Which Formula One driver made the most of the United States 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 Circuit of the Americas.
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 United States 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 (1%)
- Pierre Gasly (0%)
- Carlos Sainz Jnr (0%)
- Nico Hulkenberg (5%)
- Sergey Sirotkin (0%)
- Lance Stroll (0%)
- Esteban Ocon (0%)
- Sergio Perez (0%)
- Max Verstappen (31%)
- Daniel Ricciardo (0%)
- Kimi Raikkonen (60%)
- Sebastian Vettel (0%)
- Valtteri Bottas (0%)
- Lewis Hamilton (1%)
Total Voters: 281
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When this poll is closed the result will be displayed instead of the voting form.
2018 United States Grand Prix
- Verstappen leaving rivals breathless in Mexican altitude
- Raikkonen ends longest-ever wait between wins
- 300 team radio messages from the United States Grand Prix
- 2018 United States Grand Prix Star Performers
- Top ten pictures from the 2018 United States GP
Debates and polls
- Will Alonso win a world championship title with Aston Martin?
- How long should Red Bull give Ricciardo to prove he’s not lost his touch?
- Were stewards right to penalise Alonso over his driving before Russell’s crash?
- Are Williams right to bench Sargeant so Albon can race after crash?
- Is the FIA right to make ten seconds the new standard for penalties?
Billgates307 (@billgates307)
22nd October 2018, 11:37
Verstappen by far
Thierry (@thierryvth)
22nd October 2018, 11:41
Lewis wants to fight for championships and if Vettel cant do that for him Max obviously will
Great race
Nickpkr251
23rd October 2018, 18:02
Actually Ham couldn’t pass anyone and lost 2 positions, Vettel won 1 position
ColdFly (@)
22nd October 2018, 11:41
Great race and very solid Saturday by Raikkonen.
But even though Verstappen was out-qualified by both Ricciardo and his suspension, his race was so good that he gets my weekend kudos.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
22nd October 2018, 11:44
Kimi or Max? I’m going by emotion (and unbroken suspensions) for Kimi.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
22nd October 2018, 11:45
Damn, should have gone with KMag for giving more than 105% ;-)
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
22nd October 2018, 11:52
Quality
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
22nd October 2018, 13:13
Max’s broken suspensions cost him an “easy” win – Wolff
petebaldwin (@)
22nd October 2018, 13:32
He also said “the drivers title is FAR from over” this week….. I’ve never heard someone who is as comfortable with lieing as Toto!
Phylyp (@phylyp)
22nd October 2018, 13:36
@petebaldwin – he’s not named Wolff for nothing, you know :-)
ColdFly (@)
22nd October 2018, 14:18
so it’s ‘the Wolff who cried Wolf’ ;-)
PS – in the fable the lie turns into reality.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
22nd October 2018, 14:43
@coldfly – I already used that saying :-)
NickF1 (@nickpkr251)
23rd October 2018, 18:04
Ocon will have a good car is also a Fav of Toto
Joao (@johnmilk)
22nd October 2018, 15:24
neither, I went with the only driver that had a flawless weekend, out-qualifying his teammate and finishing ahead as well. The Hulk! But I was boring in this decision of mine, and I used my brain without resourcing to my limbic system
TFLB (@tflb)
22nd October 2018, 11:46
Hard one with several stand-outs. Raikkonen obviously, great qualifying and a perfect race. Verstappen, great race but very much flattered by pretty much everyone in front of him crashing on the first lap, plus a superior strategy. Both Renaults were excellent too. Sirotkin I think got the most that was possible out of the Williams. But I’m going to give the vote to Brendon Hartley. Okay, he didn’t score before the disqualifications, but it was still a great effort from the back, especially considering the pressure he’s under.
Patrick (@anunaki)
22nd October 2018, 11:46
P18 to P2 almost fighting for P1
Must be Max although I think Kimi deserves it as well
Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
22nd October 2018, 11:50
It was very tight between Kimi and Max. Both of them optimised their results. Kimi did the crucial overtake at the start and judged the use of ultrasofts well. The pace of the car was good and it was vintage Kimi…clean racing with optimum result. Max came through the back. There was a lot of overtaking at the start and the battle with Hamilton was tasty towards the end. Again good use of the supersofts. Shame Renault PU lacks the requisite power. Rarely do we see three cars so close at the closing stages.
Voted for Max. Reason being he was able to do a clean race with decent amount of pace. With equal machinery it would be very interesting.
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
22nd October 2018, 11:51
KIMI
V Bennett (@vabennett)
22nd October 2018, 12:00
I went for Hulk. He got in to Q3, out qualified his team mate, had a good start and avoided first lap incidents, finished best of the rest, got some good points for the team and stayed at the top of the Formula 1.5 championship. I’ve enjoyed watching the midfield a lot more this year, the gap to the top 3 teams is so big it is like a separate race.
LosD (@losd)
22nd October 2018, 12:01
Gotta be Kimi. In spite of a beautiful fightback, it can’t be Max, since he made the costly, stupid mistake that made it necessary in the first place.
Robbie (@robbie)
22nd October 2018, 13:23
I don’t think you can put that one on Max. Many others were hitting the same markers. We heard quite soon afterwards LH being warned on the radio to be careful on the same markers he had been going over too. That I can recall, not one pundit or commentator during the weekend claimed that to be a mistake on Max’s part.
Joao (@johnmilk)
22nd October 2018, 15:26
because other are doing it and had the fortune of not having damage doesn’t mean it isn’t Max’s fault for ruining his qualifying session. It was named Verstopper for a reason
Steven O
22nd October 2018, 17:10
Hindsight is a terrible thing…
RP (@slotopen)
22nd October 2018, 16:09
@robbie
Jalopnik reported the new sausage curbs were nicknamed “Verstoppers” by the track staff.
He is the reason they were even there, and they performed as intended.
Robbie (@robbie)
22nd October 2018, 17:35
@slotopen I doubt that Max was the only one going wide last year such that only he is responsible for them being put there, and I also doubt that they were meant to break the suspension of anyone hitting them. They didn’t break LH’s when he was hitting them. It was a fluke that Max’s suspension broke.
krxx
22nd October 2018, 20:04
As we all know, Robbie would never put any (blame) on Max. We all know that, he’s made his point. Just like he made it clear he hates RIC (bc of it).
1) Just like pointed out before by Joao that just bc others weren’t caught out, doesn’t undo your own driver errors. As usual, his ‘reasoning’ when it comes to Max, is flawed. The reason is simple: Whenever VER made driver errors, and he’s made quite a lot, robbie always try to bend those mistakes into something out of VERs own doing. These kind of tactics don’t hold.
2) Just like pointed out by several others here, those sausages were named after VER, and not for no reason.
3) Coming back to point one, I don’t even think that any of the other drivers went over those kerbs like VER did. Robbie names HAM as if he did, but he didn’t. Not as aggressively as VER. He claims he heard nobody saying it was a mistake of Max, but I have. During the live Sky commentary they immediately indicated it was his fault (while they are usually very lenient/positive towards VER), talking about the degree of aggressivity and about the torque (and maybe steering) input he developed.
Funny that these things have happened to VER time and again. You can keep on denying it, but really you can’t. A fluke it was not.
erikje
24th October 2018, 10:06
Your reality distortion kicks in i see.
But do not believe me, just look at the recordings, HAM did it even more agressive and was warned by his engineer to avoid those kerbs after VER broke his suspension.
And RIC is an great driver still. Do not try to label everyone with some remarks as a hater.
He is not on par with VER as all results prove ,but still a great driver!
Oscar (@oscar)
22nd October 2018, 16:15
Entirely agree.
It was time that being able to race within track limits had some reward. Or that doing the opposite could bring some consequences, at least…
Kimi ATW.
GeeMac (@geemac)
22nd October 2018, 12:06
Kimi and Max were good this weekend there is no doubt about that, but I’m going for the Hulk. P7 in quali and P6 in the race in a Renault that is not as quick as the cars it was fighting.
Kyle
22nd October 2018, 12:11
Lewis Hamilton
Was the fastest on both days and deserved the win. This race really epitomizes the deeply rooted problems with current racing in F1, that is, the complete inability to follow and overtake other (often slower) cars due to dirty air and reliance on aero.
I don’t understand all the votes for Kimi. Despite the “popular” result, he wasn’t the fastest at any point of the weekend. Both Verstappen and Lewis were faster but could barely stay within a second during the race thanks to the messed up regulations. He might be the winner on luck, but definitely not on merit.
Same with Verstappen. It’s the driver of the WEEKEND not DAY. He completely botched his qualy lap and pretty much disqualified himself as a candidate for the vote. It was only Lewis who fought like a lion on both days.
Robbie (@robbie)
22nd October 2018, 14:06
97% of us seem to disagree.
Sravan Krishnan (@sravan-pe)
22nd October 2018, 14:12
Yeah slower by 70ms from Hamilton in qualifying, you’re indeed correct.
So according to you Hamilton who botched his start was the ONLY one who deserved to win. The same Hamilton who failed to pass either of the ones who finished in front of him even though he had a tire advantage in both cases. Yeah, ONLY he deserved to win and of course Kimi managed to get the perfect start and defended well when he had to only because he got lucky. His perfect tire management was also due to luck of course. Hamilton was on another level while managing his tires and therefore deserved the win more than Kimi. You’re indeed correct.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
22nd October 2018, 17:47
Kimi drove a superior race. Lewis was flustered and made several costly mistakes, most importantly by trying or lap after lap to pass Kimi in hot turbulent air. Kimi never lost his cool or made mistakes.
Thomas Bennett (@felipemassadobrasil)
22nd October 2018, 21:48
Hamilton was magnificent in qualifying but you get points for the race. Not entirely his fault by any means and still beat Vettel. However he did botch the Verstappen move a bit.
NickF1 (@nickpkr251)
23rd October 2018, 18:08
Even if Lewis was about the only driver didn’t make a pass in race ?
Oh sorry he did pass Bottas …
erikje
24th October 2018, 13:23
several times ;)
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
24th October 2018, 17:32
Winning a race isn’t just about having the fastest car, it is about having the best strategy, tactics, and skills as well. As Josh Holland said in another Racefans article, Kimi’s win started with choosing the right tyre in Q2. That gave him a slight acceleration advantage over Lewis, which he was able to exploit at the start of the race, resulting in being in the front of the pack by the exit to Turn 1. Skill enabled him to preserve his tyres much longer than one normally expects, and again tactics enabled him to punish Lewis for getting too close by causing him to over use the tyres and shorten their life. At the same time Kimi was hindering Lewis’ ability to race away from the pack, and especially kept him within range of Max, who obligingly took second place when it was offered to him.
I thought it was great to see Kimi was cleanly shaved, as though he was expecting to win this race when he woke up this morning.
Jorge Lardone (@jorge-lardone)
22nd October 2018, 12:15
Kimi of course. Also a good weekend by Hulkemberg and Hamilton.
Mac
22nd October 2018, 22:55
You forget your silly friend, Vettel of course ;-)
TheRedBaron (@theredbaron)
23rd October 2018, 10:50
@Mac, do not waste your time on Lardone. He is not objective. Only hates Max and Alonso. And is in love with Seb.
Martijn (@)
22nd October 2018, 13:12
We’ve got one guy leading this contest who was in a Ferrari that qualifies 2nd and becomes first and another that qualifies 18, goes to 2 in a non Mercedes or Ferrari and battles for 1st while holding of a 4 (and soon 5) times world champion. Didn’t realise how much weight sympathy has in this. Great drives from both by the way + Hulk.
Garns (@)
22nd October 2018, 13:16
I went Max just over Kimi.
Thought Dan could have won if he didn’t go out.
Matn
22nd October 2018, 16:08
Being over 0.7 sec slower than his team mate + slower than Hamilton, Raikkonen and Bottas..?
Winning requires a fast driver
Joshua Doran (@joshuadoran)
22nd October 2018, 19:16
Different tyre strategies, you can’t compare their pace, but to say Ric wasn’t fast is just foolish
erikje
24th October 2018, 13:24
RIC had the faster tire but still was slower than his teammate.
krxx
22nd October 2018, 20:15
Judging requires an open mind, so no orange glasses for you. Quit making up numbers, quit lying.
The Limit
22nd October 2018, 13:22
Raikkonen! Max Verstappen gets a well earned second place spot both on and off the track, what a drive by him. But Kimi, for many reasons, gets it.
petebaldwin (@)
22nd October 2018, 13:26
Kimi. We’ve seen F1 cars overtake a load of F1.5 cars easily before and we’ve seen it again with Max this weekend. It’s like going 80mph on the motorway and being excited at passing a granny in a Rover doing 50…. Anyone in a Red Bull, Ferrari or Mercedes who starts last and doesn’t finish in the top 6 doesn’t deserve to drive for one of those teams.
Kimi hasn’t felt the pressure of fighting for a win for ages so he gets it for me easily!
Thierry (@thierryvth)
22nd October 2018, 14:20
Top 6 your right, P2 with 34 laps on SS that should have gone to max 28 laps is a different story, he showed in Barcelona and Austria and now again that he can manage tyres like no one else.
Happy for Kimi fan’s that after years without a win (Bot, Ric and Ver won races)they finally can celebrate a win
Robbie (@robbie)
22nd October 2018, 13:31
Almost voted Kimi, and he’s certainly my sentimental favourite for dotw this time, but went Max because I am a fan, but also because of his incredible drive of course, and how he continues to show his ability to take a third place car in the WCC and finish with a Ferrari and a Mercedes (or two this time) behind him. Yeah Max was definitely aided by the chaos at the start and by DR going out, but that doesn’t take away from his actual pace and ability to get so much out of those tires for so long. I was sure he was going to get swallowed up by LH near the end but rather was able to defend brilliantly against the (soon to be) 5 time Champ. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…watch out when this guy has the WCC car given what he can do in a third place one, including from the back of the pack. Brilliant.
Matn
22nd October 2018, 13:53
hmmm
the one that went from P3 to P1 in arguably the shared best car on the grid
or
the one that went from P18 to P2 in the, at best, 5th car on the grid
Note; in Q3 Hamilton, Bottas, Raikkonen and Vettel all went over at least half of all kerbs in the last corner, Verstappen took just one in Q1. We all felt Kimi should at least take a deserved win before leaving Ferrari…though his drive was stellar, Max finished just 1.2 sec behind him coming from P18.
DOTD should be a no brainer, but Kimi obviously has more fans
ketu (@ketu)
22nd October 2018, 14:36
Driver of the race : ok no problem Max. With Kimi a good second. Driver of the weekend? Hulk. Without a doubt if you look at the results (related to : 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?) comparing to Team how they perfomed (best of the rest) ; team-mate (beaten) and final position : max points for Renault possible.
Jere (@jerejj)
22nd October 2018, 14:42
Both the DOTD as well as the DOTW: Raikkonen although Verstappen qualifies close second for the former as well as Hulkenberg for getting the most out of the car.
NS Biker (@rekibsn)
22nd October 2018, 15:18
Was planning to vote for Max, but then considered …. the classification is “Driver of the Weekend”, and Max’s little brush with a curb and subsequent suspension damage came up short to Kimi’s overall performance and result.
Both did awesome jobs. No question, but the vote is for the weekend, not for the race day.
Depailler
22nd October 2018, 18:12
After a horrific first part of the season Max is now not only a contender for driver of the day/weekend, but also for driver of the year.
Inferior car, poor reliability, equal status on team yet he is doing an amazing job. Over the year Lewis has made fewer mistakes but he has an extra 50hp and more reliable car etc.
The last few races have shown Max has learnt from his mistakes at the start of 2018. Give him a half decent Honda and he will be a serious contender for WDC 2019.
PJA (@pja)
22nd October 2018, 18:21
Driver of the weekend was between two drivers in my opinion Raikkonen and Verstappen.
Verstappen started out of position in 18th due to a car failure in qualifying after he hit one of the kerbs, he and others had been taking that line all weekend so you can’t really class it is a driver fault as such.
As this circuit is somewhere where you can overtake and after the examples previously this year where a top six driver has had to make a recovery drive, it was always going to be the case that he would make his way up to at least sixth, it was just a question of how fast that would take and what his progress would be after that.
Just as in Russia Verstappen yet again made up a lot of places on the opening and quickly made his way through the rest of the midfield, with Vettel spinning on the opening lap and Ricciardo retiring with another car failure he managed to get up to fourth with no problems and that seemed like a realistic place he could finish.
Verstappen started the race on the hardest tyre available so the obvious strategy would be to go long and fit quicker tyres at his one stop in the hope of attacking late on, however Red Bull decided to pit early compared with the other one stoppers and thus they achieved the undercut on Bottas, this moved Verstappen up to third, but then when Mercedes mistakenly delayed Hamilton’s second stop too long this became second and Verstappen even managed to close up on Raikkonen but alas he could not challenge for the lead.
Hamilton closed the gap back up to the leaders and although it initially looked like he would not be able to get in a position to challenge Vertsappen a small mistake from Vertsappen in the closing laps allowed a chance for Hamilton but Vertsappen held firm and Hamilton looking at the bigger picture of the World Championship did not risk too much.
Raikkonen used the ultra soft tyres to set his time in Q2 so had a tyre advantage at the start compared to the others at the front, coupled with the fact one of the strengths of the Ferrari is it’s starts and that second on the grid at the Circuit of the Americas is not that bad a place to start meant Raikkoen had a great chance to take the lead at the start and he duly delivered.
Raikkonen was able to stay out of DRS range of Hamilton in the first stint and looked after his tyres enough so that even after Hamilton came back at him after Hamilton had stopped under the VSC Raikkonen did not relinquish the lead until he made his one stop.
After his stop Raikkonen began to close on Hamilton and then when Mercedes finally decided to put Hamilton on a two stopper Raikkonen changed his approach to look after his tyres to make them last until the end, Verstappen closed up on him in the final laps but never managed to get in a position to attempt an overtake so Raikkonen held on to take a very popular win over 5 years and over 100 Grand Prix since his previous one.
The only thing that would count against Raikkonen for driver of the weekend for me was the fact that he was beaten by his teammate in qualifying, although obviously with Vettel’s penalty Raikkonen it made no difference to Raikkonen’s starting position.
If I was being completely honest and unbiased and was just looking at what went on this weekend I would probably have voted for Vertsappen, I think he was the more impressive over the whole weekend, but I have already voted for Verstappen for diver of the weekend previously this season and considering it is a long time since Raikkonen last won and it was a case of my heart ruling my head so I voted for Raikkonen.
Neil (@neilosjames)
23rd October 2018, 0:19
Raikkonen wasn’t quickest in qualifying, and he wasn’t quickest in the race either… but it was still a great performance from him, and his defensive driving against Hamilton was beautiful. I’ve come to think of him as a bit of a soft touch in wheel-to-wheel stuff, but his positioning and ‘desire’ to keep the place was very impressive. Yes, I know Hamilton was being cautious but Raikkonen knew that, and he exploited it brilliantly.
Also, I can’t remember the last time I had the chance to vote for Raikkonen, so I’m not even having an internal discussion with myself about whether Verstappen deserved it more…
Esploratore (@esploratore)
23rd October 2018, 3:15
Went with raikkonen cause the last win is something special, I admit verstappen was likely the most standout this race.
Pjotr (@pietkoster)
23rd October 2018, 15:04
Redbull data shows it was impossible to get that set of tyres to the end. Max made the impossible possible and at te same time battling off Hamilton and almost win the race. Driver of the weekend by miles.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
24th October 2018, 10:53
@pietkoster Then why did Red Bull put Verstappen on this strategy if the data showed beforehand that the tyres wouldn’t hold? I have no indication that Red Bull put Verstappen on a two stop strategy.
Pjotr (@pietkoster)
24th October 2018, 16:04
They didn’t, the only one who knows to hold the tyres ok for so long is Ves. The rest of the world has no clue how this is done.