Which Formula One driver made the most of the Austrian 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 Red Bull Ring.
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 Austrian Grand Prix weekend?
- No opinion (1%)
- Charles Leclerc (2%)
- Marcus Ericsson (1%)
- Stoffel Vandoorne (1%)
- Fernando Alonso (20%)
- Kevin Magnussen (3%)
- Romain Grosjean (21%)
- Brendon Hartley (0%)
- Pierre Gasly (0%)
- Carlos Sainz Jnr (0%)
- Nico Hulkenberg (0%)
- Sergey Sirotkin (0%)
- Lance Stroll (0%)
- Esteban Ocon (0%)
- Sergio Perez (0%)
- Max Verstappen (36%)
- Daniel Ricciardo (1%)
- Kimi Raikkonen (8%)
- Sebastian Vettel (4%)
- Valtteri Bottas (2%)
- Lewis Hamilton (0%)
Total Voters: 286
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2018 Austrian Grand Prix
- Austria penalty shows “racing incidents aren’t allowed to happen” – Vettel
- 2018 Austrian Grand Prix Star Performers
- Mercedes assumed they would get second chance to pit Hamilton
- Four wins, no poles: Verstappen equals an unusual record
- Top ten pictures from the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix
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ColdFly (@)
1st July 2018, 23:07
I’ll give it to Verstappen; didn’t put a wheel wrong all weekend and deserved the win.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
2nd July 2018, 2:50
Yes, gonna give it to him as well, others who had a good weekend (for what was in their possibilities) are imo hamilton, vettel, raikkonen, grosjean, alonso, bottas, however verstappen made no mistakes in any important session (quali and race), hamilton was like always strong when in the lead, but when problems arose, as in stuck behind other cars, he wasn’t as strong as he should have, vettel was a bit unlike him in the race, not aggressive and apart from hamilton’s overtake didn’t do much, raikkonen was very strong but he paid his early mistake dearly, if you think about it he’d have won a race after 5,5 years if it weren’t for going wide there, grosjean could’ve well been called driver of the weekend same as verstappen could, and alonso also drove a very good race to come back from the pits into the points, so also could’ve been dotw.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
2nd July 2018, 2:51
Oh, and bottas was great in qualifying, did well to recover after the initial mistake and was running 2nd, but starting so bad was unlike him, especially thinking about last year.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
2nd July 2018, 4:22
And ricciardo ofc wasn’t bad either, forgot he overtook raikkonen earlier in the race, was unlucky both with the early blistering and the issue later on.
Chicane85 (@ramysennaf1)
2nd July 2018, 19:42
Are u serious crashtappen? After all his mistakes this season…
deMercer (@)
2nd July 2018, 20:18
@ramysennaf1 It is a poll for the Driver of the Weekend, not for the entire season…
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
1st July 2018, 23:24
Grosjean for me! Close call between him and Verstappen, but ended up with Romain as he finally had a perfect weekend!
Jorge Lardone (@jorge-lardone)
2nd July 2018, 0:34
+1
Diesel
2nd July 2018, 8:47
haha Jorge Lardona is a joke…..offcourse you are giving him a +1. It’s so sad to see so much hatred towards erstappen mr. Lardone. You are making a fool out of yourself if you ask me
Vettel fan 17 (@)
1st July 2018, 23:28
Tough one, but I went for Grosjean, had to have a good result and he delivered. Was harsh on Verstappen though, he’s shrugged off the first six races and been on the ball on the last three. Raikkonen also had a good weekend, losing out at the start was more due to being agressive which is great to see. Vettel did good also, would have been a big candidate if his team alerted him of Sainz yesterday.
glynh (@glynh)
1st July 2018, 23:31
+1 There was redemption for a few drivers today.
Tango (@tango)
2nd July 2018, 10:49
Yep, went with Big John too. With RAI in front of VET (admittely thanks to a technicality), GRO finishing 4th and VER winning, ERI in the points… this was indeed a redemption themed race.
A shame Stroll didn’t get to feature much.
James Reyome (@critter)
2nd July 2018, 21:03
Agree on RoGro. Good to see him finally score and for Haas to get a double points finish. If I had my druthers I’d give it to the whole Haas team, in fact. That’s got to be gratifying.
Adam (@rocketpanda)
1st July 2018, 23:56
I thought Verstappen, Raikkonen & Vettel all did really well. Grosjean & Magnussen too.
pastaman (@)
2nd July 2018, 0:03
Seeing how many votes Verstappen gets here on his worst days, im fairly certain he is going to walk away with this poll. At least this one will be justified.
Pjotr (@pietkoster)
2nd July 2018, 0:24
Ves has no worst or bad days. Allways pushing to the max. Always going for the best result. Sometimes it just doesn’t work the way you want it but today it did. Ham is extremely fast and an exellent driver when he is in front and has the fastest car but to fight forward from a position 4 or 5 he is not agressive enough.
MacLeod (@macleod)
2nd July 2018, 7:59
Normal yes but this time he was very gentle as he knew the Soft needed that.
pastaman (@)
2nd July 2018, 12:46
Mmhmm, we’ve found one of those voters.
Pjotr (@pietkoster)
4th July 2018, 8:24
Pastaman, I am not blindvolded. I love all sorts of racing and I like to watch MotoGP, Isle of Man TT or Indy 500 much more than the, at many times, boring F1. I really like Max refreshing driving style. I compare Max with Marc Marquez. Doing things with their machine’s that nobody dares to do. Max made F1 more interesting to me and that why he got my vote today. By the way, many EU circuits are happy with Max, bringing 80.000 Dutch fans. Of the record, I once voted for Grosjean he does also things with his F1 car that nobody else want’s to do.
Jorge Lardone (@jorge-lardone)
2nd July 2018, 0:36
Grosjean this time. Also good weekend for Magnussen, Leclerc, Ocon.
ColdFly (@)
2nd July 2018, 8:12
You forgot to mention Verstappen and Alonso.
One day you’ll grow over it and will laugh at your frustrations :-p
Diesel
2nd July 2018, 8:48
Lardone hates Verstappen so he won’t give him credits ever. This tells alot about the objective view of Jorge Lardone…..he has none
Karthik (@kart1131)
2nd July 2018, 11:24
I think he hates Alonso more than Verstappen :P
Fu Manchu (@fumanchu)
2nd July 2018, 20:02
Good old Jorge! my dear… Always funny
ajpennypacker (@ajpennypacker)
2nd July 2018, 0:53
Definitely Alonso. Verstappen, Grosjean, etc…all had great races too. But Alonso was spectacular.
hyoko
2nd July 2018, 2:42
We didn’t see too much of him though
Brolloks (@brolloks)
2nd July 2018, 7:41
Agree. Driver of the race undoubtably Alonso. But seeing as it’s for driver of the weekend, I gave it to Grosjean.
Todfod (@todfod)
2nd July 2018, 6:21
It was a close one between Alonso, Grosjean and Verstappen for me.
Had to give it to Alonso though.. he out qualified his teammate for the 9th race in a row. Had to unfortunately start from the pit lane with on a track that doesn’t make it easy to gain positions for cars with high drag and low PU power, yet he managed to finish in P8. He did a phenomenal job of managing the soft tyres for nearly 46 laps. Drove tactically when it mattered and put in some fantastic overtakes towards the end of the race. Top notch performance!
frood19 (@frood19)
2nd July 2018, 11:26
agreed. he may have a reputation (fairly earned perhaps) of being a toxic team member but if he pulls out performances like that, what team wouldn’t want him? you have to remember how highly vandoorne was rated form his junior career. alonso is burying him.
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
2nd July 2018, 7:18
I would normally hesitate to go for a driver who so clearly benefited from a tactical mistake, but, Verstappen managed his lead and his tyres to perfection, Helmut Marko said the tyres were down to the canvas yet he kept them going, and he also made a race-winning overtake where it wasn’t on. So yeah, Verstappen.
ColdFly (@)
2nd July 2018, 8:21
Why would you ever penalise one driver for another driver’s/team’s mistake? @hahostolze
I would agree though with a statement that the win in itself should never be enough for DOTW/DOTD; certainly not when it was inherited due to a tactical mistake by another.
PS – we can argue about what/ifs until the cows come home what had happened if Mercedes pitted Hamilton during the VSC as well. Maybe he still would have ruined his tyres with Verstappen. We’ll never know.
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
2nd July 2018, 8:41
We can argue that, but it is an interesting one. I think Verstappen would still have won, Hamilton’s tyres went badly. But yeah, pure speculation.
Jere (@jerejj)
2nd July 2018, 8:35
Verstappen with honorable mention to Grosjean.
Bleu (@bleu)
2nd July 2018, 8:52
I vote for Grosjean. Mainly as he beat Ricciardo in qualifying.
Big Joe
2nd July 2018, 10:33
Driver of the day was the on-form ‘Crashtappen’ who needs to ‘mature’ , ‘change his style’ or ‘leave F1’ or at least be ‘demoted’ to Torro Rosso.
You’ve got to love wins in the 5th best car starting the race.
Kim Philby (@philby)
2nd July 2018, 11:06
@Big Joe, 5th best car you say, lets see what happened to those 4 better cars. The 2 mercedes suffered mechanical failures. The one Ferrari (Vettel) was demoted the other Ferrari was tapped from behind by Verstappen which allowed him to get past.
I sure love in the 5th best car; I am not particularly fond of inherited wins and clumsy overtaking manoeuvres.
Big Joe
2nd July 2018, 12:16
@philby
Lewis has been lucky so far. If he wins the title his inherited points will go down as ‘greatness’ sadly. Bottas would be leading the championship with some moderate luck. Verstappen now has 4 wins and bunch of podiums in a slower car than rivals. Sadly Merc and Ferrari cant handle 2 top tier drivers otherwise we could see Max freed up in a to car. Lewis hardly got in trouble when he could lead from the front.
kpcart
2nd July 2018, 11:17
I think Raikkonen deserves it for staying ahead of his teammate for once and driving an excellent race, I think Verstappen only passed him because he hit raikonnens wheel, he would not have got past without that tap, maybe later in the race, but that is irrelevant. a 5 second penalty should have been applied.
Matn
2nd July 2018, 21:25
Then again…Raikkonen only passed Verstappen cause he forced him off track just before Verstappen saw his change.
First lap the Ferrari’s where all over the place, lucky to have survided.
Martijn (@)
2nd July 2018, 11:34
The tyre savers deserve credit and Max was the fastest of them
Asanator (@asanator)
2nd July 2018, 11:41
Grosjean for me, out qualified a Redbull and finished 4th! Good job that man.
Lolita
2nd July 2018, 12:27
Verstappen, Raikkonen and Vettel’s masterpiece on Hamilton.
Moo
2nd July 2018, 12:48
Max, didnt put a foot wrong and took his opportunities when they came, outperformed his teammate and managed his tyres to take the win. Honorable mention to Grosjean especially on quali.
hyoko
2nd July 2018, 21:28
It wasn’t a foot, it was a wheel. Ask Kimi
Pjotr (@pietkoster)
5th July 2018, 13:19
Kimi said it was ok. Racing. Now Mercedes and Ferrari are quiet about Ves actions. I know why. They both desperately want Ves in one of their cars in near future.
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
2nd July 2018, 14:14
Verstappen, Grosjean, Alonso, Ericsson, Magnussen. In that order.
JMDan (@danmar)
2nd July 2018, 16:01
Wow! This question has brought out an awful lot of pettiness on the part of many of you. Keep some perspective boys.
Aapje (@aapje)
2nd July 2018, 21:04
Alonso is the driver of the day, but not of the weekend. Grosjean pulled above his weight more than Max, so my vote goes to him.
PJA (@pja)
4th July 2018, 19:53
There were three contenders for Driver of the Weekend in my opinion.
Verstappen continued his recent good form to take the victory, this was the sort of performance we had come to expect of Verstappen before the start of this season and all the mistakes he made earlier this year.
Grosjean finally put his troubles behind him to take his first points of the season with fourth after managing to split the Red Bulls in qualifying.
Alonso came back from a pit lane start to finish eighth to secure some points after a few fruitless races.
I changed my mind a few times between Verstappen and Grosjean but in the end I voted for Grosjean.