Start, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 2019

Vote for your 2019 Canadian Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend

2019 Canadian Grand Prix

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Which Formula One driver made the most of the Canadian 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 Gilles Villeneuve.

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 Canadian Grand Prix weekend?

  • No opinion (0%)
  • Robert Kubica (0%)
  • George Russell (0%)
  • Alexander Albon (0%)
  • Daniil Kvyat (0%)
  • Antonio Giovinazzi (0%)
  • Kimi Raikkonen (0%)
  • Lance Stroll (7%)
  • Sergio Perez (0%)
  • Lando Norris (0%)
  • Carlos Sainz Jnr (0%)
  • Kevin Magnussen (0%)
  • Romain Grosjean (0%)
  • Nico Hulkenberg (1%)
  • Daniel Ricciardo (41%)
  • Pierre Gasly (0%)
  • Max Verstappen (2%)
  • Charles Leclerc (1%)
  • Sebastian Vettel (34%)
  • Valtteri Bottas (0%)
  • Lewis Hamilton (13%)

Total Voters: 261

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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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53 comments on “Vote for your 2019 Canadian Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend”

  1. Wait, what, a 100%? Then I noticed, I cast the first vote :-)

    1. LOL @bascb – at least you agreed with yourself there!

      I voted for Ricciardo, as I see many others did too (some 52/53 people?): great quali, great race; first time this year he really was able to show his way of taking opportunities when they present themselves, and gave us a nice fight with Bottas to watch too.

      Vettel had a fantastic qualifying, and a great race, but, I don’t want to go judge mistake/penalty stuff; so glad there is Ricciardo to take the pressure off for me.

      1. Wait, what’s it with people complaining about Hamilton (okay qualifying, great race) getting ‘so many’ despite ‘many lockups’? I always consider a lot of lockups a sign the car isn’t perfect at that point, and/or the driver is pushing – as long as it doesn’t lead to crashes, strategy failures and such, hardly takes anything away from a drive – am I wrong there?

  2. Surprised Vettel has so many votes.
    He had a great Saturday but cracked under the pressure on Sunday (I won’t comment on the penalty).
    Danny Ric clearly the standout performance of race day – good tussle with Max and a flawless run to the end

    1. RIC only stayed in front of Hulk because of a team order. That takes away a lot for me

      1. Indeed! Lance Stroll should get it!

      2. Correction. They weren’t allowed to battle because of a team order. He was only slightly faster than RIC at the time so an overtake probably never would have happened anyway.

      3. A team order was the right decision though, ensure the points. And he had to pit earlier than Hulk to cover off Gasly, so his tyres weren’t as fresh. I still think he deserves DotW.

    2. Good tussle with Max? Max got by easily on his first attempt….

  3. Panagiotis Papatheodorou (@panagiotism-papatheodorou)
    10th June 2019, 7:38

    Surprised that Hamilton has so many votes given he locked his brakes like 4 times in the hairpin.

    I voted for Stroll. Missed FP3, did a solid quali and got some points.

    1. Good reason. I forgot about Stroll.

    2. I did also. He had a great weekend, didn’t hit the wall, beat his teammate, and unlike a certain Ferrari driver, didn’t crack under the pressure.

  4. Thomas Bennett (@felipemassadobrasil)
    10th June 2019, 7:44

    Objectively, it’s probably Vettel, Hamilton or Ricciardo. However, I’m not objective so it’s Stroll.

  5. RIC for me.

  6. My vote went for DOW this time goes to Daniel Ricciardo. Great Job to qualify 4th (and less than 2 tenths away from 3rd), great drive in the race, keeping a Mercedes behind him for a quite a long while, and finishing a very strong 6th. I hope they can keep the momentum going and gradually close the gap to the leaders through the year.

    The fight for the lead was fun to watch. Over the weekend there was little to chose between those two. Seb had a great pole lap. The Ferrari was slightly quicker in qualifying but he got everything out of it. Lewis had a good lap as well. There may have been a bit more quali pace in the Mercedes had they had a full FP2 on Lewis’ side but in the race Seb and Lewis were even on pace throughout. Lewis had a few minor lockups into the hairpin which set him back half a second each time, but he had the pace to catch back up to Seb on the second stint. Seb’s mistake was really costly. The end result was not great for the fans watching the race, but it was his mistake that triggered all of this and even if you might not agree with the rule, as it’s written I think it’s the right call. Max and Kimi had a very similar incident last year at Suzuka and the stewards made the same call then (5 seconds penalty for not rejoining safely). I think they need to revisit this and make some changes to the rules. That wont happen this year… maybe not even next year, but perhaps with the rules overhaul for 2021 they’ll address it.

  7. It is unbelievable Vettel gets that much votes. Again, he cracked under the pressure and as a 4-times world champ he just behaved like a 4 years old baby boy afterwards. I can understand emotions gets you to another world, but it was just a comedy instead of a drama.

    I voted for Hamilton, because he pushed all the way down to win and got the win, what is matters for me.

    1. susan (@suszalee05gmail-com)
      10th June 2019, 8:08

      I vote for Daniel, he has given it his all this weekend and the race he fought of Botas for seven laps well done today Daniel .

    2. He got the win, and he didn’t.

      1. I think you can easily justify Vettel getting it. He only made one mistake and it was an impressive save that would be applauded if Hamilton wasn’t there.

        Hamilton drove a very good race but it looked like he had the faster car and he locked up quite a few times.

        I went for Ricciardo, even though he did a dodgy defensive move he qualified and raced well against better cars.

      2. I think you can easily justify Vettel getting it. He only made one mistake and it was an impressive save that would be applauded if Hamilton wasn’t there.

        Hamilton drove a very good race but it looked like he had the faster car and he locked up quite a few times.

        I went for Ricciardo, even though he did a dodgy defensive move he qualified and raced well against better cars.

    3. Your vote for Hamilton shows your bias against Vettel… he reacted like a sportman robbed from a victory…added some meassured drama…. On top, publicly receiced all the respect from fellow racing drivers.

      1. In F1 people easily gets forgetful in some manners. Remember 2011, it was said that the most heroic win of Button, but, remember that whoever tried to fight with Button is knocked out by him (including Hamilton) at that day, and he got the win.
        Yeah, it might have been considered as a racing accident, but, remember; as a steward the rules are rules, and Vettel put himself in that circumstances.

    4. I voted for Hamilton, because he pushed all the way down to win and got the win, what is matters for me.

      LOL! He had a better car in race trim to start with, but especially on Hards. He maintained and closed the gap to VET as he liked. So, actually, finishing 2nd in the best car is no feat. Also, locking up the front tyres numerous times in the hairpin… without any pressure… doesn’t look like great racing. I find it ridiculous to vote for HAM. Just put VER in that Mercedes and HAM is history.

      1. Just put VER in that Mercedes and HAM is history.

        I fully respect with that idea, I feel the same with Schumi. Numbers doesn’t always reflect any reality.

    5. I went for Vettel. Could have been Ham, but locking up 3 or 4 times is just as bad as one mistake for Vettel. Could have been Ricciardo, but in the end Renault was just at the spot they belonged in this race and the team order to Hulk not even to try a takeover took away any brilliance left. Could have been Stroll for a very good race, but he qualified poorly (again).

  8. I’d give it to RIC if it wasn’t for team orders to Hulk to stay behind

    So I give it to stroll

  9. I am going to vote for Max Verstappen. Once again he was dominant over his team mate (even despite tough luck on Saturday) and got as many points as one could realistically expect from a Red Bull-Honda driver. Some commentator once suggested that all drivers should switch cars, ie. drive for different teams during the season. I doubt that is ever going to happen but I suspect Verstappen would be a strong championship contender this year if that was the case.

  10. Vettel, he was most fun.

  11. Has to be Ricciardo, got the result when it all finally fell into place for Renault. He stuck in a great lap on Saturday and did the business on Sunday.

    Because I’m so hard on him normally I have to give an honourable mention to Lance Stroll, he drove a fantastic race to salvage a point. But as this is a driver of the weekend poll so Ricciardo pips him this time round.

  12. Ricciardo had the best overall weekend I think. Others had an individual good day but didn’t string it all together.
    The strong Vettel vote is a mystery as he made yet another unforced error under pressure from Hamilton.
    I did not agree with the penalty.
    Verstappen had a clean race but I think it has shown that the Honda is not the power house RB have been saying.
    How long before Gasly is given the shove?
    Stroll did well, bit of a surprise and on the old engine.
    Bottas had a shocker of a weekend.

    1. RIC had a great Saturday but was caught by Hulk that had a far better 1st stint on the softs in the same car keeping Bottas behind him doing so. Thankfully for RIC Hulk was told to stay behind

      1. Ricciardo was made to come in early to cover off Gasly which meant that Hulkenberg pitted much later and had much fresher tyres, hence catching Ricciardo. Dan also lost time dicing with Bottas.

        1. So? Hulk beat Gasly as well and probably would’ve beaten RIC too if it wasn’t for the team order. Making the standing in the WDC equal instead of RIC being 4 points ahead.

          So Hulk did a much better job in the race imho

          1. F1oSaurus (@)
            10th June 2019, 12:19

            @anunaki The point is that Renault compromised Ricciardo’s strategy for track position over Gasly. In hindsight that was a mistake yes, but not from Ricciardo.

        2. You forgot that Hulk had an issue with his gearbox in the middle of the second stint which cost him at least ~5 seconds. Without that reliability handicap I’m not sure if team orders would came so late in the GP.

          1. Daniel did point out after the race how impressive Nico’s race pace had been, and the Hulk did seem substantially quicker in a couple of phases of the race, but these may have been times when Danny Ric was managing the pace, i.e. nothing to be gained from going faster and plenty to lose such as tyre and engine life. The Renaults were under no pressure from behind so they could just turn everything down and cruise to the finish and maintain both power units for future races.

  13. F1oSaurus (@)
    10th June 2019, 9:02

    Has to be Hamilton. Managed to get quite close in Q3 against a much faster car. So maximum there. Then in the race kept the pressure on Vettel so he cracked landed himself a penalty. Won the race again without driving the fastest car.

    1. LOL! Your bias is obvious. In Quali the cars were pretty much equal, it’s just that VET did a better job than HAM. VET really got max out of his car. 0.7sec faster than LEC speaks volumes. HAM would have been in PP if got max out of his car. BOT’s performance was ridiculous and flatters HAM’s performance. That doesn’t mean HAM gets the best out of the car every time. Just put VER in that Mercedes and suddenly we’ll see that most of HAM’s performances are not that great anymore.

      1. F1oSaurus (@)
        10th June 2019, 11:06

        @mg1982 Bias how? I’m simply stating facts.

        Leclerc was sacrificed to give Vettel a tow. Just like Bottas helped Hamilton. That’s why both were 7 tenths ahead of their team mate.

        All weekend Ferrari have been faster. In Q3 they were faster by 2 tenths and in the race Leclerc had the fastest lap. Bottas could only take the fastest lap in the last few laps by swicthing to soft tyres.

        So yet again, I’m stating facts and you are just expressing your unfounded bias. SHAME!

        If you want to talk about switching drivers. Just put HAM, VER, ALO or RIC in that Ferrari for 2017 and 2018 and Ferrari would have had a WDC in those seasons.

        Vettel can only work his “magic” when he drives a car that’s fastest in Q3 by at least 3 tenths and then also in the race has that kind of margin. If any other driver ever pressures him he crashes into them or spins off.

        1. Sorry, but you’re wrong about the tow in Q3 (I did not see Q1 an Q2… but these stages of Quali don’t matter anyway). The Ferrari and Mercedes boys set their times on their own in both runs. You can check Quali Highlights on YT to see that in the last run the gap between any of these 4 drivers was like at least 5sec. So, I don’t see how HAM or VET could have used their team mates for a tow when BOT and LEC were 5-6sec ahead of their team mates. Leclerc even said after the Quali that he needs to work on his Quali performances.

          Hey, I’m really trying to be impartial so, as proof, I agree that HAM is overall better than VET. I agree that VET was quite awful in Bahrain. I agree that VER would beat VET in the same machinery. Too bad Ferrari can’t get him to race for them. I also agree that some other drivers would have done a better job in 2018, maybe even get the WDC… but forget about 2017. The 2017 Ferrari wasn’t a real title challenger. It made an impression, was good enough to win 1/3 of the races, but that’s all. Not enough tho when 2/3 of the races are won only by Mercedes. Reliability was also a negative factor for Ferrari in 2017.

  14. isaac (@invincibleisaac)
    10th June 2019, 10:38

    Ricciardo is the clear decision for me. Had a great qualifying – ahead of both Red Bulls and a Mercedes, as well as his team-mate. Made a good start and got the most out of the car. It was good to see him defending hard against Bottas (although at times I thought he moved at the last minute which was a bit dodgy) and he couldn’t have done much better.

    Vettel had a good weekend but made a mistake in the race, otherwise a very good drive.
    Leclerc was outpaced by his team-mate throughout the race and was a long way off in qualifying.
    Hamilton made a rare mistake in practice and had a decent race, but several small mistakes here and there.
    Bad weekend for Bottas which was compromised by a bad qualifying.
    Mixed weekend for Stroll. Looked a real struggler throughout practice and qualifying but somehow turned it around in the race and scored some valuable points.

    1. F1oSaurus (@)
      10th June 2019, 12:15

      @invincibleisaac

      Leclerc was outpaced by his team-mate throughout the race

      No he wasn’t!

      During the first stint Leclerc was easily keeping station behind Hamilton (and Vettel). Then Ferrari forgot to pit Leclerc. When Ferrari finally remembered they have a second car running (on worn tyres losing time), he was 14.5 seconds behind Vettel. Then (in free air) Leclerc steadily drove faster than Vettel for the remainder of the race and closed the gap down to 6 seconds. So Leclerc was really faster than Vettel.

      Leclerc actually held the fastest lap. By half a second faster than Vettel. Both Mercedes cars were slower (similar speed as Vettel). In the end Bottas had to stop for a set of soft tyres to take that fastest lap away from Ferrari.

      Ferrari should have backed Leclerc for this race.

      1. Dude… come on! Ferrari should have backed Leclerc for this race?!?! No offense, but it’s ridiculous. Just the idea of backing up the guy in 3rd instead of the guy in 1st is weird enough. In the 1st stint LEC was the slowest driver from the top3. When VET stopped, LEC was ~7sec behind him and ~5sec behind HAM. He couldn’t really keep up with the 2 guys in front, otherwise Ferrari could have tried to undercut HAM. Haven’t you thought why Ferrari didn’t try to get LEC ahead of HAM?! Well, I’ll tell you: what was supposed to be tried when the gap was 5sec?! We already know that the gap should be like 2sec max. So, it was LEC’s fault completely for not having the chance to undercut HAM and get P2. Actually, because of his pace, LEC messed up his race even worse: not being able to keep HAM within 2sec range, LEC not only missed the chance to undercut HAM, but also meant that Ferrari had to extend his 1st stint as much as possible, otherwise he would have been stuck behind BOT and VER. Not keeping up with HAM was LEC fault so, the end result was exactly what LEC deserved. That 5sec gap was like a domino effect for LEC, in a negative way: 1st, he missed the chance to undercut HAM; 2nd, even if HAM would have kept 2nd, LEC missed the chance to keep HAM within reach and pressure him for 45laps. Instead, when he got out of pits, LEC lost another 5sec to HAM (making the gap 10sec) and, as we’ve seen, he wasn’t able to recover anymore… although you keep saying he was blindly fast.

  15. I voted for Sebastian. In my eyes he did the least amount of errors (apart from the obvious) that weekend. Lewis had too close encounter with the wall, Leclerc was nowhere in comparison to Seb, Valtteri had a downgrade to 1.0, Max had a great run form 9th, but still he got stuck behind Merc and finally Pierre who will be probably replaced before the end of the season (by Kvyat I hope). You may ask why I didn’t vote for Daniel. Well… I forgot he had such a great race.

    P.S. Please don’t break my dreams of Torpedo returning to RBR.

  16. I expected Vettel to get sympathy votes (well, he did qualify 1st and led the race all the way so that is strong) so I voted Ricciardo. P4 on the grid, faster than Bottas and Gasly (+ Verstappen who was out in Q2) is amazing for Renault. He then battled with the Red Bulls and with Bottas before finishing P6 with the Hulk told to stay behind him. Very strong from both yellow cars, but Ricciardo gets my nod courtesy of his strong qualifying pace.

  17. Reading this article might clear some doubts about the accident, https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/143996/vettel-steering-inputs-key-to-fia-penalty-decision
    in short it states that vettel seemed to have regained control at some point before forcing hamilton to slam on the brakes, but then after seemingly regaining control, he stopped steering to the left and let the car get closer to the wall, thereby forcing hamilton to brake and they say if he had continued to steer left instead they wouldn’t have investigated the episode, so there could be some sort of justification to this penalty, as annoying as it is that it determines the 7 race out of 7 this year that isn’t won by anyone else than a mercedes.

    Hope they’re not lying on this, if it’s true it makes me feel better, my father, who’s also a f1 expert like most of us, said a camera showing if vettel was looking in the mirrors at the time would’ve been very useful, and in that article they say the steward had one such footage which wasn’t shown on television where they saw he must’ve seen hamilton.

    Having said this, it’s true vettel made a mistake going outside the track, without which his win would’ve been much easier, I think he’d have been able to defend to the end regardless, but it was a small mistake and aside from that he drove very well and did the best he could to prevent yet another mercedes win, which is what the sport needs currently, even if both titles are realistically over, before this race already, and overall did a very good job on both days, so even if I’m not a fan of vettel and I criticized him a lot lately, this was a great weekend for him, voting for him, apart from that I see ricciardo got almost even votes, he had a pretty good race too with an upper midfield renault.

  18. The Skeptic (@)
    10th June 2019, 13:16

    Without a doubt, Daniel Ricciardo was the DOTW. Amazing quali. Perfectly judged race.

    Vettel was close. Great quali. Nearly perfect race. Just that one error….

    Hamilton was a bit further back. Good quali (error on turn 10 didn’t help). Great pressure driving in the race. He couldn’t have made it harder for Vettel, although the lockups (again into turn 10!) didn’t help.

    For me – the next most impressive were Hulkenberg, Stroll and Kvyat (in that order).

    1. I went also for Daniel Ricciardo, but Max, Hulk and Kvyat were good over a weekend. Lance was good on Sunday.

  19. Daniel Ricciardo both the DOTW and the DOTD with honorable mentions to his teammate, and Stroll.

  20. Vettel wins MDOTW. M = Moral

    I was livid at the stewards decision initially but when I got over the hurt of being robbed of a good/rare F1 battle I figured Vettel did make a mistake and left himself open to a poor decision by the race stewards, the only way to avoid that is to not make these mistakes

  21. I think Riccardo is the obvious one here (stroll, great race to get the best strat working. Quali… Naaah). But ham had a great race. Applied pressure all along. You’re bound to overshoot on hard breaking when in dirty wake.

  22. Well done Danny Ric! To put that Renualt where it was, is a great effort! Starting to find his feet which is exciting

  23. Adam (@rocketpanda)
    11th June 2019, 12:50

    Voted for Vettel. Great qualifying and looked like the measure of the Mercedes in the race.

    Other than him Ricciardo did fantastically and Kvyat is consistently doing good. Kinda wanted to vote for Norris too as his qualifying and race was going well until his suspension melted.

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