Which Formula One driver made the most of the Belgian 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 three days.
Review how each driver got on below and vote for who impressed you the most at Spa-Francorchamps.
Driver performance summary
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
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 2020 Belgian Grand Prix weekend?
- No opinion (0%)
- Nicholas Latifi (0%)
- George Russell (0%)
- Kevin Magnussen (0%)
- Romain Grosjean (0%)
- Antonio Giovinazzi (0%)
- Kimi Raikkonen (2%)
- Lance Stroll (0%)
- Sergio Perez (0%)
- Pierre Gasly (23%)
- Daniil Kvyat (0%)
- Esteban Ocon (1%)
- Daniel Ricciardo (51%)
- Lando Norris (0%)
- Carlos Sainz Jnr (0%)
- Alexander Albon (0%)
- Max Verstappen (1%)
- Charles Leclerc (1%)
- Sebastian Vettel (0%)
- Valtteri Bottas (0%)
- Lewis Hamilton (19%)
Total Voters: 203
Loading ...An RaceFans account is required in order to vote. If you do not have one, register an account here or read more about registering here
When this poll is closed the result will be displayed instead of the voting form.
Debates and polls
- Who should Red Bull run in their second F1 team in 2024?
- Should Formula 1 have fewer night races?
- Should F1 switch to a single practice session for all grand prix weekends?
- Which team will break Red Bull’s record win streak?
- Were Red Bull right to drop De Vries from his AlphaTauri race seat?
David BR (@david-br)
30th August 2020, 23:22
Hamilton again, but I would have voted for Gasly had his qualifying performance been better. That pass on Perez was the best moment of the race. Ricciardo was also good.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
30th August 2020, 23:31
Hamilton, booring as hell, but he did have a pretty slick day.
David BR (@david-br)
31st August 2020, 12:24
@jureo The onboard for Hamilton’s poll lap shows just how good section 2 was, up there close to his Singapore 2018 qualifying lap. Last year his qualifying was sometimes less impressive, but he then had some excellent races chasing down the lead. This year, refocusing on qualifying, it means the race is, as he said in the interview after, just about ‘managing the gap to Valtteri’. And as he also said, hardly thrilling stuff for him or the spectators. But not his fault.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
31st August 2020, 13:11
Not his fault at all. Mistakes create drama and excitement. Lewis is mostly flawless this year.
Certainly no Ayrton Senna : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cwipu-Sfhk
Lewis is performing close to 100% of what is possible. Atleast so it seems next to Bottas. Maybe Bottas is a lot faster than we give him credit for. But certainly If Lewis is at 100% Then Bottas is slightly bellow 100%.
Also that Mercedes is amazingly balanced. It looks good in all corners, on the straights, restarting from safety car, etc…
Esploratore (@esploratore)
31st August 2020, 23:17
Yes, I think verstappen, leclerc or alonso (maybe he’s a bit too old now, but till a few years ago) would be absolute competition for hamilton in the same car.
HUHHII (@huhhii)
31st August 2020, 0:06
Kimi with a comfortable margin
Jorge Lardone (@jorge-lardone)
31st August 2020, 1:07
Ricciardo, of course. Hamilton is the best driver of his generation and drive the best car by far so it is not a susprise wath de did today. Raikkonen did a good job also.
slowmo (@slowmo)
31st August 2020, 1:08
Riccardo for a sublime weekend and some great racing with Max even if he didn’t complete the overtake. Gasly did well too as did Hamilton, no other contenders imo.
FiamD (@fiamd)
31st August 2020, 16:12
Ricciardo IMO was not sublime enough during the race. He could have chased down VER for a podium instead of saving his tyres for a fastest lap (and denying LH a grand chelem). @slowmo
slowmo (@slowmo)
1st September 2020, 0:22
I don’t think he could have got Verstappen, he admitted after the race that getting that fastest lap pretty much killed the tyres completely. He did try realing Verstappen in but the end was more about taking whatever tyre life was left and pushing Verstappen so he was there if anything went wrong. I can’t see him hanging back in the next race if close though now he knows his car has better tyre management.
MacLeod (@macleod)
31st August 2020, 8:23
I went for Gasly but Riccardo was a good second.
Aapje (@aapje)
31st August 2020, 9:17
Drivers of the weekend:
Lewis, Max, Ricciardo and Kimi.
Voted for Ricciardo.
F1 frog (@f1frog)
31st August 2020, 9:42
My driver ratings:
Lewis Hamilton – 9
Valtteri Bottas – 7
Charles Leclerc – 6
Sebastian Vettel – 6
Max Verstappen – 9
Alexander Albon – 7
Carlos Sainz – 8
Lando Norris – 8
Pierre Gasly – 9
Daniil Kvyat – 6
Sergio Perez – 6
Lance Stroll – 6
Kimi Raikkonen – 9
Antonio Giovinazzi – 4
Kevin Magnussen – 5
Romain Grosjean – 7
George Russell – 8
Nicholas Latifi – 6
F1 frog (@f1frog)
31st August 2020, 9:43
Also
Daniel Ricciardo – 10
Esteban Ocon – 8
F1 frog (@f1frog)
31st August 2020, 9:56
However, the constant changing of the speed of the midfield makes these rankings very unlikely to be accurate with the actual performance of the drivers. I’m sure that if Charles Leclerc had been driving a Renault this weekend, his finishing position would have been very close to Ricciardo, possibly just ahead or possibly just behind, but we don’t know because we don’t know just how much faster the Renault was. It could be that the Ferrari was slower than Haas, Alfa Romeo and Williams this weekend, and it was only the drivers, Vettel and Leclerc, that kept them ahead in qualifying and the race (except Raikkonen).
Similarly, Lando Norris was completely outperformed by Carlos Sainz in qualifying, but put in a seemingly impressive race drive to be right on the tail of Ocon and Albon. For all we know, the McLaren may have been a far superior race car, and if Sainz had finished he might have been close to Verstappen and Ricciardo.
But although my individual race rankings are often quite inaccurate, the average scores of the drivers at the end of the season often create an order which represents the actual performance of the drivers far more accurately.
magon4 (@magon4)
31st August 2020, 12:18
I don’t get giving the Ferrari drivers a 6.
melanos
1st September 2020, 0:17
The car was certainly awful, but what was so bad about the Ferrari drivers?
slowmo (@slowmo)
1st September 2020, 0:26
Wasn’t the difference 2 tenths between Sainz and Norris. Might have been 3 places but time wise they were pretty close if I recall. Shame Norris messed up the First lap as another place or two further up the field and Albon was there for the taking.
Ole Brummer (@andrewwj)
1st September 2020, 1:22
Deducting a whole point from HAM feels unnecessarily harsh. I would go 9.5 for him. I concur with a 10 for RIC, but would rate both GAS and VER at 9.5.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
1st September 2020, 18:39
@andrewwj
I don’t think it is that harsh. His qualifying was perfect but his race had no challenge other than the start and restart. He also ran wide once or twice and ended up cutting the corner before the main straight. Taking some of this into consideration, I think 9 out of 10 is correct. Decimal points just confuse things IMO. May as well be out of 20 rather than 10 in that case!
JohnH (@johnrkh)
31st August 2020, 11:20
I went Ricciardo with Hamilton second because of his killer pole lap, Gasly third. If it was just the Sunday I would lean towards Gasly with Ricciardo a close second.
Jere (@jerejj)
31st August 2020, 13:31
DOTW: HAM
DOTD: RIC
F1oSaurus (@)
31st August 2020, 16:34
What I don’t understand with Ricciardo is how he waited so long to start chasing Verstappen. If he was that fast (at the end at least) why didn’t he close up much earlier? Or stay closer. He might have even had a go at the podium.
slowmo (@slowmo)
1st September 2020, 0:30
I think he was trying to gap Verstappen and it was more Verstappen’s times falling off that incited the gap closing than Ricciardo pushing initially. Once it became apparent Red Bull were in danger he got the nod to throw caution to the wind for the podium. Hindsight is always 20/20, on another day he might have been told to push, killed his tyres and thrown away a 4th place needing a stop. As it was, 4th and 5th is the best Renault have done for a long time and they need to maximise the results on their best circuits.
Duncan Idaho (@didaho)
1st September 2020, 13:15
In the nutshell there. It looked to me that the guys on the wall pushed Ric to get inside Max’s pitstop safety when the leaders first started to slow, to take away the option he took at Silverstone – when they saw the developing pace differences I guess they would have been hoping for a threeplay – it would have made the race. Anyway nice to see Renault get the tactics right, even if it was difficult to get it wrong when the SC dictated the strategy (unless management wants a confirmation that the bad choice is actually bad – for the other side of the garage’s peace of mind).
Becken Lima
31st August 2020, 22:55
I was looking at the article where people are complaining about how bored was Spa, so here comes a suggestion: maybe it’s time to create polls where we could elect the best team of the weekend.
All this thing focused only on the drivers hides all the efforts the teams are doing behind the track scenes.
For example: the Red Bull mechanics at the Hungary GP. Those guys were the real stars at that GP. It was not Hamilton or Verstapen. It was them.
Its just a suggestion to motivates fans to look at the thing as whole.