Vote for your 2014 German GP Driver of the Weekend

2014 German Grand Prix

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

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

German Grand Prix driver-by-driver

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – Third after the first-lap collision, he finished the race in fourth but was always going to struggle to keep Hamilton behind. Came out on top in a three-way scrap with the Ferrari pair at the Spitzkehre, but was later passed by Alonso in the DRS zone. However by making his second pit stop a lap later than the Ferrari driver Vettel was able to go the opposite direction on tyre strategy, fitting super-softs for his penultimate stint. That allowed him to exploit the benefit of new tyre pace at the beginning of his final stint and get ahead – despite mishearing an instruction to conserve fuel as an order to run rich.

Daniel Ricciardo – Out-qualified Vettel again but had to take avoiding action at the start, slipping to 15th place. Made quick progress after the restart including a daring pass on Raikkonen while under pressure from Hamilton, but lost the place again a couple of laps later. Nonetheless an attacking three-stop strategy helped him gain further ground, and despite tired tyres in the final stint he put up a good fight against Alonso.

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – In a sense it was a shame for Rosberg that he was unable to be measured against his team mate this weekend. Pole position and victory looked like a foregone conclusion after the events of Q1, but they weren’t, and Rosberg didn’t put a wheel wrong as he took his fourth win of the year.

Lewis Hamilton – Brake failure in qualifying was exactly what he didn’t need after his recent Saturday problems. Was in his usual battling form as he made his way through the field – his three-abreast pass on Raikkonen and Ricciardo was a highlight. But a misjudgement while overtaking Button damaged his front wing, and that ultimately forced him onto a three-stop strategy and compromised his attempt to pass Bottas for second place at the end.

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – Fourth at the end of lap one, Alonso kept Vettel honest through the opening part of the race and jumped ahead with an early second pit stop. Vettel re-passed him via strategy, however, and in the final stint Alonso had his hands full with the other Red Bull. After finally getting past he hit trouble at the end of the race, Ricciardo taking 2.6 seconds out of him over the final two laps, the pair covered by less than a tenth of a second at the line.

Kimi Raikkonen – “When I fitted the second set of new super-softs, my car was sliding all over the place and I lost the back end in turn two,” said Raikkonen after being knocked out during Q2. Matters improved little in the race, where he twice found himself pinned between two rivals at the Spitzkehre and suffered damage. He blamed that for his consequence lack of pace and finished a lap down, out of the points.

Lotus

Romain Grosjean – Had a fright during the first practice session when his DRS failed to close at the Spitzkehre – the point on the track where the highest top speed leads into the biggest braking zone. “That was quite a special feeling I can tell you!” he said afterwards. He was in the hunt for points in the race when the team spotted a cooling problem on his car and retired his car to spare the power unit any damage.

Pastor Maldonado – Like his team mate, felt the team’s car had particularly suffered from the banning of Front-Rear Interconnected suspension. While several drivers planned on two stops but ended up on three, Maldonado had the opposite scenario, finishing 12th after two stops.

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McLaren

Jenson Button – Pointed the finger at Grosjean for spoiling his first lap in Q2, and said the balance had gone on his second, leading to him being eliminated. Was well-placed to benefit from the first-corner crash and moved up to sixth. But the decision to try to avoid a third pit stop proved too optimistic – he had to come in for tyres with six laps to go. That salvaged eighth place, but he could have been in the Ricciardo/Alonso battle for fifth.

Kevin Magnussen – Very happy on Saturday when he equalled his best qualifying result so far with fourth. “I think we got everything out of the car in terms of set-up and our strategy throughout qualifying was perfect,” he said. But his race was ruined when Massa turned in on him at the first corner – an incident where no blame should be attached to the McLaren driver. Having fallen to last place, Magnussen overhauled 12 rivals and finished behind his team mate – a solid day’s work, if not the result he was hoping for.

Force India

Nico Hulkenberg – Force India would surely have loved a continuation of the blazing hot conditions from practice on race day. But even with the dip in temperature Hulkenberg was one of few drivers to make a two-stop strategy work, so having started ninth he finished one place higher, demoting Button at the end.

Sergio Perez – Getting into Q3 has been a problem for Perez this year but he delivered this time despite a problem earlier in the session meaning he only had one run. Passed Kvyat on the outside of the Spitzkehre for seventh at the restart, then survived an attack from his rival six laps later. After his second pit stop he spent seven laps stuck behind Sutil, to the frustration of his team. It cost him a place to Magnussen and he finished in tenth place.

Sauber

Adrian Sutil – Knocked out in Q1 for the sixth time this year, then spun out during the race. “Suddenly, after my last pit stop, I lost power and when I entered the Motodrom I thought the engine would switch off,” he explained. “In the last corner I had a similar problem, then I spun and this time the engine did switch off.”

Esteban Gutierrez – Solid in qualifying, then demoted to 16th due to his penalty from Silverstone. He inevitably dropped behind the recovering Hamilton and Ricciardo soon after the start, but overtook Grosjean on lap five. Unable to keep the Toro Rossos behind in the mid-part of the race, he finished 14th.

Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne – Lined up five places behind his team mate having saved more tyres during Q2. He passed Sutil early on but fell prey to Maldonado via the pit stops, so despite overtaking the other Sauber near the end of the race he could only manage 13th.

Daniil Kvyat – Qualified a fine eighth on the grid, but spun out after contact with Perez – an incident he unreasonably blamed on the Force India driver. A drive train failure later caused a substantial fire and forced him out.

Williams

Felipe Massa – Couldn’t match the pace of his team mate in qualifying, and was perhaps too busy watching the other Williams to notice Magnussen at the start. The pair collided and Massa was fortunate to escape injury after being flipped over. Though he was blameless in previous first-lap crashes in Australia and Britain, Massa was the driver best-placed to avoid this one, and though he laid the blame at Magnussen’s feet the stewards did not agree.

Valtteri Bottas – His only prior experience of F1 at Hockenheim was a rain-hit practice session two years ago, yet Bottas out-qualified Massa to start from the front row. Though he never seemed to have a quick enough car to rival Alonso, an error-free run on a two-stop strategy allowed him to keep Hamilton’s at arm’s length at the end.

Marussia

Jules Bianchi – Marussia was another team which felt the impact of losing FRIC. While Bianchi was unable to take the fight to the Saubers, he finished over 40 seconds clear of his next closest rival.

Max Chilton – Dropped behind Kobayashi at his first pit stop and wasn’t able to make the undercut work at his final visit to get ahead again.

Caterham

Kamui Kobayashi – A fuel leak triggered a fire on his car during the second practice session. Successfully kept Chilton behind during the race.

Marcus Ericsson – A hydraulic leak was discovered on his car towards the end of final practice, and it couldn’t be repaired in time for him to make it onto the track in qualifying. His race was ruined before it began when the team failed to fit a cover to his car in parc ferme, leading to a pit lane start and penalty.

Qualifying and race results summary

DriverStartedGap to team mateLaps leading team matePittedFinishedGap to team mate
Sebastian Vettel6th+0.304s67/6734th-8.535s
Daniel Ricciardo5th-0.304s0/6736th+8.535s
Lewis Hamilton20th+1.052s0/6733rd+22.53s
Nico Rosberg1st-1.052s67/6721st-22.53s
Fernando Alonso7th-0.407s64/6635thNot on same lap
Kimi Raikkonen12th+0.407s2/66311thNot on same lap
Romain Grosjean14th-1.301s11/261
Pastor Maldonado18th+1.301s15/26212th
Jenson Button11th+0.405s65/6638thNot on same lap
Kevin Magnussen4th-0.405s1/6639thNot on same lap
Nico Hulkenberg9th-0.021s66/6627thNot on same lap
Sergio Perez10th+0.021s0/66310thNot on same lap
Adrian Sutil15th+0.403s47/473
Esteban Gutierrez16th-0.403s0/47314th
Jean-Eric Vergne13th+0.182s29/44313th
Daniil Kvyat8th-0.182s15/442
Felipe Massa3rd+0.319s0/00
Valtteri Bottas2nd-0.319s0/022nd
Jules Bianchi17th-0.813s62/65215thNot on same lap
Max Chilton21st+0.813s3/65317thNot on same lap
Kamui Kobayashi19th65/65316th-40.935s
Marcus Ericsson22nd0/65318th+40.935s

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 German Grand Prix weekend?

  • Marcus Ericsson (0%)
  • Kamui Kobayashi (0%)
  • Max Chilton (0%)
  • Jules Bianchi (0%)
  • Valtteri Bottas (37%)
  • Felipe Massa (0%)
  • Daniil Kvyat (0%)
  • Jean-Eric Vergne (0%)
  • Adrian Sutil (0%)
  • Esteban Gutierrez (0%)
  • Nico Hulkenberg (1%)
  • Sergio Perez (0%)
  • Kevin Magnussen (3%)
  • Jenson Button (0%)
  • Pastor Maldonado (0%)
  • Romain Grosjean (0%)
  • Kimi Raikkonen (0%)
  • Fernando Alonso (7%)
  • Lewis Hamilton (34%)
  • Nico Rosberg (7%)
  • Daniel Ricciardo (10%)
  • Sebastian Vettel (1%)

Total Voters: 693

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2014 German Grand Prix

Browse all 2014 German Grand Prix articles

Images © Red Bull/Getty, Ferrari/Ercole Colombo, McLaren/LAT, Williams/LAT

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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146 comments on “Vote for your 2014 German GP Driver of the Weekend”

  1. Tough one to call.

    Mercedes had a problem on one car, Red Bull had one driver compromised, Williams and McLaren had a driver out at the start, and various things like that. I was tempted to give it to Alonso, but Hulkenberg had a quiet weekend but outqualified and outraced his team mate, and held off the arguably quicker McLarens, so he gets it this week for me, but Alonso and Bottas get honourable shouts.

    1. Regarding Hamilton, yes it was a strong race, but I don’t know where he would have ended up in qualifying.

      1. He wasn’t looking as quick as Rosberg throughout the weekend (possibly for the first time this season), so I think he would have qualified third behind Bottas. Then I think he would have got past Bottas on the first corner but been stuck behind Rosberg.

        1. He was quicker than Rosberg in all the qualifying laps he did, and very comfortable with the set up whereas Rosberg was struggling with the brakes. I think it’s pretty certain he would have been on pole bar any mistakes.

          1. Let’s not forget also that, unless I’m mistaken, Hamilton posted (again) the fastest lap of the race — and that, with a damaged wing. He was looking pretty darn quick.

          2. @jeangirard

            Fastest laps mean nothing, though (I’m not disagreeing that Lewis wasn’t fast, I think he had a good chance at pole).
            Lewis was pushing like mad to catch Valtteri, whilst I’m pretty sure Nico was probably coasting so far out in front that he could have stopped for a cup of tea and still made it out first.
            Had Nico needed to set competitive lap times, I’m sure he would have FLap-ped instead of Lewis, given his non-damaged wing.

        2. Did you watch the practice sessions to say “He wasn’t looking as quick as Rosberg”?

      2. @craig-o BOT qualified like crap at the British gp and was still driver of the weekend…

    2. I went for Hulkenberg also. Quietly impressive all the weekend.

    3. The brakes clearly affected him, but I think in qualy he would have been likely second, Nico looked on point this weekend. Im glad though that the brakes failed in qualy and not the race, it would have been a shame if they failed during the race. With this failure I’m beginning to suspect that maybe Hamilton had brembo brake pads in Canada and maybe that led to them overheating compared to the Carbon Industry. They did say Nico had to change his rear brakes to CI. Interesting…

      1. Massa may have also taken Ham out at the beginning,
        so we will never know how it may have ended if Ham had qualified in the top 3.
        makes for an interesting thought…

        1. True, but if Ham qualified 2nd then I think he would have been okay as Mag came from 4th to take out Massa. I think Massa should have run wide rather than come back to the apex, in a small corner like that its better to run wide, even off the track than try and come back, as anything could happen. I think last time they raced here Massa also had a first corner crash.

  2. Matt Sinclair
    21st July 2014, 13:31

    Bottas! Guy did well to deliver on Saturday and Sunday. Not bad for his first time there.

    1. It should be between Bottas and Lewis and Bottas finished in front so… well done! Without Bottas it would have been a different race.

  3. Neil (@neilosjames)
    21st July 2014, 13:31

    Gave it to Bottas, for the third race in a row I think.

    But I could perhaps have voted for Hamilton, Ricciardo, Magnussen or Alonso instead. All four had very strong weekends.

    1. @neilosjames I’ll admit I didn’t vote Rosberg, but don’t forget him!

    2. Has to be Bottas, had less practice run due to Susie, never driven here before (only 1 rain-hit practice session 2 yrs ago) and outqualified Massa by quite a margin and then drove flawlessly, even held Hamilton at bay, so that last thing just tipped for it. Didn’t put a foot wrong whole weekend.

    3. how many overtakes did Bothas make?

  4. I have to give this one to Bottas. He had a great qualifying and drove brilliantly to split the Mercedes in the end. He started well and did his best to keep pace with Rosberg while resisting a bit of pressure from Vettel and Alonso behind him. After that he had a quiet race, but put in the laps needed to solidfy his position. Towards the end of the race, on dying tyres, he did supremely well to fend off the faster Hamilton. He was cool under pressure, ensuring that he never went too defensive knowing that such an action would play in to Hamilton’s hands. Great stuff and I’m looking forward to his inevitable first win. I just hope it’s this year and not later!

    Honourable mentions to Hamilton, Alonso and Ricciardo for entertaining me throughout the race.

  5. Would’ve given it to Hamilton, but he could’ve had second place if he didn’t hit Button (which was his mistake).
    So I decided to vote for Bottas, who again had pretty much a flawless weekend and beat a Mercedes in a fair fight (sort of). First time that has happened this season.

    Also, I think it should say Rosberg, not Alonso, on Bottas’ review?

    1. HAM hit Button, but he also locked up and hit RAI.

      HAM was the most entertaining driver of the day, but I didn’t vote for him. I actually went for ROS because on a day with many good drivers, that guy finished first on Saturday and Sunday. Some others fought more but finished about where you could expect.

      But I don’t really have a problem with people voting for the most entertaining driver.

  6. Melchior (@)
    21st July 2014, 13:42

    Ricciardo from me.A great recovery with heaps of overtaking after being compromised at the start of the race.The highlight was the battle with Alonso towards the end of the race.

    1. +1 @ Melchior – I’m an Alonso Fan, but i must say that Ricciardo is going inside my heart…

  7. bottas put in a great drive once again, also in qualifying this time, so he gets my vote.

    hamilton will end up on top though, but i don’t see why. he didn’t really show us his best performance, especially after contact with button. couldn’t get bottas who was on older, slower tyres. also he was in the best car you can have, it’s really not a big thing to drive that from 20th to 2nd. keith will not like it when i say this, but this is a british website after all, so naturally a british driver will get a lot of votes. (look at austria and silverstone, hamilton did not do spectacularly good but still he got a lot of votes)

    1. “keith will not like it when i say thiis, but this is a british website after all”

      You do realise that you do yourself no favours and demean what was an otherwise reasonable argument when you make statements like that?

      1. @rigi is right though @matt90 I don’t know why people get animated about it, it is not a big deal. It is normal to expect the Brits to root for Lewis, he is awesome anyways.

        1. Yes it is natural for fans from a particular country to support drivers from that country, but if you read any British comment boards you will see there are plenty of Brits who don’t like Hamilton.

          But the main issue is that people who say that Hamilton will win the vote only because he is British and it is a British website are effectively saying that everyone who votes only vote for their favourite driver, and while that does happen with a minority of fans if you just look at some of the results of previous driver of the weekend votes it is obviously not the case with most F1 Fanatics.

          I don’t even need to go far back for an example, just this years British GP

          https://www.racefans.net/2014/07/07/vote-2014-british-grand-prix-driver-weekend/

          https://www.racefans.net/2014/07/15/2014-british-grand-prix-driver-weekend-result/

          Hamilton won the race but he wasn’t even in the top three in the votes with Bottas overwhelmingly winning the poll.

          The other issue with comments like this, is that it doesn’t make the person who made the comment look that good, regardless of what else they said.

          It is like someone making a well thought out and reasonable post on who will win the title but ending it with a stupid comment like “but we all know Rosberg will win only because that is the result Mercedes want and there is a conspiracy against Hamilton”.

          It devalues anything else the poster says and makes others less like to take them seriously on other subjects.

  8. As I write Hamilton is way out in front. I don’t understand this at all. He wasn’t even the best Mercedes driver – Rosberg was quicker in 2 of 3 practice sessions and didn’t run into anyone. The Mercedes is much faster than any other car: other teams predicted him to finish 2nd even from where he started so to finish 3rd is a failure.
    Bottas, Ricciardo, Alonso even Gutierrez and Kobayashi are far more deserving than Hamilton at this one.

    1. I agree that Hamilton’s current lead of the poll is to me a bit confusing. The sheer pace advantage the Mercedes cars have over the rest of the field means that starting from back in the field, either driver would eventually work their way to the front.

      I’d guess many people are voting for him because although such a drive was inevitable when you put a driver that good in a car that dominant, it was very entertaining to watch!

    2. lol practise sessions. Haha like that matters infact many times Ham is faster and Nico has grabbed pole. Also makes me laugh he should have got Bottas. Ham done 17 laps on SS. Give him Soft for final stint he would got 2nd. Not bad 22 seconds down road when you were 20 after 10 laps. Ham had the pace on Ros just admit it.

      1. This should be between Ros and Ham, Bottas qualified 2nd and finished 2nd, was average in the practice sessions, Williams now looks to be the 2nd fastest car with the highest top speed, which according to some doesn’t mean much because it was all down to Bottas.

        1. Well if we’re ruling out Bottas for the reasons you have above then This should be between Vettel and Ricciardo, Rosberg qualified first and finished first, was average in the practice sessions, Mercedes looks to have the fastest car, which according to some doesn’t mean much because it’s all down to Rosberg.

          Yup, can’t think why your argument above is flawed at all.

          1. Just your comprehension of my argument is flawed, Rosberg was consistent all thru the weekend including getting the win, Lewis was also consistent thru the weekend, the brake failure cost him a good qualifying position, and inevitably a shot at challenging for the win, Ricciardo lost 2 places in the end and Vettel gained 2 places, the DOTW must be the best placed driver for the entire weekend.

          2. @scepter I’m pointing out that your argument against Bottas being a valid candidate for DOTW is flawed.

            Rosberg qualified first, and finished first, in the fastest car. You say that he’s qualified to be DOTW.

            Bottas qualifies second, and finished second, in the second fastest car, and holds of the other fastest car (Mercedes) to do so. Yet in your mind he’s not worthy of DOTW. Where’s the logic in that?

            If you try to differentiate based on times set in practice sessions then I have to question what you think practice sessions are for. Bottas sat out Practice 1 for Susie Wolff, and anyway practice sessions are not indicative of outright performance for driver or car. They’re used by teams for set up, to try new parts, to determine degradation and a million other things that mean practice times are near worthless as a barometer of driver skill or effort.
            Now, you might have an argument against Bottas if he crashed in practice, but he didn’t so you don’t.

          3. I’ll explain, my point against Bottas in the British GP, he came from 17th to 2nd and everyone acknowledge his drive and he won DOTW in the 2nd fastest car and on a much easier track to overtake. and when you said “The sheer pace advantage the Mercedes cars have over the rest of the field means that starting from back in the field, either driver would eventually work their way to the front”. I thought to myself if Lewis went from 20th to 3rd in the best car, that should be just as worthy a drive as Bottas in the British Gp in the 2nd best car? now the reason i included Nico is because he won the race, and i averaged practice/race results as it’s called DOTW and not DOTD. hope that cleared up any misunderstanding.

          4. @scepter Ok, those are perfectly valid points for having either Rosberg or Hamilton as your DOTW. No disputing the fact that they put in great drives and got great results.

            My point, which you haven’t yet addressed, is your application of completely different conclusions to similar factual situations. Bottas and Rosberg had comparable races with comparable results, as I’ve outlined above. Sure, you’re right that Bottas had a less impressive race in Germany than he had in Britain, but they can’t all be stormers through the field. My issue is where you said

            “Bottas qualified 2nd and finished 2nd, was average in the practice sessions”

            How do you determine who’s average in practice? They’re not indicative of pace. And if Bottas is excluded as a potential DOTW by finishing where he started, why isn’t Rosberg? He got second on the grid! Did Bottas have to somehow beat Rosberg driving a Mercedes that’s massively faster than the Williams for Bottas to be considered DOTW? Both drivers finished where they were expected to, and I’d argue when Hamilton was closing in on Bottas towards the end very very few people expected him to hold onto second, but he did.

          5. Well as you suggest Bottas and Rosberg had similar races, average in practice simiply meant he didn’t top the leader charts, but was he wasn’t at the bottom either, so the only real difference was that one driver won the race and one did not, not taking away anything from Bottas drive, but if he had won the race definitely DOTW, so IMO it’s kind of like a tie breaker in a way.

  9. Bottas, Rosberg, Hamilton, Alonso, Ricciardo, in that order.

  10. I love how Kimi gets always at least 1% of all the weekend votes :)

    1. @mrtn I thought this deserved a quick check. Actually he hasn’t – over the past three weekends at least:

      https://www.racefans.net/2014/07/07/vote-2014-british-grand-prix-driver-weekend/
      https://www.racefans.net/2014/06/23/vote-2014-austrian-grand-prix-driver-weekend/
      https://www.racefans.net/2014/06/09/vote-2014-canadian-grand-prix-driver-weekend/

      It’s possible you’ve looked at the poll in the early stages, e.g. when only 100 votes have been cast and one was for Raikkonen.

      Obviously there is some degree of rounding to whole numbers, but in each of those cases he did not have as much as 1% of the vote.

  11. Great race Valteri Bottas, get hold a Mercedes considerably faster and has new tires, few drivers would do that in Formula 1 this year, and he succeeded. It was amazing, Hamilton certainly was not the least bit happy with third place. But anyway I have to make mention of Lewis Hamilton, a great recovery run, was aggressive and impatient in many parts of the proof, it cost him the title of best of the race.

    Another rider that deserves mention is Nico Hulkenberg, even with the temperature ruining the management of car tires Force India, he managed to go through an engine problem in the middle of the race, and finished without errors in seventh place. A great race, he took everything he could from the VJM07 in this race.

  12. Lewis doesn’t deserve it. He wasn’t the fastest Mercedes. He couldn’t overtake a single Mercedes powered car. He had the Button incident. And the only reason he had that comeback is because his ridiculous fast car.

    Ricciardo and Alonso are the drivers of the weekend for me.
    Voted Fernando because the more Kimi sucks, the more impressive Alonso looks.

    1. I’m pretty sure he overtook Mercedes powered cars.

    2. “He wasn’t the fastest Mercedes” The fastest lap says otherwise

      1. @kiwiuk we all know how unreliable fastest laps are in judging overall race pace.

    3. +1. Smacking into Button and the Kimster disqualifies him as driver of the weekend.

      As an aside, it has amused me for years that the cars can often go just as well, or better, when the aero bits get knocked off… Wonder what Newey would say to that?

  13. fanatico (@)
    21st July 2014, 14:03

    I have to give my vote (again) to Bottas. He had very strong qualifying and his race was also faultless and solid, a maximum result that day. He stayed calm, looked after the tires and even though he was meant to be “an easy catch” for Lewis in the last laps, didn’t get panicked and held the P2 to the chequered flag. All in all, I think this was the strongest weekend in general from Bottas during his Formula 1 -career so far.

  14. I don’t understand how Ham, Bottas are getting more votes than Ricciardo, i mean with that car, coming back like that was an amazing drive, and the hard time that he gave to Alonso was like a true champion(Vettel was lucky that Daniel went out the first corner because for sure that he would have been passed). Of course Bottas drove amazingly and kept Ham behind( with worn out tiers and damaged front wing) but still can not mach to Ricciardo. And still I would put more Votes to Alonso…risked a lot with that fuel management and the last lap with 8th gear … fantastic;

    here is the order IMHO:

    1.Ricciardo
    2.Hamilton
    3.Bottas
    4.Alonso

    now give me one argument why Bottas has to be rated more than Daniel

    1. There’s none, if you ask me.

    2. Because he had the second fastest car, no teammate to bother him (seirously, how much can Massa bother anyone (on track)?) and Hamilton took forever to catch up.

      Obviously, he is a young talent in a team that has failed for the last 10 years, so people are going to vote for him.

      1. @austus

        Because he had the second fastest car

        Definitely not – both Red Bulls were out-qualified by both Williams drivers, and with no disrespect to Bottas or Massa, neither Vettel nor Ricciardo give much away on one-lap pace.

        1. I was referring to Bottas, actually.

  15. vote ricciardo.. great recovery and battle with alonso just amazing.. Already give to bottas last two race.. but for this race .. just same with rosberg why i did not vote him

  16. I can’t decide so I’m going for Bottas just to keep Hamilton at bay, although he finished well, he didn’t drive a clean race like the others that finished around him

  17. I thought Lewis was really solid. He might have the car advantage, but 20th to 3rd isn’t all that easy.

    Yet, I thought Bottas was phenomenal all weekend, and Alonso had a stellar drive on Sunday, which was somehow botched up by the Ferrari pitwall again.

    Vote went to Bottas

  18. I too am bit perplexed (not really) by all the Hamilton votes. The worst classification for a Mercedes all season surely wasn’t the best drive of the weekend. He was marred by bad luck, but had he not had his incident with Button, he’d likely have finished second. A good race? Absolutely. But better than Rosberg or Bottas? I don’t think so. Both of those drivers achieved the best result they could have expected in their respective situations, and I give my vote to Bottas, as holding second in the Williams is a tougher task than having a quiet win in the Mercedes.

    1. @kanil I think that is well worded and I agree except that I did vote for NR while fully acknowledging what you have said of VB. For me it is that NR is in the higher pressure situation, and he did what he had to do this whole weekend to further his cause, no matter what bad luck LH had. Yes LH’s brake issue on Saturday took the pressure off NR for the weekend, but not entirely as most knew LH would claw his way up the field, and NR would still have the pressure of wanting to maintain the Championship lead and not make a mistake to jeopardize that even if this one race became a relative cakewalk in hindsight. And the Merc has proved itself to not be bulletproof, so I’m sure NR was not handing himself the trophy until the checkered flag.

      1. lol must the toughest pressure ever from first race for Nico(rolls eyes), he is the one chasing every race to claw back and undeserved lead….

        1. Well that’s racing for ya. It’s not always fair, but NR didn’t cause LH’s unreliability, NR has had some of his own, and if you think the two Merc drivers don’t have pressure knowing the WDC is going to come down to one of them, then I think you highly underestimate how hard F1 is, and how many people each driver is thinking of within the team who share credit for them having the opportunity they do.

        2. We get you don’t like Rosberg @dan you don’t need to be so scathing in every post

  19. Can anybody explain to me why you would vote for Lewis? The guy had a pretty amazing but rookie-esque race. He had 3 crashes, all of which were his fault, and also he finished 1 place behind the absolute minimum for a Mercedes, even after starting 20th, in a track renowned for its overtaking. I still think he had a stellar race, but to put him ahead of Ricciardo, Alonso, Rosberg, Bottas or even Vettel, is just wrong in my opinion

    1. Go back and watch the whole weekend footage and you would have to ask that question.

      1. I meant go watch the entire weekend of track sessions and everything is self-explanatory.

      2. @scepter Yeah, slower than his teammate in 2 of the 3 sessions, as well as being 0.3 secs down in the qualifying simulations in FP3. So yeah…

        1. Yeah so lets not mention the brake failure in Q1, or starting 20th to finish 3rd. and then ask “Can anybody explain to me why you would vote for Lewis? ” like i said pretty self-explanatory when viewed with an open mind.

  20. Bottas again. He is really hitting his stride- a level headed, consistent, smooth race.

  21. Hard to decide between Bottas and Ricciardo, but good performances by Alonso, Magnussen and Rosberg as well, and in the race Vettel and Maldonado wasn’t bad either.
    In the end I gave my vote to Bottas because at that time in voting he was just behind Hamilton, who didn’t deserve DOTW, not even close for me.

    1. *weren’t

  22. Tempted to vote for my man Ricciardo, but voted Rosberg.

    I honestly don’t get how Rosberg gets so little votes for a dominant and splendid drive, yet the golden child Hamilton gets almost to the top once more, when his teammate drove a FAR better race, and a better weekend. Hamilton didn’t make the best manoeuvres during the race.

  23. Must be Felipe(‘s) baby !

    Seriously now, voted for Ricciardo. P15 after the first corner, P6 at the end of the race. Fair enough.
    Hamilton: nothing really spectacular given the experience and the car he has at his dispossal. It was a great recovery, but for me it was overshadowed by many collisions caused by HAM mostly, so cannot call his recovery stellar/spectacular.
    Bottas: he’s great indeed, but I fail to see the spectacular in his performances at the moment. He started 2nd… finished 2nd. He wasn’t a threat to ROS at all, nobody threatened to pass him either. In Q3, his time was like 0.9s faster than Alonso’s best time, so you get the ideea how fast Williams was compared to the rest, Mercedes apart.

  24. I went for Ricciardo for this one, outqualified Vettel again then fell down the order through no fault of his own. From there he made a great recovery drive with some of the best overtakes I’ve seen this season (without smashing his car to bits unlike Hamilton), then a great scrap at the end against Alonso.

    Runner-up for me would be Bottas, dominated Massa all weekend and made no mistakes in the race other than a slightly tardy start.

  25. Ricciardo. His fight with Alonso was not just great to watch, it was clean and there weren’t any random bits flying off the cars, unlike Hamilton (who was – clumsiness aside – brilliant).

    Bottas was excellent again, but he didn’t have to do much until the last five laps and Rosberg may have well have gone on holiday.

  26. I’m a big fan of Bottas, who had a brilliant weekend, but I had to vote for Hamilton. I can’t blame him for the brake failure in qualifying but I can credit him for charging through the field. It wasn’t a simple “wait for DRS” type strategy; he was aggressive and you could physically SEE his determination. You knew how important this race was to him. Great effort all around.

    For all the complaining about “artificial” racing here in the DRS era, it’s been an absolute joy to watch Hamilton, Bottas and Ricciardo this season. These three in particular have been consistently charging through fields on merit with some bold and brilliant driving. The future is bright!

  27. This weekend it’s Hamilton for me. It was always going to be a risky race for Lewis and to be fair even Jenson said he could see how he could have misinterpreted his line for letting him pass. So I can understand why people voted for Bottas (great drive but starting 2nd in the 2nd fastest car that’s hard to overtake is far from impossible, considering the other Mercedes started 20th and his team mate was out). But I don’t find it hard to understand why a lot of people voted for Lewis either. At least give him some credit. Seems to be impossible for some….

  28. LotsOfControl (@for-unlawful-carnal-knowledge)
    21st July 2014, 15:43

    I voted for Bottas as Rosberg had it easy. I would have voted for Hamilton, hadn’t he cost himself of second place. Hamilton was lucky not to end the race early.

  29. Has to be Nico, banged it on Pole and then made no mistakes in the race.
    Lewis was always going to finish on the podium and he was lucky in the race after making contact with 3 people.
    Again Bottas was good but he has a good car and should be on the podium, slighty behing Rosberg for me

  30. It was a tough call this weekend, great recovery drives from Hamilton and Ricciardo; good positive drives from Alonso and Vettel; a calm controlled drive from Bottas, quitely impressive Button and Hulkenberg…but I think this weekend belongs to Rosberg, a controlled, everything-falling-into-place weekend. Not challenged but din’t make any mistakes either, he has a fast car and he knows how to deliver in it, not stuff which makes legends but certainly champions.

    I am not predicting that he will be the champion this year, but he certainly is in with a very good chance and it will as well be deserved if continues to deliver this way.

  31. maarten.f1 (@)
    21st July 2014, 15:59

    Ricciardo for me. His fight with Alonso was stellar, and I really like his attitude of not giving up. Hamilton put in a really good recovery drive, but to be honest, I didn’t expect anything less from the Mercedes (and I suspect that if he hadn’t clipped his front wing, 2nd would’ve been possible). When unshackled we’ve seen they have a 2 second advantage over the rest of the field. I suggest that for future races Mercedes must start from the pit lane, at least that way they’d have to work for the win a bit longer.

  32. I can’t understand on what basis so many people vote Bottas who ended up in the same place that he started and in a strong car that could perfectly do the job! Lewis was quick all weekend long, had to cope with a failure he couldn’t do something about it and gained 17 clean spots through the field.

    1. Not really clean spots all of them, he did crash twice, one of wich cost him second place

    2. Not really clean spots all of them, he did crash twice, one of wich cost him second place

  33. Hamilton!! 20th to 3rd is quite a performance…

  34. Bottas is so overrated guys it is actually funny. Someone said yesterday in Merc he would be champion. Look at Massa(Alo lap dog), if Massa can out race Alo in Austria and would have today, would have in Silverstone that shows how fast the Williams is. You guys just look at Bottas, look at the car’s pace. Is 6-4 in qually vs Massa good?, Even in rookie year his yardstick was Pastor did he do much?.

    1. He outscored and outqualified him, couldn’t really ask for more from a rookie.

      1. Lewis would make Massa retire on the spot, their is noting that screams best driver to me. Like Kpcart, “i wish Bottas was in the Merc”, what sort of thing to say. Why would Merc need Bottas? As i said Bottas if he is this huge talent should destroy someone who is mentally weak, and look at last year he was not much better than Pastor.

    2. Also, Bottas has more than three times the amount of points that Massa has. Alonso never done that.

      1. Right… but Massa had 3 DNFs in the last 4 races, while Bottas was up there, on the podium !!!

        1. And it’s just half of the season. That didn’t really happen when he was at Ferrari.

      2. Look at it this way @craig-o if Massa can reguarly out qualify Alo in his williams the car is a rocket ship. Also Massa has hardly ever out raced Alo, so how do you explain Austria? Lets be honest if Massa finishes last 2 he beat Alo again. Williams is a very fast car. You have to compare gaps, if Massa is 3 tenths off Hamilton say, then surely if Ham was in Williams he would beat Massa in the Merc by around a tenth, no?

  35. Bottas didn’t do anything special to me. He started second with the second fastest car and finished second, with his teammate knocked out. Yes he beat Hamilton but he had a broken car and started 20th. Bottas had to work for his podium at Silverstone and earns a deserved dotw but this time he had almost an easy time as Rosberg did, did a perfect job but no competition to pressure the two finns ;). Hamilton or Riccardo hmmmm……. Hamilton for me, for once the qualy error was nothing to do with him and apart for one mess up with Button he was brilliant,It goes to him. Was exciting throughout and went for gaps that other drivers wouldn’t go for, exciting guy, exciting race.

    1. Well said, totally agreed!!

      Hamilton for me as well

      1. I think VB had to work harder than you are giving him credit for, and these drivers may make it look easy at times, but there is an awful lot going on nonetheless. If you are going to claim NR and VB had it easy, then at least admit that LH went for gaps that others wouldn’t because he had the best car on the grid along with NR’s.

  36. Went with Ricciardo. Did well in qualifying, and avoiding any kind of damage in that first-corner incident while he was right at Massa´s gearbox when it started was some good driving. Then went through the field with what is one of the slowest cars on the straights, and had a great fight with Alonso.
    Bottas is a close second, did nothing wrong all weekend, just had it a little, little bit easier than Ric during the race.

  37. Lewis was a man at work yesterday.

  38. I love how even thought Rosberg did absolutely nothing wrong all weekend he wont win it.
    Was good in practice, got pole, lead all laps, won the race and he only has 9% of the votes.

    1. Proabably because alot of readers minds he is having alot of luck you only have to check the stats when he and Lewis is close and Ros gets alot of votes.

      1. It happens all the time and it’s the same as when SV was winning everything and the dotw would be someone other than him….someone who was perceived to have done more with less equipment, or did something unexpected with less. In this case VB gets the nod for doing more with less, LH gets the nod for coming from so far back, and ‘all’ NR did was have practically a perfect weekend except for fastest lap but was guilty of making it look easy, when in fact anything could have gone wrong and he still had to complete the race before them handing him the trophy. I gave the nod to NR because I perceive he and LH to be in the highest pressure situations overall for the WDC amongst the whole grid, and LH made a mistake contacting JB which cost him a chance at second place for the race. VB is doing great and is more and more exciting to watch and I’m sure his popularity is skyrocketing, but I don’t perceive him to be anywhere near a high pressure situation right now, so it is much less a mental game for VB than for NR and LH.

  39. I choose Hamilton because he fought his way to podium very great way. King of overtake. It’s not crazy that he doesn’t could overtake Bottas. He had only one mission, drive. Hamiilton do must harder work

  40. Tough one between Bottas, Hamilton and Ricciardo. For me I gave it to Bottas. He was faultless all weekend, Hamilton would have got it but he damaged his wing and frankly his car is too good to give it to him.

  41. Alonso is THE MAN. Race after race he trounces Kimi (and Luca de Montezuma :)) The guy, together with HAM is, by far, the fastest driver around and he fights every single lap, as he was fighting for the championship. As a driver, he has my admiration. His fight with Vettel in Silvastone and Ricciardo yesterday were racecraft at is best.

    1. Agreed absolutely. Alonso gets my vote, although it’s a close-run thing with Ricciardo and Hamilton. In this race we saw the best of Alonso, always making others work if they wanted to fight for his place, still working wonders with a car that is much less than the best. He’s an old fox and it is a joy to see how he manages to keep quicker cars behind when it looks as though they’re through.

      Ricciardo was truly impressive in his battle with Alonso and I can accept that he really is better than Vettel, thanks to this race. No whining to the pits about Alonso’s tactics for Ricciardo…

      And then there’s Hamilton. Yet another race of sheer determination and skill. I wish he wouldn’t make it so hard for himself – it’s not easy on my ticker watching him climb through the field like that. So many people want to know why Hamilton gets so many votes in these polls. The answer is obvious – he’s better value for money than anyone else out there.

      Take Bottas, for instance. Winning this poll as I write yet what exactly did he do? Yes, I know he gave you all relief from a complete Mercedes walkover (and I know how that feels after begging for relief from Red Bull’s total domination of the last four years) but what did Bottas do apart from driving a lonely race in a car that cannot be passed on that track? It’s not as if he kept Hamilton behind at the end either – much more that, mangled wing or not, the Mercedes could not live with the Williams on the straight. I suppose that does bode well for Williams at Monza, doesn’t it…?

  42. People moaning Ham dint get maximum is silly, eh hello Austria ring a bell gap, the Williams is fast enough to make it a hard pass. Ros started 3rd or 4th in China went down to 7th off start and took im till about 15 laps to end to get 2nd, Ham won by like 15 secs. Ham starts 20th comes 3rd and is just 22 off the lead. Yet people think it was not worthy of DOTW. Oh he made silly contact people say, go and check Buutton’s twitter people and then reply. Alo made silly contact aswell, he and Kimi whoever you blame they were lucky aswell, but all we hear is great drive by Alo. Ham pace was unreal, when Ros stopped Ham was keeping him in check on old tryes and Ros was on new softs.

    1. *Oh and his breaks failed, if anyone deserved the odd mistake in race it was Hamilton

      1. If you are going to compare NR in China at least acknowledge some facts. Yes qualifying was in the wet, and NR mistakenly read his info as being on a slower final lap when in fact he was on a faster one and the distraction caused him to spin. So he started 4th. But then at the start of the race he had no telemetry which meant that he did not have the proper clutch setting as established with his practice starts earlier in the weekend. So as a result of this unreliability, which everyone has ignored in the whose-had-more-DNFs column between he and LH, NR’s start was poor and that sent him down to seventh off the grid. Without that telemetry problem, who knows. His own mistake probably cost him second if not pole on the grid, and then the lack of telemetry cost him at the start and no doubt throughout the race. As I say NR’s lack of telemetry has largely been ignore because it wasn’t a dnf.

  43. I voted for Magnussen. He qualified 4th in the McLaren, which normally struggles to make Q3. Then he put in a great recovery drive to ninth having been in last after the first lap. He didn’t have the first lap to make up positions, and he still ended up beating out the likes of Raikkonen and Perez.

  44. i imagine i am one of the few to have voted for rosberg. he drove faultlessly. commentators got it completely wrong when they said he had messed up his final run in Q3 – it was actually good enough for pole. in the race we saw nothing much of him – a stout testament to how easily he made it look.

  45. Rosberg. Kept his concentration and delivered. Simple choice I think.

  46. Hamilton. Sheer class, pure entertainment.

  47. Clearly Rosberg

  48. Funny is that people wants to find anything to bash on Hamilton. Had Alonso overtaken two cars as Hamilton did he would be calling a master around here. In the clash with Button the reactions are absurd. Even JENSON said after watching again he understanded why Hamilton thought he was leaving space.

    1. Alonso could be… the master ! Alonso NEVER had a car so dominant at his dispossal… like HAM this year with Mercedes ! When you have a car that fast… you can overtake even 3-4 cars at 1 time ! Look again at HAM’s overtakes at the corner following the Parabolika: he recovered a big distance to those in front close to the corner (higher top speed), then under braking. But he pushed things over the limit too (braking too late ?!?) -> see the collisions. SO, yeah, HAM did multiple overtakes because the car allowed it.

      1. Hahaha i won’t bother. But you made my point. Thanks for that.

  49. Graham (@guitargraham)
    21st July 2014, 20:22

    Bottas again. this was easily his best overall performance yet and its all the more remarkable considering that until FP2 he’d never done a dry lap around hockenheim in his life. you might want to think about that for a moment. he had a belting qualifying and then ran a perfectly clean race before comfortable holding off Lewis. He made his weekend look very easy indeed, and that’s the mark of a true great

  50. Rosberg for me. While others had great drives and spectacular recoveries, Rosberg didn’t put a foot wrong all weekend.

  51. Voted for Ricciardio, reminded me of aussiegrit

  52. Ricciardo.
    Bottas.
    Rosberg.
    Hamilton.

  53. Either Hamilton or Ricciardo for me. I’m going with Lewis. Both made great recovery drives due to no fault if their own. Rosberg and Bottas were good but both had no one to compare them to. They finished first and second in the fastest and second fastest cars.

  54. 1-BOT
    2-HAM
    3-RIC
    honorable mention: ALO

  55. Some people voted the best car of the weekend instead of the best driver. Come on Hamilton? He was driving and overtaking motorway style, there is a world between mercedes and the rest of the cars! The best pilot was V. BOTTAS no question at all.

  56. Easy…

    Bottas Bottas Bottas

    But that was a spirited drive from Riccardo, his ability to mix it up with the veterans is seriously impressive.

  57. Voted Hamilton – got the maximum result from this race, there was no passing Williams starting that far back. If Massa hadn’t crashed, I think he would have finished 4th. That wing damage didn’t change the outcome, he would have been behind Bottas at the end with no way through even if he had managed to stop twice S-S-SS. If anything, I think that missing left endplate helped him reach that crazy 345.2 kph speed, and it still wasn’t enough! maybe he should have knocked the other one off too.

  58. I think Hamilton had a good race, I give my vote to Hamilton.

  59. Personally i can’t get my mind around why people vote Hamilton. I think his race was rather messy, including strategy. In my view Bottas, Ricciardo, Alonso, Rosberg, Hulkenburg and even Vettel had a better weekend. In the end i voted Ricciardo, but it was close with Alonso and Bottas. Like Martin Brundle said on SKY, from Ricciardo’s driving it looks like he simply has more hunger inside him than many others. His battle with Alonso was great. It’s the lack of mistakes in such a battle that shows the quality of the driver.

  60. Tough call, in the end I went for Alonso for his fantastic overtakes and battles with Danny Ric. But equally, Danny Ric and Bottas were deserving of DoTW, so honourable mentions to both.

  61. Bottas for definite, he held off Hamilton like a professional and I do think that him and Ricciardo can be world champions, and at this rate, I don’t think it’ll be too long before that happens, for either driver.

    1. For me Valtteri, Daniel, Jules and Daniil and maybe Kevin are future champions.

  62. I don’t think HAM and BOT were as close to each other in the race as they are now in this poll. This poll is definitely entertaining! Who will come out on top!!??

  63. Hamilton. But great work also by Bottas, Ricciardo, Rosberg and Vettel.

  64. No surprises to see Lulu getting all the votes on a UK forum. Really though, he’s in the best car (by far) – is it really that special that he drove through back markers like they were witches hats?

    1. … Which is why other drivers have plenty of votes too? Being a UK website has nothing to do with it.

    2. Yep. That’ll be why 65% of votes have gone to non-british drivers, and Hamilton isn’t leading the poll?

      Contrary to what the SSF1 article comments portray, British fans are not all huge Hamilton worshippers who believe he can do no wrong at all. I believe @keithcollantine has run a series of articles previously about the nationality of users on this site, and showing it bears little or no correlation to the drivers ‘consistently’ getting supported in these polls..

  65. For me Botas is 2 or 3 best… Never 1 because he didn’t gain any position, was not even a small threat to Rosberg, and almoust lost his position to someone that started 20th

  66. Valtteri Bottas is an absolute gem and so cool under pressure. However I voted for Lewis Hamilton – his scything through the field was truly amazing and although he was sometimes a little over ambitious it was inspiring to watch. I have never really got what all the pro Hamilton buzz was all about until that race. (Haven’t seen before 2013 season).
    Daniel Riccardo taking on Fernando Alonso was also amazing! He never gave up.

  67. Gideon Hadi (@)
    22nd July 2014, 9:46

    I started to think why Magnussen only get 2 % vote

    1. Me too.

      And why Bottas have got 36% this time supposing podium has already become a common place to him.

  68. I voted for Bottas.

    Hamilton had a great recovery race, but I feel that he could have given Bottas more pressure and challenged him for P2. You can blame it on his broken front wing (which was caused by Hamilton himself), but the fact is that Hamilton was closing the gap to Bottas 1,5 – 2 seconds per lap with said wing before eventually catching him, and was much quicker than the Williams.

    On one hand, Lewis’ front tyre was perhaps too grained at the end of the race to really try and overtake Bottas, but on the other, Bottas played his cards well and kept Hamilton at bay when it mattered.

    Bottas followed a very strong quali session (he was closer to Rosberg than teammate Massa was to him) with a flawless race on Sunday, and acted very calm under the pressure from Hamilton. Maximum result for him.

    Apart from Bottas and Lewis, also Ricciardo, Alonso, Magnussen and Hülkenberg had strong races. Hülkenberg is doing a great job consistently scoring points for Force India and finishing ahead of his teammate.

  69. I went for the driver who was fastest in 2 out of 3 practice sessions, and less than half a tenth slower in the other one after running wide on his first lap and having to abort. He qualified on pole (topping all 3 Qualifying sessions? Certainly Q1 and Q3) and won the race, leading every lap.

    Rosberg consistently outdrove Hamilton this weekend in my opinion. Surely Rosberg should be getting more votes? (Or at least, Hamilton should be getting less?)

  70. For me it’s between Ricciardo and Alonso. Both had great battling races and had to fight hard for their positions. I give Ricciardo the edge this time. It’s much more challenging coming through the field against cars which mostly have superior top speed, even if overall the RedBull is still a good car. But i also have to give him credit for his reactions and judgement on the first lap – not only did he have to run wide and get off the throttle, he then had to accelerate to get round Massa’s still spinning car to make it through and keep it on the tarmac.

    Mentions to Bottas and Rosberg who were faultless but had more straightforward races. I voted before seeing the results, have to say i’m surprised by the voting for Hamilton. For me he was a bit clumsy and lucky to get away with his collisions. 3rd should have been comfortable after Massa’s retirement.

  71. 1st – Kevin Magnussem
    2nd – Lewis Hamilton
    3rd – Nico Rosberg
    4th – Valtteri Bottas
    5th – Daniel Ricciardo
    6th – Fernando Alonso

  72. all F1 fanatic followers seem to be falling over each other to put down Lewis H’s performance…. yeah … Bothas drove a good race … but he did not make one overtaking move, from start to finish, he kept the car on the track, and finished in exactly the same position as he started …. in simple words, as boring a race as Nico in the lead …. contrary to LH … I find it disgusting the level of hatred you guys have for LH, your views are not at all objective …. this will be last time I ever visit this site ….

  73. Again driver of the weekend wasn’t that straight forward a choice for me with the German Grand Prix.

    At the start of Q1 Hamilton was outperforming Rosberg but after Hamilton’s brake failure, for the rest of qualifying and the race it seemed like Rosberg didn’t even have to push to get pole and the win so I can’t really vote for Rosberg even though he took the victory.

    This time Hamilton’s problems in qualifying were not his fault, he then drove from the back of the field to the podium during the race, but then he does have the best car on the grid.

    The negative aspects were the contacts during the race but I thought the Raikkonen one was just a racing incident especially considering all the other cars around at the time.

    With regards to the Button coming together, this was the one which damaged Hamilton’s car and race as he probably would have got second without the front wing damage. The first footage shown was from Hamilton’s onboard camera and although I did not initially realise which driver it was at the time I thought they were leaving the door open, obviously Hamilton did know it was Button and when you factor in how Button often lets faster cars through so as to not harm his own overall race strategy I can understand why Hamilton thought he was being let through as he stated in his post race interviews, so I don’t think you can be too critical about that incident.

    Bottas put in another excellent performance being best of the rest behind the surviving Mercedes on Saturday and maintaining that position including withstanding some late pressure from Hamilton on Sunday to score another podium.

    Alonso again managed to get the maximum from the Ferrari and was part of some great on track battles for the second race in a row.

    Ricciardo may have finished a race behind his teammate for the first time this season but for me he was again the more impressive of the two Red Bull drivers. Having to avoid the first corner collision between Massa and Magnussen meant he dropped well down the field but he put in a good recovery drive to finish just behind Alonso.

    It is hard to choose from Hamilton, Bottas, Alonso and Ricciardo and if I could choose all of them in the voting I probably would, but you can’t so my vote would go to Bottas, but ask me again in an hour I would probably have changed my mind.

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