias. Doing a couple of donuts for the fans added a touch of class as well.

      1. @craig-o Agreed. His comeback in form from mid-season has been remarkable, after Austria I was writing him off. But instead, it’s Magnussen that has gone backwards, the opposite of what we would expect. If contracts were signed mid-season, Magnussen would be a shoe-in, but they weren’t, and so far, only Vandoorne is doing the YDT for McLaren…

        PS. I heard a rumour that Vettel got an old engine, the new one saved for the Abu Dhabi test..

        1. Plus, I wonder how the Ricciardo would have fared if not excluded from Qualifying!

          1. Can’t imagine he’d be any higher honestly @fastiesty – the Williams were lonely on the second tier.

            1. @vettel1 True, although given he lost about 20 seconds from starting in the pits, and was 10 behind Bottas, he could have beaten him given Bottas’ subsequent bad start. PS. Not seen you commenting much lately!

        2. Horner said before qualifying that they had to change almost everything on Vettel’s car due to an air leak and a hydraulic leak (including engine and some other part I forgot).

      2. And I voted Button, too as I though it was a pretty faultless weekend for him. Clearly the better of the two McLaren drivers.

      3. There were quite a few options but I chose Button as well. Let’s not forget, Button missed most of FP1 and got hampered in FP2 as well and still out-qualified his teammate and did most in the race. I think the only mistake he made was a missed braking point in a battle against Alonso.

        1. Yeah that was a bit of a mistake, but frankly, even if he had of nailed it, there was no way he could have taken third.

          1. Ditto for Button! Shame if this is the last time he can be voted for.

            Tough year for him. Loses his ‘old boy’ and maybe his race seat. And he drove great most of the season. Too bad we didn’t more mixed weather conditions this year. Might have got himself a podium.

    4. I went with Felipe Massa. I’ve written him off so many times and watching his performance this weekend I really have to take my hat off to him. While he didn’t out-qualify his team mate, I rate his team mate much higher than him, but from the start onwards Massa looked a lot more in control of his race than Bottas and ultimately had a very nice 2nd place. I’ve been wanting Massa to prove me wrong about him since 2012 and I feel that last weekend, he did. Now to keep this kind of (relative) performance up!

      1. I went for Massa as well, based on the same points.

      2. @npf1 I completely agree, Massa.

        And what a charge he was on at the end! Last year when he was saying that he wants to be in a team which can everybody laughed at him and told him to get out of F1. Nobody is saying that now! Absolutely phenomenal!

      3. I vote him, too.
        Probably good start is Massa’s hidden weapon but seems like people just pretend not to see it.

        chinese, italy, US, and yas marina was where massa had a great start. He passed bottas 3 times (except chinese) at the start. I believe that bottas is a good driver but if you kept being passed at start then something must be wrong for him.

        A year ago people told him to just retired, even at half-season people said he’s over, but as he is now, with calmer head i believe that slowly he gained his 2008 momentum.

    5. Ricciardo for me. Another top class drive.

    6. Between Jenson and Ricci as far as I can see. Call me sentimental but I’m giving it to JB.

      1. Nice little poem you have got there XD

    7. Ham The Man

    8. I voted for Ricciardo. Qualified ahead of his teammate Vettel, but was sent to the back along with Vettel through no fault of their own due to Red Bull’s idiotic cheating. Ricciardo had some great battles, especially with Vergne, and came back from the pit lane to 4th.

      Honourable mentions to Button, Massa and both Force Indias.

    9. The guy masters his nerves and clinches the title in the last race with a win and you guys don’t think he’s the driver of the weekend? Only me and Bobby agree.

    10. Hamilton. Keeping it together when Rosberg had troubles was impressive. Slowing when told to slow, pushing when told to push, knowing what was going on around him enough to tell the team he’s no longer racing Massa. Great effort.

    11. Its Lewis hamilton.faultless drive under extreme pressure.And the start I ‘ve never seen that kind of a start in many races as the commentators said reaction time is .2 hundreds of a second.wow extraordinary under immense tense situation awesome man.

      1. extreme pressure? he had very little to worry about after the first corner, and nothing at all by midrace when Nico dropped behind 5th place and Lewis didn’t even need to finish in the points

        1. Hyoko – pressure to finish the race in a potentially faulty car maybe? That’s what was concerning me. Or the nightmare scenario of lapping inexperienced drivers – Will Stevens was in his first ever GP after all, and there’s always Maldonado to keep an eye out for. It wasn’t stress free for me, just sitting watching. Unimaginable how worrying it is actually driving! And remember Hamilton’s gearbox problem in the latter stages of his 2007 campaign? That got reset and came back on line… Imagine Hamilton throwing caution to the wind in the final race of the year and then Rosberg’s ERS resetting and coming back on stream. Too many things could go wrong.
          By the way I voted for Hulkenberg – excellent job from him, and overlooked by many. My top three were the Hulk, JB and Ricciardo. Hamilton, Rosberg and Kvyat after them.

    12. I assume not many people have voted, but Ros? So we give him a sympathy vote because he carried on and Ham did not in Spa? Fact is Hamilton had races after Spa. Reason Ros done it, it was the last race and he wanted Massa to win. Check how he swerves out of Massa’s way lol. Hamilton luckily caught him on the straight. Hamilton had Rosberg in check yet again in the race with race pace. Every time Ros would pull a tenth Ham would do the same. Ric for me should get it.

      1. Hamilton had to preserve his engine and Rosberg just wanted to do one more lap to finish the race.

      2. Ham won the title. Can you let go of the bitter attitude now and start fresh? Why take every chance to put down Ros and elevate Ham?

    13. It was between Button and Ricciardo for me. It’s hard to judge Ricciardo’s race because of how little we saw him on TV, but the amount of cars he must have passed means he takes my vote.

      Button had a very Button-like race, stayed out of trouble and took the position the car deserved, without doing anything spectacular.

    14. Well, I think there have certainly been some stand out drives again this weekend so I’ll go through my normal process. First, who are they? Well, they are Hamilton, Ricciardo, Button, Massa and Hulkenberg.

      5th: Hamilton. The guy was under pressure fighting for a world championship. To get a start like that at the right time was absolute magic. From there it never looked easy, but it was probably easier than it could have been. He was able to turn the car down due to both him and the car getting far enough ahead of Felipe Massa behind. Overall, very good performance, with a start worthy of winning a title, but beyond that it was same old same old.

      4th: Button. Once again the man continues to deliver and proves that he still deserves a seat at McLaren. I’ve never been his biggest supporter, I’ve always doubted that raw talent… This season has definitely helped me change my mind a lot. His race today was pretty much as good as he could have done. The McLaren looked rather tardy in the race. But at the same time, there wasn’t a special moment. Once again he demolished Magnussen though.

      3rd: Massa. Actually got a sniff for the lead from the Mercedes. Yes, the Merc was turned down a bit and not pushing too much, Massa put himself in a fantastic position to actually have a go. However, against his team mate who I believe is one of the top 4 drivers of the season, he did wonders. Had a good start, had good pace in the race and very much like Button, did all he needed to do, but just a little bit more for me puts him ahead.

      2nd: Ricciardo. Ricciardo, starting from the pit-lane, finishes 4th. We’ve seen Vettel do better in 2012 coming from the pits to the podium, but this looked a lot more difficult. There were no SC’s to help him this time, and he also had to really fight at some points, especially with Vergne. Again he had some excellent overtaking maneuvers. And with that, he also finished, with no SC, only just over half a minute behind the Merc. That’s the distance behind we’ve seen sometimes from the Merc to whoever finished second in a standard race. This was from the pit-lane.

      1st: Hulkenberg. The guy for me has just shown something magical. Finishing far ahead of both Ferrari’s, a McLaren and a Redbull, as well as 9 seconds ahead of his team mate, not to mention the fact he had a 5 second penalty as well (unfairly I might add)… He made an option stint last for a long time and did so whilst pushing to overtake cars? That is incredible. Without the 5 second penalty, he could have finished ahead of Button. Phenomenal. Now whilst there were 5 stand out drives… I think this was just something else. For me, it has to be one of the drives of the season.

      1. Great points on Hulk @philereid! It’s amazing how he tailed off when Force India went in the wrong direction, but once they fixed it, again he is on fire! I’m also wondering how Perez didn’t tail off as much when the car was going in the wrong direction, but is less impressive once it is..

        PS. How Hulk got a penalty and not Perez for cutting… the stewards must have got confused by trying to dish one out to the midfield, a place they rarely bother to look at….

      2. In defence of Bottas, his start was compromised by being directly behind Ros.
        That dubious penalty for Hulk combined with the sudden realisation that RBRs wing might be bending again, almost sounds like Ferrari International Assistance trying to get double points to do what Bernie said they were supposed to do.
        Alternately Ron D. having purchased inside knowledge of RBRs aero design (Prodromou) might have decided it was time to lower the boom.
        Ric for me, although But and Mas were close contenders.

        1. @hohum Bottas’ bad start had nothing to do with Rosberg but was related to clutch issues. Rosberg had an ok start but it looked slow compared to how Hamilton took off like a rocket.

      3. I voted hulk too. Good choice and I agree with everything you said.

    15. I’ll take a vote with Lewis Hamilton, he has done a perfect season and beat Nico at last 7 races, but it’s his best opportunity to win the championship this year. We might see if he will win again in Melbourne.

    16. My driver of the weekend would be Ricciardo, as has become usual this season he outperformed his multiple world champion teammate in qualifying and the race. It will be interesting to see if he can keep the same standard in future with higher expectations when he has to lead the team and fight for the championship.

      Massa had good race, and with Hamilton taking it easy to look after his car for a while it seemed he had a chance at the victory but it didn’t work out. If he had beaten Bottas in qualifying I may have placed him above Ricciardo as driver of the weekend.

      Button would be my third choice, another solid weekend, which surely can’t be his last in F1, I don’t think Magnussen has done anything wrong in his rookie season but as it stands now, and probably for the next few years, Button is the better driver of the two and McLaren used to say they always want the best drivers available.

    17. I always try to pick a driver that has greatly exceeded my expectations about his performances. This tim the choice was tough between Ricciardo and Massa. Ricciardo has come back from a very difficult situation to finish 4th, by making brilliant overtakings, especially when you compare his race with Vettel. On the other hand, we have Massa, who has started from a very good position, who hasn’t done any overtaking (Rosberg’s doesn’t count of course), and who would have finished at the same position without Rosberg’s problems (or would he?). But he has maximised his performance to the full, he had a brilliant start (contrary to his teammate), and he actually made me think for a moment that he could reallistically challenge the untouchable Mercedes, on a track which should have been a walk in the park for the silver arrows.
      From this difficult choice, I picked Massa, more for subjective reasons, because it’s so good to see him very competitive once again!

    18. Hard choice between Massa and Ricciardo. I feel Massa wouldn’t have been able to make such a recovery, but after a good qualifying (only let-down, his not improving in the second run in Q3 yet again) he kept the Mercedes’ pace all race long and was faster for 15 laps, narrowing the Mercedes’ win by the greatest margin I can remember in the season, so he gets my vote.

    19. Voted for Felipe in the end but was a hard call, part of me wanted to vote for Lewis for a championship winning drive and Daniel Ricciardo for his superb drive to 4th from the pit lane but it was great to see Felipe in 2nd for Williams and pushing for 1st place.

    20. Having to race with championship pressure on his shoulders, Hamilton pulled off a perfect Sunday. If only he could do that in 2007, he’d be a triple WDC by now. Saturday was iffy tho.

      But still.

      1. 2007 wasn’t completely Lewis’s fault. Remember that he had that 30 second glitch that left him short of power for some reason.

        1. Oeiiiiiiiiiiii! (another davidnotcoulthard account) (@)
          25th November 2014, 6:40

          @ultimateuzair And then there was China.

    21. For me it’s Ricciardo, hands down.

    22. Nobody could have gotten a better result in that McLaren than Button, so I vote for him.

    23. daniel – from pit lane to fourth, with brilliant overtaking moves. Superb. Man of the race for me. But so pleased that Lewis got the championship.

    24. I don’t like Rosberg, but i think it is fair to say that he deserves driver of the weekend, because he took a broken car for 35 laps, he could have given up, but he didn’t, and that takes courage, and he missed out on the championship fight due to circumstances beyond his control.

    25. Stevens for hanging with Alonso enough for a shout out

    26. Amazing drives from Massa and especially Ricciardo.
      But my vote is for Lewis. Controlled drive, great start, pushed when needed and clinched a deserved title.

    27. Well done Massa, well done Ricciardo, great carreer for Button, good to see Kobayashi doing well, and almost beating the disappointing Ferraris.

      Congratulations to Hamilton. But his weekend was not a DOTW material, but he was not really pressured during the race after the first corner). He will likely get my DOTY vote though; very well managed year (PS Ricciardo is the other contender).

      DOTW this time is Rosberg (not kidding). He had another pole. Unfortunately could not challenge for the lead/championship due to reliability issues. But he showed real class in demanding that he finished the race (all the way down), and personally came into the green room to congratulate Hamilton. Attaboy.

    28. Hamilton, of course. A perfect race and a good second place on saturday. Also Ricciardo, MAssa, Bottas, Button and both Force India drivers have good weekend.

    29. Hamilton deserves this.

    30. I voted for Nico Rosberg. Despite all the problem he encountered on the car, he never give up the hope that he will become the World Champion. He pushed on, despite the team telling him to retire the car. He showed great sportsmanship and great perseverance, even to the last corner of the track. Hence, I voted for him.

    31. Voted for Will Stevens. Massive cred to him.

    32. Surely Daniel Ricciardo. Outpaced his teammate by quite a margin in qualifying, started from the pit lane with a fighting drive to fourth again with a huge margin over Vettel. Felipe Massa did well too, but was out qualified by Bottas so I don’t see him as driver of the weekend. Same goes for Hamilton.

    33. Voted for jenson. He got the maximum possible out of the equipment he has. Honorable mentions to DanRic, Massa, Hamilton and Nico Rosberg for not quitting till the chequered flag was waved.

      Out of curiosity, 4% voted for Will Stevens? And who did Max Chilton vote for :D

    34. I have voted for Lewis Hamilton. Hope i made right choice in Voting.

    35. Who chose will stevens?

    36. I think it was a tough one for me to decide. Had Ricciardo, Hamilton, Massa and Button in my mind. But in the end voted for Ricciardo. 7 tenths ahead of Vettel in qualifying is a huge margin and again owning him in the race, passing K-Mag whereas Vettel couldn’t and hence we got the end result in the race. Pretty much dominant throughout the year against his 4 time WDC teammate. He is my driver of the season as well.

      Honourable mentions to Hulkenburg and Rosberg as well. While Hulk started behind his teammate, had to serve a stop go penalty, but finished ahead of him in the race again showing that he is hugely talented. Rosberg for his determination to finish the race despite having ERS failture and not to retire when Tony Ross asked him to. Nico, keep this determination throughout the next year and you might be the next champion.

      Now I would also like to see Ricciardo in the mix fighting for the WDC. Here’s hoping for even more amazing 2015 than what was in this year. :)

    37. Rosberg get 4% i believe it because his pole and fight to the end along with his comments which was great. Personally i vote Ricciardo because he out qualified his teammate and flawless race

    38. Ricciardo. Nuf said!

    39. I voted Rosberg for his will to finish, and his gentleman behavior “vis-à-vis” of Hamilton, because it is not only about driving.

    40. Hamilton was under the most pressure going into this race. Hamilton handled this well with a fast faultless drive. He won the race and championship with style.

    41. Driver of the day and year- Ricciardo.

    42. Not a Rosberg fan, but massive credit to his performance at the weekend. Under immense pressure, he didn’t make any mistakes and fought the whole way. Most importantly, his words after race showed he deserved his place in the title fight, acknowledging his opponent’s speed, but not letting that stop him from giving it his all. That takes something extra, and is a thing we all seek in sports-persons, but is rarely so apparent. He was immensely fair.

      1. I voted Rosberg as well. A driver and a man to be honored.

    43. Voted for Maldonado for giving us probably the only entertaining bit of the race.

    44. I see 3 strong candidates: Hamilton, Massa, Ricciardo.
      Once more, Hamilton’s qualifying wasn’t too brilliant, but his race was close to perfection. He stormed off the line in an irresistible manner, and Rosberg didn’t even try to impede him, such was his momentum. After that, he managed the pace very maturely, only pushing as much as he needed to, because he didn’t want to run into technical problems. He is definitely a lot more mature than back in 2008 and in his annus horribilis in 2011. He deserves this race win and the championship as well.

      Massa has found his second breath in the second half of the season, following a string of extremely frustrating races. By comparison with Bottas, he was never really off the pace, matching his team mate’s lap times whenever he was in clean air. But this was more often than not hidden by accidents, technical issues and other problems. Even in the second half of the season, 2 of the last 9 races where heavily affected by bad luck (Spa: debris got stuck under the car, slowing it down by about 3 secs per lap until it was finally removed; Russia: a broken fuel pump means that Massa has to start from the back of the grid), but he was only outscored by 3 drivers: Hamilton, Rosberg and Ricciardo.
      He also drove a great race, making no errors and pushing until the final lap to catch a seemingly beatable Hamilton. I’m very happy that this season ended so well for him.

      Ricciardo:
      Not only did he outqualify Vettel for the 12th time this season, he was also vastly superior in the race, pulling away from Vettel after passing Magnussen, and finishing more than half a minute ahead of the defending world champion. One of the hottest candidates for the Driver of the Year Award, imho.

      In the end, I vote for Hamilton. All three drivers deserve special recognition, but Hamilton has made the most of it.

    45. Went for Hulkenberg. This was the only race of the second part of the season where I saw him. Outraced his team-mate despite starting behind him and having to serve a 5 second time penality.

      1. @paeschli
        He also had a strong race in Brazil, even spending a few laps in the lead, almost catching the Ferraris at the end of the race.
        Glad to see that he has found a way to end his mid-season problems. I consider him one of the most promising, talented drivers, but he looked worryingly out of shape for roughly half the season.

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