Which Formula One driver made the most of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend?
It’s time to give your verdict on which driver did the best with the equipment at their disposal over the last five days.
Review how each driver got on below and vote for who impressed you the most at Bahrain International Circuit.
Driver performance summary
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 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix weekend?
- No opinion (0%)
- Charles Leclerc (0%)
- Marcus Ericsson (10%)
- Stoffel Vandoorne (0%)
- Fernando Alonso (1%)
- Kevin Magnussen (2%)
- Romain Grosjean (0%)
- Brendon Hartley (0%)
- Pierre Gasly (57%)
- Carlos Sainz Jnr (0%)
- Nico Hulkenberg (0%)
- Sergey Sirotkin (0%)
- Lance Stroll (0%)
- Esteban Ocon (0%)
- Sergio Perez (0%)
- Max Verstappen (0%)
- Daniel Ricciardo (0%)
- Kimi Raikkonen (0%)
- Sebastian Vettel (26%)
- Valtteri Bottas (0%)
- Lewis Hamilton (2%)
Total Voters: 404
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When this poll is closed the result will be displayed instead of the voting form.
2018 Bahrain Grand Prix
- Top ten pictures from the 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix
- Vettel’s narrow win bodes well for 2018 title fight
- 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix Star Performers
- McLaren go 100 races without a win as Hamilton equals Raikkonen record
- Vote for your 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend
Debates and polls
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- Should Sainz and Perez have avoided penalties for their Azerbaijan GP crash?
- Is F1’s record reliability rate making the sport better?
- Should F1 ensure ‘sustainable’ fuels are no pipe dream before ditching hybrids?
Sven (@crammond)
8th April 2018, 22:35
Current total voters: 3. One vote each for Vettel, Gasly, Ericsson. The poll can close now.
Jorge Lardone (@jorge-lardone)
9th April 2018, 0:01
+1
bogaaaa (@nosehair)
9th April 2018, 1:34
Wish there was a driver comment of the day, because surely Lance would of won this with “l was really happy with MY race, l picked up 5 places” omg this guy is on another planet.
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
8th April 2018, 22:38
Ericsson. He moved from p17 to p9 in this race, finishing ahead of both Force Indias and a Renault among many others.
Gasly. P4 in a Toro Rosso. Best of the rest. Very impressive.
I don’t want to choose but in the end I went for Ericsson. While Gasly had to protect his position, Ericsson had to attack and get his position. That’s why he’s my driver of the week.
Todfod (@todfod)
9th April 2018, 8:54
It was a hard one between Ericson and Gasly for me as well. But I had to go for Gasly on that one. He jumped up to P4 on pure merit after a stellar qualifying and race start. He also looked really in control of his race despite the heavy midfield battle that was going on throughout the race. Absolutely flawless performance from him after just a handful of F1 starts
Gabriel (@rethla)
9th April 2018, 8:57
@chrischrill
Gaslys position didnt come for free in any way and he also attacked on Ricciardo and even was ahead for a while before he retired.
Its hard to choose and i also think Vettels drive was stellar. I will go for Ericsson because he has been so misstreated in these polls before, its his moment to shine.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
8th April 2018, 22:44
I was thinking Gasly, but then two RBRs and 1 Ferrari were out.. Still StrHonda beating McRenault… Burn!
Then there was Hamilton 3 car overtake…
But then there was Vettel. He managed to keep Bottas behind on tires that were done for 10 laps… Damn.
Alonso (@alonshow)
9th April 2018, 14:34
Hamilton’s overtake was hands down the single most brilliant moment of the weekend. However, since this is DotW you need more than one outstanding move to get it, and I don’t think Ham did anything very special apart from that this weekend.
Julian (Mr. Sakura) (@xiasitlo)
8th April 2018, 22:51
Come on people, join the dark side.
Join. the power of dreams™
Find the name Gasly and hit that vote button.
Serious reasons;
1. He had a sudden brake issue after 10 laps that slowed him down suddenly and it all recovered without any reason and in comparison to Marcus, Gasly’s Quali was fantastic as well.
2. The ”Now we can fight” jab at Alonso and Vettel imitation on the team radio.
3. His heart must’ve been going bonkers knowing it could break down any time and stayed really calm as a rookie.
4. He defended excellent at the restart of the VSC.
5. Come on. I need this.
Julian (Mr. Sakura) (@xiasitlo)
8th April 2018, 23:13
6. Hamilton would’ve got Vettel. Bottas made some mistakes outside of the main feed, e.g lapping Vandoorne and Ericsson.
FlatSix (@)
9th April 2018, 11:09
@xiasitlo Why is this such a certainty? I’m very sure Hamilton would’ve made an attempt, but Bottas had the exact same car, and even in DRS didn’t seem to close up at all. This in now way means I think Bottas is as good as Hamilton in any aspect, but it certainly is not a given Hamilton would’ve won this race had he magically been in Bottas his shoes.
rick2k9 (@rick2k9)
8th April 2018, 23:51
Agree with most of this. Still Voted for Vettel and I’m not a Vettel fan.
jenc (@jens)
9th April 2018, 8:31
I didn’t hear that radiomessage.
Can it be found somewhere (link) ?
Alonso (@alonshow)
9th April 2018, 14:57
@jens: Just google ”Now we can fight” gasly.
Alonso (@alonshow)
9th April 2018, 15:00
@xiasitlo: The jab at Alonso was hilarious indeed, but what do you mean by “Vettel imitation”?
Julian (Mr. Sakura) (@xiasitlo)
9th April 2018, 15:43
@alonshow
Saying Italian with a poor foreigners accent. Just before he said ”now we can fight” he said ”Grazie mille a tutti”. That was actually on the main feed if I remember right.
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
8th April 2018, 22:58
Number 2 is the most compelling reason. I loved that radio message.
Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
8th April 2018, 23:01
I would love to vote 2 drivers, but we are limited to one, so Gasly gets it!
My second vote would have been to Ericsson. He had an amazing race, the best of his F1 career! His race has a even bigger meaning, if we count the fact that midfield is super tight & his teammate is an excellent talent, who ”struggles” a bit in his transition to f1, but still, is super close to him from day 1.
Vettel mastered his tyres perfectly, but the 2 guys above did a slighty better job IMO
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
8th April 2018, 23:15
Gasly has always been a good qualifier as far as I can recall from his F2 times. He did not put a foot wrong for the whole weekend and produced a stellar performance in both qualifying and race. Kudos to him, and this mighty slap in the face of McLaren will wake them up (at least I hope so).
TFLB (@tflb)
8th April 2018, 23:26
Standouts for me were Gasly, Vettel, Magnussen, Hulkenberg and Ericsson. I gave it to Ericsson because I couldn’t decide between him and Gasly, and I thought Marcus was the more likely to be overlooked! He’s really not as bad as some have claimed in the past and his best drives have often gone unrewarded; I remember him having a brilliant drive at the same track a couple of years ago but having a bad pit stop or something. Nice to see him finally get a good result from a good drive!
Neil (@neilosjames)
8th April 2018, 23:29
Voted for Gasly. Qualifying lap was great, pace was rock solid all race and I didn’t see him put a wheel wrong.
Ericsson and Vettel were the other two stand-outs.
PMccarthy_is_a_legend (@pmccarthy_is_a_legend)
8th April 2018, 23:38
Either Gasly or Vettel. I went for Vettel. Those last 10 laps on old tires were incredible. He also really delivered on Saturday too.
Gasly was excellent too, he did benefit from the red bulls double retirement. He was faultless though..
Really good race overall.
Balue (@balue)
10th April 2018, 11:30
@pmccarthy_is_a_legend Same here
Zäta
8th April 2018, 23:50
I cant complain much when Gasly get the reward as driver of the day. But I must say that Ericssons race was just as much excellent imo. Vettel is another standout. My heart ( and brain ) says Ericsson consider the car and position gained on an hard strategy. Flawless drive! Im proud!
Nigel
9th April 2018, 0:00
Gasly!!!! If he continues like this we may see another F1 sensation winning championships in a Red Bull again.
Jorge Lardone (@jorge-lardone)
9th April 2018, 0:03
Vettel my choice. His lap on saturday and his driven on sunday were great. But Gasly and Ericcson have fantastic weekend also.
Jay Menon (@jaymenon10)
9th April 2018, 0:18
I voted for Vettel, but on second though it should have been Gasly.
Philip (@philipgb)
9th April 2018, 0:30
Gave it to Vettel. Great qualifying, somehow made a one stop strategy work to within an inch of those tyres life and defended against Bottas exactly how you’d expect from a 4x WDC.
Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
9th April 2018, 0:36
Standout drives through the field, Ericsson or Vettel any other weekend but Gasly gets my vote
Jon (@johns23)
9th April 2018, 2:21
Well done Gasly! Shout out to Vettel in the race, that was a gutsy win. Thought he didnt have a chance against the Merc at the end. Bottas should of done better i would of thought
Jere (@jerejj)
9th April 2018, 3:24
Gasly no question about it.
DocNuke (@)
9th April 2018, 3:27
That sucks that one could only vote for a single driver. I looked at it as a six-in-one-half-dozen-in-another.
That drive from Vettel was brilliant. He did a damn fine job holding off Bottas in the end. What a nail biter of a race that was.
But in the end I gave my vote to Gasly. He did a damn fine job as well just staying up there where he did, and he had some good form the entire race.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
9th April 2018, 5:33
Gasly for a great performance throughout the weekend.
Closely followed by Vettel who’s car control was noting short of brilliant on those closing laps and Ericsson. All in all a great race with a bunch of good news stories.
John Beak (@johnbeak)
9th April 2018, 6:55
Gasly is obviously going to take this poll, getting the most of his car in quali, a great start and trolling McLaren by making better use of Honda in terms of absolute result.
In terms of performance, Magnussen was also up there. But he was all over the road as well, hitting people and rejoining track unsafely on multiple occasions. Gasly ran him wide in one of these contacts. Then he lost opportunity to undercut him after miscommunication with his teammate.
For me, the real standout is Ericsson, however. Made the strategy work and gained a lot of places against arguably slightly faster cars, grabbing vital points for the team in the process. But most importantly he continues to prove himself against his highly rated rookie teammate. Leclerc is still probably going to turn this around later in the season once he gets used to driving these cars. But this weekend it was Ericsson who got the job done and that’s what counts.
Jesper Baunsøe (@jesbau)
9th April 2018, 10:46
FIY Magnussen only made contact with Hulkenberg once in the first lap and with no one else for the rest of the race. He rejoined the track again due to that contact. Drivers don’t communicate during the race and Steiner quickly pointed out after the race that it was the team at the pitwall who failed to inform Grosjean in time about his teammate on new tires. All over the road.. What do you mean? Him trying to overtake?
Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
9th April 2018, 7:37
And the Pierre Gasly award goes to……..
GeeMac (@geemac)
9th April 2018, 9:10
Most people will probably go with Gasly who put in an incredible drive and my first instinct was to go for Magnussen for sticking in a great drive after the horrors of Melbourne, but in the end I had to go with Marcus Ericsson. He outqualified Leclerc and made a pretty bold strategy work to end his points drought.
The guy gets lots of stick (plenty of it from me if I’m honest) but he was great all weekend. Credit where it is due.
Urvaksh (@thedoctor03)
9th April 2018, 10:20
I really had to pore over some data for this. Vettel was quite clearly the driver of the race and qualifying. Gasly did very well too and whilst his quali lap was superb, Vettel’s was better. In the race, Vettel had far more pressure to soak up. That said, Gasly ranked 7th and 8th in Friday practice and proved in the race that STR’s performance was no fluke. But on balance, Vettel just knicks it for me.
Jesper (@jesperfey13)
9th April 2018, 10:56
Of course Gasly was outstanding all weekend. Also Hulkenberg, Ericsson, Magnussen and Vettel drove great this weekend.
Racefan (@racefan)
9th April 2018, 11:03
Wow, many with star performance this weekend
1. Gastly
2. Vettel
3. Magnussen
4. Ericsson
Weak performances
Verstappen
Grosjean
Stroll
joe jopling (@jop452)
9th April 2018, 11:06
Gasly was outstanding, for the equipment he had….and he will now have the attention of other teams……Any chance of a worst driver award poll Keith????
FlatSix (@)
9th April 2018, 11:12
Gasly made me wonder whether there has (since 2014) been a driver finishing fourth in a race where both Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull cars finished that was not driving either of those three teams? In essence, who has the most “spectacular” fourth place finish in recent years; Sainz, Alonso, Hulkenberg, Gasly,…
q85
9th April 2018, 13:20
both RBR retired though sadly and a Ferrari
Epo-joe
9th April 2018, 14:55
Magnussen melbourne 2014, 3. in his debut (RIC got kicked out from second);
1 6 Tyskland Nico Rosberg Mercedes 58 1.32.58,710 3 25
2 20 Danmark Kevin Magnussen McLaren–Mercedes 58 +26,7 4 18
3 22 Storbritannien Jenson Button McLaren–Mercedes 58 +29,9 10 15
4 14 Spanien Fernando Alonso Ferrari 58 +35,2 5 12
5 77 Finland Valtteri Bottas1 Williams–Mercedes 58 +47,6 151 10
6 27 Tyskland Nico Hülkenberg Force India–Mercedes 58 +50,7 7 8
7 7 Finland Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 58 +57,6 11 6
8 25 Frankrig Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso–Renault 58 +1.00,4 6 4
9 26 Rusland Daniil Kvjat Toro Rosso–Renault 58 +1.03,5 8 2
10 11 Mexico Sergio Pérez Force India–Mercedes 58 +1.25,9 16
Ju88sy (@)
9th April 2018, 12:02
Gasly, a remarkable result in qualifying and the race, closely run by Vettel who had a solid clean pole lap and ‘tip-toed’ round the last 5-10 laps fending off Bottas for a well deserved win.
Super from Magnussen and Ericsson as well, Alonso to with a strong race.
David Browne (@dvb78)
9th April 2018, 13:49
Definitely Gasly, followed by Ericsson then Vandoorne
The Stoff did 11 overtakes in the race – if that was Verstappen, people wouldn’t stop going on about how great he was!
ILuvSoundtracks (@)
9th April 2018, 14:14
Pierre Gasly. I never expected that to happen for Toro Rosso.
Robbie (@robbie)
9th April 2018, 15:40
Went for Gasly too. Also I hadn’t heard him interviewed before and he seems like a sweetheart of a guy. Well spoken and genuine.
iCarbs (@icarby)
9th April 2018, 15:57
Rofl, wouldn’t it be funny if VER lost his RBR place to Gasly….
Duncan Snowden
9th April 2018, 17:12
At the time, I was pleased to see Gasly win the official DOTR, but on reflection, Vettel won that race. Anyone praising Ferrari’s strategy needs to go back and look at the way they were boxed in to a corner by Mercedes after stopping early for the soft compound, presumably on the assumption that nobody would even attempt a one-stop race with the medium. They were given no reasonable option but to take those tyres beyond their recommended life. And Seb made it work (even then, only just).
Granted, as is often pointed out, this is Driver of the Weekend, not the race, but I still think Vettel edges it. I’m not exactly heartbroken to see Gasly running away with the votes though. :)
Justin (@boombazookajd)
9th April 2018, 19:35
Gasly did well, and nothing to take anything from him, his finishing position was flattered by two broken Red Bulls. He qualified well for sure but…of the entire weekend, it’s hard to put Gasly above Vettel when Seb took tires that no one thought could or would last to the end of the race.
Whether Bottas put enough pressure on him or made a proper move, I think, was down to Seb positioning his car very well. He put his car on pole with a great lap, beat Kimi who looked fantastic all weekend, and then won the race with a “10% chance”.
Brendan (@brendan)
10th April 2018, 20:08
Never thought I would say this but…Ericsson is my driver of the day
PJA (@pja)
11th April 2018, 19:55
Gasly got my vote for driver of the weekend, he was best of the rest in both qualifying and the race achieving a great result of fourth.
Mentions also to Vettel, it looked like Raikkonen may have been quicker going into qualifying but Vettel put the laps in when it mattered, he then had to change his plans in the race and make his soft tyres last the distance after Mercedes one stop strategy call.
Ericsson had a great race securing his first points for quite a while.
Also Magnussen followed up his good performance from the last Grand Prix and this time it earned him some points.