Vote for your 2016 Mexican Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend

2016 Mexican Grand Prix

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Which F1 driver was the best performer during the Mexican 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 Hamilton1st-0.254s68/7111st-8.354s
Nico Rosberg2nd+0.254s3/7112nd+8.354s
Sebastian Vettel7th+0.005s39/7113rd-32.063s
Kimi Raikkonen6th-0.005s32/7126th+32.063s
Felipe Massa9th+0.481s16/7119th+10.594s
Valtteri Bottas8th-0.481s55/7118th-10.594s
Daniel Ricciardo4th+0.079s9/7124th-0.465s
Daniil Kvyat18th+0.997s1/70218th+4.011s
Nico Hulkenberg5th-0.518s65/7117th-17.907s
Sergio Perez12th+0.518s6/71110th+17.907s
Kevin Magnussen14th12/70217th+13.671s
Jolyon Palmer22nd58/70114th-13.671s
Max Verstappen3rd-0.079s62/7115th+0.465s
Carlos Sainz Jnr10th-0.997s69/70116th-4.011s
Marcus Ericsson15th-0.63s38/70111th-29.277s
Felipe Nasr19th+0.63s32/70115th+29.277s
Fernando Alonso11th-0.391s43/70213th+8.437s
Jenson Button13th+0.391s27/70112th-8.437s
Pascal Wehrlein16th-0.518s0/00
Esteban Ocon20th+0.518s0/0121st
Romain Grosjean21st+0.515s2/70220th+9.003s
Esteban Gutierrez17th-0.515s68/70219th-9.003s

    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 Mexican Grand Prix weekend?

    • No opinion (2%)
    • Esteban Gutierrez (0%)
    • Romain Grosjean (0%)
    • Esteban Ocon (0%)
    • Pascal Wehrlein (0%)
    • Jenson Button (0%)
    • Fernando Alonso (1%)
    • Felipe Nasr (0%)
    • Marcus Ericsson (14%)
    • Carlos Sainz Jnr (0%)
    • Daniil Kvyat (0%)
    • Jolyon Palmer (1%)
    • Kevin Magnussen (0%)
    • Sergio Perez (0%)
    • Nico Hulkenberg (21%)
    • Max Verstappen (6%)
    • Daniel Ricciardo (12%)
    • Valtteri Bottas (0%)
    • Felipe Massa (1%)
    • Kimi Raikkonen (0%)
    • Sebastian Vettel (23%)
    • Nico Rosberg (1%)
    • Lewis Hamilton (18%)

    Total Voters: 474

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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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    85 comments on “Vote for your 2016 Mexican Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend”

    1. Definitely Nico Hulkenberg. Outperformed his teammate and was unlucky once again with the racing incident with Kimi. Honourable mentions to Hamilton and Ericsson.

        1. Yes Mash, a poor attempt of humor by me

    2. So I have an account, am logged-in, but this weekend’s driver and race polls don’t give me an option to vote, they just show me results from the last race weekend (which I voted in). What gives?

      1. I was wondering why Alonso was rated so high…

      2. Try later, had the same problem

        1. @mortyvicar @selbbin @rike

          Apologies we had a few problems on the site immediately after the race – you should be able to vote now though.

    3. Mexico 2016 was Vettel’s race not Alonso’s.
      Probably a web server error. This must be Vettel’s fault though.

      1. Agreed. I blame #$%#ing Charlie Whiting! (Just kidding.)

      2. @alexde Vettel’s race?!

    4. Alonso. How is someone voted for Sainz when he was outbreaking Rosberg that cost him 4 seconds.

    5. Ricciardo for me. Pitted under VSC and dropped nearly to the back of the grid. Made his way back through the field and jumped his teammate in the pitstops. Let him through like a gentleman as they were on alternative strategies, then put in a superb final stint on softs to chase down Vettel and Verstappen to put himself in contention for a podium. Pulled a great move on Vettel but was blocked, however he was promoted to third after penalties applied to the two squabbling ahead. Great, clean, level-headed, gentleman drive.

      1. +1. He is a pleasure to watch and always fair with his moves.

      2. @vmitsi, @toxic Whether Vettel blocked that move or not it was never going to work. It was another mindless divebomb of the Red Bull clan. That being said I also voted him DOTW.

        1. Sometimes they work…..RIC on BOT at Monza for example…..there’s no pleasing some people. And btw, VET blocked.

      3. LOL Ricciardo messed up his start, gets outqualified by his teammate, and only through the safety car he is able to make his strategy work? Remember he started on the SS tyres… Then he divebombed Seb? Even though he did good moves to comeback. How is he DOTW???

        1. Duncan Idaho (@)
          31st October 2016, 21:36

          Compared to the guy who ran off track at the start, fluffed the opening stint, shredded his second set trying to catch his team-mate, was gifted track position and then went lawn mowing when there was actual racing to do?

          1. Lol….yep a poor effort for the second week running.

          2. i do not have a clue who you are referring to. Please enlighten me and others .
            The only one who did some of the things you mentioned is ROS, but i guess you had another person in mind.

            1. @seth-space Verstappen obviously. Only fans of his wouldn’t understand, so there is no “others” really here.

            2. @mashiat.. but to name one thing.. he did not leave the track

              the guy who ran off track at the start

              did not happen.

              fluffed the opening stint

              nope did not happen. He ruined his ss tires, including the flatspot in his ROS encounter, but managed to keep pace till the pitstop.

              shredded his second set trying to catch his team-mate,

              nope kept them alive for 59 rounds.

              was gifted track position

              Was much faster than his teammate, so the team decided to let him pass. Good decision he gained 4 seconds on RIC is a couple of rounds.
              So… it is only the lawn mowing part that sticks.. it could be ROS of HAM or other lawnmowers i did not see ;)
              But some people here seem to tune to a different game ( Golf perhaps?)

    6. Hulkenberg without question. I don’t disagree with those at the official F1 site that chose Vettel as DoTD. But since this poll is DoTW it’s the Hulk hands down!

    7. Would have given it to The Hulk but he ruined it in the end.

      Lewis had a mostly decent weekend but made a big mistake in T1… and got away with it. Not surprisingly, as in L1T1 going off track is usually allowed. But I would have loved to see a gravel trap there: Lewis would have had to choose between a square tyre or a Shanghai ’07.

      Nico was unimpressive but ok, and he didn’t cut T1, Max’s divebomb forced him out, so that’s quite different from Lewis’ unforced error.

      Felipe gets at least a honorable mention for successfully defending from Checo for pretty much the whole race distance

      Max and Seb were both sickening, -5 to both in a 0 to 5 scale. When Max was told to get away from the champion room and the podium it would have made my day, except that it was Vettel who was called in, his penalty came too late.

      So it has to be Dan. Great recovery after the early pit stop and a well deserved virtual podium. But I’m not quite sure about his move on Seb, it was maybe too optimistic, a bit of a divebomb. And when Seb cut across him in the braking zone it was mostly because Max’s braketesting forced him to it.

      1. Somwwhat biased view to say the least…

      2. There was no brake testing; despite of what Vettel claimed.
        The driver in front is allowed to dictate the speed and that is exactly what MV did.
        It’s pretty common knowledge for people who know how to race.

        1. You are saying too different things here. You’re denying he brake tested therefore acknowledging it exists but do you have proof he didn’t?

          Your next point is true, they can, within the limits. They are not allowed to brake test, to prove they did not do it they compare telemetry to previous laps and if they have braked 20 meters earlier compared to the previous laps then they have brake tested the driver behind.

          1. There is no proof VES braketested VET. Do not turn the proof question around here.
            Looking at the laptimes there was noting suspicious on his times. RIC was a lot quicker then VET and VES and was running into the fight. The only time the laptimes where different was after the off track excursion.

      3. Oh, and in hindsight Ericsson deserves at least a honorable mention too. But we saw too little of him.

    8. Hulkenberg was the only one who really stood out to me across the whole weekend… either it was one of those average races, or I wasn’t paying that much attention.

    9. I think vettel had a good weekend. Had decent pace all weekend but the ferrari was just not fast enough in qualifying. In the race he drove a controlled first stint and then he showed his overtaking / defending abilities against
      Verstappen and Ricciardo only to get a ridiculous penalty

      1. Vettel disagrees with you. Vettel says that moving under braking is very dangereous, and that he deserves a penalty. He has been pressing this point for weeks – now called the Vettel rule, named after the man who fell in his own sword. It’s priceless.

    10. I’ll give my vote to Lewis, he pretty much did all he could.

      Super tempted to vote Ericsson though, good quali and finished 11th despite being parked in the barrier on lap one.

    11. Vettel, of course. Good weekend by Ericcson also.

      1. Vettel lost it completely after the failed try to pass Verstappen. If he kept his head and stayed focused he would have had a second change.
        His temper gets in the way of his driving and that is a very bad thing. I can understand he is very frustrated by the Ferrari soap but his current attitude on track is very bad.
        Calling people idiots who try to defend their position, swearing to all others including CW and loosing it completely show his mental state: very bad!

    12. I said it midrace and I say it still, first time this season I liked watching seb. He drove well, no mistakes and complaint little except for the end, and I understood his reaction, I was screaming at the top of my lungs too. The penalty tough right was ridiculous compared to verstappens penalty considering he was the only reason this situation came up

    13. I was going to vote for Vettel until he threw away a good third place by being penalised for moving under braking. I was also unimpressed when he threw a tantrum over the radio and abused Charlie Whiting.

      1. Well.. he’s still leading the poll here for DOTW… which is pretty shocking. He was outqualified by his teammate, was given a superior race strategy to him in the podium hunt, but still managed to shoot himself in the foot and get a penalty to finish 5th in the race.

        I would think Hulkenberg, Ericcson and Hamilton should be favourites to win the poll this weekend. Neither Red Bull driver nor Ferrari driver was impressive this weekend.

        1. “was given a superior race strategy to him in the podium hunt,”

          Or: Raikkonen asked for another stop, and Vettel seems to be running his own strategies occasionally

    14. Hamilton had a very good weekend but I can´t vote for him because of that cheap move in Turn 1!

      Vettel´s race was outstanding and I disagree with the penalty given to him, but his Saturday was awful!

      So I am voting for Hülkenberg as he did an impressive job on both Saturday and Sunday!

    15. Ricciardo.

    16. Marcus Ericsson. No doubt. Crashed out on lap 1, pitted for mediums with a pretty damaged floor and simply drove like crazy. Those tyres didn’t just last, he made em work really well too. Nobody else surprised me so much or outperformed their team mate as badly as Ericsson did.

    17. I think Marcus Ericsson was massively under the radar this weekend. Dragged a Sauber into Q2 when it does not belong there, and made a very long stint on the mediums work for him to deliver his (and Sauber’s) best result of the season, when we only had one retirement. Stellar job.

      1. Ericsson drove the race of his life, sadly for him just few noticed it.
        He qualified a good 15th in Q2 at the steering wheel of the worst car of the season, then finished 11th with a 69-lap stint on medium tyres. Impressive job from Marcus.

      2. Adding the fact there was only one retirement really does make that an impressive drive.

        1. And add that he had to pit for a nose-replacement after said retirement hit him too …

    18. Some good candidates for DOTW. Hulkenberg did a tremendous job in quali, but had to drop a few places in the race; there was just no way for him to keep the Ferraris behind him, was there? Hamilton pretty much dominated the whole weekend, but I feel like he should’ve received a penalty for the Turn One incident. The Red Bulls were pressuring the Mercedes pair throughout quali and the race, but neither really managed to clearly have the upper hand (Verstappen was better in quali, Ricciardo in the race). Ericsson did a good job with that horrible Sauber, shame that he finished only eleventh in the end.

      Voted for Hulkenberg after much thinking.

      1. I see a lot of people saying Hamilton got lucky at turn one. Okay let’s say the stewards penalised him, he would have gotten a 5 second penalty? You couldn’t say Rosberg should be allowed through because he never challenged for the place. He would still have won the race in my opinion.

    19. I just can’t vote for Hamilton with that opening lap corner cut. He had a rock solid opening weekend, but he held position with a very ‘creative’ line through those corners. I criticised Rosberg in Canada 2014 for the same and I won’t be a hypocrite despite being a supporter of Hamiltons.

      So I’m going to sling a vote Ericsson’s way. He nearly got into the points without profiting from retirements. Not a championship drive exactly but no one else grabbed my attention.

    20. Gave it to Hulkenberg for his outstanding qualifying performance and good race performance. It would be better had he not spun in the end, though.

    21. Vettel, for providing the most entertaining moves and drama. He deserved penalty etc. But he made the race a lot more fun.

      1. Hmm, but what about his qualifying?

    22. It was Max for me for sure.
      He chased down Nico and the one opportunity he had he went for it, but couldn’t make it stick. So good effort.
      Later he should have given up position to Vettel or he could get a penalty. He chose to take a penalty. So yeah he compromised the progress of Vettel and pushed him into Ricciardo. I think Max did it on purpose and he effectively handed Ricciardo 3rd place. He maximised the result for Red Bull and isn’t a driver supposed to do that?

      1. spafrancorchamps
        31st October 2016, 22:35

        What a surprise, a Max-fan voting Max, in what was quite a bad race of him.

        1. How was it a bad race? He did what his strategy required and he followed team orders which was not to give up position.
          Max cuts the corner by going over the grass…and everyone shouts Murder! Pathetic!

          1. This isn’t just that. He pushed Rosberg off in first corner. He also slowed down Vettel intentionally. If anyone would be black flagged that should have been Verstappen.

    23. Ironically it really should be of the four contentious drivers. It’s not Ricciardo, for me, because he profited from a bad first lap to get a tactical advantage over his teammate, who was faster. It’s not Vettel, for defending in an illegal fashion (I thought he move was fine, but rules are rules, lol) and it’s not Hamilton, for cutting the first corner. It should be Verstappen, but he did the same. His was the best drive of the weekend, but can’t really give it to him either.
      So Hulkenburg, for that incredible quali and a good race.

    24. Voted my nicca Seb, he got me boosted for the week I think :)

    25. Ericsson quite easily. That was an amazing race by him. He got caught out in a first lap collision with Gutierrez and Wherlein and got damage. Nobody was really to blame. He fell to pretty much the back of the pack, pitted on lap 1 and then went all the way to the end and finished in 11th! No cars above him retiring helped him there either. That was just pure pace. Very impressive. IMO, more deserving of a points finish than Wherlein was in Austria. Wherlein was helped out by Vettel retiring and made an error at the start that I was a little surprised he didn’t get a penalty for. (parking in the wrong grid slot before seconds before the start of the race)
      Just think, if just one of the drivers in the top 10 had retired yesterday, Sauber would quite likely win all that extra prise money over Manor for the constructors championship as Sauber was the most recent out of the 2 teams to score.

      1. Just to add, Qualifying 15th as he got through to Q2 was also a standout performance by him this weekend. I honestly feel he could do a pretty solid job in a midfield team based on his performance this year. Plenty of drivers that we consider very good indeed have made as many mistakes or more during the races this year.

      2. Just think, if just one of the drivers in the top 10 had retired yesterday, Sauber would quite likely win all that extra prise money over Manor for the constructors championship as Sauber was the most recent out of the 2 teams to score.

        @thegianthogweed That’s what sort of annoys me about these polls: back in Austria, Wehrlein benefited from the retirements of Vettel, Perez and Alonso to score 10th place and he was voted DOTW. If the same drivers would have retired in Mexico, Ericsson would have been eighth and I can imagine he would’ve win this poll convincingly. Shame his great drive didn’t get the reward it deserved.

        1. @andae23
          Many people, including me some a lot of the time don’t seem to realize what the drivers out of the points are sometimes achieving. As I said, IMO, I think Ericsson was more deserving of a championship point here than Wherlein was in Austria as he wasn’t helped by faster cars retiring. Not that I have anything against Wherlein, but he was pretty lucky. But I have seen many people describe why they votes for why they did vote for their driver of the day and driver of the weekend both on F1 fanatic and other F1 forums and many people have given their views comparing the drivers performances that were in the top 10, not even including Ericsson who to me, easily was the standout driver of the whole weekend.
          I keep repeating myself but Ericsson doing what he did today driving what is pretty much the worst car as well as suffering damage from an unavoidable collision, he still made it to 11th. That beats Hulkenberg’s performance this weekend in my view considering how poor the Sauber is. I just wish more people would have realized how well he has done. Like you say, for some reason, even if a car is helped into the points by retirements ahead, rather a lot of people seem to think because they are in the points automatically means they have done a better job. At least it appears that way by these Polls. Yes, points is obviously the goal but it is just that drivers suddenly seem to start getting more votes if they have finished in the top 10 even if it was largely down to luck. It’s a shame that there doesn’t seem to be anywhere near the amount of votes next to Ericsson’s name as I thought there would be.

    26. To see Hulk only get 19% so far really shocked me, he beat Perez in his home GP, had an epic Qualifying and great race, Hamilton had a great weekend too although he did cut the corner.

      1. To me, the Hulk qualified more or less where a Force India should be on a power circuit and then dropped during the race. He arguably drove a decent race, but no more than that. Perez ended up behind him on a bad strategy call, pitting too late for mediums.

        1. More or less where a Force India should be!!?

          Ahead of both Ferraris? I don’t think so. Canada is a power track, Monza is a power track and where was Force India when it came raw pace on those tracks? Only the fifth best team.

          Actually Mexico is not exactly a power track like Canada or Monza. The high altitude makes good downforce and aero ESSENTIAL. But yes, it is true that top speed is important too.

          Also the days of “power” tracks are gone, when it comes to Mercedes and Ferrari engines. The Ferrari engine is almost as good as Mercedes now and the Ferrari is a much better car than Force Indiain terms of raw pace, as was evident in the race, with both Vettel and Raikkonen being much faster than the Force Indias.

          Qualifying in front of the Ferraris was an achievement worthy of applause, especially of you consider how quick Ferrari was on Friday and how Force India seemed to be even slower than Williams in FP3.

        2. Also, Perez was the ultimate architect of his downfall. He could have had a much better race had he not screwed up his qualy. Force India underestimated the durability of the medium tyres and that’s why they pitted Perez late. Hulkenberg was supposed to do a two stop before they realized actually how good the mediums are.

    27. The tango for two between Massa and Perez must be praised here.

      Perez’ relentless attacks, Massa’s unwaivering defence.
      No weaving, no dodging, no blocking, no wheel banging.
      For 50 laps..

      Motor racing at its very finest.

      1. That’s an interesting point – I wish the track had allowed a bit more action there, but you are right they both probably had a very tough race and didn’t make mistakes. Perez should have qualified better though.

      2. Yes, and the strange part is that we are told you can only attack for a few rounds and then your tires will fail. But Perez showed it can be done for lots of laps . Great drive from both.

    28. Vettel had a supreme first stint on the softs. Went very long while matching Hamiltons pace who was on new Medium tyres. Then steadily gained on RAI until the point that Ferrari felt they had to interfere and pit RAI. In my opinion Vettel did a super job, until the point when he almost came together with Ricciardo.

      Ultimatly i voted Hulkenberg. He did the perfect job in qualifying, the start of the race, and throughout the race. He finished as well as he could, with only the Mercedes, RB’s and Ferrari’s in front of him.

    29. I voted for Ericsson, as he drove an extremely solid (if unspecatcular) race in a terrible car. If you look at where everybody finished the race in comparison to the car they were driving, nobody outperformed their car’s potential more than Ericsson – finishing 11th in a car which is stone dead last in the constructors championship while everybody else finished there or therebouts where they would be expected to.

      He also out-qualified and out-raced his team mate by pretty significant gaps

    30. Finally I can vote for one of my favourite drivers again, without second thoughts. Ericsson outqualified his team mate, got taken out in turn 1 through no fault of his own and then managed to make a tyre set last for 69 laps, setting good lap times to stay ahead of cars that are normally faster than his. No easy feat. Finishing 11th in a race with one retirement only. A masterful drive, but unfortunately no points to show for it.

      1. Agreed!
        Deserved much more.. but f1 is a hard place,.

    31. ColdFly F1 (@)
      31st October 2016, 15:20

      It’s easier to say who should NOT be DOTW.
      Hamilton, very solid all weekend, but missed T1 (fail)
      Rosberg, unimpressive, although did what he had to do (fail)
      Ricciardo, good comeback but lost in quali (fail)
      Verstappen, great in taking the fight to Rosberg, but should have conceded (fail)
      Vettel, great race but poor quali, and annoying over the radio (made up afterwards, still fail though)
      Raikkonen, did not show the speed or tyre management his teammate did (fail)
      Hulkenberg, oh so close but then he spun (fail)
      Perez, poor (setting up for) overtaking (fail)
      all the rest (fail)

      except for Ericcson – did not put a foot wrong all weekend. (pass)

    32. Basically all the contemners made a mistake –

      Hamilton cut the corner, Vettel moved under braking, Verstappen did may bad things by crashing into Rosberg and then cutting the corner and Hulkenberg spun around

      Except as @coldfly stated Marcus Ericsson, who easily deserves to be dotw

      1. @lolzerbob

        I find it a little amusing that we were having a rather long conversation about Ericsson we were having the other day. I think he’s shown that he can perform exceptionally well at times. Maybe he was reading our posts about his mistakes and wanted to make up for them! :D

        I’ve voted for him too. But because he’s out of the points, it seems that he just won’t get as many votes as he should do. Points bring more votes for some reason! Even if getting into the points was heavily down to luck, drivers often seem to get more votes than those who actually may have had a much better race but finish just outside the points.

    33. Ericsson for me too. Apart from the collision with his teammate at Monaco I’ve barely noticed the guy all season but his quali and race were very good. To do practically the whole race on one set with a damaged car and only be one position away from a point certainly deserves credit.

    34. Hamilton. Superlative all weekend. Surprised Vettel is scoring higher – is it the rant he directed at Charlie that people liked? His driving was pretty ordinary, he couldn’t overtake Max, he made mistakes when under pressure – how can he be the DoTW?

    35. For me it was between Ericsson and Hulkenberg, though Hamilton also did everything he could. Ricciardo was a bit lucky, not bad, but definitely outqualified. I do not quite understand why Vettel is currently leading the poll, he had a good 2/3 of the race, but on the whole could have done much better (and more gracefully) this weekend.

      In the end I think we see too little of the midfield who quite often are where most of the action and fun is in the races and so Ericsson got my vote for a very good weekend; see for example what @celicadion23 writes above for a full reasoning.

    36. Clearly Lewis doesn’t deserve my vote. He cheated in the first turn by not returning before turn 2. He gained a lasting advantage by not losing the P1. Should he had done what Perez did in front of Massa, Lewis had lost more than one position. Rosberg did nothing special, and Max did not have a great day. Vettel… well he should shut up his mouth. I really liked the performance of Ricciardo, the last stint was impressive, and he managed to recover from a puncture to be P3. But on top of everything we have the impressive result of Ericsson. He did his best race and even though he finished on P11, he deserves the honor of being the driver of the weekend.

    37. I’m struggling to think of anyone that was clearly outstanding.

    38. Alonso if it wasnt for sainz I reckon he could have gotten a podium. He’s the greatest. You just ask him, he’ll tell you himself.

    39. SV because he has woken up the Administrators. Too much one way arrogance up to now.

    40. My vote for driver of the weekend went to Hulkenberg.

      A great performance in qualifying to get fifth on the grid in front of both Ferraris, and while his race wasn’t as good I still think overall he was the best as no drivers really impressed me during the race, as is often the case when I don’t think the race is very enjoyable.

    41. Vettel
      Amazing laps on old tires
      Quicker than most on mediums
      Great battle with RIC despite penalty
      Negative: he couldn’t manage a clean pass on VES, lost his cool

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