Start, Shanghai International Circuit, 2019

Vote for your 2019 Chinese Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend

2019 Chinese Grand Prix

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Which Formula One driver made the most of the Chinese 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 Shanghai International Circuit.

Driver performance summary

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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 2019 Chinese Grand Prix weekend?

  • No opinion (4%)
  • Robert Kubica (0%)
  • George Russell (1%)
  • Alexander Albon (30%)
  • Daniil Kvyat (0%)
  • Antonio Giovinazzi (0%)
  • Kimi Raikkonen (8%)
  • Lance Stroll (0%)
  • Sergio Perez (9%)
  • Lando Norris (0%)
  • Carlos Sainz Jnr (0%)
  • Kevin Magnussen (1%)
  • Romain Grosjean (0%)
  • Nico Hulkenberg (0%)
  • Daniel Ricciardo (9%)
  • Pierre Gasly (1%)
  • Max Verstappen (7%)
  • Charles Leclerc (1%)
  • Sebastian Vettel (1%)
  • Valtteri Bottas (1%)
  • Lewis Hamilton (26%)

Total Voters: 226

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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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47 comments on “Vote for your 2019 Chinese Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend”

  1. DOTD: Alexander Albon.
    DOTW: A bit harder to choose, but Lewis Hamilton.

    1. Kimi DID come up from 13th to 9th … “OK”, I guess. Albon done good …

      1. @elchinero
        There’s a relatively easy explanation for Räikkönen’s progress in the race: His elimination in Q2. With the free tyre choice, he had a sizeable advantage over the Haases and, to a certain extent, the Renaults as well (they were still faster, but not as much as they could’ve been had they been allowed to start the race on Mediums as well).
        After Kvyat’s poor start and the subsequent collision that destroyed the McLarens’ race as well, Sergio Pérez was the only other Q2 eliminee left in contention. And he duly went from 12th on the grid to 8th in the race. That’s one better than Räikkönen in both sessions that counted, with the added bonus of making up no less than 4 places at the start and finishing the race very close to Ricciardo.
        In other words: It’s hard to argue in Räikkönen’s favour when Pérez had pretty much the same race weekend, but better.

      2. @elchinero 13th to 9th versus pitlane to 10th. I wonder which is the greater achievement?

  2. tough one.
    Hamilton great race, but outqualified
    Bottas did not have enough speed to stay close to Hamilton
    Vettel needed help to get ahead
    Gasly only excelled during one lap (and that with less fuel and faster tyres)
    Ricciardo did well, but not stellar: just 1000th ahead of Hulk on Saturday and just a second ahead of Perez on Sunday
    Verstappen and Albon both had very similar perfomances, got their cars in the best position on Sunday, but binned the car in FP3 and missed quali (still fresh for Verstappen; less than a year ago).

    1. Do you think Bottas’s qualifying benefitted from the ‘distant’ tow generated by following Hamilton?

      1. What do you ‘believe’? @gnosticbrian

        1. If I knew, I would not have asked.

      2. @gnosticbrian No, because if you look at the comparison of their laps on the F1 website/app you’ll see Bottas actually lost a significant amount of time to Hamilton on the long back straight. Hamilton aced the exit of T13 and made up all of the time he lost over the lap to that point, then lost time again in the last corner.

        1. Thank you.

          I did notice that Hamilton got the fastest times in all three sectors – but NOT all on the same lap; would have been a 1:31:177 – four tenths faster than the actual pole. ‘Might have beens’ – the food of armchair pundits the world over.

          I also noticed that Bottas cut the speed trap some 3kph faster than Lewis.

    2. @coldfly
      Verstappen “but binned the car in FP3”? What year?

      1. 2018, Monaco.

        1. Making it relevant to this race how? Or is Hamilton beaching the car in 2007 in China also still relevant?

          1. Don’t take life – or my comments – too seriously.
            Even better; spot the sarcastic, or even cynical, undertone.

    3. Very hard to decide i go for the rookie But could be Lewis, Max and Kimi too. The rest colourless during the race a it to bad.

  3. Mighty drive from Perez. It could get hidden in the thick of Formula 1.5, but the RP had no business being in front of the Alfas and (one) Renault for as long as it did.

    1. A real struggle to choose DOTW this weekend. Only Max in the F1 teams was better than his team-mate in quali and the race but that’s expected against Gasly so hard to judge. Ric, Kimi and Perez did likewise in F1.5. Albon drove well in the race but the car was good enough to finish best of the rest if he hadn’t binned it in quali and Kvyat hadn’t got such a bad start.
      Yeah, probly Perez for his efforts in a car that wasn’t very good this weekend.

  4. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    14th April 2019, 17:22

    159! It can only go to 1 driver.

  5. I went with “no opinion” for the first time, in my opinion, no driver was a standout across the entire weekend, or even most of it.

    1. @phylyp at least go with LastName

      1. @johnmilk – he’s not been on the grid this year, has he? Shame, like Hartley, it looks like nice guys don’t get re-signed :)

        1. He is on simulator duties, after last year fiasco. Don’t know about his brother though

  6. F1oSaurus (@)
    14th April 2019, 17:50

    Has to be Hamilton. Struggled with the car all weekend, but when it mattered he got it back in order (quali). Narrowly missed out on pole by a few hundreths to Bottas who had been at ease with the car all weekend already. Then outdid Bottas at the start to compensate for that.

    Maximum weekend result Hamilton could have gotten and he got it despite the car not being suitable to his driving style.

  7. Totaly Albon.
    He messed up the car so bad he missed qualifying but got a point back for the team – top guy.

  8. I’d have voted for Albon if he hadn’t faffed up his own car. Great recovery drive for him, but he was recovering from himself. And without Kvyatt for comparison it’s tough to tell how much of that pace was car vs. driver.

  9. Alexander Albon. Now Honda can still fight, can they?

  10. Thomas Bennett (@felipemassadobrasil)
    14th April 2019, 20:39

    Kimi for passing about two people. Says it all really

  11. Hard one to call this. Hamilton got outqualified, Bottas got out raced. Both Ferrari’s were a bit off. Verstappen was impressive, as was Ricciardo. Perez raced well and beat his team mate in quali, so I think it’s probably Perez for me.

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      15th April 2019, 19:45

      I wouldn’t say he got outqualified. He did great considering his troubles with the car. Nearly got pole, beat Bottas at the start, pulled away after VSC and pulled away again after the pit stop.

      Was it a perfect weekend? No, but these are the tough weekends that define a champion and he came out on top as opposed to just doing damage limitation.

      Lewis’s Flawless performances are surprisingly as lauded as they are criticized. In my opinion, the effort that goes into turning a dud into a gem is also worthy of recognition and what separates champions from great drivers.

  12. Lol, Hamilton’s hat3rs in full display once again, here.
    What does the guy has to do to be nominated driver of the day, rotfl

    1. Ummm, not keep locking up and ruining his fast laps in free Practice or get out qualified by his team mate perhaps?

      1. F1oSaurus (@)
        15th April 2019, 20:50

        @asanator You mean he should put his car in the wall in FP3, miss quali completely due to his own huge mistake and then have a “good recovery drive”?

        1. @f1osaurus
          It’s worked for him before, e.g. 2018 in Brazil. Was quite a crushing DotW win, if I remember correctly, even though completely nonsensical.

  13. Albon as DOTW? Seriously?
    Baffling

  14. Verstappen had an unassumingly good weekend. Last year he finally got on top of Ricciardo, and this year I can’t see Gasly coming close to him.

    Red Bull should really be looking outside their own driver pool to give the youngsters time to develop properly in Torro Rosso.

  15. The only drivers who maximized their package this weekend both in qualy and in the race are Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. Chose MV but it was nip and tuck. Not a fan of either driver but credit where it’s due.

    1. F1oSaurus (@)
      15th April 2019, 20:51

      @montreal95 How do you know that? In reality their team mates simply performed very badly.

      1. @f1osaurus Your “in reality” should really read: “my opinion that I can’t prove”. I can’t prove mine either but the evidence is there. The fact that Gasly is far behind doesn’t take anything from the fact MV’s driving the wheels of the difficult RBR and taking the fight to the faster Ferraris. And pretty much all experts agree that on pace the Racing Point is the 9th fastest car at the moment, a legacy of the lack of investment in the crucial phase of RP19’s development in mid-2018. Checo’s maximizing what it has 100% and even beyond finishing on the tail of the much faster Renault and breaking the challenge of the faster Alfa Romeo.

        Now consider the competition:
        LH was impervious in the race but this is DoTW not just the race and he did lose qualifying.
        Ricciardo was very good but again on pure pace he’s not yet a match for the Hulk(if he managed to get a good lap in Q3 as he was at least 2-3 tenths faster) and in the race NH retired early with tech trouble.
        Raikkonen was very good but should have been in front of Perez to maximize the car. Therefore CP>KR
        Albon had a great Sunday but his Saturday was a disaster
        Finally, Russell is probably doing a great job but we cannot know that for certain in that F2 level car.

        1. F1oSaurus (@)
          16th April 2019, 16:56

          @montreal95 Indeed, you can’t prove any of your claims.

          1. @f1osaurus At least I’m not saying they’re facts unlike yourself

          2. F1oSaurus (@)
            16th April 2019, 20:28

            @montreal95 What utter nonsense. You stated your claims just as much as a fact as I did.

            Besides, how great is it for Verstappen to spin on the openings lap? Credit is due for sure. Ruin those tyres before you even begin. WHo knows he wasted his chance on P3 by that mistake.

          3. F1oSaurus (@)
            16th April 2019, 20:29

            Oh and Verstappen blundered in Q3. Lol, how great was that? He could have gotten P3 in quali, but he couldn’t finish his lap because he was too late.

            Are those enough “facts” for you?

          4. @f1osaurus Ridiculous. Verstappen hadn’t blundered in Q3. RBR did. So did Haas. No one in their right mind blamed the drivers for the debacle. You’re the first, which speaks volumes. Verstappen spun on the formation lap not the first lap. It a well known fact( not your delusional “fact” type) that not every spin ruins yours tires especially if it in cruising speed on the formation lap. So to think that this cost him the chance of P3, especially with the pace gap to the Ferraris is beyond baffling. The fact he even got P4 against them just shows how good he was

            Now to that fact vs opinion issue. I stated my opinion first. You chose to reply. Of course if everyone always had “IMO” written after every opinion of theirs it would be clearer. When you will do that, I will too, but you don’t. So, for now,unless there’s a complete sources trackdown written after the post, every post is an opinion.Even further you used terminology like “in reality” which means fact. I did not. Not the same level of pretending your opinion is a fact at all.

            Afterwards, I’d argumented my opinion. You chose to continue to disagree, fine I couldn’t care less. You disagree with me , I disagree with you, we will never agree on the matter so I’ll leave it at that. Further posts would be a total waste of time

          5. F1oSaurus (@)
            18th April 2019, 21:16

            @montreal95 Well Helmut Marko really blamed Verstappen for missing the last lap. So yeah.

  16. isaac (@invincibleisaac)
    16th April 2019, 8:59

    I went for Ricciardo – Outqualified his team-mate, made a decent start, and kept ahead of Perez and the rest during the race. Best of the rest. Couldn’t have done much better really.

    * Hamilton did well, but was out-qualified by his team-mate
    * Bottas qualified well, but was beaten by his team-mate in the race
    * Vettel lost a place at the start and made a few mistakes in the race
    * Leclerc was out-qualified by Vettel
    * Verstappen did very well, but I wonder if he could’ve started 3rd with a better Qualy lap
    * Gasly had a better weekend and managed to get fastest lap, however he was still a long way off Verstappen pace wise.

  17. I don’t think any driver had a great weekend, the drivers who impressed at some point also did things to count against them when looking at the weekend as a whole.

    Bottas was the quicker of the two Mercedes all weekend and took pole position, but Hamilton made the better start to take the lead and went on to take a comfortable win and Bottas never seemed to challenge him during the race.

    Albon was the most impressive driver in the race, starting from the pit lane to finish tenth and secure his first points, but the reason he started from the pit lane was because of a big crash in FP3 which meant he missed qualifying.

    Although this is driver of the weekend not driver of the race I decided the performance Albon delivered in the race more than made up for his error in practice, so Albon got my vote.

Comments are closed.