Restart, Monza, 2020

Vote for your 2020 Italian Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend

2020 Italian Grand Prix

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Which Formula One driver made the most of the Italian 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 Monza.

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 2020 Italian Grand Prix weekend?

  • No opinion (0%)
  • Nicholas Latifi (0%)
  • George Russell (0%)
  • Kevin Magnussen (1%)
  • Romain Grosjean (0%)
  • Antonio Giovinazzi (0%)
  • Kimi Raikkonen (1%)
  • Lance Stroll (1%)
  • Sergio Perez (0%)
  • Pierre Gasly (39%)
  • Daniil Kvyat (0%)
  • Esteban Ocon (0%)
  • Daniel Ricciardo (1%)
  • Lando Norris (1%)
  • Carlos Sainz Jnr (49%)
  • Alexander Albon (0%)
  • Max Verstappen (0%)
  • Charles Leclerc (0%)
  • Sebastian Vettel (0%)
  • Valtteri Bottas (0%)
  • Lewis Hamilton (7%)

Total Voters: 267

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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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73 comments on “Vote for your 2020 Italian Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend”

  1. Sainz for me, excellent qualifying and start and was in line for second on merit even before the safety car and red flag. Honourable mention for Gasly too but his result was more luck based that performance related.

    1. @slowmo Actually a question for almost everyone: why didn’t Sainz win then? He had plenty of laps to reel in a car that should have been slower, but it didn’t happen. 3 seconds behind with 12 laps to go. On the restart they were: Hamilton (penalty, drops to the back), Stroll (went off track at the restart), Gasly, Raikkonen, Giovinazzi (penalty, drops to the back) and Sainz. So once he’d cleared Raikkonen, hardly tricky, he just had Gasly to catch. I don’t get why this is impressive for Sainz and luck for Gasly, when Sainz has the better car and more experience.

      1. @david-br Sainz started the restart from 6th place, and he then had to make his way past Stroll, then Giovinazzi was very slow immediately off the restart before he peeled into the pits, and by the time Sainz overtook Raikkonen, he was already 4 seconds behind Gasly. And the thing about the midfield is, it’s super close. So it’s not an easy feat to close a 4 second gap in 20 laps or so. The reason why it’s lucky for Gasly, is that he went from 10th to a net 2nd because of the red flag and pitlane closing. Sainz dropped from 2nd to a net 4th.

        1. @david-br see above post but Sainz got his result on merit not good luck due to being the first person to pit. Gasly was going backwards before his stop.

      2. Monza is a very deceptive track in the sense that it’s fast and has free-flowing curves, but it is not an easy circuit to overtake unless you have the nerves to break later on the variantes (which is risky due to the sudden decrease in speed). Also, because it’s an older track there is not a lot of space to manuveur, except for the main straights, which means processions are easily formed. I think that, if this had happened on another circuit like Austria, Sainz would have gone past Gasly.

        1. @fw11b Great. In which case DOTD and DOTW for Hamilton who managed to pass half the field?

    2. Sainz had the second fastest car what are you talking about

  2. Sainz easily. He qualified well and raced even better. Was headed for 2nd before the safety car and red flag, and finished there. A little unlucky that he didn’t win.

    1. This. Without the didnt-have-to-make-an-actual-pitstop Stroll in his way, Sainz would have taken the win – and deserved it.

      He was faster than Gasly, not to take anything away from the Frenchman who handled things really well… But Sainz was awesome all weekend.

      1. Sham – Saintz failed to close a four second gap to Gasly in nigh on 20 laps. Not ‘awesome’.

      2. Also, Giovinazzi protecting Raikonnen by delaying pitting for his penalty

    2. Except when it counted he couldn’t pass for the lead in a much faster Mclaren

      1. @carlosmedrano Where’s your proof that Sainz’s McLaren is faster?!

      2. He was faster, but not 1.5s faster which is what was apparently required to pass at Monza. He also crossed the line .415s behind Gasly and very well may have been ahead by the first chicane if the race went 1 lap further.

  3. Hamilton did a great qualifying and was in control until they made the error with the pitstop, after that he made a good effort to get back towards the front. Gasly ran solidly in qualifying again, had that incident with Albon at the start, made the pitstop at the right moment to get track position. Then got past Stroll and claimed the lead. Really great drive to hold onto that till the finish. A win that was really well deserved and a great emotional moment too.

    However I vote Sainz as my man of the weekend. He really nailed qualifying to get into 3rd. He was running in second (with Norris behind, solid drive too, especially his first lap and then defensive driving) genuinly and without the SC and subsequent red flag could well have been in that same 2nd spot on the podium. And with the SC (and penalty for Hamilton) but without the red flag he could have had 20 laps to get ahead of Gasly and win it. Not sure what more he could have done really.

    1. Carlos Sainz Sr, arguably the best rally driver ever, is famously jinxed; inheritance?

  4. I went Gasly he was under a lot of pressure and he seemed to handle it well. Sainz would be next very strong all race.

    1. I agree, I too voted for Gasly as the DOTW. Honourable mentions to Sainz and Stroll.

      1. @drycrust Stroll? The driver that got a free pit stop and managed to lose the second race essentially from pole position?

        1. Not only Stroll got a free pit stop. Gasly could put a set of fresh tires, so Sainz lost the advantage of having less turns on his tires. This way, the red flag benefitted Gasly too.

  5. Congrats to Pierre for taking an opportunistic win under immense pressure at the end, but DoTW has to be Sainz. Qualified a best of the rest 3rd and then took 2nd at the start and never looked like losing it. He would have no doubt finished a comfortable 2nd to Hamilton before any of the shenanigans played out, and was extremely unlucky to lose out to Gasly, Stroll, and Raikkonen due to the red flag, before fighting back to within striking distance of the win.

    1. Should add, it’s a shame that he’s getting relegated to an uncompetitive team next year but hopefully he can bounce back as well as Pierre has :)

  6. Got to be Sainz, absolutely brilliant all weekend. Would have finished second in an uninterrupted race, which is impressive in itself; even more impressive was recovering from a strategically disadvantaged position to almost win. Gasly obviously was great but gained a lot from the timing of the safety car and red flag.

  7. LEC for a phenomenal drive into the tyre wall and made the race far more exciting than it was going to be.

    HM to both SAI and GAS for their drives.

    STR the award, as always, for most punchable face.

    OCO in a surprising result narrowly over HAM for the most whining noises over the weekend.

    RAI award for best sportsman award, never gave up no matter how much of a dog his car is and always allowed just the required space for another car.

    Both HAAS drivers the Casper Award for most invisible drivers of the race.

    1. Montréalais (@)
      6th September 2020, 23:29

      LOL Paul. I like the way your minds works.

    2. Yo give Magnussen his credit mate! If it wasn’t for him, it’d have been another Lewis win.

    3. I’m surprised you could hear Ocon over the constant whining from Verstappen.

  8. sainz for sure he finishes p2 on merit with or without the drama with pit lane entries and gasly deserved the win but was a lucky one. hamilton for some reason is the natural nemesis of pit lanes and tires and didnt manage to finish where he should have.

  9. It’s hard to lack past a winner who drives an AlphaTauri, but I managed. Sainz qualified ahead of Red Bull, then ran in P2 on MERIT before the red flag. Had Magnussen not stopped and Leclerc not crashed, I think Sainz would still have finished there. Unlucky with the timing of the stops, and unlucky with the regulations allowing drivers ahead to switch rubber. Sainz was so very strong.

    Obvious honourable mention to Gasly, but also Hamilton (yup), Stroll, Raikkonen, and Latifi.

    1. @chrischrill Agree with everything except giving a shoutout to Stroll. Qualified and was running behind his teammate, got put on a strange strategy that would have had him running last after his pit stop unless a red flag happened at exactly that time. This put him in the best position to win the race, while his teammate who he was running behind was 14th. And at the restart, he bottled it by getting making a rare bad start, topped off by going off at Ascari and nearly having a massive crash with Raikkonen. Extremely fortunate result for him all round but the way things fell for him he probably should have won the race.

      1. Sorry couple of mistakes maybe. Perez was P12 after his pitstop, where I think he had an issue, and he dropped to P14 somewhere later. And it wasn’t Ascari where Stroll went off, it was Roggia chicane I think (I’m not great with the corner names).

        1. I read just now that Perez was hit by Verstappen at the restart, so that is probably what dropped him from 12th to 14th @keithedin.

      2. Regardless of how poor a restart Stroll did, or how lucky he got with not pitting, I feel like he ran a good race and managed to pass when he did. He was behind Norris at one point, and didn’t he make a great start the first time?

        Surprised to see so few highlighting Latifi in P11.

  10. I voted for Sainz. Amazing weekend. Was on course to finish second on merit before all hell broke loose. Then fought his way back up to second and chased down the leader.
    But I think Gasly deserves it just as much.
    Yes he was lucky but man he just won the Italien Grand Prix in an Alpha Tauri! Btw he still had have the race ahead of him after he inherited the lead and was just plain fast.

  11. Sainz for me, Gasly kind of lucked into the win but a HM for him and HAM.

  12. Hands down, Lewis.

    An unnecessary Haas uselessly stopped near the pit lane entrance, followed by an unnecessary don’t enter pit lane closed rubbish, sent to the back of the grid and yet finished with 10 seconds and maintained his lead in championship.

    Gasly didn’t even pit once, got super lucky and sainz was slow. Nah nah nah.

    Go Lewis!!!!
    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

    1. Bla bla. At least get your facts right then since Gasly DID pit, right before the SC was called @Rott. Sainz was fast enough to run in 2nd behind Hamilton for the majority of the race, only the SC and then the red flag got him back in 6th before he was running 2nd again.
      The speed difference in the midfield is only a couple of tenths, so it is no big surprise a McLaren cannot just blast up towards an Alpha Tauri like Hamilton can do in his Mercedes when running in clean air.

    2. Rot troll

    3. People are getting used to your comments slightly – or massively over praising Hamilton.

      Magnussen pulled over where there were some marshals. His problem was very sudden so very likely couldn’t continue to the pits. He certainly would have done that if it was possible.

      Hamilton was going at safety car speeds and all drivers should be prepared to see signs or other unexpected things. Drivers before the race surely will be frequently told about the meaning of all the signs. If Hamilton was too distracted and missed these, then drivers would have all sort of excuses not to see anything when going at racing speeds. The penalty was appropriate and he ruined his own result by not paying attention. A bit unlucky and he had great pace as he virtually always does, but it was his own fault that he finished this low.

      Gasly did pit – and it was not a free pitstop. It was before the safety car. It was that everyone else ahead of him pitting and Stroll messing up at the restart that got him in the lead. But it is true that Gasly didn’t do a single racing overtake. He was clearly slower than Kvyat in the first stint and likely would have been beaten as Kvyat was on hards and would have gone long.

      Sainz is a more obvious choice IMO.

  13. One of the easiest DOTW picks I’ve ever made – Sainz. Great qualifying to take P3, P2 on merit before the drama began, and without the non-stoppers in the way I think he would have won.

  14. I voted Gasly. But really, if you looked at that race and said which driver stood out as driving impressively, it was Hamilton. Dominated the race at the start, was caught out by his team calling him in when he couldn’t, then made up a 30 seconds gap and passed 9 (?) drivers when his team mate in an equal car was managing absolutely nothing. Sainz struck me as too focused on being angry about the red flag to chase down an Alpha Tauri a few seconds up the road. Almost like he felt entitled to the win. Gasly drove brilliantly to preserve his tyres and stay ahead.

    1. The difference of skill and experience between Hamilton & Bottas was painfully obvious.
      Since Mercedes started dominating the field, we are used to seeing Hamilton mostly starting from the front row. Many of us can be forgiven for forgetting that he is also extremely good at overtaking.

      1. The fact that after the restart Sainz was able to pass cars on his way back to 2nd, and that Hamilton was able to pass half the field During the same period does raise the question of what on Earth was Bottas doing?
        Earlier in the race he complained that he had a puncture that he didn’t have and later that the engine mode was Undriveable, it’s odd to say the least. Oh and be messed his start too.

        Bottas should have been Able to get it on the podium given where he was running.

      2. @praxis True. Before DRS (and Mercedes dominance) he was regularly accounting for a big proportion of the overtakes on any given Sunday.

  15. Sainz, Gasly and Hamilton all did very well.
    Sainz – for being on pace all weekend. Especially the first stint, had all the chaos not ensued, he would have finished a very strong P2 in a boring race and i would have voted him DOTW. However, I did expect him to catch and pass Gasly in the 2nd stint because it seemed like Mclaren was faster than Alpha Tauri (even considering 4 laps older tyres). But he wasn’t able to do that. Clean air / dirty air may have played a role in it, but still, just didn’t feel like Sainz maximized the 2nd stint

    Gasly – Solid, but unspectacular until the first stint. He would have been nowhere and quite possibly have finished behind Kvyat had the chaos not ensued. However, he grabbed the opportunity with both hands; stayed calm, composed and solid in the 2nd stint. Great restart and held his composure while leading from the front.

    Hamilton – Edged his team-mate in qualifying, bossed him in the race. He would have won the race easily had it not been for a grave error in the crucial 12 seconds!! The responsibility for the error rests on him and team both though.

    Overall, I will give it to Hamilton since he probably performed near the top of his machinery’s potential for the maximum time period – save for those 12 seconds. But the chaos ensured he paid the maximum penalty for that mistake (first to last!!)

  16. Sainz 100 percent. Gasly deserved this but he rather lucked in whereas Sainz qualified well, was running second and was naturally about to inherit the lead with Hamiltons penalty

  17. Kevin Magnussen for me. Without him parking it in the pit lane entry, we’d have had another snooze-fest. His finest contribution to F1 so far, methinks.

    1. Thank you. Now I know who vote Kevin Magnussen other than me. Exactly for those reasons. It was indeed the nicest any driver could give to seven years of hybrid era.

  18. Gasly without a doubt. He drove a perfect race holding off much faster cars.

    For those saying Sainz, the McLaren was the second fastest car this weekend so he should have won quite comfortably, but simply could not cope with Gaslys pace.

    Dunce of the day: Hamilton. Didn’t pull away in a car one and a half seconds quicker than the rest. Made a rookie error not noticing pit lights and even in that rocketship couldn’t get back in to a meaningful position taking far too long to overtake slow cars.

    1. If Hamilton is a dunce? what nomenclature do you use to describe Bottas :) and Ferrari :)

    2. How was he driving a perfect race holding up his teammate and going backwards in that First stint. Stop trying to revise history, he lucked into gaining 15 places or so due to his pit stop and then had 6 cars between himself and Sainz to slow him enough so he could win. Pure luck on the win although credit that he didn’t do a hulk and bin it.

    3. The dunce here surely is the armchair critic that didn’t see Hamilton pulling away from the field before the safety car drama.

    4. Hamilton’s driving was flawless. But his mistake IMO was quite poor.

    5. Dunce of the day: Hamilton. Didn’t pull away in a car one and a half seconds quicker than the rest.

      The team were telling him to go easy. As soon as he actually had to use that performance, after his penalty, he did.

      Made a rookie error not noticing pit lights

      Joyeln Palmer: nobody would look at them after the team calls you in, you’re looking into the corner (not at some badly placed signs on the other side), busy avoiding marshals and setting the car for pit entry. All in a couple of seconds.

      and even in that rocketship couldn’t get back in to a meaningful position taking far too long to overtake slow cars

      So well done for noticing Hamilton overtook at least. Maybe you noticed Bottas in the same car passing precisely no one?
      0/3. Good job.

      1. Hamilton pulled away, he had 14 sec gap or so on sainz!

      2. And bottas passed raikkonen!

  19. Has to be Sainz.

    I know he’s said that he does not regret making the move to Ferrari but he must be concerned.

    1. @sonnycrockett Ferrari will recover eventually, they have too much money not too..

      1. @fw11b Budget cap will apply soon though

        1. @f1osaurus true, but Ferarri will not only be on the cap limit they will have no trouble staying there. In other words, while they might never reach Schumacher-era dominance again (in terms of technical superiority), they will remain a well funded outfit for many years to come.

  20. I voted for Sainz, but can we just take a moment to recognize how good Stroll has been this season? Regardless of the whole “changing tires during a red flag” controversy, his podium was deserved and he has been much more mature and consistent than more experienced or lauded drivers such as Perez or Albon.

    Relax, I’m not saying Stroll is a future world champion in the making, but with two podium finishes and solid drives, we should retire the pejorative “pay driver” moniker..

    1. @fw11b

      I am very against all the critics of Stroll, but I probably would say this was one of Stroll’s weaker races this year. I wouldn’t say it was poor, but he was pretty lucky and was in 8th earlier on and couldn’t pass slower cars. He had a poor restart, but at least showed he had better pace then and did re overtake Norris who was in a quick car. But he was lucky today.

      Anyway, about your point, Stroll has been good this season – or Perez hasn’t. it is one of those two. If we ignore this crazy race due to things being lucky for Stroll and the opposite for Perez as well as the two British races, The pair would basically be even on points. Stroll retired in the first race too which lost him a few. One thing I think I probably can say is that Stroll has been marginally better than perez so far, which is very impressive.

      1. @thegianthogweed I agree that Monza was not Stroll’s best race this season, which is ironic given it’s his best finish so far.

        If there is one criticism I have of Stroll it’s that he plays it too safe sometimes and I think this was one occasion where he could have been more aggressive. Again, this has absolutely nothing to do with the “pay driver” BS, it’s just his driving style, which will probably change as he gains more confidence in the car’s ability to sustain pressure (in that sense he reminds me of a young Jenson Button).

        Having said all that, Stroll has not only visibly improved this season but is proving to be a reliable/solid points scorer, which is something that is not as easy as it seems. Honestly, if I were in charge of Aston Martin I would keep him or reconsider Perez’s contract.

    2. @fw11b

      Regardless of the whole “changing tires during a red flag” controversy, his podium was deserved and he has been much more mature and consistent than more experienced or lauded drivers such as Perez or Albon.

      IIRC.. Perez out qualified him on Saturday… and was ahead of him in the race as well up until he made his pitstop. Lance got lucky that he didn’t make a stop before the red flag came out, or else he’d be at the back of the grid somewhere. I also don’t know how you can praise his drive after the red flag period. All he had to do was maintain P2 behind Hamilton up until Lewis pitted. Then he had the car to keep both the Alpha Tauris and Mclarens behind. This was a race win handed to him on a platter and he threw it away. Let’s face it… if Perez was in his position.. he would have been a Grand Prix winner already.

      While I do think Lance has improved a lot this year… he’s still mediocre at best.

  21. I think the way Stroll threw away a curve at victory given by his free pit stop shows not any driver could have won with the massive dose of good fortune that fell onto Gasly’s lap, but it wasn’t the best drive of the entire grid.

    I can quite easily forgive Hamilton for the mistake of pitting, why they don’t have a sign up over the pit lane to indicate it’s closed like you get on the lanes of motorways I don’t know.

    But I’ll give this to Sainz. Nailed qualifying, was likely to take 2nd on merit without any of the race lottery events, and just ran out of laps chasing the win but I can’t think of anything to fault him on.

  22. Bottas wins the most useless driver of the weekend.
    Poor start, soft on wheel to wheel battle, slow to get up to speed on the first few laps, and once he got going, his race pace was shocking.
    Overall pathetic display.

    1. I think you’ll find albon is great competition for that!

  23. DOTD: GAS
    DOTW: SAI.

  24. Gasly, of course. Good weekend also for Sainz, Stroll.

  25. I’m gonna go for sainz too, which is one of the 2 moral winners and in this poll’s case he’s the actual winner!

    I think both him and hamilton had great performances, keeping the fact they had the probably 2nd best car at this track and the clearly best car respectively, and I don’t blame hamilton for the flag mistake.

    1. Keeping in mind*, also hamilton was pulling away pretty fast at start, and sainz was 2nd on merit and also pulling away from his team mate, 1 more lap and would’ve passed gasly in the end and hamilton had a good recovery drive when you consider the overtaking difficulty.

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