Which Formula 1 driver made the most of the Austrian 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 Red Bull Ring.
Driver performance summary
Driver | Started | Gap to team mate (Q) | Laps leading team mate | Pitted | Finished | Gap to team mate (R) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lewis Hamilton | 4th | -0.035s | 51/71 | 2 | 4th | +28.479s | |
Valtteri Bottas | 5th | +0.035s | 20/71 | 1 | 2nd | -28.479s | |
Max Verstappen | 1st | -0.27s | 71/71 | 2 | 1st | -47.915s | |
Sergio Perez | 3rd | +0.27s | 0/71 | 1 | 5th | +47.915s | |
Lando Norris | 2nd | -0.304s | 71/71 | 1 | 3rd | -40.376s | |
Daniel Ricciardo | 13th | +0.304s | 0/71 | 1 | 7th | +40.376s | |
Lance Stroll | 9th | +0.048s | 14/69 | 2 | 13th | Not on same lap | |
Sebastian Vettel | 11th | -0.048s | 55/69 | 2 | 17th | Not on same lap | |
Esteban Ocon | 17th | +0.579s | 0/0 | 0 | |||
Fernando Alonso | 14th | -0.579s | 0/0 | 1 | 10th | ||
Charles Leclerc | 12th | +0.041s | 49/71 | 1 | 8th | +4.051s | |
Carlos Sainz Jnr | 10th | -0.041s | 22/71 | 1 | 6th | -4.051s | |
Pierre Gasly | 6th | -0.166s | 64/70 | 2 | 9th | Not on same lap | |
Yuki Tsunoda | 7th | +0.166s | 6/70 | 2 | 12th | Not on same lap | |
Kimi Raikkonen | 16th | +0.227s | 68/70 | 1 | 16th | +7.877s | |
Antonio Giovinazzi | 15th | -0.227s | 2/70 | 2 | 14th | -7.877s | |
Mick Schumacher | 19th | -0.524s | 69/69 | 1 | 18th | -51.07s | |
Nikita Mazepin | 20th | +0.524s | 0/69 | 2 | 19th | +51.07s | |
George Russell | 8th | -0.288s | 67/70 | 1 | 11th | -26.625s | |
Nicholas Latifi | 18th | +0.288s | 3/70 | 1 | 15th | +26.625s |
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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 2021 Austrian Grand Prix?
- No opinion (0%)
- Nicholas Latifi (0%)
- George Russell (2%)
- Nikita Mazepin (0%)
- Mick Schumacher (0%)
- Antonio Giovinazzi (0%)
- Kimi Raikkonen (1%)
- Yuki Tsunoda (0%)
- Pierre Gasly (0%)
- Carlos Sainz Jnr (3%)
- Charles Leclerc (0%)
- Fernando Alonso (5%)
- Esteban Ocon (0%)
- Sebastian Vettel (0%)
- Lance Stroll (0%)
- Daniel Ricciardo (1%)
- Lando Norris (62%)
- Sergio Perez (0%)
- Max Verstappen (22%)
- Valtteri Bottas (1%)
- Lewis Hamilton (0%)
Total Voters: 215

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When this poll is closed the result will be displayed instead of the voting form.
Debates and polls
- Should the F1 world championship be decided by a 19-lap sprint race?
- 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?
Jere (@jerejj)
4th July 2021, 19:21
DOTW: NOR
DOTD: Also, NOR with honorable mentions to SAI and RIC.
MacLeod (@macleod)
5th July 2021, 7:51
I think there were more drivers who can claim this title. Max, Lando, Carlos No Russel as he failed againt to score a point (His Sunday performance is getting Epic now (bad) Even in the Mercedes he couldn’t claim a podium) I think he is cursed with bad luck.
But i went for Carlos, With Lando and Max close second.
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
4th July 2021, 19:30
Who voted for Perez? lmao
He would be WDOTD (worst driver of the weekend) ;)
On a more serious note, it’s hard to choose between Verstappen & Norris. Both did an amazing job across the whole weekend. Gasly, Russell and Mick did great too.
jff
4th July 2021, 21:23
Also the gap to their teammates is very similar in both quali and race (of course VER did an extra stop).
But as I still rate Ricciardo higher than Perez, I’d give it to Norris this week (and he had to fight harder for it).
Aapje (@aapje)
4th July 2021, 19:42
Max had a sloppy quali, but a good race, although without challenge.
Norris had a great quali and a good race, although a bit too aggressive against Perez.
Norris gets the nod.
Peter King
5th July 2021, 3:30
Sloppy Quali? He was first in each qualifying stage and was not happy with being sent out so soon and give Norris a tow to an almost Max like time.
He did fly away from the start and Norris was nowhere to be seen, if not for Hamilton’s problems Norris would not have been on the podium. Does not change the fact that Norris drove a great race but Max won this race in a Mercedes dominant style like drive. And I also disagree with him getting 5 seconds penalty because Perez did something stupid, trying to pass where passing was almost impossible. Norris drove a logical line in that turn and should not have been punished because Perez choose a stupid aggressive attempt at passing him.
Balue (@balue)
4th July 2021, 19:47
I voted Norris, but he messed up and got a penalty, probably costing him 2nd place. In reality it should be Verstappen, but as he didn’t really have to work for it, and Norris’ speed was stunning.
HUHHII (@huhhii)
4th July 2021, 19:48
Stewards completely missed their job this weekend so Kimi it is.
jff
4th July 2021, 21:25
Have you ever voted for somebody else?
If yes, what happened that weekend?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
4th July 2021, 21:58
Ahah, wow, that’s a good question indeed, sometimes I wonder if he’s joking about always talking raikkonen up.
glynh (@glynh)
4th July 2021, 19:52
I was very close to going for Norris but Russell was more impressive for me. He had a spectacular qualifying and was so close to getting in the points with a great defence against Alonso.
d0senbrot (@d0senbrot)
4th July 2021, 21:03
Went with Max here. Untouchable in the race. A small mistake on his first Q3 lap, but he still held on to pole outqualifying Perez by three tenth. With a tow like Norris he would have improved on his second lap.
Jelle van der Meer (@)
4th July 2021, 21:10
Who voted Hamilton, he would be the struggler of the week if not for Raikkonnen and Perez.
melanos
4th July 2021, 21:32
Of the three 5 second penalties I only agree with the 2nd (first Perez vs Leclerc) because Charles was clearly ahead of Checo. In particular I disagree with the penalty Lando got and put him behind Valtteri. He should have been second. Both quali and race close to perfection make Lando DOTW in my view
Honorable mentions: Max (had it way too easy, but was good enough. Minor mistakes in Q3 and still got the pole), also Alonso and Sainz
George Russell, the Saturday Wonder, is still not ready for Sunday prime time. His start was not too bad but lost positions in the first few turns , too much hesitation and timidity.
And Sir Busdriver is running out of excuses to avoid a Struggler label.
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
5th July 2021, 0:41
Completely agree on penalties, DotW and your honourable mentions. Not sure about Russell, have just finished the highlights and haven’t seen what his first lap issue was – maybe he just didn’t position the car that well, though the rest of his race looked pretty good. Hamilton was just fine this race, not spectacular but looked on course for a fairly comfortable second before he picked up some aero damage.
Rodric Ewulf
5th July 2021, 3:10
It happened because of his mistake taking too much kerb, wasn’t it? If it was Max many people would be talking how unkind he is to his own machinery, driving like Mad Max, etc. It’s weird the amount of indulgence over Lewis’ mistakes which are happeing too much often this season. This time it wasn’t potentially race ending but his pace dropped considerably after picking up damage and he lost key positions on this race thinking about the title fight. But instead some will divert attention to the near loss of pole position by Max against Lando Norris and say “look, he makes mistakes too, that’s normal” kind of nonsense. The narrative of Max having the best car might work as the perfect excuse though, as in fact it’s tilting towards this direction, but the difference in racing consistency between those two drivers is increasing instead of smoothing out, and that’s not great news for the championship. Lewis is starting to look like Sebastian Vettel in 2018.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
4th July 2021, 21:32
Norris, easy. Granted Max got an easy win, performed flawlessly, but I am not going to vote for an easy winner.
Norris meanwhile was entertaining, ruthless, fast, mixed it way out of his league and got one RBR and one AMG.
If it wasnt for strange penalties he might have been second on merit, not some safety car luck or something. Just amazing.
BasCB (@bascb)
4th July 2021, 21:33
To me the driver of the weekend was Norris. A bit of a breakthrough. I disagree with the penalty, although it is good that at least they were then consistent with handing out penalties for similar incidents between Leclerc and Perez.
Also not much one can say against Verstappen this weekend, even though he himself wasn’t completely happy with qualifying (but then, neither was Norris). And I think Russel did a really solid job again too, although those starts/first laps of his really need some attention.
Sainz also had a really solid weekend. I like to see how it seems Ferrari now more or less understand how their car works on the tyres and are making good race strategy calls based on that. It ads an interesting element to the race weekend to see a team being on top of that in the midfield to mix up how raceweekends pan out.
And yeah, Mercedes can probably be really happy about Norris and Perez having that incident, since it got Perez behind the both of them, got Perez in a state of mind where he lost out to Sainz due to more penalties and the penalty got Bottas ahead of Norris.
melanos
4th July 2021, 21:50
Without the almost perfect weekend by Lando I would have voted Sainz.
Carlos Sainz Jr landed on his feet in Ferrari. Some said he was overrated, he would play second fiddle to Charles Leclerc, etc. Now they are pretty much tied on points, and Charles gets a TO to let him pass. So it goes.
Jockey Ewing
4th July 2021, 21:38
Nice individual performance and post race interview with Lando, he was so cheerful. Rare to see so much joy, I really liked it. Was comparably funny to the hug of Giorgio Chiellini and Alex Witsel.
Of course the contact started a long chain of bad events for Perez, but I think he apologized for it properly.
Jockey Ewing
4th July 2021, 22:33
They not had a contact.
slowmo (@slowmo)
4th July 2021, 21:49
I actually voted Verstappen for once for getting the grand slam but Norris was immense.
melanos
4th July 2021, 21:52
Wasn’t it a Grand Chelem? He was first ALL the race
Kyle (@hammerheadgb)
4th July 2021, 22:42
They are two names for the same thing.
(Pole, win, fastest lap w/o leading every lap is a known as a hat-trick or treble.)
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
4th July 2021, 21:54
Lewis Hamilton (1%)
Valtteri Bottas (4%)
Max Verstappen (24%)
Sergio Perez (1%)
Lando Norris (59%)
Daniel Ricciardo (0%)
Lance Stroll (0%)
Sebastian Vettel (1%)
Esteban Ocon (0%)
Fernando Alonso (5%)
Charles Leclerc (0%)
Carlos Sainz Jnr (2%)
Pierre Gasly (0%)
Yuki Tsunoda (0%)
Kimi Raikkonen (1%)
Antonio Giovinazzi (0%)
Mick Schumacher (0%)
Nikita Mazepin (0%)
George Russell (2%)
Nicholas Latifi (0%)
No opinion (0%)
Total Voters: 85
Went for norris, was ON FIRE all weekend, verstappen obviously did great but it felt too easy for him with mercedes lacking performance, hamilton having damage, norris behind him for several laps making it easier to build a gap etc.
Don’t think there were other true candidates.
Kyle (@hammerheadgb)
4th July 2021, 22:47
Usually a driver earning the Grand Slam deservedly wins DOTW, and Max did no wrong, but Lando was somehow even better. Started and should have finished 2nd on merit, the penalty he received coming about only because the stewards decided to re-interpret the rules of racing without warning anyone first. What a season he’s having.
David BR (@david-br)
4th July 2021, 22:56
Possibly the easiest choice this year, Lando Norris.
JL (@j-l)
4th July 2021, 23:16
Max and Lando are the clear standouts this weekend. Went with Lando for a second week in a row.
Chris (@cgturbo)
4th July 2021, 23:57
Surprised how few votes Russell has received.
Went for RUS, with honourable mentions of: VER, NOR, ALO
Nimba (@nimba)
5th July 2021, 3:49
MAX MAX MAX, SUPER MAX MAX SUPER SUPER MAX
Jelle van der Meer (@)
5th July 2021, 9:34
Yeah perfect argument
Dave
5th July 2021, 18:59
Even Max said in a Twitch stream with Lando last year that he doesn’t like that song.
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
5th July 2021, 5:55
The first Grand Chelem. So it had to be Max.
Honorable mention to Carlos for keeping it up there without any drama.
MaddMe (@)
5th July 2021, 7:09
For the weekend, it has to be Max, with the exception of FP2, he has lead throughout and has not put a foot wrong all weekend.
Lando a very close 2nd, certainly DOTD.
PanosX13X (@panosx13x)
5th July 2021, 9:31
For me the driver of the weekend I will go for Max Verstappen.He was flawless first in everything exepct FP2.He bossed the race.Norris was also superb.Perez and Raikkonen were the worst this weekend
Ronald (@mosquito)
5th July 2021, 10:16
How can I choose someone else if one driver takes pole, fastest lap, and leads every lap of the race ANDis way ahaed of his teammate? (also before his cross country trip)
It’s Verstappen for me.
bosyber (@bosyber)
5th July 2021, 11:14
Simply because (like happened with other super star drivers before), he made it look easy (as much as he wasn’t visible due to being waay ahead in the race :) @mosquito