Vote for your 2014 US GP Driver of the Weekend

2014 United States Grand Prix

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

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

United States Grand Prix driver-by-driver

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – Doomed to start from the pit lane due to his penalty for taking a sixth complete new power unit, Vettel said on Saturday that seventh place would be a good result. That was where he finished, thanks in part to superb calls from the Red Bull pit wall. The decision to get his soft tyre stint out of the way under the Safety Car ultimately didn’t pay off, but bringing him in for a fourth pit stop to take on soft tyres was a clever move. That gave him a significant performance advantage which he wielded effectively, and came close to depriving Alonso of sixth place.

Daniel Ricciardo – Ricciardo’s starts remain something of a weakness but in every other respect he continues to impress. Having slipped back to fifth at the start he crucially took advantage of an opportunity to pass Alonso when the race resumed. That done, he put pressure on the Williams drivers and jumped each of them in turn over his two pit stops. That netted his eighth podium finish.

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – Rosberg has now started all of the last seven races from the front row, and four from pole position, without winning any of them. He was at the top of his game in qualifying, comfortably beating Hamilton despite having been put off his stride by a braking problem in final practice. But in the race the tables turned once again, and with it his championship hopes continue to fade.

Lewis Hamilton – Hamilton also had brake trouble on Saturday which went some way to explaining his struggles in qualifying. Held his second place at the start and throughout the first stint, then picked up speed after both Mercedes switched to the medium tyres. His pass for the win bore hallmarks of the move he put on Vettel in 2012 with similar results.

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – It was a surprise to see Alonso get caught out by Ricciardo at the restart, but from then on he was as effective as ever in combat, marking the cards of both Button and Vettel. His move on the latter ultimately proved vital, as the pair were separated by half a second at the line.

Kimi Raikkonen – Closer to Alonso than usual in qualifying, but was assaulted by Perez on the first lap leaving him with damage which might have affected his ability to look after his tyres. He had to make a late dive for the pits which left him out of the points.

Lotus

Romain Grosjean – Both Lotus drivers had Fridays but in the cool temperatures of Saturday morning Grosjean felt his car was “the best I’ve driven for a while”. Come qualifying the balance had shifted, and he missed the cut for Q2. He made progress in the race, however, and was holding ninth when Vergne barged past at turn one, leaving Grosjean to limp home out of the points in a damaged car.

Pastor Maldonado – Picked up two penalties during the course of the race – for speeding in the pits and behind the Safety Car – but besides that it was a more positive weekend for Maldonado. He out-qualified Grosjean, and having dropped behind his team mate the Vergne incident allowed him to get ahead again, and his last-lap pass on the Toro Rosso netted him ninth and his first points.

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McLaren

Jenson Button – It was nip and tuck between Button and Magnussen in qualifying. Button narrowly won – but was dropped back by a gearbox penalty. After pitting under the Safety Car he scrapped with Alonso, but his long stint at the end proved too much and he dropped out of the points. “It’s unusual for our car to suffer tyre degradation as damaging as we did today,” he said afterwards. “We were slipping and sliding around, and as a result I was really struggling compared with the drivers around me.”

Kevin Magnussen – Had a similar race to Button’s albeit not mired in as much traffic. Team principal Eric Boullier said both drivers “coped manfully with less than optimal grip levels”.

Force India

Nico Hulkenberg – Had a novel explanation for failing to make Q3 – he blamed a visor tear-off for interfering with his final flying lap. At the start of the race he ran over debris from the collision his team mate caused, and then retired later on with a power unit problem.

Sergio Perez – Said the windy conditions made it hard to get the most out of the VJM07 despite pipping his team mate in qualifying. An overly optimistic move on Perez resulted in him taking the Sauber out and hitting Raikkonen as well, for which he was given an unusually strong seven-place grid penalty for the next race.

Sauber

Adrian Sutil – Looked in great shape in qualifying, emphatically beating Gutierrez and taking Sauber into Q3 for the first time this year. That was all spoiled when Perez took him out on the first lap.

Esteban Gutierrez – On a weekend when Sauber announced a new driver would take one of their seats for next year, Gutierrez badly needed to perform. But he was eliminated in Q1, penalised for speeding behind the Safety Car and was passed by Raikkonen on the last lap.

Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne – Failed to make it through Q1 after reverting to “an old specification engine”. Vergne also said he was compromised by missing first practice while Max Verstappen drove his car. In the race he looked on course for a strong result after diving past Grosjean from a distance in a move the stewards took a disappointingly dim view of – it has been tough but fair. The resulting penalty dropped him back to tenth.

Daniil Kvyat – Picked up a ten-place grid penalty due to a power unit change for the second time this year. And, unlike in Monza, he wasn’t able to qualify high enough to serve the entire penalty at once: “this weekend and the next one in Brazil are compromised,” he rued. In the race he passed Raikkonen but damaged his front left tyre, leaving him last of the classified finishers.

Williams

Felipe Massa – Shared the second row of the grid with Bottas and got ahead of him at the start. But he lost a second in his final pit stop which allowed Ricciardo to edge him off the podium.

Valtteri Bottas – Beat Massa in qualifying again despite having to give his car up for Felipe Nasr in first practice. But a slow start dropped him back to third, and given his track position there was little he could do to prevent Ricciardo jumping him for fourth in the pits.

Qualifying and race results summary

DriverStartedGap to team mateLaps leading team matePittedFinishedGap to team mate
Sebastian Vettel18th+0.807s0/5647th+70.174s
Daniel Ricciardo5th-0.807s56/5623rd-70.174s
Lewis Hamilton2nd+0.376s33/5621st-4.314s
Nico Rosberg1st-0.376s23/5622nd+4.314s
Fernando Alonso6th-0.194s54/5526thNot on same lap
Kimi Raikkonen8th+0.194s1/55313thNot on same lap
Romain Grosjean16th+1.071s28/55211thNot on same lap
Pastor Maldonado10th-1.071s27/5529thNot on same lap
Jenson Button12th-0.051s1/55212thNot on same lap
Kevin Magnussen7th+0.051s54/5528thNot on same lap
Nico Hulkenberg13th+0.044s1/11
Sergio Perez11th-0.044s0/10
Adrian Sutil9th-0.7s0/00
Esteban Gutierrez15th+0.7s0/0314th
Jean-Eric Vergne14th+0.314s37/55210thNot on same lap
Daniil Kvyat17th-0.314s18/55315thNot on same lap
Felipe Massa4th+0.299s55/5624th-4.068s
Valtteri Bottas3rd-0.299s1/5625th+4.068s

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 United States Grand Prix weekend?

  • Valtteri Bottas (0%)
  • Felipe Massa (1%)
  • Daniil Kvyat (0%)
  • Jean-Eric Vergne (3%)
  • Adrian Sutil (1%)
  • Esteban Gutierrez (0%)
  • Nico Hulkenberg (0%)
  • Sergio Perez (1%)
  • Kevin Magnussen (0%)
  • Jenson Button (1%)
  • Pastor Maldonado (10%)
  • Romain Grosjean (2%)
  • Kimi Raikkonen (0%)
  • Fernando Alonso (4%)
  • Lewis Hamilton (36%)
  • Nico Rosberg (1%)
  • Daniel Ricciardo (31%)
  • Sebastian Vettel (10%)

Total Voters: 651

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2014 United States Grand Prix

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Image © Daimler/Hoch Zwei, Sauber, McLaren/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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102 comments on “Vote for your 2014 US GP Driver of the Weekend”

  1. I thought this day would never come, but for the first time since I first visited this site (late 2012), I have voted for Maldonado. He had a good qualy and a very good race with lots of clean fights.

    1. The same goes for me. He really grabbed the opportunity of a halfway good lotus this weekend and made it as far as it could go.

    2. You don’t have the chance to vote for Maldonado often, so I’ll take this one!

      Great drives from Hamilton, Ricciardo and Massa too.

      1. I’d give it to Massa if he managed to keep Ricciardo behind but his drive really was noteworthy, I hope he puts on a good show at his home race next week.

    3. Maldonado out-qualified Grosjean, but was running behind him until Grosjean was forced off the track by Vergne through no fault of his own. Without that incident Grosjean would probably have finished ahead. And he didn’t pick up a penalty. So I’ll vote for him.

      Ricciardo had a great race but some analysis on the forum a few weeks ago suggested that this would be a Red Bull track based on its average speed, so I don’t think he really outperformed the car this weekend.

  2. My vote goes to Vettel for that comeback drive in adversity, although I’d say Felipe deserves one for one of those rare days when he managed to beat Bottas squarely. Would have loved to have voted for either one of the Lotus drivers, unfortunately let down by collecting penalties or dreadful quali, and Sutil probably deserved a vote for his quali alone.

  3. It’s odd, because I don’t think any one of the main choices had a completely good ‘weekend’. Hamilton was by his own admission slower in Qualifying. Rosberg similar in the race. Vettel should have been a consideration considering his work on race pace, but he didn’t make the jumps I expected in the early stages. Ricciardo put in a great race, but the first few overtakes were him recovering from a poor getaway from the line. Even Alonso was making mistakes..

    The only driver who sticks out as not doing anything wrong, outperforming his car and making no mistakes is, incredibly, Adrian Sutil. He got into Q3 (on a day where it was no easier, as the only teams to pull out were ones he was expected to beat), and was unfortunate to be crashed into by Perez…

    So there you go.. Sutil it is!

    1. I voted for Maldonado (got the lotus as far as it could go IMO this weekend), but if Sutil had ever had gotten the chance to finish that race and not drop completely back, he was certainly in the picture for me too @keeleyosessed

  4. The only drivers who were clearly above their team-mates trough the whole weekend were Alonso, Sutil and Maldonado, as we can’t be sure what Vettel could have done had he not started from the pit-lane. Since Sutil’s race ended so soon, I made the decision between Maldonado and Alonso. And because I have never done it before, I voted for Maldonado.

    1. I dont think Maldonaldo was clearly above his teamate… in quali yes but if Grosjean didn’t get hit by Vergne he would of finished above Maldonaldo

  5. Nico 0%, lol

    1. btw I voted for Alonso, just because he deserves it imo. Because he had some great battles and never came out of it as a loser. Speccialy when you consider, where Kimi finished. Note that Alo had an very old engine compared to Kimi.
      Ricciardo also deserves some credit, but lack of overtaking from him denied that imho.

      1. Could have sworn RIC actually passed ALO on track at least once.

        1. @Martin Ricciardo passed MAG on the 1st lap after coming under pressure from RAI down the back straight too, also he made both passes without running either ALO or MAG off the road to do so (unilke some Merc drivers with their boorish overtakes – lol). Maybe the weight of all that British expectation causes a certain driver to go in a bit deeper than he plans sometimes, & DRS assisted again too I notice. Oh dear. :)

        2. Yes, RIC passed ALO early but it became clear watching them over the next few laps that his car was just in a different class. I’m a registered HAM fan and was wearing my #44 LEWIS shirt at the race…but after watching ALO in person I actually gave him my vote for DOTW. I’m just glad my best friend didn’t hear me say that because he’s a die-hard ALO fan and I’d hate to admit that I voted ALO if he heard it! LOL

          But seriously, my girlfriend absolutely hates ALO and really wanted to hate his running at the race, but even she commented “wow, I can’t believe I’m cheering for the moves Alonso is making…but I just can’t help it when you see driving like that!”.

    2. At this moment in time (423 votes) Nico and Perez are tied at 1%. Ouch.

    3. How does Perez & Rosberg have the same % of votes? I mean sure Hamilton might’ve been better, but Rosberg wasn’t that bad. I mean, he beat Hamilton to pole by 0.4 secs didn’t he?

      1. It is one of the vaugeries of the “first past the post” or “winner takes all” voting systems. It may be that 99% of voters considered Rosberg the second best driver, but that counts for nothing. Preferential voting gives a much more accurate representation but is abit more cumbersome in that voters would have to vote for all preferences, ie #1 Perez,, but if not Perez, Rosberg, but if not Rosberg, Maldonado………. Then to list the drivers performances, the most useless driver (in this case Perez), votes are redistributed, again and again, until one driver (the winner) gets 100%…. get it?

        1. Also, this is a Britain-based website. Hamilton is a local hero, Rosberg is his “enemy”. This leads to a natural tendency to look for errors or reasons to criticize Rosberg, while Hamilton’s evaluations are mostly focused on the positive aspects that tend to over-shadow any mistakes he might have made. Add to this the incidents in Monaco and Spa, which have been blown way out of proportion by British broadcasters, and you end up with a situation where Rosberg is basically denied a fair, un-biased treatment.
          Just compare Melbourne to Singapore and Austria to Sochi.
          In Melbourne, Lewis has an engine failure at the start, leaving Nico to take an easy win. In the vote, Nico gets 5%, finishing 4th. Lewis gets 1%. In Singapore, Nico had a technical issue at the pre-start, effectively taking him out of the race, leaving Hamilton to take a – somewhat – easy win. Lewis: 38%, P1. Nico: 0% flat.
          Austria: Lewis makes a horrible mistake in qualifying, spinning off and finishing in P10, but manages to catch up in the race and finish in P2, behind Rosberg. The vote: Rosberg 9%, Hamilton 15%. P2 for Lewis, P5 for Nico…
          Sochi: Rosberg makes a horrible mistake after the start while attempting to pass Hamilton. He immediately has to pit, dropping back to the very end of the field, but manages to make his way back up to P2 without needing another tyre change, reducing the gap to Lewis from 47 seconds to 13 seconds over the race. The vote: Lewis 35% – P1. Nico 14% – P5.

          That may have been wordy, but I think I have made my point clear.

          The polls are nice for checking how others perceive the races. But if you want to know who might be objectively doing a better job – the popular Brit or his teammate from a different country – they’re utterly worthless due to bias.

          NB
          I still love this site, and British motorsport broadcasting. Both tend to be a lot (and I mean a tremendous lot! more balanced than, say, their German equivalents. It is only in this one aspect that their instinct fails them and their followers.

          1. @nase

            Sorry but you’ve missed the point.

            I’ll try explain using your own examples.

            Firstly Australia. Nico was out qualified by not only his team mate, but also a red bull into P3. He did nothing special in the race and was therefore outshone by kmag who I believe won DOTW.

            In Singapore Hamilton snatched pole when in practice Rosberg looked quicker. Hamilton also had to pump in some fast laps after the safety car and overtake for the lead. I’m not making out it was a brilliant performance, but he did have to work for it. His pole backed up a solid weekend performance, hence the score.

            Austria – both were poor in qualifying with Rosberg being beat to pole and Hamilton making his mistake. In the race Hamilton had a fantastic first lap which was impressive to watch. He caught Rosberg by the end of lap 1. There was little to choose between the two and I think bottas won the DOTW here. I wouldn’t vote for Hamilton or Rosberg, but overall I can see how Hamiltons race and damage limitation could be seen as more impressive than rosbergs race overall as Rosberg also made a mistake mid race.

            Sochi – Hamilton out qualified Rosberg easily and looked dominant in practice. He didn’t make any mistakes in the race. Rosberg while quite impressive to come from the back,he got lucky with the very low tyre deg to get that result.

            Of nicos wins I’ve already explained Australia and Austria which leaves a controversial Monaco, which he was also over shone by bianchi. And Germany, where he had no competition in qualifying or the race.

          2. With respect Nase, I think most of the people on this site aren’t nationalistic and give fair appraisals of the drivers. Lewis Hamilton is favoured because he is probably the most exciting/talented driver of this era,the fact he is British is not relevant. As far as Rosberg’s indiscretions being ‘blown way out of proportion’ is disingenuous. A (pretty certain) professional foul is a serious misdemeanour and something to be justly upset about.

          3. For some reason, there seems to be no way to reply directly to you, so I’ll reply to myself instead.

            @f190:
            I will not nit-pick your reply apart, but answer on a more general level: I understand every single point you make, yet I see no contradiction to what I said. In fact, your reply illustrates what I was getting at. You arguments are not irrational or dishonest, and I trust you to mean what you say.
            The point is, while every single argument you put forward is justifiable, they do not form an objective whole, but rather a subconscious form of cherry picking. And I don’t blame you, or the British F1 broadcasters and commenters. It’s a national bias, and a less pronounced one than for example the one you’re exposed to when watching German TV.

            But, to give one last example: When I read the driver-by-driver synopsis of this year’s British GP by Keith, I did not recognise the weekend in his wording. As I remembered it, it had an unexpected pole position by Rosberg who continued his lap against all odds while Hamilton chickened out. He went on to lead the race with a gap of more than 5 seconds, before reporting gear box gremlins, which caused him to retire shortly after. Hamilton took over the lead and won.
            Or, as Keith put it:
            – Rosberg was cleared of overtaking under a red flag
            – he took advantage of a rapidly-drying final sector
            – he wasn’t able to match Hamilton’s pace
            – they were bound to switch positions anyway, but then his gearbox broke.

            Oh well, after this less than heroic weekend, no wonder Nico was DOTW for only 1% of the readers, while Hamilton almost made it to the podium with 9% of the votes.

            To sum it up:
            We have a season in which Rosberg and Hamilton are nigh-inseparable in qualifying and races. Rosberg has had the upper hand in qualifying, Lewis has been dominant in the races since the Italian GP, after Rosberg had consistently outpaced him from Monaco to Spa. They’ve both been hurt by an even share of bad luck. Sadly, the DOTW vote does not represent this in any way. With Lewis winning 5 times and coming second 5 times, he massively outshines Nico who only ever made it twice into the Top 3.
            In this respect, the vote seems to represent the comparison between Alonso and Räikkönen, not the closest of all battles between team mates in the 2014 season. Which leads me to my initial statement: The DOTW vote is utterly worthless in terms of objective comparison. It is still a fun vote, but one has to bear in mind that it is strongly affected by bias.

            P.S.
            I am not saying I am not biased, too. I definitely am. Everybody is. But I have a natural tendency to try and deconstruct what I and other people think. I don’t mean to say that Lewis does not deserve the praise or that the voters are being horrible people for voting the way they do. If anything, I would like to contribute to the awareness that this site, while being one of the best and most balanced there are, is still subject to bias. That’s all.

          4. this is a Britain-based website.

            The fact that this site is hosted on a British server has no bearing on where its visitors come from. If you want to know who are the most popular drivers among users of the site that information is freely available without making crude assumptions based on nationality.

          5. Hi Keith,
            I’m really sorry for apparently vexing you. This was definitely not my intention, because I admire your work here, your seemingly indefatigable research and obvious independence – which is sadly a rare attribute in F1 websites.
            In retrospect, I may not have worded my opinion perfectly, thus causing some irritation. For that, I would like to apologise.

            Taking a step back from the “crudeness”, I don’t think my opinion is insulting or far-fetched. In fact, I think I’ve put forth a few arguments that explain why I’ve come to this conclusion. And I’ve seen that point (i.e. f1fanatic having a certain noticeable, but otherwise innocuous Britain-centric approach) being made From then on, it’s open to discussion. I’m here for discussions. So I need to express my opinion especially when I know it’s not the most popular one.
            I definitely don’t mean any harm.

          6. Ugh, last-second editing… *rolling eyes*

            “And I’ve seen that point (i.e. f1fanatic having a certain noticeable, but otherwise innocuous Britain-centric approach) being made…”

            continuation:
            …by quite a few other people. Maybe it isn’t as obvious when you’re a fan of F1 in Britain, as much of the broadcasting and reports are based there. But coming from a different country, it’s easily noticeable. That’s all.

          7. @nase I appreciate you may have meant this constructively, but I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. I’m not attempting to advocate anything related to nationality here whatsoever. It does not interest me.

            And I reiterate, there is no need to make assumptions about what drivers people support when that information is available on the site already.

  6. Ricciardo for me, he may have messed up the start (admitting it was his fault instead of blaming the car earns bonus points in my book) but other than that he had a good weekend and drove well all race. Many drivers can’t handle the pressure of racing wheel to wheel with Alonso but Daniel kept his cool and came out on top. I would have preferred to see him overtake the Williams drivers on the track but you can’t fault the teams strategy of getting him past during the pit stops and getting another podium in what looked like the 3rd best car is a great result.

    1. Ditto. And for the same reasons.

    2. I agree entirely but overcompensated for my national b**s and gave 1 to Button who was doing an excellent job until his tyres let him down.

    3. I think it’s worth pointing out that when Ricciardo gained 3rd over Massa he gained more time on track (1.7 secs) in 3 laps (the lap prior to his pit-in, the pit-in lap, and the pit-out lap) versus the time lost by Williams longer pit-stop (1.1 secs).

      Of course it was the combination of on track performance combined with the pit performances of Williams and Red Bull, but no one has noted that a larger portion of time was found on track by Ricciardo to make that pass.

  7. I went for Vettel. Couldn’t do anything about the car having to start from the rear of the field and whilst his first stint wasn’t great (post safety car), the charge at the end was super exciting, you just have to wonder whether if they’d pitted 1 lap earlier, he might have got Alonso too!?

  8. Man, this is a tough one. I think for me it’s between 6 drivers. Maldonado, Ricciardo, Alonso, Vettel, Vergne and Hamilton. I think Vergne drops out first. Not a great qualifying at all, but made it up to 9th
    Next to drop out is Hamilton, again because of qualifying, but less so. I know it wasn’t fully down to him, but at the same time it was still a bit of a shame. But I think he’s definitely one of the top 3 drivers of the race for me.
    After that, next to drop out is Vettel. I think he had a very good last couple of stints, but his first long stint was pretty awful. Hard to go higher due to lack of participation in qualifying (for the most part).
    Next to drop out is Ricciardo. He had a decent race, and a decent qualifying. I think he maxed out his race result, but his qualifying could have been a little better. That leaves Alonso and, that’s right, Maldonado.
    Alonso for me has to drop out next. Once again I think he’s maximized the car and you can’t really ask for more than that. Good scraps in the race and ended where he started, in his maximum possible position of 6th given the circumstances.
    Maldonado therefore gets my vote. His qualifying was good, maybe the maximum available and destroyed Grosjean. And then in the race, he was very good, and essentially made the car look better than it was. Obviously you can’t drive a car beyond its limits, but he made it look it. Great performance.

    1. @philereid My thought process was similar to yours until the very end where you voted Maldonado ahead of Alonso. Why the hell would you vote for a guy who did great, sure, but got 2 penalties over someone who got 100% from the car and managed to overtake plenty of people in the race.

  9. Pretty good and surprisingly level-headed drive from Maldonado. Comprehensively beat his teammate for the first time this season and finally scored himself some points. Good enough for my vote.

  10. I think Hamilton deserved it clearly.

    I would say Vergne but he didn’t do anything important, except try to secure his next year seat -which is a late turnaround-. Ricciardo? No, like Vergne he didn’t do anything to get podium, except a faultless race. Maldonado? No, there was just not enough crowd him to make any Maldonadoing.

    P1 from the beginning of the weekend till the end, except qualifying and he didn’t make any mistake to lose pole. It was just a perfect time for Rosberg at that time -which happened only once this weekend-. In the race he showed his class again, overtook his rival clearly on track and always had the answer on his pace.

    1. “Ricciardo? No, like Vergne he didn’t do anything to get podium, except a faultless race.” – whaaaaaaaaaaaaaa???????

      What an amusing post on so many levels :) thankyou for sharing sir!

    2. Can we introduce a silly COTD? We have our first winner

  11. Well I think several drivers had a good Sunday, others a good Saturday, but overall the one person who risked with something to lose was Lewis, so he gets my vote.

  12. In my opinion, DOTW contenders are Maldonado (surprisingly), Ricciardo, Alonso, Vettel and Hamilton but because Maldonado dragged that dog of a Lotus to a points finish and outperformed Grosjean, I thought I would never ever do this in my life, but I’m going to vote for Maldonado!

    1. Bite your tongue, Sir!!! LOL

      Yeah, it was wild to see Pastor actually put together that race. But it looked like Grosjean was actually going to take him until Verne played bumper cars with him at Turn 1 and that seemed to totally knock Grosjean off his game. Up until that point, we’d been stunned at how we GRO was driving. After that move, he seemed to have trouble getting his mojo back and couldn’t decide whether he wanted to drive on the track or the rumble strips! LOL

      1. @daved Grosjean’s front wing was broken. That’s why.

        1. @mashiat
          Ahhh, I didn’t pick up on that while I was at the track. I’ll have to go back and watch the replay on TV. Thanks.

          1. No problem. Ted mentioned it in his notebook. If you want to watch his notebook, here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emIqMqCMIWg

          2. Thanks @mashiat That’s a good commentary. I’ll have to start watching Ted’s notebook.

    2. Held on to 11th well despite rallycrossing the last five laps through no fault of his own

  13. I wanted to vote for Maldonado, because he dragged that Lotus to dizzying heights. However, he incurred 2 safety related penalties. Speeding under the safety car and in the pit lane are serious offences, and shows he still pushes the boundaries and isn’t learning from his mistakes. I just can’t vote for him for safety transgressions.

    Which left me with lots of drivers, all who made mistakes at some point. Ricciardo made the best of his bad start, which was his only mistake all weekend and he recovered it with interest.

    1. It is “Driver of the day” poll, not “Submit your stewards report” but I hear ya :)

      1. It’s Driver of the Weekend, not day. That makes all the difference in the world.

  14. Eric Boullier’s learning Ronspeak pretty quickly.

    I voted for the winner, kind of by default. He was out-qualified but made the difference when it mattered in the race. Ricciardo impressed me most on race day but he’s not having the award for a lousy start like that. From his onboard you could clearly see a Sauber ahead of him…

  15. Voted Ricciardo. He got what the car was capable of in qualifying, and then drove a great race and stole 3rd place from the Williams drivers. Best behind the Merc’s is the best he realistically could achieve.

  16. Three candidates for me: Lewis Hamilton, Daniel Ricciardo, and Felipe Massa. Hamilton lost to Rosberg in qualifying by a huge margin. Massa lost to Bottas in qualifying (again) and lost the final podium place, but otherwise he was on it for the entire weekend.

    While it is hard to compare Ricciardo’s weekend to his teammate, he certainly impressed in the race. So he is my choice.

  17. Very strange that people are voting for Maldonado. The Lotus was strong this weekend and he brought two penalties down on himself. That’s your driver of the weekend?

  18. Hamilton was on great form, though Nico was excellent to beat him to pole and stay with him race-long. There wasn’t much between them. Maldonado, on the other hand, was a nice surprise and especially a clear improvement over the rest of the season. Lotus as a whole was stronger but Maldonado going 4th in Q1 was my highlight of the weekend!

  19. i voted maldonado, allthough it was close between him and grosjean. grosjean was ahead until the vergne incident. but since i usually bash maldonado i decided to cut him some slack for once and give him my vote.

  20. It was a toss-up between the two Red Bull drivers and Pastor Maldonado for me. I never thought I would say that.

    Maldonado did superb in qualifying but he was running behind his team mate before he was clouted by Vergne. He also picked up two unnecessary penalties which would have given him a shot at Magnussen.

    Vettel was obviously severely hampered in qualifying. He was also hampered by Red Bull stupidly putting him on a strategy which was absolutely never going to work. His recovery drive in the second half of the race was worthy of his four-time world champion status, especially on his last stint.

    But my Driver of the Weekend is Daniel Ricciardo. Despite his poor start his weekend was superb. He probably maximised what the car could do in qualifying and he constantly hounded the two ‘Willies’ and found his way past both, and he did it all with style. Also, he had awesome facial hair this weekend.

  21. Alo 6% haha…

  22. HAM, ’cause it’s a special thing to pull off an overtake for the lead, with so much at stake, against a rival in a sister car.

    1. Meh clumsy overly pushy DRS assisted pass. wow.

  23. RIC for me. LH’s & Nico’s car is just too dominant to be impressive to me.

  24. I don’t think people here understand this poll.. it is the driver of the WEEKEND, meaning the whole weekend. Not just the race… Hamilton being quickest FP1, FP2, FP3, and Q1 and then winning the race should make him the driver of the weekend.

    1. I don’t think people here understand this poll.. it is the DRIVER of the weekend, meaning the person. Not just the car… Mercedes being quickest AUS, MAL, BAH, CHI, SPA, MON, CAN, AUT, GBR, GER, HUN, BEL, ITA, SNG, JAP, RUS, and USA should not automatically make Hamilton or Rosberg the driver of every weekend.

      1. @juan-fanger

        I don’t understand your point. Hamilton and Rosberg haven’t been DOTW all season, in-fact Rosberg hasn’t had one yet.

        1. Hi D @f190, Rosberg hasn’t had a single DOTW but Hamilton keeps getting them just for finishing – and you must realise that is a problem.

          Hamilton is driving a massively dominant car in which any driver on the grid would be ashamed to finish worse than 2nd. But he keeps getting high DOTW votes when all he does is finish where he should. For an example check the results from Austria where he made a major mistake in qualifying but he still came 2nd in DOTW after finishing in the worst possible position (2nd) in the race. Ditto Germany (2nd in DOTW after only 3rd in race). Rosberg showed how dominant that car is in Russia by driving straight through the field like it was standing still, but failed to get any votes (Lewis got DOTW in that one for just turning up).

          Comments like the one from @dam00r really show a lack of objectivity. Is it because he is a Lewis fan? Might be – and I can excuse dam00r for that – but it appears that even non-fans give Hamilton votes just because he wins in a winning car and I cannot understand that. If you can sensibly explain why that is then I’ll be a happy fanatic instead of a confused one.

          1. +1. Couldn’t have said it better. Actually, I said the same thing many races ago – HAM getting almost every race DOTW is ridiculous. But I think the origin of the site might have an impact here – UK. So, I think I found some percentage of the subjectivism around here regarding HAM. Anyway, my vote goes to RIC. The car was strong, but I did not thought he would beat that easy the Williams cars.

    2. I don’t think you get it, driver of the weekend = best performing driver in their respective car, not just the fastest time achieved overall in a given session (in the best car no less).

  25. Somehow I have now voted for sutil twice since the start of 2013 but qualifying 10th in a sauber at a track where straight line speed is pretty vital is dam impressive.

  26. Was so close this one, between Ricciardo, Massa, Maldonado, and Hamilton, but I gave it to Hamilton in the end as he destroyed Rosberg in the race, and I don’t think I’ve given one to him since the first part of the season.

    Ricciardo, once again, shows outstanding skill and talent, and Felipe Massa..! Well! We had all completely discounted him this time last year, but it shows, while he is not on the same level as Alonso and Hamilton, he is still fully deserving of that drive in F1, and is quick! It is a real shame that so few people have voted for him on this one given how solid a job he did.

    1. Destroyed? They were no more than 2 seconds apart all race apart from last lap where ROS just backed off. I’d say ‘cruised in the DRS zone for 1/2 the race saving some fuel then turned the engine up and attacked a defenceless Nico (again in the DRS zone which is how long at Austin?), then used the extra fuel saved earlier to break rom the DRS zone and after that they drove at the same pace again to the end of the race.

      Good work Mercedes strategy guys! And to think some LH fans accuse Merc of deliberately hindering LH at times this season. lol.

  27. Ricciardo gets my vote : I would never have believed that he would beat both Williamses, which looked so strong on saturday. And his overtakings were so amazing!

  28. Ricciardo for me. Yes, he had a bad start, but more than made up for it during the race to get the best of the rest result.

    Can’t really go for Hamilton when he was beaten by Rosberg by 4 tenths in quali.

    1. Why not add “,but more than made up for it during the race to get the best result” to Hamilton’s quali remark?

      Besides, apart from the brake disk glazing problem which cost him time and got fixed after quali, Hamilton might simply have had a setup more suited for the race.

      Which actually makes sense seeing how quickly he caught Rosberg and swooped past after the first stop. After that he could easily keep the gap constant every time Rosberg tried to close back in.

      Although I agree that for me it’s a toss up between the two as well. The reasoning just strikes me as odd.

  29. Maldonado. Strong qualifying and entertaining in the race in which he anyway was able to score two points despite two penalties. He was ahead of his teammate both on Saturday and Sunday.

  30. Ricciardo, for some fine overtaking.

    Honorable mentions to Hamilton and Vettel.

  31. I voted for Lewis on autopilot but want to change to Pastor after thinking a bit more, I had overlooked him. Never thought I’d say that!

  32. I Vote for Daniel Ricciardo, he never fails to amaze me with his driving and he always delivers an astounding performance. I love watching his driving and he is my favourite driver. Keep Driving Daniel :D

  33. This might seem like an oddball vote given the results, but i gave my vote to Grosjean. Not sure what his issue in qualifying was, but in the race he made his way forward with some clean passes and was running (i think) a strong 8th when he was bashed out the way by JEV. That lost him two places and the damage caused to his car meant he had no chance to fight back.

    I see Maldonado is getting a fair few votes which is understandable given the result, but having re-watched the highlights i don’t think he deserves it. He got two penalties for speeding (behind safety car and in pitlane) and he blatantly ignored blue flags on the final lap to overtake Button instead of yielding to Rosberg. I know the penalties didn’t cost him anything in the end but that doesn’t excuse the bad driving that caused them.

    Ricciardo was great too, but i can’t fathom what’s going on with the starts. Why can noone not called Sebastian Vettel get a Redbull off the line without losing at least 2 places? Does the car have such as small sweet spot that it’s especially difficult to nail the clutch/throttle application at the start? Alonso and Hamilton were also strong but not quite faultless.

  34. Ricardo doesn’t deserve any votes. I wish the fan-boi bandwagoners would leave it alone.
    The kid has Webber-like skills at the start, and a pit lane foul up on Williams part should award him a vote for his drive.
    $0.02

    1. *shouldn’t

      1. So who does ?

    2. Yeah. That’s why ricciardo is coming 3rd in the championship and the only non Mercedes driver to have won a race this year (3 races in fact to prove its not a fluke) in a Mercedes dominated year. Lets face it ricciardo would win this year if he had the best car.

    3. Are you a sad Vettel fan? Ricciardo has arguably been one of the best this season, and Vettel has been disappointing.

  35. I went for maldonaldo for the first time ever as he did very well in qualifying getting 11th and nearly getting in the top 10 (not as impressive as grosjean in spain but impressive still), honourable mentions go to rosberg- good all weekend but lacked a bit on sunday, Hamilton- good all weekend but lacked on sunday, grosjean- exceedeingly good race until the crash with jev, vettel- very good end of race. my top 3 for the weekend is:7

    1.maldonaldo
    2. Hamilton
    3. Vettel

  36. I’d like to vote for Lewis ,as I said after qualifying i knew he was gonna reel Nico in. Classic Hamilton. For me it seems that even though he was fastest in all the practice sessions,and had a 2nd in qualifying it seem as though all the commentators were in favor of Nico to win. Have they not been watching the season ….. Nico with Lewis behind ,there is only one possible outcome ….. He’ll get caught in the end, only a matter of time and to watch Lewis play with him like a cat with a mouse…Awesome.
    Driver of the weekend just for the sheer joy out of Lewis’s celebrations, has to be Lewis .
    Made Monday morning a hell of a lot better….. Bring on the next race

  37. Hamilton drove a textbook race, but was beaten in qualifying.

    Vettel did well to overcome the penalty, but I can’t help think he should have passed Alonso.

    Daniel Ricciardo fluffed his start but what a comeback and no cars he had a chance of beating finished ahead of him. Maximum result so the winner for me.

  38. I think Ricciardo deserves this.

  39. If hamilton wasnt completly thrashed and made to look like a rookie in q3 he would have my vote,but since that happened i went for ricciardo, how many times has somone won dotw when they lost in quali

  40. I’ve also voted for Pastor Maldonado. After the demise of Marussia and Caterham, I think many of us expected Pastor to be propping up the grid this weekend. Instead he outqualified Grosjean by a full second and 7 grid spots, missed out on Q3 by a tenth, raced competitively yet cleanly and brought home his first points of the year. He didn’t let the red mist descend even after picking up two penalties, and made that (in hindsight) crucial last-lap pass on Vergne in a situation when in the past, more often than not, his car and/or his opponent’s might have ended up in the wall.

    Sure, he got lucky with a few things: Vergne running Grosjean off the road in front of him, and more importantly, the fact that he was the last driver not to be lapped by Hamilton – meaning that his 5-second penalty didn’t drop him behind the likes of Grosjean, Button and Raikkonen, as they had fallen a lap behind just before the Mercedes crossed the line. This also meant that he got the extra lap to have a go at Vergne.

    However, considering the awful luck he’s had with reliability this year, I can’t begrudge him this lucky break!

  41. I voted for Hamilton.

    Utterly dominant in Free Practice, and his disappointing qualy effort can be marked down to the problems with his front left brake (although he may not have been on pole in any event, he certainly would have been closer to Nico without that issue).

    As for the race itself, a sublime effort. He struggled with the car in the first stint, but kept at it and made a brave and opportunistic move on Rosberg in the second stint to take the lead and ultimately the win.

    I’m now prepared to call it. If Hamilton doesn’t suffer from reliability issues in the next two races, he will be world champion.

    1. Wow I’m prepared to call it too. If an asteroid doesn’t hit the earth and we don’t launch nukes at each other tonight, and if the universe doesn’t implode then its safe to see there should be another day tomorrow. Also the sun is roughly a sphere and the moon should continue to orbit the earth.

      Call me Nostradamus! (or – some goose that simply states the obvious as fact and then feels like they have really figured something out) :)

  42. A few drivers got the maximum result out of their machinery… Hamilton, Ricciardo, Alonso, and I think Maldonado.

    Of those, went with Ricciardo for the overtakes. The one on Alonso was awesome from the in-car camera.

  43. Perez for sure :P XD

  44. I gave my vote to Rosberg – not because he’s the best, but he did a superb qualifying, and kept with HAM, his only mistake was during the overtake (he says he used wrong switch to get extra ERS?) – anyway, no way he did as bad as Perez.

  45. ColdFly F1 (@)
    4th November 2014, 7:40

    I find it seriously difficult to DOTW this time – no real stand outs.
    Sebastian Vettel – waited too long to show some real driving
    Daniel Ricciardo – really well done, not stellar, but could be best
    Nico Rosberg – underwhelming good quali, but please do at least try to defend, and then retake your position
    Lewis Hamilton – good but did not really shine, except for passing Ros when he opened the door.
    Fernando Alonso – well done, but no wow
    Kimi Raikkonen – terrible
    Romain Grosjean – good stints, loved it, but not good enough to earn DOTW
    Pastor Maldonado – I am really impressed. It was not the best drive, but so much better than what I expected from Maldonado
    Jenson Button – very average, still not sure why they pay you $20M
    Kevin Magnussen – quite good, but exactly that ‘quite good’ rather than ‘stellar’
    Sergio Perez – shame
    Nico Hulkenberg – out too soon
    Esteban Gutierrez – enjoy your last races!
    Adrian Sutil – very very impressed, it just lasted too short to get DOTW
    Jean-Eric Vergne – well done, hope you can keep your seat
    Daniil Kvyat – I have seen better, will be tough against Ric next year
    Felipe Massa – OK, but with the equipment you have you should be on the podium.
    Valtteri Bottas – good racing at the start and quali, but then it petered out

    I will vote, and the vote goes to …………. Ric (succession of good overtaking moves).
    PS – I should have taken it away from him due to the ridiculous Mo!

  46. tgu (@thegrapeunwashed)
    4th November 2014, 9:54

    There are only two possibilities for me: Ricciardo or Hamilton.

    Ricciardo may have fluffed the start, but he was very impressive clawing back the places in a car handicapped by its lack of engine power. Once again he demonstrated superb race craft.

    Hamilton looked like he’d have to settle for 2nd after Saturday. Rosberg had a huge advantage in lap time, having dialled in the set-up perfectly. But everything changed on Sunday, Hamilton stalked Rosberg until the pitstops, had his aero tweaked, then proceeded to catch his teammate, pass him cleanly, and open up a large enough gap to take DRS out of the equation. It was a clinical and methodical demonstration of superiority.

    Both are deserving, but I voted for Lewis.

  47. Hamilton for me. And how I love that for the last few GP he has been a strong advocate of “push hard, the guy ahead needs the heat” rather than the “conserve tyre and hope for an unlikely attack in the last 5 laps” approach. So kuddos to him.

    Ricciardo, Alonso, Vettel, Maldonado and Vergne obviously had good races. Grosjean could have done quite something by starting 16th and potentially finishing 9th with this car… Vergne’s attack was… slightly too potent…

    Talking of which, it seems Vergne was quite confident he would have a seat next year on french tv. let’s hope so, I am becoming quite alarmed that the best of two drivers point wise in teams seems to always be under threat in teams where both drivers haven’t been confirmed :
    – Grosjean is without a seat, Maldo has his
    – Vergne is without a seat, Kvyat gets promoted
    – Kobayashi is without a seat, Ericson gets a Sauber
    – Alonso is without a seat (yet and I know, his fault) and somehow it seems Ferrari are content to keep Raikkonen
    – Button is without a seat and could be the one seeing the door (not that it is a disgrace, but still…)
    – Sutil could lose his seat (not that I care)

    Good news are :
    – Hulkenberg only just secured his seat
    – It seems like Hamilton is staying put, so more of HAM vs ROS to come.
    – We will enjoy more of Ricciardo at Red Bull next year
    – Bottas’ future never seemed in doubt. weird that Massa shall retain his.

  48. My shortlist for driver of the weekend includes Hamilton, Ricciardo, Alonso, Vettel, and Maldonado. They all put in good performances but none were faultless over the course of the weekend.

    Hamilton seemed to be in charge throughout practice but was off in qualifying and Rosberg comfortably took pole, in the race though he again came out on top in the battle between the two Mercedes drivers.

    Ricciardo had another bad start but came through to take the final podium position, the best he could hope for unless something happened to Mercedes.

    This was the sort of performance we have come to expect from Alonso in recent years dragging the best out of his Ferrari to get the best result anyone could realistically hope for.

    Due to starting from the pit lane Vettel was only ever going to do the bare minimum in qualifying to satisfy the 107% rule, in the race Red Bull seemed to get all the strategy calls spot on to provide the platform for Vettel to fight his way through the field to finish seventh.

    Maldonado almost managed to make it in to Q3 but he did manage to get his first points of the season in the race, however he did pick up two penalties during the race for speeding.

    Narrowing the list down to 3 would be Ricciardo, Alonso and Vettel, choosing one out of those was difficult and in the end I voted for Ricciardo.

    Sutil deserves a mention after an impressive qualifying but he didn’t get a chance to impress in the race after he was taken out on the first lap.

  49. Surprise, surprise, UK website has viewers vote for UK driver. These polls are pretty much redundant.

    Lewis did an OK job. He trailed his team mate, made a pass and then cruised to victory. Nothing special there.

    1. Come on, not this argument AGAIN.

    2. @guybrushthreepwood As I’ve said many times before, this is not a site solely for British fans. It is not billed that way and there is nothing in how it is set up or run which makes it only for British users. This is a site for all F1 fans regardless of their nationality. The only potential constraint is the language it is written in, which is English, but of course there are many countries besides Britain where English is spoken as a first language, never mind as an alternative language.

      And as has been pointed out countless times before, only around a third of users on the site are British:

      https://www.racefans.net/groups/f1/forum/topic/where-f1-fanatic-readers-are-from/?topic_page=5&num=15#post-72133

  50. I voted for Seb V as he clearly advanced the most during the race. I could of voted for F Massa or Romain G just as well, but those would of been more for sentimental reasons….. I certainly hope Romain will have a competitive car next year. I can not figure out why Kimi can not do better…… His invariably is involved with some incident / drama in every race!! Nico is still my favorite overall and still hold out hope that he will win the Championship… Lewis is clearly driving better at this point but it is his lack of character and previous devious deeds that I dislike….. The unknown future for Alonso and Seb V are somewhat annoying at this point for me… but I am sure that it will all make good sense when the unknowns are known!! Thanks, RnR

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