Vote for your 2016 Singapore Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend

2016 Singapore Grand Prix

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

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

Driver performance summary

DriverStartedGap to team mate (Q)Laps leading team matePittedFinishedGap to team mate (R)
Lewis Hamilton3rd+0.704s1/6133rd+8.038s
Nico Rosberg1st-0.704s60/6121st-8.038s
Sebastian Vettel22nd+4.152s0/6125th+17.475s
Kimi Raikkonen5th-4.152s61/6134th-17.475s
Felipe Massa11th+0.251s35/35312th
Valtteri Bottas10th-0.251s0/354
Daniel Ricciardo2nd-0.213s61/6132nd-70.709s
Daniil Kvyat7th+0.272s60/6029thNot on same lap
Nico Hulkenberg8th-0.103s0/00
Sergio Perez17th+0.103s0/028th
Kevin Magnussen15th-0.135s60/60210thNot on same lap
Jolyon Palmer18th+0.135s0/60215thNot on same lap
Max Verstappen4th+0.213s0/6136th+70.709s
Carlos Sainz Jnr6th-0.272s0/60314thNot on same lap
Marcus Ericsson14th-0.433s10/60317th+42.533s
Felipe Nasr16th+0.433s50/60213th-42.533s
Fernando Alonso9th-0.491s43/4327th
Jenson Button12th+0.491s0/433
Pascal Wehrlein19th-0.629s58/59216thNot on same lap
Esteban Ocon21st+0.629s1/59318thNot on same lap
Romain Grosjean20th+0.13s0/0
Esteban Gutierrez13th-0.13s0/0211th

    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 Singapore Grand Prix weekend?

    • No opinion (0%)
    • Esteban Gutierrez (0%)
    • Romain Grosjean (0%)
    • Esteban Ocon (0%)
    • Pascal Wehrlein (0%)
    • Jenson Button (0%)
    • Fernando Alonso (5%)
    • Felipe Nasr (0%)
    • Marcus Ericsson (0%)
    • Carlos Sainz Jnr (0%)
    • Daniil Kvyat (2%)
    • Jolyon Palmer (0%)
    • Kevin Magnussen (5%)
    • Sergio Perez (2%)
    • Nico Hulkenberg (1%)
    • Max Verstappen (0%)
    • Daniel Ricciardo (14%)
    • Valtteri Bottas (0%)
    • Felipe Massa (0%)
    • Kimi Raikkonen (3%)
    • Sebastian Vettel (33%)
    • Nico Rosberg (34%)
    • Lewis Hamilton (0%)

    Total Voters: 527

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    Author information

    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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    122 comments on “Vote for your 2016 Singapore Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend”

    1. Nico rosberg. He was under pressure through the race and never faltered. Set the car up better than Hamilton, felt with the brakes better than Hamilton. All around great weekend. Vettel is a close second. Great save getting good points from the back of the grid.

      1. Yes, it’s quite extraordinary what you can achieve in
        an F1 car when you have the fastest car plus a weekend
        entirely free of gremlins isn’t it ? Rosberg did very well.
        But one is left to wonder what his team-mate might
        have achieved with similar good fortune. For what it’s
        worth I firmly believe another German driver in a red
        car did significantly better than his countryman in the Merc.

        Over time, it seems to me that Rosberg does very well
        if he starts on pole, but struggles mightily if he finds
        himself ( for whatever reason ) further down the field
        in the opening five laps. Other top drivers seem to
        fight their way up the placings with greater skill.

        1. @loen Mercedes said both cars had brake management to be done. Rosberg had two specific instructions to do it very early in the race.

        2. Like we saw Hamilton “fighting himself up the placings” today @loen?

          1. So beating his team mate the so called fastest man in qualifying by .7 of a second isnt impressive.

            1. Nope. Only when Lewis does it.

          2. Yep ! @bascb……no driver from Merc covered himself in glory today, did he ?
            And Singapore is a damn tough place to fight through the field. That’s why,
            though I dislike his occasional whining, I thought Vettel did the best overall
            job today. Because I’ve still to see one of those two Merc drivers make a
            sustained challenge in difficult conditions. Whereas the other one has produced,
            on occasion, some really amazing recoveries during his career. And when you
            look at some of the passing moves a certain young Red Bull driver has pulled
            off recently I would not put today’s race winner in the same class.
            Don’t misread me….Rosberg is a class act. But there are others who have
            the beating of him when all other aspects are relatively equal.
            And I never expect everyone to agree with my opinion. It’s only my opinion.

        3. That other german you speak of just drove his faster car past all those slower cars.

          1. You mean including a Redbull ???? Dude he started last and finished infront of one Redbull. By no definiation was a Redbull a slow car. While Rosberg Started First and finished first and Riccairdo for all his heroics started second and finished 2nd. I think you get the picture. If you seriously dont you should get a new brain

            1. I get the picture. Max destroyed his tires trying to get past kvyat, combined with the start it wrecked any decent strategy. He was fighting a McLaren in the later part of the race. Check the charts on this site and you will notice that Vettel didn’t do anything special and still finishes 27 sec behind the leader. A good race, sure, but the mercedes and ferrari’s have enough power to blast past everybody. I do like it that you think other people need new brains if you disagree.

            2. @thetick Singapore is a street circuit where it’s not that easy to overtake. “Still finishes 27 sec behind the leader” – come on man. Huge amounts of traffic and he ONLY finishes 27 secs behind the leader. Could have probably been closer but I don’t think he pushed all the way through that last stint as there was nothing to be gained anymore and it was wiser to not stress the PU any more than needed.

              It was a class drive with some key overtakes even when still on the same tyres.

        4. @loen Because his overtaking skill is not as good as HAM, ALO, RAI, VET. That’s why he can’t win when started lower than 3rd.

      2. The Merc is the best car, How can Nico win a driver of the race when you look down the grid and look at the likes of Ric ,Vet , Perez ect who preformed above their cars.
        Nico won in the best car by .4 of a sec, and everyone has to manage their brakes…SERIOUSLY!!!!!

        1. +1 @colinchapman sums it up perfectly.

    2. Nico Rosberg. Blazed the field being .7 faster than Hamilton and 1 second faster than the next team.

      Got a great start and almost led from start to finish. Had to manage brakes throughout the race and also manage the time gap with Ricciardo’s blitzkrieg later in the race. 75/75 from the three races after the break. He is on a roll.

      Special mentions to Ric, Kimi, Vettel and Alonso, Kvyat. Vettel made most of a dismal weekend while Kvyat showed Max how it is done in a slower car.

      1. Oops! Got the 1s info wrong. I didn’t account Ricciardo’s final run in Q3.

        1. No…..you didnt did you?

      2. How what is done?
        Defend on a track where overtaking is hard?
        Not staying with Alonso but defend against an opponent you’re not racing?
        Overtaking outside of the track and losing 2 spots?

        1. Ha! Ha! Frustrated Max?

          1. Nope, just answering a troll comment with a troll reply.

            1. Moaning Max :)

        2. “…an opponent you’re not racing?”

          How come not racing? Was Dan Kviyat lapped or anything? Of course they were racing!

          and yep, the Tori Rossi have rolled out the red carpet for the RBR often in the past (Brazil ’12, for shame). But fortunately not yesterday.

      3. Kvyat was average, finished ninth when the car was quicker than both Alonso and Perez, and also was outqualfied by Sainz and slower by half-a-second each session

        1. @lolzerbob Sainz was only faster in Q3. In the race, all it mattered was he finished ahead of Sainz. Got points as well. As I mentioned, he defended stoutly against the RB and it was a decent effort.

    3. Gotta be Ricciardo for me, even though Rosberg had a stellar pace in Singapore.

    4. My driver of the weekend was Nico Rosberg. Absolutely destroyed his teammate!
      Honourable mentions to Ricciardo, Vettel, Alonso and Kvyat.

      1. Should we add Magnussen to the list of honorable mentions?
        Still don’t know how he brought that crxp Renault car into the points.
        Renault just mentioned in a post-race interview that beyond a poor car, Magnussen had no liquids to drink for the entire race because of a faulty drink system. =8-!

    5. Niko for sure.Seb had great recovery but helped with all brand new rubber and car that could really pull that off. Not taking anything from Seb but Nico was man of the race,weekend 100%.

      1. Yes, because Nico didn´t have a car that could make him clearly pull off a win….

        1. Exactly. Giving Nico the vote makes no sense. The poor guy had to drive the best car from pole? Aww.
          Sebastian without a doubt. Had to make it happen on track to move up SEVENTEEN places. Safety car 1st lap (not halfway through) makes it eve more amazing.

          1. That would make VET driver of the DAY, not driver of the WEEKEND. There’s a difference.

            1. @subhashs – To quote @kimiraikkonen5 “We can not forget the fact that he finished 43.5s ahead of Max Verstappen, and “just” 27.7s behind the race leader after almost 2 hours racing. Not to mention he was 2.7s away from going through Q1 on three wheels.”

              For what he overcame to finish where he did = Driver of the Weekend.

          2. The “poor guy” was 0.7s faster than his multiple-champion one-lap destroyer team-mate in qualy. That’s why he started from pole. Had brake issues early on and kept his cool during Ricciardo’s late surge. If it’s not a DOTW performance, I don’t know what it is…

        2. So why have maybe 80-90% of all of Hamilton’s DOTW since 2014 been victories, mostly from pole? Answer me that.

        3. Nico has indeed the best car on a normal track, but here the power of the engine doesnt count so much, so the famed RedBull chassis should have been at least on par. RIC didn’t come close in qually, while Lewis barely came 3rd in the race. Don’t tell me about misterious downforce issues or brake problems, as those are just excuses.

          I’m not a ROS fan necessarily, but i feel for the guy since he can’t win DOTW on here even if he nails P1 both in qually and race. @keithcollantine maybe you should not even include ROS in these polls anymore

    6. Got to say, unless Lewis just totally blitzes Nico in the remaining races then I’d have to question where he’s at. Right now, all things being equal it’s no longer the certainty it once appeared to be, that Lewis would beat Nico.

      Vote to Nico with a respectful nod to Daniel.

      1. For what? starting first and second and finishing first and second???

        1. Must every DOTW driver finish a race in spectacular fashion and have done multiple overtakes? If that is the case, you might as well already disqualify the pole sitter before each race because he can not gain any places. It rather seems to me that people search for excuses not to vote for Nico Rosberg.

          What could have Nico Rosberg done more? Pole by quite a margin. Never in doubt in the race except when a well timed pit stop by RedBull and traffic brought his victory again in danger. Even then, he kept his head cool in the physically hardest race of the season whilst knowing that any points loss might decide the championship from now on and did not the slightest mistake.

    7. Good for Ricciardo (that near-miss!), Alonso, Kimi, Vettel, Rosberg, Perez…
      But I vote for Daniil Kvyat. For showing Max who’s boss.

      1. Same here :). He certainly starred in the most entertaining part of the race.

        There’s no doubt he deserves a nod for Most Improved. It’s like a kid who’s sitting on Es and Fs suddenly getting a solid B on his GCSE.

      2. Yeah, I was kinda expecting him to give up the fight with Max after first couple of attempts. I also thought Marko would press STR to let him pass Max. Luckily that didn’t happen and this fight was the best part of the race.

        1. It was a bit different in Brazil 2012 when both Toro Rosso drivers bent over backwards to give way to Seb Vettel’s RedBull. And yes, it included Ricciardo (and J. E. Vergne). Sorry Dan, I have not forgotten.

    8. Rosberg, did a great qualifying lap and managed the issues with his car well until the finish.

    9. There should be no doubt that driver of the weekend is either Ricciardo or Rosberg. Both delivered the maximum.

      If Rosberg wins Japan now it’s time for Hamilton to worry.

      1. @xtwl Next race is in Sepang, I take it someone’s still not caught up with this year’s calendar changes

        1. @younger-hamii The amount of times that has caught me out this year is just ridiculous, I keep forgetting Malaysia is still in there.

      2. Vettel was better than both.

      3. Good race, but they started p1 and p2 and finished there in the two best chassis. VET was my obvious choice from where he was, lost 40s to ROS by starting at back, and there were no SC after the 3rd lap to help. 5th is incredible

    10. Peppermint-Lemon (@)
      18th September 2016, 18:25

      Nico with Danny Ric a close second

    11. I’m torn. Absolutely torn. Ricciardo did an exceptional job to split the Mercs (as he did the Ferraris last year). Raikkonen did a super job all weekend and looked simply stronger than Vettel in practice. Vettel’s recovery was supreme when it must be considered that he wasn’t really helped out by safety cars or red flags. Alonso got the very best result possible for McLaren, as did Magnussen. Perez recovered well also after his penalties but his penalties ruled him out immediately.

      However I firmly believe that race was Rosberg’s greatest win to date, where he did not crack under pressure at all. It’s hard to not give it to Rosberg to be honest.

      1. Agree, this is one of those weekends where it is very hard to make the call.

    12. Magnussen managed P10 with arguably the worst car on the grid. He did it in the hottest race of the year without getting a single drop of water because his drinking system was defect.

      He had a good quali just outside of Q2 and a great start in the race.

      What he did imo. is way more impressive than getting P1 and P2 in the 2 best cars on the grid.

      1. Agree absolutely – MAG showed a perfect performance in the slowest car (%manor) – but nobody took notice …give him just a decent car and see what happens..

        1. I went for MAG also, punched well above the Renaults weight by nailing an aggressive U-SS-SS two-stop

    13. Sebastian Vettel. Probably his most mature recovery drive, didn’t have help from a safety car and managed to finish in the top 5 with the third best car on the grid.

      1. This. He won Driver of the Race already. Given the obstacles he had to overcome through no fault of his own, this should be his too

      2. We can not forget the fact that he finished 43.5s ahead of Max Verstappen, and “just” 27.7s behind the race leader after almost 2 hours racing. Not to mention he was 2.7s away from going through Q1 on three wheels.

    14. For the Singapore GP, Nico Rosberg gets my DOTW vote. He was quick in the practice, put in stellar performance on Saturday to start from first place on Sunday, kept race start clean, pitted less times than his rivals and held his nerves towards the end. I am seeing a changed Nico Rosberg and he is starting to gradually plug his weaknesses and stringing together performance throughout the weekend.
      I do feel for Dan Ricciardo though. A couple of more laps and we would have seen a very close race for the lead from two different cars.

    15. Voted Rosberg for a third time in a row. That’s how you recognize an uptrend in driver’s form lol.
      Shout out to my nicca Seb, next year maybe… Unbelievable but Kvyat gained my respect today for some brilliant defence performance against Verstappen- the game fired back at “future champion” ;).

    16. KEV brought a modest wheelchair into the points while his teammate was pretty much anonymous throughout the race, I really hope that Renault will keep him in the 17 lineup.

      1. You mean MAG ?

        1. Well he sure as hell wouldn’t mean PAL….how the hell did that guy ever get a drive in F1?

    17. Three drivers in particular stood out to me this weekend: Rosberg, Ricciardo and Vettel.

      Vettel was unfortunately hampered by an issue in qualifying, so it’s difficult to know how good he could have been in the race, but did a good job getting back up to 5th, displacing Verstappen.

      Ricciardo drove his car to its full potential in both qualifying and the race, and did a great job in pressuring Rosberg towards the end, and thoroughly deserved the win had he taken it.

      However, my vote went to Rosberg whom was sublime in qualifying and kept cool under the pressure, despite having a fast Red Bull breathing down his neck towards the end in a somewhat wounded car. Especially when his team mate at one point looked like he might not have gotten on the podium. Great weekend from Nico.

    18. Sebastian Vettel.

      Rising up from 22nd place to 5th on a track that is notoriously difficult to overtake. No Safety cars to help him either, truly memorable drive by Vettel. Definitely the driver of the weekend.

    19. It’s a tough call between Vettel and Rosberg.. Had the race gone on for another 2 laps and Rosberg had to defend against Ricciardo, I think I’d have gone for him but he didn’t so Vettel just edges it for me.

    20. At the point of checking this at 20:39 on Sunday night, Nico Rosberg leads on 38%. Does this mean I finally get to dust off my: “Nico Rosberg FINALLY voted Driver of the Weekend” headline?!

      1. I can assure you my laptop says 20:39…

        1. so time travelling is real

    21. Finally for me I’ve voted for rosberg. Totally out drove his team mate purely on merit. Good job.

    22. Ricciardo. It was a great weekend, showing the young whippersnapper how it’s done.

    23. We’re all spoiled with so many choices and I think it’s great to see so many good drives down the field at a track considered to be a drivers circuit.

      But Rosberg and Alonso stand out for me the most. Alonso drove to a well controlled lights to flag victory, was virtually flawless from FP2 onwards and showed no signs of pressure when Ricciardo hunted him down while Hamilton was absolutely nowhere on pace despite his problems. Alonso pretty reached the height of the potential McLaren had this weekend only being beaten by Mercedes, Red Bulls and Ferraris (yes he profited staying out of trouble at the race start and yellow flags in qualifying but champions make the most of their good fortune).

      Honorable mentions to Ricciardo for making Mercedes worry at the end and giving us a more exciting climax than we probably would’ve got, and Kvyat driving a clean solid points finish and showing real fight in his defence against the guy who may have cost him a race seat in F1 altogether in hindsight, can only hope it gives him a bit of the confidence he needs going forward.

      1. Oops I meant Rosberg drove to a well-controlled lights to flag victory… obviously.

        Also forgot to touch on Vettel, if Ferrari did get something right strategically this weekend it was on Vettel’s side and it was a very fine drive from him to get a result he probably didn’t expect heading to the grid.

    24. DOTW: Rosberg, but DOTD: both Vettel (for finishing as high as P5 considering his grid position), and Magnussen (for finishing in the top 10 with one of the worst cars on the grid in the toughest race of the season). Kvyat also drove a decent race and kind of showed Max who’s the boss for many laps despite eventually finishing lower than him.

    25. There were some impressive performances like Kyvat holding off Verstappen for quite a while even though Verstappen had the better car and Daniil had to put out of his mind the fact that the better car used to be his but he lost his ride when Helmut Marko decided to help F1 ticket sales by returning the element of a high probability of a fatal accident at any time;something which F1 had been missing since the exit of Maldonado.
      Additionally ,credit should go to Sergio Perez who moved up 9 places even after he had to deal with the emotional burden of being this week’s big winner in the ” who will the stewards screw ?” contest. Of course not everyone gets to play but, it is still part of every F1 weekend and a chance that most racers get to display their driving skills while ignoring a covering of F1’s finest waste products at the same time. Well done Mr. Perez .
      My vote for the weekend’s best driver,however , goes to Vettel : 22nd to 5th is impressive by most any measure and especially so on a track on which overtaking is so difficult . A narrow track with no 1st class straight seemed to pose an obstacle which would leave even a great driver with a fast car simply without sufficient opportunities to move up but, Vettel picked up 17 places and notably did much to help Ferrari’s point situation by finishing ahead of Verstappen.
      I accept that there are things about which reasonable minds may differ but I must say that in a race where there were a few noteworthy drives IMHO Vettel’s was the best .

    26. Rosberg, superb quali and superb race.
      Really deserve it.

    27. Rosberg for a brilliant and crucial qualifying lap followed by a very well managed race. He won by as little as possible, which ensured that he finished the race. At the same time he didn’t let Ricciardo get too close.

    28. German Grand Prix 2016: Hamilton qualifies second, beats Nico to the chequered flag in the race, F1Fanatic pundits rate Ricciardo the best driver of the weekend.
      Singapore Grand Prix 2016: Nico qualifies first, leads a procession to finish first, is promptly voted driver of the weekend.
      2016 Belgian Grand Prix: Hamilton battles from 21st on the grid to the podium, Fernando Alonso is voted driver of the weekend.
      2016 Hungarian Grand Prix: Hamilton qualifies second, beats Nico to the chequered flag, Kimi Raikkonen is voted F1 Fanatic driver of the weekend.
      2016 British Grand Prix: Hamilton puts on a show the whole weekend, topping the charts in FP1, FP2, FP3, takes pole position, wins the race. Max Verstappen is voted F1 Fanatic driver of the weekend.
      2016 Austrian Grand Prix: Hamilton takes pole position in qualifying, posts the fastest lap time during the race, wins the race, Pascal Wehrlein is voted F1Fanatic driver of the weekend.
      2016 Canadian Grand Prix: Hamilton takes pole, wins the race, wins driver of the weekend by all of ONE vote from Bottas.
      There is a bias in the driver of the weekend voting. Seems like Hamilton could move heaven and earth ona race weekend, but many F1 fanatic pundits will still find one or other reason to vote for anyone but Hamilton for driver of the weekend.

      1. The difference is that we have come to expect it from Hamilton.

        Compare it to football – we have higher expectations on Cristiano Ronaldo than anyone else. If he performs as well as the others, then the others have done better. It takes something exceptional when your standard is already great.

      2. There is no bias… People just rate on what they saw in the race and the weekend, they don’t just vote on result.

      3. Guess there is also much more sympathy for ‘the underdog’ if any of those manage to stick their heads up?
        From a multiple WDC sitting in the absolute best car on the grid, you do expect the absolute sublime.

        1. Thing is, when he tops all FP sessions, grabs pole by daylight, posts the fastest lap and wins the race, there really is nothing more he can have done better. He did this at the British Grand Prix on what was a fantastic weekend for him – but people that voted for Max at the time are on this blog now claiming they voted for Nico because he had “a brilliant weekend and destroyed his teammate”.
          It is ok to have high expectations for a triple world champion, but he can hardly do much better than win everything on a weekend, frankly.
          Too much bias – I suspect I know why, too.

          1. Mind you @rantingmrp, I did actually vote for Rosberg also, so we agree! ;o)
            I do though recognize that most demand higher standards from WDCs driving in the best cars to get the votes.

            1. And that’s as should be. But I ask again – what higher standard exists when a driver tops all FP sessions, grabs pole, has the fastest lap and wins the race?
              Anyhow, someone said it’s not really about the racing, it’s about what the voters “saw” during the weekend. People see all sorts of things.

          2. So who did you vote for @rantingmrp ?

    29. Perez had a good race, but the recovery was his own doing picking up the penalty. The stewards may be inconsistent, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t right here.

      I feel bad not voting for Rosberg as his qualifying was sublime and he perfectly controlled that race. We finally saw him overcome Hamilton without luck and I agree with anyone who votes for him.

      But 22nd to 5th on a street track was as good a result as you can get. People slap the luck label on these kinds of results, but there’s a reason drivers like Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel deliver them as more than just a one off. So for me it’s Vettel.

    30. Vettel, of course. From last to five in Singapore is something great, only a champion can do it. Also goog weekend for Rosberg, Ricciardo, Kimi, Perez and Magnussen.

    31. Must be ROS this time!
      He delivered all weekend and kept his head cool when the pressure got higher at the end of the race!

    32. There were 2 winners this weekend who drove an impeccable race: Rosberg and Alonso (best of the rest).
      Truly enjoyed Raikkonen making live difficult for Hamilton; Ricciardo how he chased down Rosberg, and Vettel coming through the field.

    33. First time I got Rosberg then Ricciardo and Vettel on my cards, Vettel made a beautiful move on Sainz but Ive seen the best of Rosberg this season, possibly ever.

      1. He made a move on Sainz and a Haas at the same time, it was awesome.

    34. It was between Vettel and Rosberg, and I voted Rosberg. Happy that he won and lead the championship now.

    35. It’s a tie for me. Vettel and Magnussen. Kevin Magnussen hauled that Renault into the points which is a pretty damn good job. He had a great start, benefitted from the start carnage and then made sure his race was clean.

      Sebastian Vettel obviously, from last to P5 through a good strategt with the softs. Perez did the same and ended P8 which wasn’t bad.

      Honorable mentions to Ricciardo and Rosberg as well. They both got the absolute maximum out of their cars in Singapore.

    36. Nico certainly was the best man out there this weekend. But since most of you will go for him, I will vote for Hamilton (!) just because his lack of performance led him created the need for a final pit stop that -thank God- spiced things up a bit in the end. So, technically Lewis saved the day! :)

    37. Nico certainly was the best man out there this weekend. But since most of you will go for him, I will vote for Hamilton (!) just because his lack of performance led him to a final pit stop that -thank you God- spiced things up a bit towards the end and gave us something to cheer about. So, technically Lewis was the best driver of the weekend, cause he made it interesting! :)

    38. I can’t bring myself to vote for a Merc driver when they did nothing outstanding simply because they are driving the most dominant car in F1 history and one of them SHOULD win every race.

      Instead it was out of Vettel and Ricciardo and both of them got the most out of their car all weekend. Seeing as Ricciardo put in a mega out-lap (as stated by Toto Wolf) and put Rosberg under pressure and made the race for 1st interesting I am voting for him.

      1. “the most dominant car in F1 history”

        I agree that present-era Mercs are the most dominant cars in F1 history, with one exception: The Sharknose (Ferrari ’61).

        It was ridiculously dominant all year, and with it a rookie Ghiancarlo Baghetti won in his F1 debut, something that IIRC never happened except of course Giuseppe Farina in the first F1 race ever. And Baghetti was not a great pilot by any measure. Phil
        Hill won the WDC easily (his only serious opposition was his teammate, von Trips, who died tragically in Monza) against much better pilots (we are talking Jim Clarl, Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham…).

        And yes, the ’88 McH got maybe better stats… but the pilots were the class of the field (Prost & Senna, anyone?). The car itself was dominant but not by that much.

    39. VETTEL is easily my choice, on a circuit that is very difficult to pass he was astounding. Over the last 40 laps, most of the race, of the GP he was the quickest driver, to only finish 27 seconds behind ROS and 17 behind RAI. The passing was entertaining

    40. DOTW brings up the same worn out discussions every race; It’s easy to win in a Merc, it’s easy to move up through the field in a much faster car and sometimes luck has a big impact on the race which makes a solid drive look like something miraculous.
      At the end of the the day DOTW is completely subjective and as a viewer you only have a fraction of the information to make your decision so there’s no point in arguing, just go with your gut. Who got did the best job with the machinery they had and the circumstances they found themselves in?

      Also, the real winners in F1 are the ones who play the game of F1 the best, get in the right team, play the political game, get the right mechanics, work out the best strategies and always try to eek out any advantage over you competitors in every aspect, Michael Schumacher being the obvious example of someone who excelled at all aspects of the sport. So for DOTW we’re only voting on the perceived driving skill of the driver over the course of the weekend and we ignore all other aspects of the drivers F1 career to date.

      All that being said, I vote for Ricciardo, I thought he couldn’t have done better throughout the weekend and while Rosberg drove amazingly to stay ahead and Vettel battled hard to work through the field, it’s harder to know if they could have done better, Ricciardo though definitely appeared to extract every last bit of performance out of that Red Bull.

    41. My vote for F1 driver of the weekend goes to Alessandro Zanardi, who won the gold medal in the Rio paralympics’ handbike team relay on sunday, after winning a gold and silver medal in individual events earlier in the week. All at the tender age of 49. Such a shame this true hero and legend of our sport wasn’t acknowledged on the Singapore podium.

      1. Alex gets my vote too – A true legend and inspiration for so many !

    42. HAM is toast. ROS might win as emphatically as HAM did last season!

    43. People who say Rosberg and Ricciardo wasn’t impressive, well I can say the person didn’t watch the race from lights to flag completely, or maybe not paying full attention to the race.
      Anyway I vote Rosberg, Ricciardo was very impressive and Vettel too, but Rosberg win is so special for me and he didn’t crack under big pressure, use an unorthodox way to win and that mega Qualifying lap, also he defied the people who say that Hamilton will dominate Rosberg after the summer break, so far clearly it’s the opposite isn’t it?

    44. I voted for Nico with Ricciardo and Vettel on the DOTW podium. The other point I would make is that if Nico cannot win DOTW after this performance then he may as well not even be included in the poll. He has the best car we all know but what else can he do?

    45. Nico for me with a special mention to Ric and Vet. The berg had a flawless weekend and deserves the title.

    46. Magnussen. That car is atrocious and look where he got it, while making his team-mate look irrelevant.

      1. Making Palmer look irrelevant?

        He does that himself.

    47. I feel like a lot of people didn’t actually watch the race this weekend looking at the votes or at least didn’t follow the build up to the race since i’m amazed how many people voted for Rosberg over Vettel, I mean Vettel managed to finish 5th from last on arguably the hardest track other than Monaco to make up positions on the calendar..Whilst all Rosberg had to do was make a clean start..?

      Singapore has historically been won by the pole sitter, it was even said during the race on the sky broadcast Mercedes were taking a preemptive approach to the brake temperatures. Things weren’t actually critical..Hence why Rosberg was able to control the gap in front of Ricciardo, the gap was so large at end Rosberg didn’t need to push at all to hold Ricciardo off. There was no way Ricciardo was going to catch him with the number of laps left so Rosberg was able to just cruise to the finish and turn things down in the car.

      A lot of people also seem to completely ignore Lewis massively missing out on track time due to the technical faults over the build up to the weekend which led to not being able to get the car setup fully for qualifying.

      Like seriously F1 is a sport where preparation is absolutely one of THE most important things. And Singapore is a track where qualifying is everything..It feels like a lot of people just didn’t bother following the race over the whole weekend with some of the comments when we had yet another weekend marred with problems effecting 1 car and not the other in the build up to the race.

      1. Actually there would be much fewer people to vote Rosberg if they only look at the statistics, because his win margin is less than a half of second, but because lot of people watch from lights to flag, then they know and vote how well was Rosberg performing. If people only look at the statistics then obviously most people will vote Vettel (Hence the +17 positions gains) Vettel was surely impressive (He was 3rd in my list, 2nd was Danny Ric) but Rosberg was a tad better
        I suspect you didn’t watch the last 13 Laps, because Ricciardo turns 25 seconds into half a second deficit on Rosberg, because the situation made Rosberg unable to pit for supersofts, instead he had to cope with the worn Softs. And no Rosberg win was not a cruise, it was a well deserved win, perhaps his most deserved in Formula One.
        Regarding to setups, I remember Rosberg also essentially missed FP3 in Italy 2014, but he was only 3 tenths off Hamilton in qualifying, and could’ve won the race if he didn’t went off twice in the first corner, after all he admit that Hamilton was simply quicker in that weekend.

        1. As I said Rosberg did not need to push at the end with the massive gap he had it didn’t matter if Ricciardo had caught up to even 1 or 2 seconds on the last lap it was only 0.5 as they crossed the actual finish line. It’s literally just basic maths the team would have kept Nico up to date with Ricciardo’s pace and Nico would have known he would not have been able to catch him enough to overtake since Singapore is just as bad as Monaco in terms of overtaking.
          It’s literally at this point just how much they can nurture the engine and stay ahead..I don’t understand how that’s hard to understand, why on earth would Rosberg keep pushing to keep a 25 seconds gap with so few laps to go rather than turn the engine right down at the point where him and the team know he is safe and conserve engine mileage.
          Nico knows he cannot afford to have any engine problems in the races ahead if he’s going to fight for the title, i’m very sure Rosberg wants to avoid picking up any penalties for engine failures now at absolute all costs.
          Hamilton has done the same thing in the past where we were led to believe he was fighting to stay ahead, then it turns out the reason why the gap was so small at the end was because he’d turned his engine right down to conserve the engine..Welcome to Formula 1 in 2016.

          And again ignoring the fact Hamilton had problems all throughout the weekend not just 1 practice session which even Toto Wolff has come out and said that the team was at fault behind the scenes for Hamilton’s performance this weekend. They failed to get on top of the technical problems on Hamilton’s car all throughout free practice so when qualifying came the team wasn’t able to get Hamilton’s car in the right place due to yet more technical problems on his side of the garage.

          http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/10583347/mercedes-have-failed-lewis-hamilton-in-singapore-says-toto-wolff

    48. I voted Magnussen. Coming into the weekend nothing was expected of him, as always, especially after a relatively standard qualifying. But he pulled through in the race, battling with Perez and Kvyat in much better cars towards the end, and beating the likes of Gutierrez, Massa and Sainz. He wasn’t even lapped in a Renault! And he made his team-mate look like he’d never raced round a track that he won at in GP2, and said he enjoyed. This could be the race, moreso than Russia, that should solidify his position ahead of Palmer for next season. Very impressive performance from him, definitely crept under the radar for many people.
      In my opinion Rosberg did have a very good weekend, but it was made to look even more impressive by Hamilton’s failings.
      Vettel did a fantastic job as well, probably better than Kevin, but he was the obvious choice, and I think Magnussen deserved some recognition.
      Ricciardo did well too, but it makes you wonder what could’ve been if he’d pitted a lap earlier, after Hamilton pitted, rather than waiting for both Hamilton and Raikkonen to pit.
      Kvyat is one I’ve seen go around, but apart from his defending of Verstappen, he almost had a disappointing race for me. He got no damage from the Hulkenberg incident, and the Toro Rosso was looking like the 4th fastest car all weekend, so to finish behind Perez and Alonso with that in mind isn’t bad as such, but not worthy of a vote.

    49. Drivers of the weekend: Rosberg, Ricciardo, Vettel, Raikkonen and Alonso.

      Monkeys of the weekend: Verstappen and Ferrari strategists.

    50. For me it is clearly VET. Despite the disappointing qualifying and had to start from 22th position (which was not his fault at all), VET did a fantastic job to not only finish 5th but also with a margin less than 30 seconds to the winner. We should not forget it is Singapore where overtaking is always a bit tricky even the car is quicker than the ones ahead. Not to mention the safety car at the very beginning hardly helped for the recovery. And in this race Mec and Red bull were at same level while Ferrari was a little bit behind, so from 22th to 5th was really a great achievement from VET.

    51. Voted for MAG – impressive performance in the 2014 Lotus chassis…Come-on give the boy a real racer soon…if he ends up in a Manor seat next year then the sport is a big joke…hopefully some team somewhere can see his potential…

    52. I think Vettel deserves this, but Kimi’s performance was very good as well.

    53. Considering the car Vettel has, going from last to 5th is not all that impressive. Now finishing in the points in a low-tier car running an engine it wasn’t even designed for is something else entirely. Kevin Magnussen gets my vote.

    54. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
      20th September 2016, 14:26

      Alonso.

    55. For a while my opinion of the Hamilton Rosberg rivalry has been that if each driver has no problems then Hamilton should beat Rosberg 7 or 8 times out of 10, but there should always be those few times when Rosberg is the quicker of the two.

      Although Robserg already had more victories this season than Hamilton, so far I did not feel that we had seen Rosberg performing to the best he is capable of, most of those victories were either due to Hamilton having car problems, making a mistake or having a bad start.

      However this weekend for the first time this season Rosberg has defiantly been the quicker and beaten Hamilton rather than Hamilton beating himself.

      Although Mercedes seemed to still have a car advantage it was less than in other races, Rosberg put in a great lap in qualifying to get pole and then after a straight forward start the only potential threat to the win seemed to be the brakes overheating, that was until Ricciardo made a third stop, for a few laps it looked like he would catch Rosberg to set up a grandstand finish but Rosberg had enough to keep the gap until the finnish.

      Other drivers who merit a mention are

      Ricciardo who put in another good performance getting second in qualifying and the race splitting the Mercedes.

      Vettel who made a great recovery drive after his car problems in qualifying put him at the back of the grid.

      Alonso who got his McLaren into Q3 and managed to finish seventh behind the top three teams of Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari.

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