2017 Spanish Grand Prix Star Performers

2017 Spanish Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Perez, Pascal Wehrlein and Fernando Alonso were F1 Fanatic’s Spanish Grand Prix stars. Here’s why.

Stars

Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton hit back after his poor Russian Grand Prix
Following an indifferent weekend in Russia, Hamilton was back to his best in Spain. Valtteri Bottas kept him honest in practice until a power unit problem forced him to revert to an older engine, but Hamilton always seemed to have a little in reserve.

Being beaten to turn one by Sebastian Vettel was the only mark against him, but Hamilton made amends with a great first stint which provoked a reaction from Ferrari and left them in a weaker position tactically. In contrast Mercedes got their strategy spot-on. Hamilton kept his cool after being edged wide by Vettel, came back at him and produced the pass which won the race.

Sergio Perez

Force India’s top points-scorer has been the midfield star of 2017 so far. Esteban Ocon was potentially quicker here but squandered his chance in practice.

Perez stayed out of trouble at the start and took maximum advantage of the opportunity offered by other drivers retiring. He had enough of a margin in hand that a slightly slow pit stop by his team was of no consequence to his final finishing position.

Pascal Wehrlein

Although he wasn’t error-free in qualifying he still lined up ahead of Marcus Ericsson. Wehrlein then ran a cunning one-stop strategy which lifted him up the running order. He didn’t lose a single one of the places he gained, although a five-second penalty for a pit entry violation cost him seventh to Carlos Sainz Jnr.

Fernando Alonso

Deserves a mentioned for his immense qualifying effort which put his McLaren seventh on the grid with only the Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull drivers ahead of it. In the race he was knocked off at turn two by Felipe Massa, then over-drove somewhat, but that Q3 effort was phenomenal. He’ll be missed in Monaco.

Strugglers

Stoffel Vandoorne

Vandoorne came off worst but still got a penalty
Vandoorne was mystified by his lack of pace in Q1, where he was half a second slower than Alonso, and admitted he should have got through to the next round.

His race ended with a bizarre and uncharacteristic collision with Massa for which the stewards handed him a grid drop. This was a weekend to forget.

Lance Stroll

Failed to make it beyond Q1 in a car which his team mate has never failed to get into the top ten. He was the last car running in the race and although he conceded the medium compound had been a struggle his pace wasn’t much better on the softs either.

And the rest

Vettel admitted he could have taken pole position but for an error at the final corner. But given he took the lead at the start anyway it was probably Ferrari’s strategy which did the most damage to his victory chances. As for Bottas he was on the back foot the moment he had to start using a four-race-old engine.

The stewards correctly blamed no one for the turn one collision at the start though it ended the races of Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen. The latter had done a fine effort in qualifying and the Red Bull may have had more pace in it than Daniel Ricciardo’s distant third place indicated.

No one was blamed for turn one crash
Once again Esteban Ocon finished respectably close to Perez. But the frustration in his race engineer’s voice after qualifying was unmistakable after Ocon failed to engage his DRS early enough, losing two-tenths of a second and potentially a better starting position.

Nico Hulkenberg showed up Jolyon Palmer at Renault, though Palmer’s race pace was decent after starting the race on mediums. Even so they were separated by eight cars at the finish. Among them were the Toro Rossos, who did well to score points, particularly Dannil Kvyat after his poor qualifying effort.

Kevin Magnussen dropped out of the points after clashing with Kvyat late in the race. That promoted Romain Grosjean. Felipe Massa finished out of the points which was a harsh outcome following his brush with Alonso at the start.

Over to you

Who was the best driver of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend? Cast your vote here:

2017 Spanish Grand Prix

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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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83 comments on “2017 Spanish Grand Prix Star Performers”

  1. Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
    15th May 2017, 14:56

    Palmer should have been at the struggles without a doubt.Absolutely terrible performance,he didnt finish last because Stroll flatspotted his tyre with 2 laps remaining…He is the worst performing driver on the grid right now along with the 18 year old rookie Stroll & every race weekend he gets even worse…

    1. the thing is, he didn’t struggle, no F1 driver has problems driving around at that pace

      1. Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
        15th May 2017, 15:41

        Lol!

      2. He did show some pace 6th fastest overall on lap 44 i.e. Still with some fuel. He was also well into the top ten in free practice, he clearly didn’t get the job done but he has the speed in him if he can find some consistency.

        1. so, he had good pace just after his lap 43 pit-stop? When he was the only one on a new set of tyres…

        2. Dr Palmer is that you

  2. I’m not that impressed with Perez’s performance over the weekend. He couldn’t out qualify a McLaren on Saturday and only moved up the order because of the retirements.

    I think Lewis, Wehrlein and Alonso were far better.

    1. @todfod let me put it this way, he was outqualified by Fernando Alonso.

    2. States the Alonso fan. Alonso fans have a thing for Perez. Perez is doing a stellar job.

      1. Alonso fans have a thing for Perez

        Some of you people here….

        1. A S (@aminsarur)
          17th May 2017, 19:59

          Perez is doing an amazing job since 2 years ago, whether you agree or not

    3. Perez is one of 6 drivers to have scored points at each race so far this season, and is the third driver most successful driver to have done this so far this season. He has had a place classification for 35 consecutive races, which is far more than any other driver currently on the grid. The last race he failed to have a place classification was the Hungarian GP in 2015.

      1. @drycrust

        Fantastic stats! How does that make him a star performer at the Spanish GP of 2017?

        He would have finished in 7th if it wasn’t for the retirements. Nor did I see him pull off anything spectacular in the race or in qualifying..

        1. Yet the Alonso you all made noise about yesterday failed to perform which had nothing to do with Honda, but someone going forward from their qualifying position wasn’t impressive smh.

          1. @rockie I don’t know how this keeps circling back to Alonso’s performance?!?! I’m giving an objective opinion on Perez’s performance… which was solid, but nothing overtly spectacular. It doesn’t matter if I’m a fan of Alonso, Haryanto, Chandhok or a chipmunk.

        2. A S (@aminsarur)
          17th May 2017, 20:01

          At least Perez doesn’t make atrocious decisions outside the car

    4. …in spite of everything, Perez did an extraordinary work, …as well as in the last two seasons.
      Retirement is not Perez’s fault, that’s not against his performance.

    5. Without the retirements Perez would have been seventh, best of the rest with a Force India. If you are not impressed is because you just don’t like him (maybe you’re a Mclaren fan). He was by far the best of the rest last year, and he is being best of the rest this year. A point shy of Verstappen and three points shy of Ricciardo with Red Bulls …

  3. I think Kyvat’s performance was notable. Started on the back row, and ended up just behind his teammate in 9th, scoring well deserved points. This, after stating he wanted to just turn the car inside out because it was rubbish all weekend!

    1. robert steiner
      15th May 2017, 16:20

      The car he race was the car he had on qualy!! For your info,the cars go to parc ferme after qualy or you start from the pit-lane,so very bad qualy or very good from CS. The race was good with a very good strategy!!

      1. It’s not uncommon that a bad quali setting is good for racepace.

  4. though Palmer’s race pace was decent after starting the race on mediums. Even so they were separated by eight cars at the finish.

    That is a bit of a stretch I think. A decent race pace doesn’t put you almost one lap behind your team-mate, even with one more stop. If it weren’t for Stroll’s erratic driving at the end, Palmer would have finish dead last, at least Stroll has the rookie excuse.

    1. True. Palmer was only fast in the few laps directly following his final stop. After that he was just as fast as Hülkenberg on softer tires.

  5. Season Star Performers:
    +4: Vettel
    +3: Alonso, Perez
    +2: Hulkenberg, Hamilton, Wehrlein
    +1: Verstappen, Hulkenberg, Bottas
    0 : Giovinazzi, Ricciardo, Massa, Ocon, Kvyat, Ericsson, Sainz
    -1: Magnussen, Grosjean, Vandoorne
    -2: Raikkonen
    -3: Palmer, Stroll

    1. @f1-liners glad you still keep this chart. Sure, it’s only based on Keith’s opionion in the end (i would have put Palmer on the strugglers this time also), but cool nevertheless.

    2. F1 Fanatic starerformer: @f1-liners

    3. @f1-liners, why is Perez +3 and Ocon 0? Sure Ocon made a small mistake in qualy but he finished right behind Perez in the race. If Pezes is +3 Ocon should be at least +2.

      1. Please check my comment of 2 weeks ago. @paulk

        PS Thanks @gechichan and @johnmilk, only happy that I can help @keithcollantine a bit with keeping this the best F1 site.

        1. @f1-liners Ohh, I see. It’s a good idea. This should be incorporated in the main article actually :)

        2. Sundar Srinivas Harish
          16th May 2017, 5:12

          @f1-liners Hulk is both +1 and +2? o.O

          1. Oops Hulk +2. :”>

    4. @f1-liners

      A lot of Vettel Bias there.. and a little bit of harshness towards Kimi. I thought the only stand out drive on Sunday was Wehrlein, probably followed by Lewis and Vettel. Star of Saturday was Alonso.

      It would probably be –
      +4 Wehrlein
      +3 Hamilton, Alonso
      +2 Vettel, Perez

      1. @todfod It’s for the whole season so far, not for this race.

      2. it is for the previous races as well based on Keith’s star performers

      3. Also no one considers qualifying, it clearly states the race!

  6. Marc Saunders
    15th May 2017, 16:34

    I believe Vettel was even better than Lewis, and wide much better than Perez. Do you forget that he had car troubles in the Q1? Do you forget the brilliant start? How many maneuvers like Bottas pass have you seen the last 10 years?

    1. And how many out laps like this one ?
      They both drove impressive races.
      http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/19387487/spanish-gp-fight-triumph-formula-one-2017-rule-change
      Hamilton’s out-lap on his fresh soft tyres was crucial in turning the tide against Ferrari and he delivered with truly awesome times in the middle sector (30.792s) and final sector (28.367). To put those figures in perspective, they were on the sort of pace that would have secured a place in Q3 during qualifying on Saturday despite Hamilton’s car being laden with half a tank of fuel for the rest of the race.

      Unsurprisingly, the two sector times were still the fastest of the race when the chequered flag fell 30 laps later and were nearly over a second quicker than the sector times from Hamilton’s official fastest lap two laps from the end. If they’d been combined with a first sector that didn’t involve exiting the pit lane, Hamilton’s theoretical fastest race lap would have been in the high 1:21s — a genuinely brilliant lap time for a car with that fuel load and one that would have been quick enough to secure pole position at last year’s Spanish Grand Prix.

      1. With a car that besides Vettel’s Ferrari, is a second faster, not a huge achievement tbh.

        1. Well it reportedly surprised Vettel, who I think probably a better judge than either of us.

    2. EC (@dutch-1)
      16th May 2017, 9:57

      +1

    3. I believe Vettel was even better than Lewis

      I agree. Vettel did everything right till his team’s disastrous strategy ruined it and Merc did not miss the trick with Bottas’ blocking. Even then Vettel might have pulled it off but the VSC was deployed at the wrong time for him.

      Hamilton benefited from every one of those situations above.

  7. When is Palmer going to be dropped? Come back Max Chilton, all is forgiven!

    1. I saw Maldonado in the paddock…

      1. Oh how I’d love to have Maldonado back on the grid with these wide cars.
        Every race could become a lottery. We wouldn’t need rain anymore to spice things up a bit.

    2. Chilton or Maldonado would both be a step up from Palmer. Even Nasr or Haryanto could do a better job right now…

      1. nelson piquet
        16th May 2017, 11:43

        nasr was a very good driver

    3. @john-h
      Have you seen his US racing results? I’m not going to defend Palmer, he shouldn’t be in F1, but Chilton would still be a big step in the wrong direction. He was so far off the pace in his Marussia days, and continues to underwhelm in the US, so it’s hard to see why his performance should be any better.

  8. I’d like to do another shout out to Wehrlein.
    The guy finished 154 seconds behind the race leader (on a slower strategy); that’s just 2.44s/lap (excl. VSC).
    In Q the quickest Sauber was 2.7s behind the Mercedes; which is probably the real car speed difference.

    Thus I’d say he had a more impressive race-day than Hamilton (and all others).

    1. Wehrlein was pretty fast indeed. He was only marginally slower that Hülkenberg before his stop (Hülkenberg on fresh tires) and even slightly faster at the end of the race (both on equally good tires). Very good tire management too. His 8th place was not just a result of a good strategy.

    2. ….and Marcus Ericsson, (who lost the Q2 position to Wehrlein by 5/100 of a second ) doomed to start on the dirty side and with backtires on the painted finishline ( how is that even possible?). Fought back the bad start with good pace. Passed Stroll ( took a while with the 2016 Ferrari engine…) and Alonso just to find himself pitting at the worse time possible due to VSC. Got caught behind Stroll again but manage to pass him again and caught the flag just outside points. I think he deserves more credit. His pace were similair to Wehrlein, to say the least. With that said no shadow on Pascals performance, he did everything right (except the penalty) and deserves all good words. But ERI did an excellent job aswell but didnt have the luck and margin with him, so atleast he’s worth some credit and mentioning.

      1. @ Johan

        doomed to start on the dirty side and with backtires on the painted finishline

        Is that the story they were selling on swedish TV? Sometimes the bias of national broadcasters (including Sky, of course) amazes me …
        I guess that was my dose of ‘alternative facts’ for today.

        1. Check the start again, the you will see that his back tires are on the finishline.

          1. @orchide
            I don’t doubt that. But I honestly think it’s ridiculous to blame that detail for Ericsson’s race. People have been starting from that grid place for many years, and its impact has always been negligible. The fact that this pops up right after a race where Ericsson’s team mate thoroughly outperformed him speaks volumes about whether this is an explanation or an excuse.
            Yeah, he might’ve lost a few centimetres at the start, getting stuck behind Stroll. But by the time Stroll pitted, he had only lost 4 seconds compared to Wehrlein. Then came his pit stop, after which he had to pass Stroll on the track. He caught him on lap 22 (1.5 seconds gap) and passed him on lap 25. Gap to Wehrlein at that stage: Just under 20 seconds. Then he had to pass Alonso, whose tyres were falling apart, costing him 5 seconds per lap, which meant that Ericsson didn’t really have to fight. Gap at that stage: Still under 20 seconds (19.4 to be more precise), Ericsson with much fresher tyres (10 laps old vs. 28 for Wehrlein). Both driving in clean air at that stage until their pit stops. Evolution of the gap over the next 3 laps, before Ericsson needed another tyre change: 20.3 – 20.6 – 22.6.
            It was unfortunate that he needed to pit just before the VSC was deployed, but it wasn’t really anyone’s fault that he had chewed through two sets of tyres when his team mate was still satisfied and quicker on his first set. And it’s not like that pit stop made a gigantic difference. Their gap after the VSC was 25.7, so that’s a net loss of just over 3 seconds for Ericsson. And as Ericsson overtook Stroll for the last time that day on lap 54, their gap remained at 25.7, growing slightly to 27.5 over the last 10 laps of Ericsson’s race.

            tl;dr
            Centimetres lost at the start, ill-timed pit stop: Rather insignificant factors in a race where qualifying performance, tyre management and race pace spoke in Wehrlein’s favour.

          2. Nase.
            I have no clue if it actually means anything regarding grip in the start if the back tyres are on a finishline or not, I trust those that have more knowledge than me who said that it actually does.
            I don´t really agree that Wehrlein outperformed Ericsson. Not that easy to compare when they were at complete different strategies as well. Sauber decided to let Ericsson attack and go for 2 pit stops, Wehrlein going for 1 stop.

            He was a lot faster than both Wehrlein and Kvyat after the first pit stop. On lap 30 he was 1.7 second after Kvyat… after the VSC on lap 38 he was suddenly 17 seconds after Kvyat.
            16,2 seconds after KMag on lap 30, on lap 38 he was 24,281 seconds behind. So saying he didn’t loose time during VSC is just nonsense, otherwise he would have been in that group fighting for points as well.

          3. @orchide

            I trust those that have more knowledge than me who said that it actually does.

            I think that’s a cheap rhetorical device. Who said that, and did they say it because they are more knowledgeable, or because of a personal bias? You can find an ex-F1 driver or other “pundits” saying the darndest things about pretty much anything. Especially when it’s about a local driver on national TV.

            Sauber decided to let Ericsson attack and go for 2 pit stops, Wehrlein going for 1 stop.

            Yes, and like I analysed, he didn’t even come remotely close to making it work, as he was unable to lap significantly faster, or at all faster than Wehrlein despite having fresher tyres. To quote Keith after the Bahrain GP (speaking about Räikkönen): “there is no strategic solution for a car being off the pace”.
            And this leads us to:

            He was a lot faster than both Wehrlein and Kvyat after the first pit stop.

            His tyres were 17 laps fresher than Kvyat’s and 18 laps fresher than Wehrlein’s. It was perfectly normal for him to be faster. In fact, that was the phase in which his performance was the most underwhelming. He reduced the gap to Wehrlein by 8 seconds over the first 5 laps after his pit stop. 1.6 seconds per lap on tyres that were 18 laps fresher – barely enough to justify making another pit stop if that had been the average pace advantage over a complete stint. But that was just the sprint out of the pits. After that, the gap stagnated or even started growing again. Lap 19: 28.3 – lap 30: 22.6. 5.7 seconds gained in 11 laps on much fresher tyres, then aborting the stint because the tyres start dropping off again – those are nightmarish figures.
            Also, Ericsson pitted on lap 32, not lap 31, so there is no reason to exclude lap 31 from the analysis. He lost a massive amount of time on that lap, but there were no unusual circumstances. Likewise, the VSC was retired on lap 36, not 38. Therefore, the real gap evolution was: 3.6 – 13.9 (Kvyat) and 18.5 – 25 (KMag).
            And what I said wasn’t

            he didn’t loose time during VSC

            , but

            And it’s not like that pit stop made a gigantic difference

            . Okay, I didn’t look at Kvyat or KMag, only at Wehrlein, because that’s the comparison we’re talking about, right? Okay, so he lost 3 seconds to Wehrlein, but 6.5 to KMag and 10.3 to Kvyat. That’s definitely more painful, but still: Not a gigantic difference. He was never in a position to score points, at no point during the race. Wehrlein, however, did spend 3/4 of the race in the points on merit. He didn’t even benefit from the VSC, losing a position to Hülkenberg and getting a time penalty because of a late call to pit.

            As I said: There was much, much more separating the two Sauber drivers’ performance than a painted line on the grid and the timing of the VSC.

  9. It’s interesting how a driver with great pedigree and reputation like Vandoorne is struggling like widely derided drivers like Palmer and Stroll. No one’s impressed me in lower series as much as Vandoorne apart from probably Ocon and Max. I’ve watched a lot of Palmer’s junior career, and was not impressed by most of it frankly, but he did win GP2 eventually, and I thought he was worth one season of F1. These cars are showing up drivers of inexperience and/or lack of talent. I’d say it’s not that surprising to see Palmer and Stroll down there, but Vandoorne comes with so much hype I think that’s why people are shocked to see his lack of pace.

    1. Agreed. From what we have seen on track it seems Vandoorne belongs in the same category with Stroll and Palmer. Shame that. McLaren could really use the help.

      1. I think he’ll come good eventually, but he needs to soon to stop the rot.

      2. Sundar Srinivas Harish
        16th May 2017, 5:06

        I think he’s just not able to adapt to the car this year. Unlike Jolyon and Lance, Stoffel has had stellar performances in junior formulae – dare I say comparable to the likes of Rosberg, Hulkenberg and Hamilton? He certainly will come through.

    2. According to a report, Stoffel Vandoorne has the tendency to brake late and trail brake while cornering. Seems like he is struggling with his car setup.
      Trail braking is a sign where he is trying to fight the understeer.

  10. It was fun race for sure, with the battles at top. Thanks to the retirements, things got a bit interesting in the mid-field teams. Personally was surprised to see WEH extend his stint that long. He did a great job and richly deserves the driver of the day title.

    Kieth should introduce another category for “Driver of the Day” – so that drivers like WEH get what they deserve and others who did good through out the weekend get the title “Driver of the weekend”. If you look at the comments and voting, clearly WEH is leading, but he has not done a stellar job in the weekend either.

  11. Grosjean, came pretty close to a struggler in my view… he was kind of nowhere all weekend. He was ouqualified and outraced by the dane, only the contact between Kvyat and Magnussen made Grosjean finish ahead. The last couple of races i feel that he’s starting to fade and makes Magnussen look the better driver.

    1. Magnussen had the car’s upgrades, so Grosjean did OK @gechichan

      1. Sundar Srinivas Harish
        17th May 2017, 1:43

        IIRC Steiner said that there was a delay, due to which one set up upgrades would come on Friday, and the next on Saturday. I’m not sure if they actually came through.

  12. ….and Marcus Ericsson, (who lost the Q2 position to Wehrlein by 5/100 of a second ) doomed to start on the dirty side and with backtires on the painted finishline ( how is that even possible?). Fought back the bad start with good pace. Passed Stroll ( took a while with the 2016 Ferrari engine…) and Alonso just to find himself pitting at the worse time possible due to VSC. Got caught behind Stroll again but manage to pass him again and caught the flag just outside points. I think he deserves more credit. His pace were similair to Wehrlein, to say the least. With that said no shadow on Pascals performance, he did everything right (except the penalty) and deserves all good words. But ERI did an excellent job aswell but didnt have the luck and margin with him, so atleast he’s worth some credit and mentioning.

  13. Sundar Srinivas Harish
    16th May 2017, 5:03

    Magnussen would’ve surely been a star performer (at least in my eyes) if not for the last-minute clash with Kvyat. He did his damndest to keep Sainz behind as long as possible, and was ABSOLUTELY unfazed with the latter’s pitstop charges. His engineer though, was on another level. We need more of his engineer’s radio transmissions.

    1. –No panic,, i said no panic. Keep it calm take it easy, no panic.
      ..okay

  14. I;m on the Wehrlein/Sauber bandwagon. He beat both Toro Rosso’s (but lost a spot on a an infringement) finished a lap ahead of others, (only the 3 placegetters finsished a lap ahead). But mostly because he was able to stay ahead of Sainz for what must have been close to 20 laps, which has got to be a plus anyone’s book. Driver of the day simply because he drove so well whilst in unfamiliar territory. Huge result for an underfunded team.

  15. I think Ricciardo could be placed on the list with struggler’s too. Okay he became third and was allowed to be on the podium but he did nothing special for that himself. He had no real pace and was almost lapped at the end. The only reason why he ended this high was because of the incidents in front of him. But he did a poor job in all FP sessions, in qualifying, in the start and in the race. At every level VER was (much) quicker, and without the turn one incident he would have ended on a long distance behind his team mate, I’m sure of that.

    1. RP (@slotopen)
      16th May 2017, 11:16

      Consider with his normal competition out he had nobody to race. Changing after Hamilton and Vettel wasn’t going to do in any good. He was just cruising.

    2. Haha good god

  16. What I took from the Spanish GP:

    – Vettel was competitive, but he couldn’t outrace HAM this weekend.
    – Nobody could touch HAM throughout the weekend.
    – Wehrlein just keeps on improving; surely he’ll fight for titles in the future.
    – Perez and Ocon are as consistent as ever.
    – Alonso proved he’s still got what it takes with that quali lap.
    – Palmer and Stroll are just horrendous.
    – Vandoorne needs to improve even in spite of the McHonda.

    My Performers:

    Hamilton – 5/5
    Perez – ⅘
    Wehrlein – ⅘
    Alonso – ⅘
    Ocon – ⅘
    Vettel – ⅘

    The Rest:

    Hulkenberg – ⅘
    Sainz – ⅘
    Kvyat – ⅗
    Ricciardo – ⅗
    Grosjean – ⅗
    Bottas – ⅗
    Verstappen – ⅗
    Ericsson – ⅗
    Magnussen – ⅗
    Massa – ⅖
    Räikkönen – ⅖

    The Strugglers:

    Palmer – ⅕
    Stroll – ⅕
    Vandoorne – ⅕

    1. @f1forever You rate Räikkönen 2/5 and Verstappen 3/5, based on what? First 300 meters? :)

      1. Na, Kimi struggled to keep up with the other Ferrari and Merc during the weekend. I thought the accident was Max’s fault, but I still rated him higher because was a lot more comfortable in his upgraded car and drew closer to the leading four.

        1. Hmm Kimi was ahead of Vettel in every practice in this weekend. And did in fact fastest time of them all in practice. Quali and race was let down for him. He failed a bit in quali but for race, it really was not his fault.

          https://www.racefans.net/2017/05/13/raikkonen-quickest-final-spanish-practice/

          1. Fair point, but when it mattered Kimi screwed up. Kimi said himself he needed to drive better.

            http://www.crash.net/f1/news/246475/1/raikkonen-offers-frank-assessment-of-spanish-gp-qualifying-effort.html

            But I do agree that the accident wasn’t Kimi’s fault.

        2. F1Forever: You thought “..the accident was Max’s fault,”..? how come? Max was in the end of the line. Even if he had not been there Bottas would have clipped Kimi’s rear right wheel and send him off track. Maybe not with the same disastrous result but he would have out balanced Kimi anyway. Bottas first slowed down considerably, then picked up pace and accelerated mid corner which forced him outwards while Kimi was clearly half a car in front.
          Bottas did not back off, which he schould have done if he wanted to avoid a collision. He clearly did not. He pushed his competitor out of the way. It was Bottas’s elbows-out way of driving that caused the elimination of Kimi and Max.

    2. – Vettel was competitive, but he couldn’t outrace HAM this weekend.
      – Nobody could touch HAM throughout the weekend.

      HAM won and VET lost due to the safety car and resulting strategy. If you discount those factors beyond their control and simply look at each drivers driving, Seb was at least as impressive as Lewis and probably more so. Unlike Lewis, Seb pulled off some nice overtakes.

      1. Hamilton outpaced Vettel mostly throughout the weekend. Hamilton impressed me more this weekend; he beat Vettel in P1, P2, Q1, Q2, Q3 and the race. Lewis didn’t need nice overtakes for me to be impressed with him.

    3. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      17th May 2017, 9:20

      @f1forever

      It’s nice to see your views but don’t you think you’ve been a little harsh on Massa? He couldn’t have done anything different at the start. If he did, he’d have smacked into Verstappen and Raikonnen as they pulled back onto the track. He had to take avoiding action and unfortunately caused more damage to himself than Alonso. Then he seemed to be a magnet for other cars hitting him later in the race. Even Vettel nearly crashed into him. Considering how much time he lost at the start, I think his recovery drive was at leased worth a 3/5, possibly even a 4. For the drive in the race, I also certainly couldn’t rate Sainz above Kvyat. In the end, he only finished one place behind him, only just over 5 seconds behind. Either Sainz had a poor drive, or Kvyat had an incredible recovery. I’d also maybe give Ericsson a 4 too as he was only behind Wherlien by a tiny fraction in qualifying and had a great race too and probably will have been about level if not for his strategy. He had a great fight with Alonso and Stroll. Overtaking a Williams with a 2016 Ferrari engine? That was quite impressive. It was mainly because of the fact he didn’t do a 1 stop that meant he didn’t get a points finish. He was only just outside them in 11th. A bit unlucky really.

  17. The award should go to Mercedes and not to Hamilton. He did nothing special. He won the race but, he still had the best car on the track AND had team support which ultimately made the difference in the outcome.
    Once again Ferrari did not have the proper tactics and Vettel suffered for it. Mercedes ,on the other hand ,made all of the right moves and at the right times PLUS they sacrificed their second car ( and yes they do treat Bottas as a # 2 and not an equal driver ) in order to slow down Vettel and thus assure Hamilton of the time he needed to put an insurmountable gap between his car and Vettel’s.
    Did Mercedes ruin the competition that they claimed they wanted ? Yes . If the question is ,however, who did the most the achieve the best race result and you are inclined to give the nod to Hamilton for winning the race then I say the award goes to Mercedes and not to any driver.
    As an aside I must say that Vettel should get some sort of award for once again failing to say anything bad about the Ferrari team even though AGAIN their poor judgment and failure to act in a timely manner cost Vettel. He might not have ultimately won the race had Ferrari planned and executed as well as Mercedes did but, at least such conduct would have given Vettel the fighting chance that on Sunday he never had .
    The bottom line is that NO DRIVER had a stand out performance this week .

  18. Otek Ondiek
    20th May 2017, 2:02

    All that excellent driving by Hamilton, but who got voted driver of the weekend by fans on this forum?

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