Which Formula One driver made the most of the Monaco 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 Monaco.
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 Monaco Grand Prix weekend?
- No opinion (0%)
- Charles Leclerc (0%)
- Marcus Ericsson (0%)
- Stoffel Vandoorne (0%)
- Fernando Alonso (0%)
- Kevin Magnussen (0%)
- Romain Grosjean (0%)
- Brendon Hartley (0%)
- Pierre Gasly (3%)
- Carlos Sainz Jnr (0%)
- Nico Hulkenberg (1%)
- Sergey Sirotkin (1%)
- Lance Stroll (0%)
- Esteban Ocon (5%)
- Sergio Perez (0%)
- Max Verstappen (3%)
- Daniel Ricciardo (86%)
- Kimi Raikkonen (0%)
- Sebastian Vettel (1%)
- Valtteri Bottas (0%)
- Lewis Hamilton (1%)
Total Voters: 311
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When this poll is closed the result will be displayed instead of the voting form.
2018 Monaco Grand Prix
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- 2018 Monaco Grand Prix Star Performers
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Understeer (@abdelilah)
27th May 2018, 21:42
RIC with no hesitation, it could have been a hat trick but who cares, he got his long due win.
Scottie (@scottie)
28th May 2018, 0:31
The ‘Rate the Race’ post might be a polarizing vote, but this one may as well end now!
bogaaaa (@nosehair)
29th May 2018, 23:57
Driver of the race goes to Stroll for Driving his team into tears of frustration for his complete lack of race craft!!
This guy is a blight on the sport
Todfod (@todfod)
27th May 2018, 21:48
Got to be Dan for this one. Dominated every session of the weekend.. did a mega job on Sunday .. showed some great racecraft with great composure, even though there must have been a million things going through his mind.
Honourable mentions to Gasly and Ocon as well.
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
27th May 2018, 23:00
These exact words. Ricci, plus thumbs up for the Gasman and Gloria Estefan.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
27th May 2018, 23:27
+1 we’ll put.
Robbie (@robbie)
28th May 2018, 13:24
Agreed. DR owned the weekend. Such a shame Max took himself out of the equation and robbed us of a more enthralling weekend, but that’s just the frustrating reality. DR was always going to be hard to beat though, and after 2016 this became a Cinderella story for DR.
Azmo (@azmo)
27th May 2018, 21:50
Has to be Daniël, flawless weekend for him. Good on him
Regarding the race, standout performances gasly and ocon. Max drove a humble race for once, hope he gets back on track this season.
F1 frog (@f1frog)
27th May 2018, 22:00
Definitely Daniel Ricciardo. This was one of the best drives of his career.
Also well done to Gasly and Ocon
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
27th May 2018, 22:16
Well this is gonna be one of the most one sided votes of the year, but has to be Ricciardo. Dominated qualifying and held his nerve in the race when it looked like he wouldnt even make it to the end. Well deserved win. Mentions to Gasly, Ocon and Alonso for solid drives too.
RP (@slotopen)
28th May 2018, 13:16
@keithedin
85% with about 2/3 of the normal vote in. This is the highest percentage I remember.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
28th May 2018, 21:38
@slotopen
It is the highest so far, though not by that much actually. The privious highest was Russia 2017 for Bottas: https://www.racefans.net/2017/04/30/vote-2017-russian-grand-prix-driver-weekend/
This was 79%. But I have to say that although I did vote for Bottas that time, I’m not quite sure why he dominated the voting list compared to all the other occasions last year. He didn’t dominate and he started 3rd. But I’m not sure he had the best car so maytbe it was due to his great start and the fact that it was his first win that triggered so many. On this occasion, I think ricciardo should have even more voted than he does. I don’t see much of a reason for any other driver getting it over him if we take the entire weekend (if we include practice) into account.
John H (@john-h)
27th May 2018, 22:22
I know Ric will win this, so let’s go for Gasly to secure a second place.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
29th May 2018, 17:46
I have a feeling that Gasly willl be winning many of these Rate The Race polls in the future.
ColdFly (@)
27th May 2018, 22:49
I’d love to give some praise to Gasly.
But there is no reason why Ricciardo shouldn’t be awarded DOTW.
PS good day for OZ with Will Power winning the Indy500.
nase
27th May 2018, 22:53
I’d like to lay out my balanced and differentiated analysis, please bear with me:
Ricciardo Ricciardo Ricciardo Ricciardo Ricciardo Ricciardo Ricciardo Ricciardo Ricciardo Ricciardo Ricciardo Ricciardo …
Montréalais (@)
28th May 2018, 1:55
nase: Nicely nuanced well-marshalled arguments, friend. I agree.
Pink Peril (@pink-peril)
28th May 2018, 4:50
^ Lol. I think the results were a foregone conclusion before Keith even opened the poll. But who is voting for Sirotkin?
bookgrub (@bookgrub)
27th May 2018, 22:56
Well, if there was ever going to be a vote that highlighted those for whom their favourite driver gets their vote no matter what, it’ll be this.
How anyone could seriously vote for Verstappen this weekend is beyond me. How can you possibly be the best driver of the weekend when you binned it during practice and didn’t participate in qualifying, and were beaten on time by your team mate in all the practice sessions?
Those who voted for VES, please note: the above is not a rhetorical question.
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
27th May 2018, 23:01
I am sure some people vote for the race alone, despite the fact it says Driver of the Weekend. Driver of the race, Verstappen definitely put in a solid performance on Sunday. He only got the chance to overtake cars because he himself messed up in FP3 though. =)
Erzen (@)
28th May 2018, 8:54
In all seriousness, Ric should win it even if it’s only Driver of the Race. I’d understand in any other circumstance, but he had the engine issues on top of tire issues and i know that this is Monaco but you can’t completely neglect every other factor just because of that.
ColinChapman (@colinchapman)
27th May 2018, 23:42
I agree. Verstappen should have had at least an easy second place. The red bull was the best car at Monaco and he ruined his weekend by crashing out before qualy. Anything other than a podium was not a good performance in a red bull. Ricciardo all the way with an honourable mention to Gasly and Ocon.
kpcart
28th May 2018, 11:52
same as in 2016 for Verstappen. must hurt seeing team mate win and you get a couple of points out the weekend only.
@HoHum (@hohum)
28th May 2018, 1:59
Yes, one wonders if it is blind love or maybe just a sympathy vote.
krxx
28th May 2018, 14:38
It’s blind nationalism.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
28th May 2018, 3:14
@bookgrub – what’s more interesting is that Gasly finished 2 places ahead of Verstappen in a car with inferior aero and power, having had a clean and generally good weekend, and beating his teammate in quali and the race.
Yet at the time of this comment, Max has 3% of the votes, Gasly 2%.
I believe Max does have talent and brilliance, and a lot of that is potential; people seem to forget this is a vote for actual weekend performance.
juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
27th May 2018, 22:58
Max is currently in 2nd place with 6% of the vote. Interesting.
nase
27th May 2018, 23:34
@juan-fanger
Same story as the 2017 Brazilian GP DotW, who had an impressive drive to 4th after starting at the back of the grid … for no other reason than binning his car in qualifying. Some voters are indifferent to the fact that ‘Driver of the Weekend’ does not exclusively refer to the race.
bookgrub (@bookgrub)
28th May 2018, 0:03
I don’t recall how I voted in that case, but I’m okay with people making a call that a truly stunning drive in the race might be enough to be best of the weekend. I’m not sure that I’d say Hamilton’s drive in that race was of sufficient quality for me to vote for him, but there have been races I recall where Prost (my all-time favourite driver) or Senna or Schumacher (etc.) drove in a way where no matter what happened on Friday and Saturday they were the driver of the weekend for me.
I honestly can’t see how Verstappen came anywhere near those heights in Monaco. He was good, yes – but not exhilarating. Not scintillating. He didn’t achieve the wildly improbable.
If you (a general ‘you’, not actually you @nase) voted for Verstappen as driver of the weekend for this race, I can only surmise you think the point of the poll is to vote for your favourite driver. I suspect those who voted for him might have still done so if he started the race in reverse and was lapped along the way.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
28th May 2018, 8:01
And yes nase, I did notice that last year and thought it was the most undeserved dotw vote in quite some time. If Bottas Hamilton got pole and Bottas made a mistake in Q3 and started 10th and say finished 3rd, would he have got DOTW? No. And despite it not looking exciting. 3rd is a better result than 4th.
I think the next vote that was a bit overrated was probably Ricciardo in China. He was behind Verstappen in qualifying. Verstappen had a much better start. Ricciardo only got past verstappen becaus eof Verstappen doing silly mistakes. Then Ricciardo only got past the rest in the last third or even maybe a quater of the race due to the Toro Rosso’s colliding. He got the chance to pit and Bottas and Vettel didn’t. He made the most of his opportunity for sure. But was incredibly fortunate and did nothign special before this. Bottas looked likely to be grabbing the win here. And he and Vettel had significantly less votes than Ricciardo
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
28th May 2018, 7:55
@juan-fanger
The thing I get annoyed with with these type of votes is that any driver in a top car could almost certainly be guaranteed several votes if they chose to crash in qualifying and started at the back if people base everything on the race. Even if this was driver of the day, Verstappen started the race yesterday in 20th. That was his own fault. He finished on the same day in 9th. That is also very poor result for the best car on that day. People can say the drive was impressive, but I even think DOTD would also be a bit much. DOTW is complete nonsense. Getting driver of the day IMO, you need to finish in a realistic position for your cars ability unless it wasn’t your fault that you finished much lower. Despite it not being on Sunday, It was Verstappen’s fault he got 2 points rather than a likely win. Basically, I can say even Bottas pretty much had a better weekend in Australia as he got 4 points. He didn’t bin it costing himself as many places. Nor admittedly did he climb as many places as Verstappen. But he got more points and that is what matters. I guess people have different views on voting. I’m not saying Bottas did well that weekend as that certainly wan’t the case. But he served his penalty and started 5 places further back. Imagine if Verstappen had served his penalty and had 29 cars ahead of him.
The one good thing about his race was the amount of overtaking he did. One did look rather on the limit and could have gone very wrong, so he was taking risks again, but it payed off. But missing qualifying due to a crash in practice is basically the worst thing a driver can do at Monaco. So I think that should exclude him from any votes whatsoever. But I guess every driver is always there so anyone has the right to vote. It just baffles me.
Philip (@philipgb)
27th May 2018, 23:02
Can only be Ricciardo. He dominated the weekend right from the first practice session. Nursing a broken car home to victory seals it. Flawless weekend.
pastaman (@)
27th May 2018, 23:16
Seriously laughing at these votes for Verstappen! You people crack me up.
Nitzo (@webtel)
28th May 2018, 4:31
@pastaman
Daniel’s weekend no doubt. Driver of the weekend.
I voted for Max simply because he had a clean race even with all those overtakes and i-am-right-behind-you driving. Such were/are my expectations from the “Future world champion” Max Verstappen.
Gary
28th May 2018, 14:09
Title of the post:
“Vote for your 2018 Monaco Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend”.
Weekend, see that? Week End. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, weekend.
weekend
wiːkˈɛnd,ˈwiːkɛnd/Submit
noun
noun: weekend; plural noun: weekends; noun: week-end; plural noun: week-ends
1.
Saturday and Sunday, especially regarded as a time for leisure.
“she spent the weekend camping”
verbinformal
verb: weekend; 3rd person present: weekends; past tense: weekended; past participle: weekended; gerund or present participle: weekending; verb: week-end; 3rd person present: week-ends; past tense: week-ended; past participle: week-ended; gerund or present participle: week-ending
1.
spend a weekend somewhere.
“he was weekending in the country”
erikje
29th May 2018, 21:08
@Gary: Btw,, friday is just a dull day in Monaco ;)
krxx
28th May 2018, 14:43
No, you voted for him bc he’s your favourite driver who gets your vote no matter what. And that’s bc your favourite colour is orange.
Nitzo (@webtel)
28th May 2018, 15:36
@gary @krxx
You guys are good at building castles in the air.
I thought i was being sarcastic when i said Such were/are my expectations from the “Future world champion” Max... Seems like i failed miserably.
Nevertheless, thanks Gary for that detailed definition of the word weekend. Don’t think i can forget it even if i try to.
And for the record, i am a staunch fan of Daniel and actually there were a couple of times i voted for him no matter what. (And my fav color isn’t orange..if that even matters here.)
I set my expectations low for Max, and to see him drive up the field without errors, though inferior in comparison to what Daniel achieved, was significant considering his involvement in various incidents this year.
Vettel fan 17 (@)
27th May 2018, 23:19
Lance Stroll. His ability to pick up punctures rivals the likes of Scumacher and Senna”s talent.
More seriously I voted for Ricciardo.
Gary
28th May 2018, 14:12
£д₦¢€ $₮₹0££ is a shoe-in for Epic-Fail of the weekend, hammered home by his radio comment: “what’s the point in racing?”
nase
28th May 2018, 15:26
According to the multiverse hypothesis, there exists a universe in which this kind of nonsense is considered funny, or at least not reflecting poorly on the person who produces it. However, you are mistaken in thinking it is this one.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
27th May 2018, 23:37
Ricciardo easily. I think this should be the the biggest gap between the first and 2nd most voted driver we have had in ages. Surprisingly, Bottas’s Russia win was the biggest we have had I think. At least over last year. I think his first win seemed to trigger a few more votes. He did do really well, but I wouldn’t say he dominated like Ricciardo did here.
He was fastest in:
P1
P2
P3
Q1
Q2
Q3
Race day
And if I am correct, led every single lap. And while racing, suffered a problem through out most of the race severely effecting his speed. Red Bull apparently had fixed it more or less towards the end of the race from what Channel 4 said, but even so, this weekend was just superb from Ricciardo. Despite being in the best car, I don’t know when the last time a driver topped all the sessions and led every lap and won. With a problem in the race on top too. Brilliant race from him! But he will be incredibly grateful that the problem happened here really rather than at another track, or he might have been way down the order actually because of the lack of speed and it being easy for cars to pass him.
Matteo (@m-bagattini)
28th May 2018, 9:14
Ahem, faster on race day? I don’t think so
kpcart
28th May 2018, 11:56
I think he meant finished in p1 in all those sessions and the race.
Guybrush Threepwood
28th May 2018, 12:19
Errr, from the start to the end of the race he took the least amount of time.
krxx
28th May 2018, 14:45
He came in first, mio amico.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
28th May 2018, 20:54
Erm, he started the race at the same time and finished it first, therefore the fastest race time. And my words describing each session was fastest. I know others may have been able to go faster, but it wasn’t ricciardo’s fault that he had this, But he still finished before the others. And that is my point.
dutchtreat (@dutchtreat)
28th May 2018, 0:18
DR of course!! I was greatful that Verstappen was nowhere near Danny to ruin his race…
erikje
29th May 2018, 21:10
VER avoided team orders to pass RIC this way ;)
Jay Menon (@jaymenon10)
28th May 2018, 0:31
This has to be the most one sided DoTW poll. I can’t conceive anybody voting for another drive other than Dan.
This is what domination looks like.
Montréalais (@)
28th May 2018, 2:00
I’m looking forward to Montreal now. Can RIC and the Red Bull crew do it again?
bull mello (@bullmello)
28th May 2018, 2:50
Easiest vote ever.
Jere (@jerejj)
28th May 2018, 3:15
Ricciardo easily.
Jon (@johns23)
28th May 2018, 5:18
Seriously? is there any other contenders? Danny Ric smashed it and everyone with it!
Esploratore (@esploratore)
28th May 2018, 5:28
86%? This has to be the highest I saw for DOTW, I voted ricciardo too.
Garns (@)
28th May 2018, 5:52
Easy vote for Dan, what a great weekend for him. Makes up a little for 2016….. maybe!
Just goes to show how difficult overtaking is though, when Dan has the M-GUH issue most of the race and Seb cant get past – but I don’t care I am just pumped for him !!!!!
Bleu (@bleu)
28th May 2018, 7:22
It took more time to find Ricciardo from the options than to think who deserved to win this.
VR
28th May 2018, 8:10
Verstappen for an uncharacteristically mature performance.
JohnH (@johnrkh)
28th May 2018, 8:45
Ricciardo by a country mile. Ocon, Gasly deserve a mention as well. I notice Verstappen is at 4% at the moment. I suppose he did drive a relatively clean race, but he did not perform above and beyond the cars capabilities did he. But anyway I’m glad he did finish and I hope he improves.
VR
28th May 2018, 8:58
Yeah, but he performed above and beyond his own capabilities :)
FlatSix (@)
28th May 2018, 8:51
I get Ricciardo is going to win this but there were quite a few other great performances a little bit down the field. Both Ocon and Gasly surely deserve to be put on the same level, ‘in their class’ they did a stellar job. Hülkenberg also had a really good race. Even Ericsson went from 16th to 11th, one spot short of a point.
Matteo (@m-bagattini)
28th May 2018, 9:19
I don’t want to be “that guy” but: Ricciardo did an amazing job all weekend. He was faster and would have won no matter what. Sunday he did a great job in staying calm and focused but he could have won even driving a bus on that track. There’s no way for the following driver to pass. In any other track, he would probably arrive behind Bottas. Again, great drive and all but with a giant help from the track. I’d go for Gasly, he really put the car where it doesn’t belong.
Dave
28th May 2018, 14:38
World Class Ricciardo
Jorge Lardone (@jorge-lardone)
28th May 2018, 16:28
3% of votes for CrashMax? Oh my God!!!!!
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
28th May 2018, 18:07
Lol, this is gonna be the most straight forward vote ever. Even Kim would be proud of a result like this.
Sush meerkat
28th May 2018, 20:23
Daniel Ricciardo by far, one of the all time greatest drives having to nurse a car down on power with shredded tyres and brakes about to fail while defended against the possibility of rivals with much faster equipment behind him.
The drive goes into the hall of fame, unfortunately it’s for such a boring race, but the future won’t remember the actual race, only RIC’s will power of bringing the car home in first place
Loup Garou (@loup-garou)
28th May 2018, 20:52
Ricciardo without doubt. There was something clearly wrong with his car but he managed to nurse it through. Well done and he certainly is a great driver.
PJA (@pja)
2nd June 2018, 20:21
It was an easy choice for driver of the weekend and I voted for Ricciardo.
Monaco was predicted to be a circuit that Red Bull would do well at and it turned out to be the case but that did not mean it was a straight forward win for Ricciardo he still had to deliver throughout the weekend and overcome a car problem during the race.
Ricciardo was quickest all weekend, whereas the only person who could realistically challenge him for pole, his teammate Verstappen, binned it in FP3.
Once Ricciardo had secured pole he was odds on favourite to convert that in to a victory given how Grand Prix at Monaco normally go. However when his power unit developed a problem it seemed he may be robbed of a victory at Monaco again.
But Monaco is the best place to have a problem such as that as you can lap a few seconds off the pace and still not have to worry about losing position.
This is why I don’t understand why so many people are gushing about Ricciardo’s performance bringing his car home in first place, comparing it to the likes of Schumacher when he was stuck in fifth gear in 1994.
Because of the nature of Monaco it also meant that drivers could back off to concern tyres without risk of dropping down the order.
Other drivers to get mentions are for their performances this weekend are Ocon and Galsy.