Vote for your Bahrain GP driver of the weekend

2014 Bahrain Grand Prix

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Which F1 driver was the best performer during the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend?

Review how each driver got on below and vote for who impressed you the most during the last race weekend.

Bahrain Grand Prix driver-by-driver

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – For the second time this year technical problems with his car during Q2 hindered his attempts to get into the final ten, as did his spin at turn two during final practice. Gambled on using medium tyres for his first stint and gained ground despite a DRS glitch and poor straight line speed (though his was higher than Alonso’s). Let Ricciardo past when ordered to, got back ahead of him then was passed once more after the Safety Car period, ending up sixth.

Daniel Ricciardo – Qualified a surprising third, then was relegated ten places by his Malaysia grid penalty. After passing Magnussen he lobbied the pit wall for help getting ahead of Vettel, which was granted, though he dropped back behind during the pit stops. But having got his medium tyre stint out of the way mid-race he re-passed Vettel after the Safety Car period, helped himself to another place from Hulkenberg and was poised to strike at Perez when the chequered flag came don, taking fourth.

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – Having lagged behind Hamilton in practice Rosberg seized the initiative in qualifying, taking pole for the second year in Bahrain. He had the pace to win from there but Hamilton got ahead at the start and try as he might Rosberg just couldn’t make a move stick, even with the benefit of softer tyres in the final stint.

Lewis Hamilton – Headed every practice session and looked a sure thing for pole when qualifying began. But wasn’t as comfortable in his car when the competitive sessions began and two mistakes in Q3 let Rosberg in for pole. Hamilton made a better start, however, and by parrying each and every one of Rosberg’s attacks he pulled off a remarkable win.

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – As expected the Ferrari wanted for straight-line speed in Bahrain but Alonso seemed particularly vulnerable in the race, giving away 13kph to his team mate and 21kph to the Mercedes. A gradual loss of power throughout qualifying left him ninth on the grid, and although a rapid start moved him up to seventh he was soon demoted by Hulkenberg. Was grateful for the chance to save fuel afford by the Safety Car period, and crossed the finishing line back in ninth place, one arm aloft.

Kimi Raikkonen – Lined up fifth on the grid but never lapped inside the top six. It didn’t help matters that he was hit by Magnussen – again – on the opening lap. “The lack of aero downforce and speed on the straight meant overtaking was complicated,” he said, after following his team mate home in tenth.

Lotus

Romain Grosjean – Narrowly beat Maldonado into Q2 and although he fell back at the start he was quickly able to pass the Caterhams and Bianchi. Was having a good race with Gutierrez until his team mate took him out of the equation, and brought the car home 12th, pleased at his first trouble-free weekend of the year.

Pastor Maldonado – Posted his first finish for Lotus but was fortunate to make it that far after crashing into Gutierrez while leaving the pits after his second stop on lap 39. Blamed Gutierrez for the collision but few saw it that way, least of all the stewards, who issued a trio of penalties including a three-point licence endorsement.

McLaren

Jenson Button – Took sixth on the grid, saying the team had “done a more or less perfect job” up to that point. The race began promisingly and had it not been for a clutch failure on his car Button reckoned he could have passed the Force Indias for third.

Kevin Magnussen – Lost vital ground at the start by making contact with Raikkonen and never really got back into the race from there. Also retired with a clutch problem.

Force India

Nico Hulkenberg – Said failing to get beyond Q2 was his own fault after running wide at turn 11, losing several tenths of a second. But he quickly made up for it after the start, gaining three places on lap one and then passing Alonso. He lost out to Perez while scrapping with Massa, and an attempt to claim the position back after the Safety Car period didn’t work out. Ricciardo then bumped him down to fifth before the end of the race.

Sergio Perez – His first start for Force India in Australia was ruined on lap one and he didn’t even make it to the start in Malaysia. But it was third time lucky for Perez, who after taking fourth on the grid was disappointed he wasn’t closer to the front. Brake warm-up had been a problem for him in qualifying and it was at the start as well, where he locked up heavily at turn one. But from there he took the fight to the Williams drivers, passing Massa twice to gain the track position he needed to make a two-stop strategy work. He put one over his team mate as well, which proved valuable at the end of the race when he had just enough in hand to claim his first pole position since 2012.

Sauber

Adrian Sutil – Picked up his first penalty points of the year by impeding Grosjean during qualifying. Having failed to make it out of Q1 he was then relegated to last place. In the race he was the victim of some questionable driving by Bianchi, the pair making contact and turns one and four as the Marussia driver tried to pass. “He was driving aggressively for the whole race and pushed me off at the start,” said Sutil. “With his move he destroyed mine as well as his own race.”

Esteban Gutierrez – Out-qualified his team mate but looked set for an afternoon scrapping with the Lotuses outside of the points positions when he was hit by Maldonado. A hospital visit was required after his Sauber flipped over but he was given the all-clear.

Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne – Said Maldonado’s driving was “absolutely mental” when they tangled on the first lap, adding “that guy tried to kill me” as he made his way back to the pits. The damage ruined his race, as he explained afterwards: “I got squeezed more and more and when he realised I was about to overtake him anyway, he just closed the door. That is why our wheels touched and my car took off, out of control. Both rear wing and floor got heavily damaged with a huge loss of aero performance and it was just not possible to continue my race.” Before the race began he revealed he’d gone to hospital between the first two races of the year as a result of trying to reduce hid body weight to compete with his lighter team mate.

Daniil Kvyat – Believe he could have made it into Q3 but didn’t make the cut and the story of his race was similar – he finished 11th, just outside the points.

Williams

Felipe Massa – A blistering start from seventh on the grid had him up to third by turn one. But the Williams was asking too much of its rear tyres and Massa found himself under increasing pressure from the Force India drivers. Even without the Safety Car period he was likely to drop behind the Red Bulls, and leaving his medium tyre stint to last reduced his chances of overtaking them.

Valtteri Bottas – Out-qualified Massa but was harder on the tyres than his team mate and ended the race looking at his rear wing again.

Marussia

Jules Bianchi – A pair of rash moves on Sutil spoiled his race, though he blamed his rival for the contact: “I had the chance to get ahead of him and I was slightly ahead going into turn one, but he turned in on me and crashed into me, which punctured my left rear.” The floor damage and loss of time ensured he wouldn’t play a role even in the battle for the lowest positions.

Max Chilton – Notched up his 22nd finish and took 13th place, helping Marussia to retake tenth from Caterham in the constructors’ championship.

Caterham

Kamui Kobayashi – Looked racy in the early stages of the race but even after the Safety Car period he still needed to conserve fuel which kept him from attacking in the final laps.

Marcus Ericsson – Briefly held 17th before an MGU-H failure ended his race.

Qualifying and race results summary

DriverStartedGap to team mateLaps leading team matePittedFinishedGap to team mate
Sebastian Vettel10th+0.393s44/5726th+5.39s
Daniel Ricciardo13th-0.393s13/5724th-5.39s
Lewis Hamilton2nd+0.279s54/5721st-1.085s
Nico Rosberg1st-0.279s3/5722nd+1.085s
Fernando Alonso9th+0.624s50/5739th-0.867s
Kimi Raikkonen5th-0.624s7/57310th+0.867s
Romain Grosjean16th-0.009s27/57312th-19.66s
Pastor Maldonado17th+0.009s30/57314th+19.66s
Jenson Button6th-0.325s40/40217th
Kevin Magnussen8th+0.325s0/403
Nico Hulkenberg11th+0.369s11/5725th+4.587s
Sergio Perez4th-0.369s46/5723rd-4.587s
Adrian Sutil22nd+0.273s0/172
Esteban Gutierrez15th-0.273s17/172
Jean-Eric Vergne14th+0.141s0/182
Daniil Kvyat12th-0.141s18/18311th
Felipe Massa7th+0.264s34/5737th-0.611s
Valtteri Bottas3rd-0.264s23/5738th+0.611s
Jules Bianchi19th-0.603s11/56416thNot on same lap
Max Chilton21st+0.603s45/56313thNot on same lap
Kamui Kobayashi18th-0.79s25/33215th
Marcus Ericsson20th+0.79s8/332

Review the race data

Vote for your driver of the weekend

Which driver do you think did the best job this weekend?

Cast your vote below and explain your choice in the comments.

Who was the best driver of the 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix weekend?

  • Marcus Ericsson (0%)
  • Kamui Kobayashi (0%)
  • Max Chilton (0%)
  • Jules Bianchi (0%)
  • Valtteri Bottas (0%)
  • Felipe Massa (0%)
  • Daniil Kvyat (0%)
  • Jean-Eric Vergne (0%)
  • Adrian Sutil (0%)
  • Esteban Gutierrez (0%)
  • Nico Hulkenberg (2%)
  • Sergio Perez (26%)
  • Kevin Magnussen (0%)
  • Jenson Button (0%)
  • Pastor Maldonado (1%)
  • Romain Grosjean (0%)
  • Kimi Raikkonen (0%)
  • Fernando Alonso (0%)
  • Lewis Hamilton (49%)
  • Nico Rosberg (3%)
  • Daniel Ricciardo (17%)
  • Sebastian Vettel (0%)

Total Voters: 838

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2014 Bahrain Grand Prix

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Images © Red Bull/Getty, Mercedes/Daimler, Force India, Williams/LAT

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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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123 comments on “Vote for your Bahrain GP driver of the weekend”

  1. Hard choice between Hamilton and Perez, but gave it to the Mexican.

    1. Exactly the same. Struggled to choose between HAM & ROS, so gave it to PER.

      1. GB (@bgp001ruled)
        7th April 2014, 20:29

        you struggeled between two drivers so you choose a third one?

        1. logic is the real winner here.

    2. Juan (@gumbercules)
      7th April 2014, 19:42

      Hard choice, but Hamilton’s defense was epic so I have it to him.

      Really, we should all thank Maldonado for a great end to the race.

      1. Haha! Yeah, I thought about voting for Maldonado for bringing out out the safety car, but couldn’t bring myself to do it.

        Perez for me. As much as I wanted Hulk up there, it was a well deserved podium for Checo.

    3. Agree, Hamilton and Rosberg’s battle was Epic, but Rosberg should have been able to get past him on softer tires and Hamilton shouldn’t have goofed on his qualifying run on Saturday so that takes them out of the Running for me.

      Perez got the best he could possibly get from his car.

    4. SO the choice is going for Ham who beat Rosberg in the race or Perez or Ricciardo who beat 10 other guys for their very good weekend. For the whole weekend there’s only one name for me and it’s name is Ricciardo, beating Vettel in any situation is hard and driving through RedBull limitations is even harder, Ricciardo again was perfect.

      1. I have to agree, but I voted for Checo.
        There was nothing to choose between Lewis, Nico, Dan or Checo, but the m,exican got more out of the car than even his team mate.

        1. hamilton was so much better than rosberg. ricciardo and perez were great though. tough call this one.

      2. Agree.
        It was too close to call. But happy to choose Perez.

    5. No hard choice about it. Lewis Hamilton took the race by the scruff off the neck and never let go. Nico was always no2

  2. I spend a very long time criticising this driver. However, this week I have gone for him.

    He outqualified and outraced Nico Hulkenberg. I did not expect him to do that at any point this season, not in the same weekend. He kept his cool and held off both Williamses, Jenson Button, his teammate, both Ferraris and both Red Bulls. Yes the Mercedes drivers were fun to watch but neither really had the edge on the other.

    This week, I went for Sergio Perez.

    (Also big shouts to Daniel Ricciardo, Felipe Massa, Max Chilton, Romain Grosjean, and of course, Niki Lauda.)

  3. Hamilton. Controlled the race at the beginning, then won two battles with his team-mate Rosberg. Also, good drives from Perez and Ricciardo.

  4. Well, no one really stood out as much as Hamilton. He took the lead from the first lap and was controlling the race onwards. He would’ve won easier if not the safety car. He withstood storming Rosberg with faster tyres. And the most important thing – he was as calm and composed as ever, bringing his car home without a bruise.

    1. To be honest I still struggle to believe Hamilton kept Rosberg behind despite the tyre advantage Rosberg had. It was truly remarkable. Not to mention brilliant to see what a car could really achieve. All those races where Vettel drove casually to the line in 2011/2013 would have been so much more interesting to watch had he had a team mate who could force him to show how fast Red Bull really were compared to the rest of the field.

      1. @nick-uk

        Fairplay i always had you down as someone who would never praise Ham in anyway.

        1. Detecting sarcasm… haha

  5. For me it was choosing between Perez and Hülkenberg. Ham or Ros on 1-2 is a given so despite their battle don’t really deserve the vote. I guess Hamilton is DOTW though taking he win.

    I voted Hülkenberg because he came from so much further back than Perez. Had better pace in the race but only missed out on that 3rd slot due to a ERS malfunction. Then he held up Ricciardo plenty so his teammate could take the podium. Afterwards he congratulated his teammate on the first Force India podium since 2009 where it could/should have been his.. That is real sportsmanship. Besides that Hülkenberg again fails to dissapoint. His weekend would’ve been so much better if it weren’t for a stupid mistake in his faster than Perez Q-lap.

    1. I also like to add Hülkenberg really looked happy for Perez.

    2. Some drivers are confident enough in their own abilities that they can be happy for their teammates when they do well, Hulk being one example so i agree with your comments (although i voted for Hamilton). Unfortunately some drivers are quite insecure and can’t handle these situations so well…

  6. Perez this time. Also Hamilton did a great job, as did Ricciardo and Rosberg.

  7. Ricciardo or perrez for me. They both made their illustrious teammates look average. On seconds thoughts ricciardo after all his teammate is 4x wdc.

    1. Me too. And 13th to 4th was impressive. As was qualifying in 3rd with a Renault engine on a power circuit.

    2. Me too. I would add that hearing “Sebastian, Daniel is quicker than you” was very satisfying

      1. Hehe, I was also considering Gutierrez for the degree of difficulty, but he was let down by the dismount.

  8. Hard to choose between Hamilton, Perez and Ricciardo. I went for the latter considering his grid position (both great qualifying and harsh penalty) and lack of straight line speed.

  9. I was considering Hamilton, Ricciardo, and Perez. Hamilton drove an incredible defensive race, and was certainly one of the stars in terms of entertainment value, but of course he was beaten to pole by Rosberg, who also looked faster in the race.

    Perez did very well to outqualify and outrace everyone except the Mercedes drivers, including his highly-rated team mate.

    But in the end I voted Ricciardo. Similar to Perez, he outqualified and out-raced his team mate, who in Ricciardo’s case happens to be the reigning four-time world champion. How often in the past four years has Vettel had to admit that the other guy got more out of the car? Certainly never last year.

    There were other fine drives yesterday, but one disappointment for me was Bottas, whose level of driving is starting to remind me of Paul di Resta, which is to say very good but not great. Paul got a lot of credit in his rookie year for narrowly beating Sutil early on, but a great driver should be beating their team mate (especially Sutil and Massa) more convincingly. I think Valtteri is a likeable character and there may still come opportunities to prove himself, but currently his stock is falling.

    1. ^ This. My thoughts exactly.

      Honourable mentions though to Hamilton, Rosberg & Perez.

  10. Ham Ham Ham

      1. I prefer ham…one can never tell what they put in the baloney.

  11. Lol, who voted Max Chilton

    1. We all know Max is long time user of this site (and the only one who votes for himself), but I think Pastor just discovered F1Fanatic too…

      1. LOL.. F1F is slowly becoming the last word in F1 polls…

    2. W (@yesyesyesandyesagain)
      7th April 2014, 19:05

      His 13th place finish put Marussia back in 10th. So that is a big deal for them. There is a Marussia fan lurking out there somewhere, or it is just Max :)

      1. Indeed, and he’s been the Marussia driver keeping his nose clean.

    3. Come on guys, be nice. We know that Max wouldn’t get on here and vote for himself. It was his mum. LOL

  12. Had to be The Aussie, he had a lot of work to do to get to his final position and passed a lot of more experienced drivers to do it. Taking a massive grid drop and coming in so close to the podium is stuff that we expect veterans to do. Also was torn between Perez and the Hulk, but they didn’t quite fulfil the promise on the day. I almost went for the very talented Pastor Badlydoneby, but there was no room left on the voting sheeet after he had ticked his own box a million times.

    1. Note: seeing a high percentage voting for HAM, well, we all know his ability, he had a front row start and the best car. Any 1 of the top ten drivers on that grid could probably have done the same. My vote for RIC was based on his grid position, his inexperience, and an allegedly underpowered, still to be improved car. All in all he pulled an excellent drive out of the hat. Silk purse stuff I would say.

      1. Please show me ANY of the top ten drivers that ever beat their teammate whilst having a DRS and tyre disadvantage – and won.

      2. I’m definitely a big Hamilton fan, but part of me knows what you mean…best car makes a good result a given. HOWEVER, the reason I voted for him was the fact that he outperformed his car…for some reason (probably set up, but we’ll never know), Rosberg had a faster car than Hamilton, but Hamilton showed real grit to keep the lead just before his first stop. Then quite how he kept Rosberg behind him in the race was pure genius. OK, he made a mistake when it counted in qualifying, but in every other aspect of the weekend he was the best driver…in my opinion!

  13. Lewis for sure, apart from qualy he was flawless.
    I would have voted Perez, but he was lucky the race was only 57 laps long, one more lap and Ricciardo would have overtaken him. HAM in contrast was totally in control, he had ”slower” tires but managed to keep ROS at bay.
    But really the most deserving DOTW should be Guttierez for surviving after being Maldonadoed :)

    1. Brilliant!!! I see a trademark coming on! You’ve been Maldonadoed!

      @Klaas gets royalties when we use that one going forward guys :)

      1. It’s like being ‘Travoltafied’ but a lot more painful.

  14. I voted Alonso… it was tough to drive the taxi, with all the problems he was facing, finishing was a big achievement… Forza Ferrari.. Alonso WDC for me this year, go go go…

    Waiting for so long to hear:
    “Grande weekend”
    “Feno-me-nale”

    1. Alonso: Too much focus to beat Kimi rather than WDC.
      Kimi: “The lack of aero downforce, speed on the straight, and driver priority, meant overtaking was complicated,”

  15. Went for Ricciardo. Excellent qualifying, undone by the grid penalty unrelated to this weekend, which meant that he had the rare chance to have a good qualifying and come through the field. Outraced Vettel, which is a good achievement (even though Vettel had DRS and MGU-H problems which may have made Ricciardo look slightly better than he really was).

    Second contender would be Perez, who drove a very good race, and finally a shout out to Hamilton for definitely earning driver of the last ten laps, but his mistakes in qualifying mean that he was not driver of the weekend for me.

  16. WHO VOTED FOR MALDONADO? LOL

    1. the same guy who voted Mac Chilton

      1. Hey… Chilton actually had a decent race.

      2. Their mothers!

  17. Out of the top three, Perez was the only one to beat his teammate in qualifying and the race. I think he’s been under a lot of pressure since last season and a lot of people said the Hulkenberg would wipe the floor with him so it’s good to see a driver bounce back. This was bar far his best race in F1 and I hope that this form continues so we can see more good battles between the Force India pair.

  18. I’ll advocate again for cumulative voting of some kind here. I’d like to split my votes among Hamilton, Perez, and Ricciardo. I think Hamilton’s race takes on added gloss now that we’ve learned that he had a brake issue in Q3. Perez beat about 5 guys to get third in a straight fight. Ricciardo owned Vettel again. Clearly RBR is the second fastest team. If RIC was not docked those grid spots, he would have been in that position. However, it seems that it’s only 2nd best in his hands. He appears to be “outperforming” the car. In the end I have to pick Hamilton beacuse rarely, if ever, since the advent of the DRS and two-compound rules, have you seen someone hold off a car with both advantages for more than a couple laps. That was a particularly remarkable performance.

    1. That’s exactly why I picked Hamilton too. Outstanding.

  19. 2% have voted Maldonado… something , must be seriously wrong with these people….

    1. I think it’s because his idiocy gave us the dream finish to a marvelous race. Without him, there would probably have been no Hamilton/Rosberg battle in the end.

      I can follow the line of thinking, but it IS turning the idea of “driver of the weekend” on it’s head :)

  20. Neil (@neilosjames)
    7th April 2014, 19:16

    I went with Hamilton. He’s known as a great attacking driver, but little is said of his defensive ability. So it was nice to see it on display this weekend.

    Honourable mentions to Perez and Ricciardo.

  21. Ricciardo. 10 place drop and still finished ahead of the 4 time world champion in his third race. Very impressive. Could be the battle of the season. I’m sure vettel is struggling without the EBD.

  22. Max Chilton! Less than a minute behind Hamilton. What a talent.

    Has to be Hamilton for me – for his determined but fair seizure and defence of his lead, particularly on harder tyres at the end. Perez was good too (apart from all the tyre smoke into the first corner).

  23. Went with Ricciardo. Faster than Vettel in quali and race, and finishing the race ahead of Vettel, Hülkenberg, Alonso, Raikkonen (and that´s only the most sounding names) besides starting behind them, overtaking nearly all of them on track (some of them twice), that was a surprising performance to me which makes me rate him higher than I did before.
    Obvious honorable mention to Perez.
    Obviously not so obvious (given the votes so far) honourable mention to Chilton. No, I´m not participating in making this a running gag, he was better than Bianchi, Kobayashi (whom I really like), Maldonado on race-day, and he wasn´t far of Grosjean. It seems Chilton is keeping his consistency, staying out of trouble, while slowly finding speed.
    Don´t know why so many go with Hamilton, he has only Rosberg to beat (not the biggest name to race against, though fairly good), failed in quali and only just did so in the race.

    1. @Sven Are you crazy or what ?, name me a racer who won a race despite on the harder tyre and his team had soft tyre + DRS ?, just name me one who ever had done it ?. Clearly you don’t like Hamilton for what ever reason.

  24. Yet again, Daniel Ricciardo. Brilliant qualifying and to come from 13th to less than a second away from third was a brilliant effort. He’s turning into a real star performer – it seems the transition to Red Bull has further envigorated him.

  25. Hamilton. The best defensive performance I’ve seen, especially when you factor in the number of changes they’ve made to make overtaking easier and the fact it was against his team-mate who was faster, with the same top speed and added DRS.

    I’m glad he’s finally got a car that his talent deserves for the first time since 2008. Let’s hope Alonso gets the same next year.

  26. Hamilton 100%
    Epic batlle medium vs soft tires.

  27. I can’t believe two percent of people have voted for Maldonado, although flipping another car is quite incredible, even by his standards… However I hope these are joke votes.

    There were many drivers who were very very good, however as it ‘Driver of the Weekend’ I think mistakes from some mean they rule themselves out.

    Nico Hulkenberg – A mistake in qualifying really ruined his weekend and I think it’s very possible that had he made Q3 he’d have been level with Perez and would ultimately have taken the podium. Drove a brilliant race but a mistake in qualifying means his weekend wasn’t perfect.

    Lewis Hamilton – Brilliant race and would probably get my vote if it was ‘Driver of the Race’, but it’s not. To put it simply Lewis made a mistake in qualifying, and despite the fact I am a huge fan, another driver was flawless all weekend, whereas the mistake shows Lewis was not.

    Nico Rosberg – Took pole, was the fastest driver in the race, but lost out to Hamilton. Fair play for having a very good go, and he was hugely unlucky, but at the end of the day he didn’t win when he should have done.

    Therefore it’s between Daniel Ricciardo and Sergio Perez, but I voted Perez. Why? Because he impressed me the most.

    1. *Because he impressed me the most with his mega overtakes out of turn four. More-so than Ricciardo did with his drive from thirteenth to fourth, despite how impressive that was as well.

  28. Several solid drives.
    But went for Hamilton, what he did was just remarkable.
    Special mention for Perez and Ricciardo.

  29. I voted for Perez. He outqualified and outraced Hulkenberg, which is no mean feat, and in doing so he really needed to ring the neck of that car. Qualifying has never been Perez’s strongest attribute so to put a Force India on the 2nd row was a terrific effort, and then to top it off with only their 2nd podium.

    Somehow I haven’t voted for Hamilton despite that expert display of defensive driving and it being one of his finest wins. The mistake in qualifying is the only reason I’m not voting for him, because his race was outstanding.

    Ricciardo also gets a mention after another strong weekend both in qualifying and the race. Those who doubted this choice and his race pace can now see Red Bull got it absolutely spot on.

  30. I would’ve gone Hamilton since that’s the driver I support but in the end I was impressed by the driver DR put on coming back from his 10 place grid penalty and also having to face the obstacle of his 4x WDC winning team mate to do it as well. If another lap were in place he’d be on podium and if not we’d have seen a great battle between him and the hard fighting Checo.

  31. Had to give it to HAM. He fought off Nico on that last stint with the harder tires. That was an epic battle by both drivers.

  32. Voted for Ricciardo. Qualified really well and had a great race. He is really shining in that car and keeping his critic’s mouth shut who said he will be too easy for Vettel.

    Other mentions – Hamilton, Perez, Hulkenberg and Chilton.

  33. Hamilton has to be my pick for DOTW. Had he fended off Rosberg with option tyres it would be a different story, but handling his teammate while using primes in spite of two DRS zones was simply astonishing. I thought he was dead in the water once the safety car came out. It was a world class drive, especially how he reclaimed the lead exiting turn 1 so many times.

    After that, Perez deserves runner-up. His aggressive overtaking completely overwhelmed Massa when Hulkenberg couldn’t make it happen, and he showed great control in not collecting his teammate during their long side-by-side battle. Hulkenberg gets special mention too, as does the hard-charging Daniel Ricciardo. Plenty of good drives around them too, but those were the great ones.

  34. Hamilton raced his socks off! Nico should have won and he knows it, but Lewis had an answer for his every move. Nico and his side of the garage did everything they could and the safety car should have sealed the deal, but Lewis simply wouldn’t give it up.
    Perez was very impressive but it was a shame that the Williams’ strategy was Maldonado’d.

  35. I voted for Hamilton.

    He lost the lead he had built up after the safety car and with Rosberg on the quicker tyres and with DRS, I thought there was no way Hamilton would win the race but he managed with some great driving.

    Second would be Perez, it looks like he could be back to his best after his year at McLaren, and if he can maintain this sort of form for the rest of the season I think he and Hulkenberg at Force India could make one of the best line-ups on the grid.

    Third would be Ricciardo he continues to make an impressive start to his Red Bull career.

  36. There is only one viable contender for this – Messrs Lewis Hamilton; though a special mention goes to Perez, Ricciardo and Hulkenberg. A shout out to Rosberg too for pressuring him all the way.

    If anyone was ever still in doubt, Lewis is silencing his critics and cementing his reputation as the best racer in F1. His best performances always seem to come at a time when F1 most needs a boost – as he did when he single highhandedly demolished the “Lack of overtaking in F1″ criticism in 2010 (just before the advent of DRS); earning plaudits from Norbert Haug and Ross Brawn at the time.
    His race win in Bahrain was a sublime example of race craft, pure speed, defensive skill and absolute grit. Simply put, he won a race where all the odds were against him to win.

    Love him or hate him, he is simply the most exciting driver to watch in F1 and has been since he graced the sport in 2007. Even in his worst year (2011), he was still the most exciting driver to watch; albeit for the wrong reasons. A well deserved win indeed.

  37. When Rosberg wins: It’s just the car, did nothing special.
    When Hamilton wins by 25 seconds ahead of Rosberg: brilliant, DOTW.
    When Hamilton wins by 1 second ahead of Rosberg: brilliant, DOTW.

    When Rosberg wins: let’s take a look at the drivers behind him.
    When Hamilton wins: who cares about anyone else.

    Okay, I’m on a British website…

    1. Sooo… Let me see:
      1st race: Rosberg had no competition, the only one in a matching car was out.
      2nd race: Hamilton killed the matching car.
      3rd race: Hamilton WAS ahead by quite a margin, but the SC destroyed that, leaving him with slow tires against the matching car on fast tires. Still kept him behind.

      I CANNOT see how you think those are comparable. And for the record, I’m a Dane, not British.

      But let’s just call it nationalism if it makes you feel any better.

    2. I really wonder if the URL changes to F1Fanatic.es when Alonso wins a race or finishes in second while Vetter dominated all weekend.

    3. | Okay, I’m on a British website…

      Let me rephrase your actual thoughts – “this is not a German website.” You are right in that sense.

      I’m not British and am not a Hamilton fan either, far from both. I don’t see Rosberg doing anything extraordinary in the three races so far except that good lap in Q3 this weekend. In a way, it was probably Rosberg’s incompetence to pass with tyre advantage and DRS that handed Hamilton the DOTW! Put Rosberg in a Force India and you wouldn’t see him anywhere near the top 5.

  38. Which joker voted for Maldonado?

  39. money (@carlos-danger)
    7th April 2014, 21:22

    Daniel Ricciardo i the man with a plan

  40. Perez deserve it but since this is a Hamilton fansite Hamilton wins it.

    1. You’re being extremely blinkered in your assessment of the race if you can’t see why people would give the nod to Lewis. It begs the question, what would he have to do, in your eyes, to earn your vote?

  41. I wish I could vote for both Mercedes drivers, because their fight for the win made a large part of the show. Honorable mention to Perez as he reminded us about himself in an excellent fashion. Still, if I have to choose one then it is Lewis Hamilton.

  42. I voted Rosberg because he was actually faster. How many times in the next 16 races can Hamilton repeat a drive like this?

    1. Plenty. Given that he had never won in Malaysia or Bahrain before he’s got two of his ‘bogey circuits’ out of the way. I believe he will have the edge on Rosberg at at least 60-70% of the remaining races which will be enough. Just hope the reliability issues don’t all fall on his side of the garage.

  43. I really think this was a significant race for the Mercedes team. Hamilton showed he has the edge. Rosberg is no slouch but the objective reality is that Lewis is a better, more forceful racer and it seems pretty likely that he’ll take the championship.

    Also _mad props_ to Danny Ricciardo. As an aussie it’s extremely heartening to see him take it to Vettel two weeks in a row. His start latweek in Malaysia was a blinder – the start was always Webber’s achilles heal but not this young fella.

  44. There were so many great drives, but Hamilton has my vote.

    Perez – Wasn’t great in qualifying.
    Hulkenberg – Should have been closer to his teammate.
    Ricciardo – Very good race, but a little bit off the pace earlier in the weekend.
    Rosberg – Only beat Hamilton in Q3, arguably had the better ‘papers’ after SC.
    Still, it’s been a while since I had to pick between five drivers for this poll!

    1. @npf1

      What? Perez qualified fifth, which was fantastic… And Ricciardo qualified third, which was brilliant.

      In what world is that considered ‘not great’ and ‘a little off the pace’

    2. I don’t see how you think Ricciardo was off the pace earlier in the weekend. Don’t go by the free practice times as they are out there with an agenda to test. Setting the fastest time is never a priority, especially on a track where they didn’t run much during testing while everyone else did ~4k mileage.

      He was clearly ahead of the rest of the pack in all qualifying sessions- got through Q1 on mediums which only the Mercedes drivers managed. Got to 3rd slot in Q2 and Q3 behind the two Mercedes cars. I don’t see where he was off pace earlier in the weekend.

  45. Hamilton. Defensive masteclass.

  46. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    8th April 2014, 1:47

    Had to go for Hamilton.
    He made a tremendous start to take the lead, placed his car brilliantly when defending against his arguably quicker team mate. Gapped him when the strategies split, only to have the Safety Car wipe out his hard work, and then put up some incredible defensive driving in the closing stages against Rosberg, despite being on the slower strategy, and tire. Incredible drive.

    Honourable mentions to Ricciardo for going from 13th to 4th in a grotesquely under powered car, and to Perez for taking his first podium since 2012, and Force India’s first since Belgium, 2009 over his highly rated team mate.

  47. I don’t understand why so many votes for HAM. He failed to out qualify his team mate and only just beat him in the race. His team mate is Rosberg; a very good driver but not top tier. The W05 has no other competition.

    For me it’s between PER and RIC. Both out qualified and out raced there far more fancied team mates. If I had to split them though I’d pick RIC as his team mate is VET (4 * WDC) vs HUL (very fast but has never finished on a podium let alone won races and WDCs) and he had to over come a 10 place grid penalty.

  48. APPLES VS ORANGES
    Considering the equipment available to them:
    Its PEREZ all the way

  49. Early season rankings:
    1) Hamilton
    2) Hulkenberg
    3) Ricciardo
    4) Alonso
    5) Rosberg
    6) Kvyat
    7) Button
    8) Vettel
    9) Magnussen
    10) Raikkonen
    Honorable mention: Kobayashi and Grosjean. Shout out to Guttierez who has also been surprisingly decent.

    1. Theo, just one question, why Perez is not on your list?
      I think Perez will be in a high place at the end of the season with good careers and probably a win, I think, we’ll see.

      1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
        8th April 2014, 11:25

        I’d hazard a guess that it’s because up until Bahrain, he’s not stood out especially.

  50. Obviously, it was too close to choose between HAM, RIC and PER and finally went for Ricciardo. He qualified 3rd, got a 10 place penalty for no fault of his and still came up through the grid and almost got to 3rd. There was no way Force India or Williams could have caught up with him if he had started from where he actually qualified. So my vote goes to him.

    Perez and Hamilton both drove equally well but both had the advantage of an excellent car. Kimi put the fastest lap of the race at that time to get ahead of Hulkenberg after first stop and Hulkenberg overtook Kimi as if he was lapping the Ferrari, indicating how good Force India was. Force India was the best car out there after Mercedes and this worked against Perez when I voted.

    1. I agree with your post. I voted for Ricciardo as he was teh ‘Hard Charger’ of the race but it was great to see Perez on a podium once more after suchy a rotten year at McLaren

  51. Voted for Daniel Ricciardo. Mega qualifying and awesome drive from that penalty. Mentions to Checo for his passes out of T4 and podium and Lewis for his dominance and defense against Nico.

    Just to mention, a few people have noted something similar. Funny how when Lewis dominates, automatic DOTW for some. Yet on many occasions last year, when Seb dominated, most looked for an excuse not to vote for him. It isn’t because of dominating their teammate, because Seb whipped Mark last year and this is coming from an Aussie.

  52. Perez definitely…. That force India has got speed, if they were on softs then that Red bull would have never got to them….

  53. definitely my vote is for Perez
    he’s back after Mclaren
    we have a good car with a great driver on the grid

  54. Grego (@francogrego)
    8th April 2014, 7:27

    Pastor, the scene stealer

  55. Big cheer for Perez but the Vote goes to Hamilton,
    L plates for Maldanado.

  56. PEREZ hola!!!!!!!!!

  57. It was a hard one to choose between Hamilton, Perez and Ricciardo.. but I thought Ricciardo absolutely nailed it this weekend. He thrashed the best qualifier on the grid on Saturday and looked much quicker than him on Sunday as well.

    He made up 9 places in the race, and would have been on the podium if he had one more lap.

    Hats off to the Australian!

  58. Had to be Checo.. He got his “first pole position since 2012” ;)

  59. Couldn’t think of anyone apart from either Rosberg or Hamilton.

    I wasn’t going to choose between them so I went with Chilton – who finished yet another race.

  60. Ricciardo.

  61. I am astonished about the result. There should be at least 8 drivers ex equo sharing 1st place DOTW.

  62. Voted for Hamilton because of the great wheel to wheel racing and ultimately slightly superior racecraft giving him the victory despite being slightly slower overall. In a race like this you can really see the difference between the drivers at the front end of the grid, who can race cleanly with everything at stake, while at the back drivers are tripping over (or flipping over) each other.

    I was close to voting for Perez, very impressed with both his qualifying and race, but who knows if he would have finished ahead of Hulk if not for his ERS problem. Same with Ricciardo, impressed by him in both qualy and the race, but he was aided by the safety car and i have a feeling Vettel’s issues might have made him look marginally better than he was (sorry Dan!).

  63. Lewis gets this simply because he worked the hardest for his race win. This is not to diminish what Perez, Ricciardo or Hulkenberg did, but he arguably worked the hardest to get to where he ended.

  64. Going to have to say Perez. I would have given it to Hamilton had he not fluffed his last flyer in qualifying which gave Nico a trouble free pole position.

  65. Clearly between Hamilton, Perez and Ricciardo. Hamilton was in a different league, that defence was something special and a real rarity in F1. Perez did a very good job, but he’s done it before – his problem is consistency. Hopefully he’s found some this season.
    But my vote goes to Ric. Solid overtakes, and beat Vettel in a fair fight at the end. He’s a hell of a lot faster than I first thought, and seems to have solid racecraft. Should be a very interesting battle between the two RBR drivers this season.

  66. Hamilton and Rosberg were both so good! Lewis had the upper hand because of his excellent defensive driving in the final laps despite Rosberg’s perfect qualifying.
    But what about Perez? Consistently as good or better than his team mate, gave Force India their second podium when Williams were looking like the second-best team. Amazing!

  67. Hamilton in the best car pull a Vettel 2013, YAWN !

    Perez in Force India fought and won anyone at his car level, basically everyone but the 1,5sec fastest, he basically pull an Alonso 2012.

    Riccardo is the best thing that happen to Redbull I like them now.

  68. this one has to go to Lewis didn’t quite get pole but this made his drive on Sunday even more impressive. however Perez was impressive getting the podium and Chilton finished yet another race meaning Marussia get 10nth place back in the constructors.

  69. I still think that the driver who did the most with what he had was Massa. That’s where my vote went.

  70. I wish someone had said “Vettel does not DESERVE to win the Bahrain Grand Prix!”

  71. Is Marcus Ericsson the new Max Chilton ? .. anyway … was this the first race in which Max didn’t cross the line as the last driver on track ?

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