Vote for your 2016 Canadian Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend

2016 Canadian Grand Prix

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

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

    DriverStartedGap to team mate (Q)Laps leading team matePittedFinishedGap to team mate (R)
    Lewis Hamilton1st-0.062s70/7011st-62.093s
    Nico Rosberg2nd+0.062s0/7025th+62.093s
    Sebastian Vettel3rd-0.589s70/7022nd-58.006s
    Kimi Raikkonen6th+0.589s0/7026th+58.006s
    Felipe Massa8th+0.099s0/351
    Valtteri Bottas7th-0.099s35/3513rd
    Daniel Ricciardo4th-0.248s1/7027th+10.614s
    Daniil Kvyat16th-7.499s16/69212th+35.974s
    Nico Hulkenberg9th-0.151s60/6928th-8.291s
    Sergio Perez11th+0.151s9/69210th+8.291s
    Kevin Magnussen22nd0/16116th
    Jolyon Palmer17th16/160
    Max Verstappen5th+0.248s69/7024th-10.614s
    Carlos Sainz Jnr15th+7.499s53/6929th-35.974s
    Marcus Ericsson21st-1.028s68/68215th-33.745s
    Felipe Nasr19th+1.028s0/68218th+33.745s
    Fernando Alonso10th-0.177s9/9111th
    Jenson Button12th+0.177s0/90
    Pascal Wehrlein18th-1.453s64/68217th-44.097s
    Rio Haryanto20th+1.453s4/68219th+44.097s
    Romain Grosjean14th+0.232s37/68314th+0.572s
    Esteban Gutierrez13th-0.232s31/68213th-0.572s

    Vote for your driver of the weekend

    Which driver do you think did the best job throughout the race weekend?

    Who got the most out of their car in qualifying and the race? Who put their team mate in the shade?

    Cast your vote below and explain why you chose the driver you picked in the comments.

    Who was the best driver of the 2016 Canadian Grand Prix weekend?

    • Esteban Gutierrez (0%)
    • Romain Grosjean (0%)
    • Rio Haryanto (0%)
    • Pascal Wehrlein (0%)
    • Jenson Button (0%)
    • Fernando Alonso (1%)
    • Felipe Nasr (0%)
    • Marcus Ericsson (1%)
    • Carlos Sainz Jnr (8%)
    • Daniil Kvyat (0%)
    • Jolyon Palmer (0%)
    • Kevin Magnussen (0%)
    • Sergio Perez (0%)
    • Nico Hulkenberg (0%)
    • Max Verstappen (17%)
    • Daniel Ricciardo (0%)
    • Valtteri Bottas (28%)
    • Felipe Massa (0%)
    • Kimi Raikkonen (0%)
    • Sebastian Vettel (16%)
    • Nico Rosberg (1%)
    • Lewis Hamilton (29%)

    Total Voters: 585

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    Author information

    Will Wood
    Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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    131 comments on “Vote for your 2016 Canadian Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend”

    1. Sainz for me. 20th to 9th. Good job, mistake in quali only poor part of weekend and it was marginal.

      1. Well done lewis Hamilton

      2. If it was “Driver of the race” Sainz Jr would be an easy pick, but his visit to the wall cannot be overlooked.

        1. Duncan Snowden
          13th June 2016, 18:23

          Fair point, but you could also argue that his race performance overshadowed the rest of his weekend. I still haven’t registered – I know, I know… – but I’d be tempted to vote for him.

    2. Verstappen. Because of the only real fight in the race. Rosberg had relative easy moves on Kimi and Ricciardo, But Max wasn’t about to move over. Brilliant defending.

      Very good races from Hamilton, Sainz and Bottas as well.

      1. Max was entertaining but it was Rosberg that gave him the chance to beat Ricciardo. Bottas under qualified. Hamilton delivered, even if that move over Rosberg was nasty and his start was pretty poor. Vettel did his best but Ferrari overdid the strategy again, they fired Dyer for Abu Dhabi 2010 yet they haven’t improved on that. Track position is everything in f1, why throw that away?

        1. Disagree on ROS giving VES the chance to beat RIC. RIC already messed up the first part of the first corner, check the replays. He left the door wide open and VES took the chance. On the exit VES had the preferred position for traction out of the corner and was already edging ahead. At that moment ROS caused RIC further loss of time. That caused RIC the chance to fight back for his position. But the initial damage was already done at that stage. Agree on the rest though

        2. Ricciardo made a mistake in the first corner after the start, locking his front wheel, which allowed Max to overtake him on the outside of the second corner. After that, he again locked, which forced him to pit early. Ricciardo had a bad day i think.

          1. Ricciardo made no mistake in the first corner. It just so happened that a Mercedes came back onto the track right in front of him.

            1. Please watch a replay of the start. RIC locked his front left and he went wide in the first part of the corner. He had already lost his place to VES. Then the ROS incident took away his chance of fighting back for his place at the chicane, yes, but the damage was already done.

      2. Rosberg was saving Fuel, he kept backing off and trying again, if he didn’t have to do that I think he would made the move, not to take anything away from Ves who was excellent.

        1. Everyone is saving fuel or tires at the end of the race, so an even playing field for Rosberg and Verstappen. He just couldn’t make it stick and Verstappen can take full credit for defending that well.

      3. Verstappen, the only driver who bothers defending his position.

    3. He made it look easy, but I’m not sure anyone else could have pulled off that 1-stop win. Very elegant drive. Kudos to Max, Bottas and Chili Sainz too.

      1. @lockup If Bottas could do it in the Williams with decent pace I’m pretty sure all drivers could’ve.

        1. I see what you mean @xtwl but I reckon ‘Decent’ pace wouldn’t have kept Seb at bay. Seb was very fast.

    4. Strangely, no massive standouts in my opinion. Hamilton, Vettel, Bottas and Verstappen were all clearly better than their team-mates, particularly Vettel and Bottas. Bottas is never spectacular and seemed to just appear on the podium, which was thoroughly deserved. Verstappen’s defensive driving was exceptional from Rosberg in a clearly faster car. I actually voted for Verstappen in haste, but on reflection, I think Vettel had the better weekend.

      1. Vettel had a lot of offs at the chicane though. Four times I believe?

        1. A very good point… I had overlooked that, but I feel it validates my first statement! I’d also forgotten Sainz, but he flew under the radar as well. Several solid drives but nothing spectacular this weekend.

        2. I believe that on one of Vettel’s reentries, he didn’t follow the rule regarding that bollard.

          1. Not sure that last one of Rosberg’s was legal as well.

          2. @samouri I think that if you go over the orange kerb, you don’t have to go to the left of the bollard

            1. thats right. You are deemed to have lost enough time if you go over the orange kerb, so you don’t need to follow the bollard

      2. Sainz, 20th to 9th. The guy does not get enough credit imo

        1. Fully agree with you. I am hoping to see him in a big team next year. Either Red Bull or Ferrari.

        2. I don’t get this. It was his own fault he was starting 20th to begin with. Imagine where he could have finished if he hadn’t messed up in qualifying? I can’t see how he could be driver of the weekend for overtaking a load of slow cars on one of the more overtaking friendly tracks after messing up in qualy.

          So he made up 11 places, three of those were retirements so really he made up 8 places, of those 8 cars 6 are really not that impressive (2 Manors, 2 Haas, a McLaren and a Sauber) so in reality people are giving him DOTW for ruining his own qualy and then passing a Force India and a Torro Rosso in 70 laps?

          Don’t get me wrong I rate Sainz in general (possibly even more than Verstappen after Monaco), but DOTW? I dont see it.

          1. Didn’t Sainz have a 5 place grid penalty, gearbox change?

            1. Yes he did have a grid penalty, but that was because he crashed and damaged his gearbox.

          2. Arnoud van Houwelingen
            13th June 2016, 9:33

            Really .. VES has already proven last year and the beginning of this year that he is better then Carlos especially when you look at second part of last season an the first 4 GP’s this season. The point gap is tremendous and could have been more when Max didn’t had to retire in Russia where he was easy Sixth place and even could have been fifth that race. So in the same car he has already proven to be better …

            1. Oh no I’ve angered the Dutch ;)

            2. Well, you better anger the Dutch then the Russians. Lucky Kviat is doing so “well”…

    5. Great tire management by Bottas. While almost everyone needed 2 stops he managed to get away with the predicted single tire stop in a car that used to be hard on its tires. Impressive race.

      1. choosing the DOTW for his tire management skills is like marrying a dull girl for her cooking.

        1. Right– because tire management has never been a crucial part of motorsports. Neither has fuel management, or pace management… The only thing that’s ever matter in auto racing is driving flat out until the engine explodes.

    6. Lewis for me. Great tyre management, great driving to hold off Nico at the start despite having a very bad start, and managing that gap to Vettel to the very end without drama – all on just one stop.

      1. + 1….. Last race at Monaco, and now today pitting once on lap 25, and with 45 laps to go for the win. Makes Lewis as far as I’m concerned the master of tire management.

        1. Funny isnt it. A few years ago he was supposidly tyre killer. Either that was never true, or he has developed this skill.
          He is becoming a master in managing and controlling the race from the front. Driving well within himself almost driving as slow as he can looking after the car and tyres.

    7. Verstappen. Great defending, calm and collected all the way. Only disappointment for him might be missing out on the podium.

      1. HighinDutchman
        12th June 2016, 23:48

        me too, he litterally pushed Rosberg into a fault… most impressive thing i have seen this weekend… sainz did a hell of a job too

    8. No real standouts this time, so I went for the polesitter and race-winner.

    9. Not sure about the weekend (driver error at quali) but for me Driver of the Day was Carlos Sainz. With honorable mentions to Bottas and Verstappen. Lewis as usual is getting away with too much.

      1. Really, really, really do not understand why people who like to see cars race each other, have a problemen with Hamilton today. The man was racing en trying to win. Nothing else.

        1. So I guess you think rules have no place in sports then eh?

      2. Lewis’ move was firm but fair. Even Rosberg admits that!!! Look back to Australia and you will see that Rosberg did the same thing!

        1. Agree. A quick view of the replays is all one needs to confirm it, IMO. You can clearly see that Hamilton’s steering position did not change once he turned left… his hands were pretty much @ 12 & 6. Rosberg was overly ambitious (especially after his words & actions in Spain) and even if Hamilton did move towards Rosberg, it was a result of understeer, NOT him deliberately crowding Nico.

          1. Not worth a penalty, but Hamilton did not even make the apex in the first corner. Pretty brutal. Rosberg was never going to make that corner.

          2. “and even if Hamilton did move towards Rosberg”

            What do you mean even? The gap between them did seem to close I think.

        2. I don’t know if it was right or wrong, but when I saw it I thought that it would renew the arguments about whether Rosberg was right to let Hamilton pass him at Monte Carlo.

      3. I think i can live with your accesment first i went for: Hamilton, Vettel, Bottas and Verstappen but Vettel really made a lot of mistaks so he is out. Then oh Sainz he did well so choose him!
        But Max Verstappen en Bottas are second and third for me!!

        Keith maybe we should enter a 1 one two and third to make a more complete winner.

        1. @macleod For the time being I want to keep the poll as simple as possible. One vote for winner, one winner.

    10. Lewis Hamilton definitely, superb drive, made a one stop strategy work and had answers to Vettel’s pace, what a race, I was quiet anxious about the tyres but he made them last, hats off to him, that blocking move was just great, Merc need to sort out their poor starts.

    11. Max:
      1. He never had smoke coming off his tires during the race (which is incredible)
      2. His laptimes were very constant (like a machine)
      3. He positioned himself very good after the start
      4. His defense on rosberg was brilliant.
      5. He’s only been driving this car for 3 races

      1. Agreed. Max won a great deal of respect today.

      2. 1. What channel did you see the race on? Max TV perhaps, in which they don’t follow any other driver besides Ves.
        2. Just being constant doesn’t take you anywhere.

        X. You’re dutch.

      3. Yes, Max Verstappen’s defensive driving was the highlight of the weekend for me. His obvious enthusiasm for racing is a very fine thing.

    12. I didn’t feel that Hamilton, Vettel, Rosberg, Raikonnen, Ricciardo, Massa, or most other drivers really did enough to win dotw. I felt that there wasn’t particularly a standout performance. Went for Bottas in the end, purely for getting that podium.

      1. You could say the same for Bottas. The others ahead of him screwed up on strategy rather than him doing something spectacular.

    13. This is very tough. Toughest one of all time I think. I want to give it to Sainz for a great comeback drive from 20th to 9th, but he crashed into the wall of champions in qualifying. Vettel was supreme in qualifying, but not so supreme in the race when he missed the final chicane 3 times. Verstappen was excellent in the race and defended from Rosberg very well, but was not so brilliant in qualifying. Hamilton was great all weekend, but he had it a bit easy. Bottas was very good on his tyres in the race. In the end, I think that I will give the vote to Sainz. Top drive.

    14. Apart from the start and turn 1 Lewis did not put a foot wrong. But I actually went with Verstappen this time. Great to bounce back like this after a tough one in Monaco. Qualy was just so-so. 0.250 behind Daniel. But during the race the team was warning him not to hold up Ricciardo and Max therefore decided to simply drive away from him. Managed to get the undercut and Kimi as a buffer. Pulled a gap, but had to settle for 4th after a second stop. Managed to hold off a really really quick Rosberg in the last 5 laps. His defending was just perfect. Great stuff.

    15. Bottas for me. He made his tyres last to get on the podium and kept a couple of faster cars behind. Great drives from Sainz and Verstappen.

    16. I mean really, how good is Sainz?👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿

    17. My DOTW goes to Raikkonen, for not spinning at the hairpin for the 3rd year in a row.

      But jokes aside, my actual DOTW goes to Verstappen. Flawless drive from a future world beater

      1. My DOTW go to the Seagulls. They were unflappable under pressure, and even managed to force Vettel to fly wide.

        1. LoL, great comment!

    18. Verstappen for me. Sainz was very good too. I can only cast 1 vote :)

    19. Lots of great drives. Hamilton, Vettel, Bottas, Verstappen, Sainz.
      Went for Hamilton, pole, and superb drive. Bad start, but the stint on the softs was mighty.

    20. Clearly Lewis or Seb. Voted Seb – great quali, usually his moves after start are very special and today it was one of them. Forget his minor mistakes.

    21. Max was great today, he let us forget Monaco.

    22. Driver of the weekend(not just the race as some here keep forgetting) is Vettel. Perfect qualy and perfect race ruined by strategy. Hamilton’s a close second but he’d almost lost the race cause of another rubbish start

      Great weekends also for Bottas(maximized qualy, maximized race), Hulkenberg(ditto) and Sainz(faster than Kvyat all weekend, made mistake in qualy, but then drove a perfect race to end up P9

      1. Hmm perfect race going off track several times ? So you see a slow start as worse than going off track at least 3 times ?

        1. Yes. He was on the wrong strategy (team’s fault) and tried to make the car do what it cannot to make up for the deficit. Have you noticed that all those times were in the last stint when he tried to catch Hamilton’s faster car. the team has given Vettel an impossible task and he responded admirably. To be 5sec behind Hamilton at the end despite the inferior strategy is amazing. Nothing more he could’ve done

          1. They weren’t all in the last stint. Just saying.

          2. If Vettel didn’t go off all those times he could have had the chance to reach Hamilton and put pressure on him, maybe leading to an error end win the race. Going off track is a always driver’s mistake no matter what, there is no excuse for it. They are F1 drivers, not cab drivers, their job should be to always push to the limit without making mistakes (some drivers are not used to this anymore, clearly).
            So definitely not a brilliant drive from Vettel, actually it was quite mediocre. I have seen him drive much better.

            1. @liongalahad Nope. Vettel wasn’t catching Hamilton fast enough regardless of mistakes. As I said the team had given him the impossible task. So he overdrove trying to compensate for his team’s blunder. I see no problem with that. You make it sound like in the past the drivers were mistake free while trying to push the boundaries of what the car can do. The reality is different. Feats such as Schumacher’s logic defying performance in Hungary 1998 are rightly hailed simply because they’re so rare. It’s a myth that you can drive on the limit without crashing, even if you’re a top F1 driver. For a lap in qualy yes. But in the race they always leave a tiny margin. The smaller the margin to the absolute limit the better the driver. But it’s there. If you try to do 20 qualy style laps on the trot, chances are you’ll make a mistake even if your name is Vettel

            2. @liongalahad On top of @montreal95 comments many drivers including the race winner made several mistakes. It was a lock-up gallore on sunday.

              Then again, I’ve said this before, lock-ups happen far more often than shown on TV. If you ever visit a GP and spend the race at a highbraking zone you’ll notice not even half of the lock-ups are broadcast.

            3. @montreal95 you probably are too young to remember how F1 used to be. Always on the limit and with gravel around the track, one small mistake and your race was over.
              Anyway, aside from that, at some point during the final stint Vettel was 4.8 seconds behind Hamilton. If he didn’t do any mistake during the race he would have been right behind him (every cut at the last chicane costs 1.5/2 seconds), putting huge pressure. That didn’t happen and the fault is all his.
              Button won this way, I think in 2012, he put pressure on Vettel, leading him to a mistake at one corner (he went off track) and this allowed him to win the race at the very last lap.

            4. @liongalahad Nope. I’ve been watching continuously since 1994. With gravel around the track they in fact had to leave more margin as the price for error was much greater. Also they had to leave more margin in combat as well as respect more the track limits because it was less safe and the risk of injury or death was much greater. Another factor that had the drivers to leave a margin was unreliability. It was quite common in the 90’s for half the field not to finish the race. With the reliability poor, it wasn’t worth it to push the car constantly to the limit unless you had nothing to lose. Prost was famous for example for winning at the least possible speed and that’s why he was so successful and had less retirements than his contemporaries. Yes in the re-fuelling era the cars LOOKED to be driven at the edge a lot but in fact they weren’t normally as they had to save the car, not to risk to get stuck in the gravel and sometimes even to save fuel to get the necessary stint length! I’m sorry to disturb your rose-tinted vision of the past but those all-out non stop on the limit performances weren’t common and were therefore rightfully hailed as standouts Suzuka 1994(Hill), Spa 1995(Schu), Suzuka 1995(Alesi) Nurburgring 1995(Alesi and Schu), Hungary 1998(Schu) etc. etc.

              Back to 2016 Canada. I have a question for you? Would Vettel have even got as close as 4.8 seconds to Ham if he hadn’t drove like a maniac? So the very reason that caused him to get as close was the reason to his downfall too. And as @xtwl rightfully pointed out nearly all drivers were making mistakes left right and center in this race including Ham and Bottas locking up and many others(MV, NR, KR, DR, SP, FA, DK, KM, RoGro, FN just those seen on TV). The surface was clearly low grip and all drivers struggled

              Lastly, there’s a huge difference between this and Canada 2011. Button was catching Vettel in 2011 at over a second/lap, a huge advantage. The track was dry on the racing line only but wet everywhere else. So put one wheel outside the racing line and you’re history. This past race even if Vettel would’ve got close to Hamilton and pressured him into similar small mistake it would’ve resulted in Hamilton losing about a tenth and that’s it. 2011 was a situation when the tiniest mistake had huge consequences. No conditions for that in 2016

            5. @montreal95 Except that at that time the engine was designed to last only one race, now needs to last for 5 plus they have limited fuel, tyres that get destroyed if pushed too hard. F1 always been matter of pushing to the limit, it’s only now that things have changed and managing the tyres and the engine and the brakes and pretty much everything matters much more than simply being the fastest. Prost was “the professor” but he was not a taxi driver as you depict him to be, he was still one of the fastest guys on the track.
              Saying that today drivers push the car more than 20 years ago is pure nonsense, sorry

    23. Bottas. With a car that is not better than Mercedes, Red Bull or Ferrari did a great job.
      Also good weekend for Hamilton, Vettel and Sainz.

      1. I went for bottas too but hardly saw him all race. I’ve just gone off quali, race times, and the fact we didn’t see many replays of him missing chicanes.

    24. ColdFly F1 (@)
      12th June 2016, 23:34

      Anyone in the top 4 (plus Sainz, but did not see enough of him).
      Vettel disqualifies as he missed the final chicane too often (huge kudos for his Quali and start though)
      Bottas, not exciting enough, ‘just’ a solid race.
      Hamilton or Verstappen – hmmmmm.
      leaving a Merc behind you in a RBR in Montreal decides it for me: Verstappen.

    25. Hamilton gets my vote but Rossberg blew it when he was forced wide into a corner which if he kept his foot down would have come out in front – then he could have let V and H through instead he slowed down to thread his way in behind V and H and lost out big time. Nice but not the mark of a Champion. V and H plus several other champion drivers would have floored it across the corner especially Micheal Schumacher

      1. You’re the only other person so far who thought the same as me on that he should of gone straight across and given the positions back to go p3. Obviously hindsight is great but he should be aware of what Hamilton was going to do. After all he’s perfectly entitled to close the door (in a corner) and they do it to each other all the time now.

    26. I have decided to give my vote to Verstappen. It’s not his overall performance over the weekend that has impressed me but his racing mentality.

      Once again he showed that the key to achieve a better result is not only down to being fast but also having instincts, ruthless defending and disobeying team orders. Especially the latter seems important as Ricciardo was the faster driver over the weekend but his right decision to ignore team orders seems to have an essential influence on the race result. Without it I think Ricciardo would have finished 3rd whilst he might have ended up 5th. Small decision, big difference in result.

      Let’s assume Rosberg would not have been kind in Monaco and stayed ahead: Hamilton might have risked too much by trying to overtake in turn 3 on a track that would have made staying on the drying racing line steadily more and more important, overheated his brakes or even fell back by any other reason thus reducing the points loss or even extending the points lead.

      Looking back I consider that Verstappen is WDC material, Rosberg not. It really seems like that people are either being born winners or born losers.

      1. He didn’t disobey team orders. Ricciardo was catching because Verstappen was saving fuel and tyres. Once the call came through, Verstappen accelerated slightly so that Ricciardo stayed out of DRS and that was that. The call was to not slow him down, which he didn’t. Simple.

      2. Verstappen got a team order not to hold up Ricciardo, to which he duly obliged.

    27. Bottas. That Williams had no right getting a podium. Fantastic drive.

    28. Bottas with his best drive since 2014 IMO.

    29. I watched this race today, Lewis Hamilton pulled out another blinder he did saves that other man winning that Nico Rosberg winning anything else man, I think Nico should just step down man, but I’m sorry to the Nico Rosberg followers out there, but I’m going to follow the english lads who were in the race today, it was sad about Jenson Button having to retire early on in the race, Jolyon Palmer he didn’t do that good like did he, but we can’t have it all though can we, from Reaney

    30. I’m going for Bottas. Considering how anonymous both he and his team have been this year, and how we all expected this race to be all about the big three teams, I was thoroughly impressed with how Bottas somehow managed to put himself in the thick of that battle.

    31. Bottas by far.

    32. Vettel. He had a good qualifying lap, as he was only .178sec off of Hamilton. Then he did all that he could in the race and got the maximum result that he could.

    33. This is the first Canadian GP I did not attend in the past number of years. It was cool to watch from home but I was hoping it would rain. I’ve got to give my dotw to Seb. Fantastic quali. A start that was so ludicrous that it put his own team on the strategic back foot. A proper pass on Ricciardo at turn 10 which is where the fans can and should actually see passes! And a visible effort to catch the leader giving it his all. Top drive. 9/10 in a field of 7-8/10

    34. Seb. Five seconds behind despite an extra pit stop and getting caught up behind the Red Bulls. Seb would have won the race if Ferrari hadn’t screwed up the strategy.

    35. Hamilton. Perfect weekend. No mistakes. Schumacheresque race management yet again. He deserves it more than anyone else on the grid.

      1. @david-beau His start wasn’t that good but I guess he did have a very good weekend otherwise

        1. @davidnotcoulthard his start was not good because of the Merc clutch, his reaction time was just fine as shown in the onboard footage.

    36. It was between VES and BOT.

      Arrrgh. I’ll go with VES

    37. “I brake for animals… but not HAM!”

    38. It’s definiely pretty much a Bottas-Hamilton tie, but I went for Bottas because it was his best result of the year and because Hamilton had a poor getaway.

      Honorable mention(s):
      Sainz, Verstappen, Ericsson, Vettel

    39. Between the top three on the Podium. However in the end I went for Bottas for beating two Red Bulls which were certainly quicker than the Williams across the weekend. A fine podium.

    40. Adam (@rocketpanda)
      13th June 2016, 9:19

      Bottas.

      I think Williams aren’t quite as strong as Ferrari or Red Bull, and given they have a tiny budget compared to those teams closing them is going to be pretty hard. Bottas got the best out of that car and then some to get it on the podium, beating both Red Bulls and a Ferrari.

    41. Lots of people voted for Sainz.
      I kind of missed footage of him during the race. He must have driven a great race from 20 t0 9.
      I think it would be wise for him to try to go to a better team if Daniel and Max are locked for RBR.
      Williams or Ferrari.

    42. I pretty much agree with the panel that the following 5 drivers are in contention, with no one standing out particularly at first glance : Hamilton, Vettel, Bottas, Verstappen and Sainz.

      Then working by elimination :
      – Hamilton did exactly the same race as Bottas, their qualifying was very comparable as well. The standout difference is that Hamilton ran into his teammate at T1, risking putting both Mercedes out, and thus putting his most dangerous rival out of contention. It can’t be Hamilton.
      – Vettel had a great qualifying and beginning of the race, but his challenge ended by his own fault when he locked up twice at the chicane.
      – Sainz had a first-rate race, but his place on the grid was self-inflicted.

      I am left with only Bottas and Verstappen in contention, which had very different races, difficult to compare. Any of those two is OK with me. Finally I went with Bottas’s tyre management and pace on a probably inferior car over Verstappen’s defensive brilliance.

    43. Rosberg deserves some credit, too: forced off the track at the very first corner, breaks overheating in traffic, picking up a slow puncture, suffering a (probable) break failure and spinning out when he finally gets past Verstappen in battle, still limiting the damage with a decent amount of points and producing the fastest lap of the race. That’s far from DOTW, but certainly better than Bottas for example, who did nothing but cruised home with one stop, it would never have been anywhere near a podium finish without Rosberg’s first corner accident, Kimi’s messed up strategy and Ricciardo’s flawed pit stop.

      1. spinning out when he finally gets past Verstappen in battle

        He wasn’t even close to being passed Verstappen at that point.

        1. @xtwl I haven’t laughed as much at a failed pass, well, I don’t think ever!

          Similarly, outstanding defense from Max, truly brilliant.

          1. @psynrg that was the climax of the GP, I also had a honest laugh at it, one of the best overtaking manoeuvres of the season so far LOL

      2. @palagyi Ricciardo lost about one second in the pits. That didn’t make a difference. Kimi’s strategy wasn’t bad, Bottas just managed his tyres really well. Rosberg admittedly would have been on the podium today had he not clashed with Lewis.

    44. Voted for Max!

      The way he was keeping Nico behind him got me excited! For me it was the highlight of the race. Massive skills and determination. It showed what racing is all about! That smile on Horner’s face was telling!

      Surprised by Ferrari’s improved pace but also Red Bull’s tyre degradation and pit-stop issues. Hamilton was great! Rosberg frustrated. Ricciardo not in a happy place right now. Sainz outperforming Kvyat. Interesting to see how this will unfold for the rest of the season..

    45. It was to be Bottas. In an incident free race, 3rd place in a car that was probably only the 4th faster in the grid.

    46. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
      13th June 2016, 14:49

      I’m surprised that Bottas repeated his 2015 result at the same GP. But anyway I just voted for him.

    47. Could have gone for Bottas and Williams. They did a great job with that one-stop strategy. Suddenly he drove 4th and then even 3th. Didn’t see that coming. But neither did I see some outstanding driving in qualifying or race so for me it was Verstappen after all. VES did his qualifying good not outstanding, had a very good start, was well balanced during the race and was really outstanding at the end in defending his place to a much faster car. And did again better then his team mate.
      No way I would vote Hamilton because he did IT again with his teammate. Both would have gone off again if ROS hadn’t been the wiser of the two. VET? To many mistakes during the race and bad team strategy.

      1. So when it comes to Bot and Vet you’re not only downplaying, but also attributing some of the feats to their respective teams, but when assessing Ves’ drive you’re only applauding him w/o mentioning the team.
        Looks like your DOTW was always going to be Ves, no matter what. As always with the Dutch.

    48. Bottas because he was on top of his game all weekend, unlike Verstappen and Hamilton. Max was outqualified by Ricciardo by over two tenths while Lewis almost lost the race due to his slow start. So it’s pretty easy.

      1. Yes, that makes sense. I was unsure between Bottas and Verstappen, but the youngster was indeed outqualified and ended up in front of his teammate only because of Rosberg reentering in front of Ricciardo.

    49. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      13th June 2016, 20:34

      I voted for Bottas. The reason I went for him was because he started from right back in 7th and managed to climb up to 3rd in a Williams which most people seem to be saying is now only the 4th best car. Even Sky were saying that it would be between Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull to fight for the podium positions. It didn’t look like many people expected Williams to do so well. Great job Bottas. I feel sorry for Massa though.

      Not that I think Rosberg was driver of the day but I am really surprised to see how few votes there is for Rosberg when compared to his team mate. Rosberg had far worse luck, did many more overtakes, some of which looked very impressive. He also had his slow puncture which affected his race yet more but he still managed to finish 5th. Yet 28% goes to Hamilton and only 1% to Rosberg. I also think the way Hamilton pushed Rosberg off at the start wasn’t very nice.

      It may look like it, but I’m not saying Hamilton has a bad race, it just looked rather uneventful with very few overtakes.

    50. Hamilton performed top during the race, little to no mistakes. I’d give Vettel the vote but he ran off the final chicane far too many times—Kudos for him for pushing so hard and keeping pressure on Hamilton.

      Bottas, well done. Where did he come from? I feel like Bottas has a trend for being the dark horse. He has great results but not a lot of praise. Needs a faster seat next year.

    51. Went with Vettel as well. Hamilton would have sewn up DOTW if not for his abysmal start and over-aggressive treatment of Rosberg. Besides, he won the race so I don’t think he’ll shed tears for missing out on DOTW. Verstappen’s defending was great fun to watch and I cheered when Rosberg spun trying to pass. Great stuff. But, have to hand it to Vettel almost entirely on the strength of his catapult launch of a start. Had Ferrari not misjudged the VSC and pulled him in, he would have (almost certainly) won this race. He was too far back afterwards and as others have said, had to push a little too hard to close the gap.

    52. I see people vote Hamilton over Bottas…

      What did Hamiltonn do, as a driver void of car do better than Bottas. Hamilton made a bad start.

      Then drove well from there. Bottas did everything well.

      1. It should be more than an error count, don’t you think @jureo? That’s how I see it anyway. The Sky commentary seemed to think Lewis was toast when Seb stopped under the VSC and saved 5 seconds, but LH was smooth and fast and error-free when that Ferrari looked mighty. And we don’t know if Lewis overheated his own clutch or there was something wrong with it. I thought it was a silky, elegant drive.

        Valterri was good, I just didn’t see enough of it to see that it was special. And how good was his qualy?

        1. @lockup

          The Sky commentary seemed to think Lewis was toast when Seb stopped under the VSC and saved 5 seconds

          Really? When the VSC period ended before Vettel had even made it to his pit box, removing almost all of the advantage from pitting under the VSC, it was pretty clear things had gone badly wrong for Ferrari.

          1. Hmmm okay @keithcollantine playing it again it was Di Resta saying it had to be what the Ferrari numbers were indicating, Ted saying it was ‘fascinating’. Nobody knew how long the softs would last after all, even Merc were watching Alonso to see.

    53. I think Max Verstappen deserves this again. :)

    54. Lewis Hamilton DOTW. On it from day 1. No real mistakes apart from start of race. Was always going to win once Ferrari decided to pit under the VSC

    55. DRS left very little use for skill in this race. But somehow Verstappen fended off Rosberg, and eventually forced him into an error as he attempted to pass. The kid is stone cold.

    56. Bottas for me. Didn’t make any mistakes as fast as I know and bagged another podium, job well done!

    57. There were a few contenders for driver of the weekend but I don’t think anyone had a standout weekend.

      Anyone who takes pole and the win should be considered, if Hamilton had maintained the advantage he showed in Friday practice he would have totally dominated the whole weekend, and I probably would have voted for him but I didn’t.

      By his own admission his pole lap could have been better and then yet again he made a poor start. Given the car advantage Mercedes have at the moment I find it hard to vote for one of their drivers when they win unless they have a faultless weekend.

      Vettel got close to the Mercedes in qualifying and managed to jump both of them with a brilliant start, however the strategy call by the team put paid to any real chance of fighting for the victory.

      Verstappen impressed late on when he was defending his position from Rosberg, it will be good to see just how he compares to Ricciardo when he is fully settled at Red Bull.

      Hulkenberg put in a solid performance in both qualifying and the race.

      Sainz had another good race but it was a recovery drive after crashing out in qualifying.

      In the end I voted for Bottas, there didn’t seem to be much coverage of him in the race highlights, which is probably why it wasn’t a more straight forward choice but he did well in qualifying and managed to get a podium in the race, the first for Williams this season.

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