Hamilton voted Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend

2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, Abu Dhabi, 2011

Lewis Hamilton was voted Driver of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend by F1 Fanatic readers.

The top three in the voting reflected the top three on the podium with Fernando Alonso coming in second ahead of Jenson Button.

It was a close vote between Hamilton and Alonso, the pair accounting for over 80% of the votes cast.

Driver of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Weekend poll – top three

1. Lewis Hamilton – 45.1%
2. Fernando Alonso – 35.1%
3. Jenson Button – 4.9%

Smifaye summarised the performances of all top three drivers of the weekend:

For me it is Hamilton. He showed great pace throughout the weekend and for people to be predicting him on pole and to be surprised by Vettel getting it is saying something. He drove a mature race and didn’t seem worried at all when Alonso was breathing down his neck. Superb drive which will hopefully give him that buzz back and turn his results around.

Alonso also has to be mentioned as he drove a great race and was putting in superb lap times and showing great pace that we hadn’t seen all weekend.

Button did well to hold off the attacks of both Massa and Webber to get his third third position at Abu Dhabi.
Smifaye

Some readers had a hard time choosing between Hamilton and Alonso:

I was going to go for Alonso who drove the wheels off his Ferrari (in a good way, unlike Vettel) but then it’s a vote for best driver over the full three days, so Hamilton gets it for me.
Andy G

I’m really not sure who to vote for. I think Hamilton had it under control the whole race and was simply running at a safe pace relative to Alonso. But Alonso even being there in that Ferrari was impressive. I want to give it to Hamilton, but I think Alonso deserves the recognition more.
Matt90

I had a hard time choosing between Alonso and Hamilton. Hamilton drove a superb race and it was brilliant seeing him up on the top step again.

The only thing I can fault him at is not getting pole position and that’s what I think changed my mind from giving him the driver of the weekend. I don’t think he’d have won had Vettel’s tyre not disintegrated.

Alonso somehow managed to keep within reach of the win until the pit stop with an inferior car. So Alonso for me!
Sharmin

Lewis Hamilton

Qualifying: 2nd
Race: 1st

Hamilton was strong through the whole weekend, but lost pole position to Sebastian Vettel.

He inherited the lead after Vettel’s crash in turn two of the opening lap – a gift he couldn’t waste. He was quick and consistent, controlling the race to take a much-needed third victory of the year.

Has to be Lewis Hamilton for me, dominated practice, and didn’t put a foot wrong in the race, a return to form for Lewis.
Newhamlea2

I’m trying to thing reasons not to vote for Lewis, but I think there really aren’t that many. So Hamilton gets my vote.
KaIIe

I picked Lewis Hamilton.

Consistently fast, often faster than Vettel, and I’m sure he’d have battled with him in the race had the German not retired. Alonso was great in the race considering he had the third-fastest car and outpaced Button, Webber and Massa, but Lewis had another weekend which reminds us all why he is considered as a great champion.
Fixy

Fernando Alonso

Qualifying: 5th
Race: 2nd

Qualified fifth as often before this year, but passed Webber and Button on the opening lap to push Hamilton almost to the chequered flag in what he called was a race composed of qualifying laps.

For me it’s Alonso. He did the best he could in qualifying, coming close to the front two teams and outpacing Massa by quite a bit. In the race I thought he was outstanding, with a great opening lap to pick off Webber and Button then pull away. He kept Hamilton honest right to the flag.
Colossal Squid

I’m a Hamilton fan but to be able to pull that kind of pace from the Ferrari during the race, gives Fernando my driver of the weekend vote. Points are won on race day and I place more of the weight of my vote on race performance.
RumFRESH

Both Lewis and Fernando deserve to be the drivers of the weekend but I voted for Fernando as he outperformed his car, had a great start and drove consistently through the whole race (the same goes for Lewis on this last remark).
Mariano

My vote goes to Fernando, he combined a very strong start, overtaking Jenson and Mark, with the usual superb pace in the long stints. With a clearly slower car than McLaren he put Lewis under a great pressure. Although it was very tactical, the battle between them was very interesting.
Alain

Jenson Button

Qualifying: 3rd
Race: 3rd

Qualified only nine-thousandths second behind Hamilton. In the race Button had to deal with a broken KERS and entertained the viewers with some close battles with Webber to eventually fend off the Red Bull driver and finish on the podium.

Button was strong in practice and while he was pipped by Hamilton in qualifying, his speed was on par with Hamilton’s (nine-thousands of a second is a blink of an eye, or less). Then he topped it off with a brilliant drive to defend against Webber, with a couple of champion level re-overtakes of Webber. Managing the KERS issue with Massa and Webber hard on him was massive.
uan

Since Hamilton and Alonso have it covered, I voted Button for he should be the third driver of the weekend. Three things to highlight his performance:

Faulty KERS for 20 laps, then manual system reset, then another fail after two laps.

Much has been said about upset braking balance with faulty KERS harvesters, which make it doubly difficult to keep pace (but what do we know about this stuff really?)

Despite that, brilliant and clean fights with Webber.
Randy

2011 Driver of the Weekend results so far

FirstSecondThird
AustraliaSergio Perez (36.3%)Vitaly Petrov (32.5%)Sebastian Vettel (12.0%)
MalaysiaNick Heidfeld (38.4%)Sebastian Vettel (16.0%)Jenson Button (12.1%)
ChinaMark Webber (47.8%)Lewis Hamilton (42.4%)Felipe Massa (2.5%)
TurkeyFernando Alonso (37.8%)Kamui Kobayashi (25.8%)Sebastian Vettel (22.1%)
SpainLewis Hamilton (39.6%)Sebastian Vettel (23.9%)Fernando Alonso (13.3%)
MonacoJenson Button (33.1%)Fernando Alonso (18.8%)Sebastian Vettel (17.0%)
CanadaJenson Button (61.0%)Michael Schumacher (27.8%)Sebastian Vettel (2.2%)
EuropeFernando Alonso (32.6%)Sebastian Vettel (27.6%)Jaime Alguersuari (25.7%)
BritainFernando Alonso (53.0%)Lewis Hamilton (22.3%)Mark Webber (8.0%)
GermanyLewis Hamilton (76.6%)Adrian Sutil (9.8%)Fernando Alonso (5.6%)
HungaryJenson Button (50.7%)Paul di Resta (14.4%)Lewis Hamilton (11.8%)
BelgiumMichael Schumacher (45.1%)Jenson Button (28.2%)Sebastian Vettel (14.7%)
ItalySebastian Vettel (38.2%)Michael Schumacher (29.6%)Jenson Button (18.2%)
SingaporeSebastian Vettel (41.8%)Paul di Resta (30.9%)Jenson Button (15.6%)
JapanJenson Button (67.3%)Fernando Alonso (13.3%)Michael Schumacher (6.3%)
KoreaLewis Hamilton (36.4%)Jaime Alguersuari (22.6%)Sebastian Vettel (22.2%)
IndiaSebastian Vettel (47.5%)Jenson Button (13.5%)Michael Schumacher (11.6%)
Abu DhabiLewis Hamilton (45.1%)Fernando Alonso (35.1%)Jenson Button (4.9%)

It was Hamilton’s fourth win in the poll giving him as many as Jenson Button, and one more each than Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso.

For the first time this season, the results of the poll perfectly reflected the actual race results with the podium finishers occupying top three spots in the poll.

What do you think about the results? Share your thoughts below.

Image © McLaren

38 comments on “Hamilton voted Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend”

  1. Yet my comment wasnt picked,Understanble anyway because obviously my name is ‘Younger Hamii’ and it would be seen as biased from almost everyone.

    *Groans annoyed*

    1. Comments are picked on their own merit, your username doesn’t make a difference.

      1. Thanks @lilla-my for my third mention in an article! (First, second.) I’m honoured!
        And I agree with the result obviously, as I picked him ;)

        1. Is it that many? ;) Maybe I should put you now on a blacklist of people whose comments I don’t pick to give others a chance. Just joking of course ;)

          1. Why thank you for picking my comment on Jenson. :) I’m affraid i’m growing a bit of a die hard fan of his, if i well remember most of the drivers of the day i voted in went to him, damn i’m biased. On the other hand, it’s not that big of a stretch picking him as a top driver in most races.

            Ewa – one question, out of pure curiosity.

            Are you Polish? Your name suggests so, which is a very pleasant surprise.

            If you are, and i speak to all of Polish readers out there, feel free to contact me, if you’re in Wroclaw on particular sundays you can drop by to watch the race, most of the races i enjoy with friends – fun squared!

            I would say one important thing though – sadly Keith may disapprove of this and get this post deleted, so i can’t say that i watch every race with BBC audio instead of crappy Polish commentary, so english speaking audience is prefered.
            (:

    2. Yet my comment wasnt picked

      You’re one of a few hundred people that weren’t picked. It’s nothing to do with your name.

    3. When picking up a comment I personally look at the comment only, without paying any attention to the username (this comes later and doesn’t influence the choice). With the amount of (good/interesting) comments it is impossible to put everyone’s opinion into the summery of the poll.

      1. Me too, I once missed that my own post was in there!

    4. I’d say it’s more because of your poor grammar and spelling than your username.

    5. Yet my comment wasnt picked,Understanble anyway because obviously my name is ‘John H’ and it would be seen as biased from almost everyone.

      *Groans annoyed*

      (Meh)

  2. I think Hamilton deserved this one, but he also had luck on his side. Vettel was stunning in qualifying and it was probably the most impressive performance I’ve seen from him to date on the Saturday, as I was genuinely convinced the McLaren was faster.

    We were in for a great fight in the race if things were to be as close as they were in qualifying, and it would have been a great opportunity for Vettel to silence his critics and fight for a victory. Whether or not he’d have managed it; we’ll never know. But it seemed quite unfair when I ticked the box next to Fernando’s name, knowing that Sebastian had a lot more pace and impressed me more on the Saturday.

    It’s the whole weekend that counts, but I really didn’t want Sebastian to retire from that race. Even after the puncture, there was a good chance we’d have seen him claw his way back through the field and into the points.

    1. No, Vettel having to retire was sad indeed; I think most of us would have liked to see him win driver of the weekend with a great drive back to the front of the race.

  3. Everyone keeps saying Alonso is driving beyond the car, but do we really know that? How much is it flattered by Massa underperforming?

    1. @joey-poey I think this idea of drivers ‘out-performing the car’ is a lazy cliche – one I try to avoid, though I’m sure if you rummage through the archive you’ll find I’ve transgressed somewhere!

      But I would say Alonso has extracted close to the maximum from his car this year. More so than Hamilton or Button? Almost certainly. More so than Vettel? That’s much harder to answer.

      Whereas Massa has clearly underperformed and you can take your pick of which metric you use to show that: his best finish being only fifth, his lack of any podiums this year compared to Alonso’s ten, etc…

      1. I disagree slightly. I think you have a car, and then you actually have a human being in it. It makes more of a difference than we are usually prepared to admit. A car has a maximum performance, but it is humanly impossible to achieve it, by definition. I do believe that certain drivers make up 0,5 seconds a lap – always in comparison to a “normal” driver.
        About Vettel x Alonso, just look to Webber and Massa. I think Massa is having the worse season, but Vettel has destroyed Webber more than Alonso has destroyed Massa. Your numbers Keith!
        Qualifying – Vettel 15×3, Alonso 14×4 (Vettel 0,427 difference, Alonso 0,284).
        Races – Vettel 15×1, Alonso 12×2
        Vettel led 93% of the races against Webber, Alonso 83%.
        Vettels point difference is also higher (141 to 129), and that considering that Massa never even scored more than 10 points a race.
        Alonso has done great, and people acknowledge it. Vettel has done even better, but the tendency is to say that it is due to the car. Well, with that logic, Massa has had a better season than Webber – and I don’t think so!!

        1. “Vettel has done even better, but the tendency is to say that it is due to the car”
          that’s a fact & i can explain it to you
          Last year it’s Alonso ‘s 1st year in Ferrari & it was obvious from the first corner of the Bahrain gp who is the n° 1 driver this year it’s the same story massa was far behind from alonso
          Last year Mark did a better job than Seb in some races(monaco,spain,silverstone,hungary) but somehow in the last part of the season Vettel retakes the lead & this season in some races there was 1 second gap between mark & seb
          Seb did a great job this season & he well deserved his title but the gap between him & mark was realy due to the RB7 which was designed all around vettel’s driving style

          1. and the Ferrari wasn’t for Alonso???

          2. @Tifoso1989

            @91jb12 very easily overpowered your point.

      2. @keithcollantine I will definitely admit that he’s made extremely few mistakes this year and for that I agree that he’s gotten as much as he can out of it. I may not like Alonso, but there’s little this year I can fault him for as far as performance.

        And yet at the same time, it’s so difficult to discern who’s doing great and who’s doing poor at this level of racing anymore. Such intense consistency and ability is required just to reach F1 that the top echelon actually within the grid is like trying to pick between “eggshell” and “off-white.” You look at the way many teammates have been qualifying within hundredths of one another and it’s a testament to both their ability and the difference the cars make in who looks fast. The differences between the Red Bull and Ferrari teammates that @magon4 points out seem to be less the norm this year.

        1. it sure is @joey-poey (red bull & ferrari being the exception). lap % i think gives a pretty good insight into that, and the only other driver taking a beating is jerome d’ambrosio (25% of laps in front of glock). kovalainen and rosberg both are in front of their team mates at a ratio of 2:1, so that speaks for them. the other winners are all relatively close: ricciardo (58%), hamilton (57%), barrichello (56%), buemi (53%), kobayashi (52%) and sutil (51%).

      3. It seems to me that drivers are said to be outdriving their cars when they have poor teammates. However, it depends on the popularity of the driver; last year when Kubica thrashed Petrov it was supposedly down to his general awesomeness and far outt-driving the car, but when Sutil beat Liuzzi by a similar amount he was still said to be rubbish. Phrases like outdriving the car are used by extreme fans of various drivers to kill all logic in a debate.

      4. I agree with you that stating that “Alonso has extracted close to the maximum from his car this year” it’s a much better and accurate definition than saying that he out-performed his car as I did.

        Thank you very much for picking my comment which was my first ever in this site.

        1. Actually it was Ewa who wrote the article who picked your comment out!

          But please don’t think I was having a go at what you said in my earlier comment, that’s just one of my many writing hang-ups.

      5. Not to mention Massa all too often just making mistakes going round on track even on his own.

        Massa does seem to have found some speed back this year, but race craft did never really join it to get any halfway solid results. Although at times the pitstop regime was a bit unfavourable for him as well.

    2. Can you actually drive “beyond” the car’s limits? I strongly doubt it. You can only squeeze every single ounce of it and some drivers are more capable to do it than others. However, if you manage to get a certain lap time in a certain car, then doing it was within the limits of the car. The problem is to wring 100% of performance from the car and Alonso is doing it much better this year than Massa.

      1. @lilla-my yeah, and that’s kinda one of the things that irks me about the phrase. You can’t physically drive a car beyond it’s maximum potential. But, I suppose we can’t ask for hyperbole to disappear because then English would be boring ;)

        1. @lilla-my, @joey-poey I couldn’t agree more. A driver can only extract 100% of the car’s potential, not more. Hence the phrase being so annoying. I do think Vettel and Alonso have both likely extracted very nearly the full potential of their cars, whereas Webber and Massa have both shown to be pretty average drivers this year. The McLaren drivers are harder to pigeonhole, especially compared to Vettel and Alonso.

    3. I think it’s really a case of this year’s Ferrari being no faster than my brother’s Kia, but both Massa AND Alonso are able to drive so far beyond its limits that it’s actually fairly competitive!

      I’m obviously joking, but I really have never quite understood how it’s possible to address this question. Is Massa actually driving about as well as most experienced F1 drivers would in that car, whereas Alonso is just incredibly exceptional? Or is Massa not really driving very well in a car that most other experienced drivers would be performing about as well as Alonso in? How do we know where to put the benchmark?

      It seems like the only safe conclusion is that Alonso is better than Massa!

      1. Alonso is better than Massa!

        Incorrect. “Fernando is faster than Massa.”

        1. What did you think I meant? A better all-around human being?

  4. Feels great to be quoted! I guess everyone has their opinion on DOW ratings, the fact that Lewis won over most of you whose opinion on F1 I hold very highly, earns him my respect as well.

  5. I see some people still can’t tell the difference between driver of the race and driver of the weekend.

    Alonso drove a great race, for sure, as he has done so much this season, but was poor on the friday and wasn’t really competitive until Qualifying. Hamilton should have won this by a larger margin I think.

    1. if you view the weekend as preparation to the main event, the race, then even supposidley bad showings on friday might be a choice to try things out and get the best out of sunday.

    2. Your point tells us maybe we should have a “Driver of the race” poll besides the Driver of The Weekend.
      I suspect Ferrari as other teams as well, are using Fridays to test 2012 features on the car.

    3. “but was poor on the friday and wasn’t really competitive until Qualifying.”

      And you know this how? Because he was slower than McLaren and Red Bull? I don’t even look at Practice sessions because they’re totally unrepresentative. Using them as an argument for DotW is just silly unless they screwed up which affected the rest of their weekend.
      Qualifying and the Race are the sessions that count. In that regard Alonso keeps on getting close to 100% out of the car every weekend (like Vettel). Hamilton always seems to have a disappointing qualifying or race.

      I can also turn this around and say Hamilton shouldn’t have gotten any votes at all because Vettel sure didn’t when he was out in front, controlling the weekend in the fastest car.
      So, Unlike Hamilton who had the quickest car all weekend Alonso had to fight for 2nd place. How does that make Hamilton’s race more impressive when as Vettel does that, nobody is impressed…

      Besides all that, Hamilton lost pole in the quickest car on the grid and got lucky when Vettel retired. I seriously doubt Hamilton would have had it easy if Vettel had made it to corner three. Now he only needed to defend against the 3rd fastest car on the grid.
      Compare that to Alonso putting the Ferrari where it belonged on Saturday and beating a McLaren and a Red Bull on Sunday.

      Yeah, much less impressive.

    4. “but was poor on the friday and wasn’t really competitive until Qualifying”
      don’t forget that Ferrari are focusing on the development of next year car alonso was not poor on friday he was just doing the job of testing

      1. And anyway, we have seen all season that Ferrari isn’t competitve in qualifying conditions but usually has much better pace in the races; I don’t think Alonso could have gotten much better out of Saturday or Sunday.

  6. I went with Alonso and I stand by that. Such a shame he couldn’t get the primes up to scratch but he did brilliantly all weekend with a car that shouldn’t really be on the podium.

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