Vote for your Canadian GP Driver of the Weekend

2015 Canadian Grand Prix

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

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

Canadian Grand Prix driver-by-driver

Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton – Despite topping both sessions on Friday he had a scruffy start to the weekend – a spin in first practice, a bizarre crash in the second, and in the third he was last after failing to get a clean lap in before the red flags started to fly. Rosberg ran him close in qualifying but Hamilton prevailed by a comfortable margin. He pulled clear in the first stint but Rosberg kept him honest after they switched to softs, the gap rarely more than two seconds. Even so, a fourth win for Hamilton never really looked in doubt.

Nico Rosberg – Pole position was within his grasp but he had the misfortune to be allocated a duff set of tyres for one of his runs in Q3. Although eager not to appear to be making “excuses”, Rosberg said the inferior set left him short of grip, and he lined up second. He pressed Hamilton hard in the second half of the race, despite his brakes reaching a “critical” state at one stage, but had to settle for the runner-up spot.

Red Bull

Daniel Ricciardo – Last year’s winner was downcast after only managing ninth on the grid behind his team mate at a track where Red Bull’s greatest weakness was exposed. He slipped out of the points in the race and was at a loss to understand why. “We just couldn’t get any pace out of the car,” he said. “It is something we will look at to understand what the cause was.”

Daniil Kvyat – Out-qualified Ricciardo for the second time since they became team mates. Realistically he was never going to be able to keep Massa and Vettel behind in the race, but he had to keep his foot down to stay ahead of the recovering Grosjean.

Williams

Felipe Massa – A problem with Massa’s turbocharger robbed him of power in qualifying and consigned him to a 15th-placed start. Some well-worked passes helped him make up ground, including a superb side-by-side dice with Ericsson, as did the race’s longest stint on the super-soft tyres – 33 laps. He capped a fine damage limitation run by taking sixth place off Maldonado.

Valtteri Bottas – Delivered under pressure at the end of Q3 to move ahead of both Lotus drivers for fourth place – and he was less than a tenth off Raikkonen. “That was as quick as the thing goes,” he said on his way back to the pits. Although he couldn’t keep pace with Raikkonen in the race he was quick enough to take advantage of his rival’s spin at the chicane. So for the third time this year he came home ahead of a Ferrari – and this time it earned him a podium finish.

Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel – Power unit trouble was an inconvenience in practice – and a major problem in qualifying, where it put him out in Q1. Then it transpired he had overtaken Merhi under red flags in practice, incurring a five-place penalty which left him 18th. Made an early pit stop at the end of lap seven but a slow tyre change cost him more time, as did a contretemps with Alonso at the chicane. But he kept picking off his rivals and strong pace after his second pit stop brought him up to fifth place behind his team mate.

Kimi Raikkonen – With Vettel sidelined, Ferrari needed Raikkonen to deliver in qualifying and this time he did, netting a useful third. However a spin after his pit stop allowed Bottas to jump him for third place, and after aggressively spinning his tyres up he had to pit for a new set. Fortunately no one else was close enough to take advantage. He pitted for a fresh set of tyres but couldn’t catch the Williams – afterwards Maurizio Arrivabene suggested Raikkonen was managing some other problem at this stage.

McLaren

Fernando Alonso – Missed most of final practice while his power unit was changed, but despite the Honda’s lack of power he got into Q2 where he claimed 13th on the grid. However he lost places to several rivals early on and was clearly unhappy when told he needed to save fuel. Capping his misery, the car failed soon afterwards.

Jenson Button – A power unit failure at the end of final practice meant Button was a spectator in qualifying, much as he was in Bahrain. He also had to serve a drive-through penalty after changing power unit components, and just as he was relishing the prospect of bolting on super-softs for a late push, his car broke down too. An abject weekend for McLaren.

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Force India

Nico Hulkenberg – Equalled the team’s best qualifying result with seventh, at a track where Force India’s Mercedes engine neutralised some of their usual disadvantage. A late-braking move at turn three got him ahead of Maldonado at the start, but a much earlier pit stop for the Lotus driver got him back ahead. Hulkenbreg then spun while trying to defend seventh place from Vettel. “I probably shouldn’t have tried so hard to defend against Seb,” he admitted, “but when you’re a racer you just don’t want to give up a position without a fight.” That scuppered any chance of catching Maldonado at the end, and he finished eighth.

Sergio Perez – If he’d been able to replicate his Q2 lap time in Q3 he’d have started eighth on the grid behind his team mate, but struggled to generate tyre temperature on his out lap. Tyre, brake and fuel-saving was the story of the latter part of Perez’s race. He finished eleventh, and Force India’s effort to get another penalty for Grosjean so their man would inherit tenth came to naught.

Toro Rosso

Max Verstappen – Arrived in Montreal with a five-place grid penalty from Monaco, then copped another ten-place penalty for an engine change, which turned into a ten-second penalty in the race when it couldn’t be applied in full. He made it into the points places by staying out late, but the inevitable penalty dropped him out of contention again.

Carlos Sainz Jnr – The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve was new to both Toro Rosso drivers and Sainz prevailed in qualifying to the tune of two tenths of a second. He got ahead of Ricciardo for 12th, but the day was always going to offer little for the Renault-powered cars. “With all the fuel saving and lift-off we had to do, it was very difficult out there,” Sainz reflected.

Lotus

Romain Grosjean – Lotus were quick from the word go in Canada and Grosjean could even afford to feel slightly disappointed with fifth on the grid. He said his out-lap preparation had been compromised after Lotus sent both cars out of the pits simultaneously for their final runs. He was on course to deliver fifth place in the race when he tripped over Stevens’ Manor while lapping his rival, picking up a puncture. That dropped him to tenth, which he held despite his five-second time penalty. To his credit, having blamed Stevens initially for the contact Grosjean later accepted responsibility.

Pastor Maldonado – Backed up Grosjean in sixth despite a spin early in qualifying. Having lost a place to Hulkenberg at the start he pitted early and ran the longest stint of any driver – 53 laps on the soft rubber – to take his first points of the season for seventh.

Sauber

Marcus Ericsson – Sauber did have the benefit of Ferrari’s engine upgrade in Canada. Ericsson blamed traffic for not qualifying better but still came out ahead of his team mate. He ran to a lowly 14th, then had to park up immediately after the chequered flag with a fuel system problem.

Felipe Nasr – A nasty-looking crash in final practice was blamed on Nasr hitting the DRS button while he was weaving to warm his tyres up. Mercifully only his pride and car were damaged. Suffered a lack of power from the start of the race and had to cope with overheating brakes as well.

Manor

Will Stevens – Said he was a little less comfortable with his car than usual after being pipped by Merhi in qualifying. Was running behind his team mate at the time of his collision with Grosjean. “I left him so much room,” said Stevens. “It was an unnecessary accident.”

Roberto Merhi – Beat Stevens in qualifying for the first time this year by little more than two-hundredths of a second, and was on course to lead him home in the race until a driveshaft fault put him out.

Qualifying and race results summary

DriverStartedGap to team mate (Q)Laps leading team matePittedFinishedGap to team mate (R)
Lewis Hamilton1st-0.309s69/7011st-2.285s
Nico Rosberg2nd+0.309s1/7012nd+2.285s
Daniel Ricciardo9th+0.035s0/69113th+33.232s
Daniil Kvyat8th-0.035s69/6919th-33.232s
Felipe Massa15th+1.334s0/7016th+15.715s
Valtteri Bottas4th-1.334s70/7013rd-15.715s
Sebastian Vettel18th+1.085s0/7025th+4.278s
Kimi Raikkonen3rd-1.085s70/7024th-4.278s
Fernando Alonso13th44/441
Jenson Button20th0/441
Nico Hulkenberg7th-0.724s69/6918th-29.139s
Sergio Perez10th+0.724s0/69111th+29.139s
Max Verstappen19th+0.203s12/69115th+18.014s
Carlos Sainz Jnr11th-0.203s57/69112th-18.014s
Romain Grosjean5th-0.135s48/69210thNot on same lap
Pastor Maldonado6th+0.135s21/6917thNot on same lap
Marcus Ericsson12th-0.358s68/68114thNot on same lap
Felipe Nasr14th+0.358s0/68116thNot on same lap
Will Stevens17th+0.024s27/57217th
Roberto Merhi16th-0.024s30/571

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 2015 Canadian Grand Prix weekend?

  • Roberto Merhi (0%)
  • Will Stevens (0%)
  • Felipe Nasr (0%)
  • Marcus Ericsson (0%)
  • Pastor Maldonado (5%)
  • Romain Grosjean (0%)
  • Carlos Sainz Jnr (0%)
  • Max Verstappen (1%)
  • Sergio Perez (0%)
  • Nico Hulkenberg (3%)
  • Jenson Button (0%)
  • Fernando Alonso (2%)
  • Kimi Raikkonen (0%)
  • Sebastian Vettel (42%)
  • Valtteri Bottas (14%)
  • Felipe Massa (10%)
  • Daniil Kvyat (2%)
  • Daniel Ricciardo (0%)
  • Nico Rosberg (0%)
  • Lewis Hamilton (21%)

Total Voters: 699

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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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198 comments on “Vote for your Canadian GP Driver of the Weekend”

  1. I’m tempted to go for Seb, for his stunning pace, though some of his racecraft / passing was a bit shaky. Valterri? Carlos? I’m not sure.

    1. I was torn between Vettel and Kvyat, but went with Kvyat. The only Renault powered car in the top ten, been ahead of his teammate all weekend ona track where his teammate won last year, great defending in the race. A little hero.

      1. Yeah. I am a bit upset I cannot vote for him, since I picked Seb. Great drive. Amazing really.

      2. @njoydesign I’m surprised there aren’t more votes for Kvyat, Hulkenberg, Sainz and Ericsson. Kvyat was doing remarkable times for someone with a Renault engine!

        1. @fastiesty Yeah, he is being absolutely ignored =)

    2. He also did overtake someone under reds in quali. He had a great race though.

      1. Which he was already punished for.

        1. As he should have been. It was a very poor error for a driver of his ability and experience.

          1. I guess it’s not the first time when he’s done it

    3. Impossible for me due to the red flag.

      1. agreed. otherwise close

        1. i am not a Massa fan but i thought he deserved it, great drive to end up in 5th.

  2. For once, I would go for Fernando Alonso – he had a superb quali (for once), a great first lap, climbing the joint-highest places and showed his great racing skills in defending from all the faster cars, particularly from the Ferrari of Vettel. He really didn’t deserve his DNF and his outrage at his package was quite understandable considering he must have seen he delivered everything once again for no visible result at all.

    1. spafrancorchamps
      8th June 2015, 15:11

      I agree. Alonso was man of the weekend for me too. Superb qualifying as he was really on the edge of every corner. Then during the race he had a fantastic start and and was doing his outmost best to keep much faster cars behibd him. Without this stupid DRS he would have succeeded to keep at least the STR’s and Sauber’s behind him, but maybe Massa as well and probably Vettel a bit longer than he did.

      Then going all loud against this fuel saving nonsense F1 has gotten into, made him for me the best driver of the weekend.

      Unfortunately, a driver of his caliber is driving 14th-16th. It’s a shame to see him drive in that McLaren.

      Others who were doing a great job this race: Massa and surely Hamilton.

    2. I agree with you, voted for Vettel but after reading your comment I remembered his battle with Vettel and realized I answered to quick.

  3. It’s difficult because most drivers did what was expected, no more. I can’t vote for Vettel only because of his red flag incident – very clumsy. I’m tempted to vote Massa but he still didn’t perform THAT amazingly. The top 3 delivered solid performances but nobody overperformed.

    1. It’s Bottas or Massa, I’d think… How about Massa for DOTW? Sure, he’ll have it!

    2. Simon (@weeniebeenie)
      8th June 2015, 13:00

      Seems like quite a harsh reason to discount Vettel. It was a mistake, sure, but it had no consequence on his weekend, just a minor error of judgement.

      1. @weeniebeenie

        Its a mistake which gets you thrown out of most Karting tracks. I’m unsure on how much it impacted his race, but if he started from a few places higher he may have had a chance to take Kimi at the end.

        1. Graham (@guitargraham)
          8th June 2015, 15:16

          ive seen race bans for less

        2. @f190 if Vettel didn’t have that sticky left wheel that wouldn’t come off on his first stop in the pits he would have been 5 sec closer to Kimi, would have made a great finish for 4th.

      2. It’s the reason I didn’t vote for Vettel. It was a very basic mistake to make and almost arrogant to think the red flag didn’t apply to equally to him as the Manor he overtook. I’m generally a van of Vettel and no doubt over the course of the race he did a great job, but for blatantly and intentionally breaking one of the most fundamental rules (and as a result getting a deserved punishment which may have adversely impacted his race result) I couldn’t put him as my DOTW.

        I thought about Hamilton and Hulkenberg but in the end my vote went to Bottas.

        1. Why rule out Massa?

  4. Vettel. Such a brilliant racer, a couple of moves were a bit rash but that’s because he is just that, an out and out racer!

    1. He’s such a racer he can’t stop, even under red flags !

    2. Voted for Vettel. Great performance on race day when it counts and it is lucky for Mercedes that Seb started in P18. Looking at his race pace, he might have otherwise given the silver arrows trouble as they had brake and fuel issues.

  5. A difficult choice as there was no driver that really stood out over the whole weekend. I considered Vettel, Bottas, and Massa. Vettel for his outstanding race pace, Bottas for a typical fast-yet-somewhat invisible podium, but in the end I gave it to Massa for his pass on Ericsson.

    1. That was really the only good battle of the race. Very clean and tight overtake with the two drivers staying fair but firm.

  6. I would have voted for the groundhog if that had been an option, but it wasn’t, so I voted Massa as he (and Ericsson) provided the most entertaining moment of the race.

    1. +1 on the groundhog

  7. I think Massa really deserves it this week. He started at the back of the grid, with no fault of his own, and made his way to the best position his Williams could achieve. He made clean overtakes (with DRS help of course), and the best pass of the race, to Ericsson.

    Vettel on the other hand, also left out of Q1 for reasons out of his control, however he made a stupid mistake at practive which cost him another 5 places on the grid. Then, even though his pace was great, he made a mistake trying to pass Alonso, and also had a moment with Hulkenberg. However his pace at the end was amazing, gets you wondering what would’ve happened if he started at P3 as usual.

    So Massa it is for me.

    1. Agree with your choice for Massa. As well as the reasoning for not giving it to Vettel @afonic

      As for Hamilton, its much the same why Vettel was often not in contention for DotW when he was winning everything.

    2. There was no “moment” with Hulk. Vettel was just driving aggressively and did nothing wrong, as Hulk himself said later. Hell, Force India’s Bob Fernley said he had no complaints about it:
      “That was an aggressive move but a good move. I’d like to see more of that being ignored.”
      Kudos to Vettel for actually racing despite playing it safe.

      1. despite*=instead of

      2. To be honest, I had not read Hulk’s comments before posting that. Still, sadly in this DRS era, the best thing when you have a superior car is to play it safe, and wait for a clean overtake.

        1. Yeah. For example Vettel went for a DRS pass the second time with Alonso. He did the smart thing, but it was a tiny bit disappointing for the viewer.

      3. That was a good move. People criticize it but it was amazing that he did go for an overtake inside chicane instead of waiting for more DRS zones. Inside chicane! Vauv.

  8. I think Massa should beat Vettel on this. Massa started at P15, but Vettel effectively started at P16. Felipe lost the position to Seb because of the disadvantage of his strategy.

    1. More importantly, Vettel was partly at fault for starting as far back as he did (with the red flag thing)

    2. Don’t forget, Ferrari is still better at tyre management, which should give Seb more freedom to push the tyre during his battels.

      1. * push the tyres in the battles

    3. Vettel overtook twice the same people. He was dead last after his pit. Everything going wrong in a race weekend, a bit like Button 2011, a SC or something to spice things up would have made it very similar.

  9. Voted Maldonado. Yes, he was outqualified by Grosjean, but he kept out of trouble and raced excellently wheel to wheel when it mattered, and finally scored some points.

    1. I was impressed with his intelligent manner of racing really. Good job Pastor!

  10. Tempted to give it to Nasr for giving us the rookiest moment ever and a good laugh.
    Bottas, I guess. Everyone else made mistakes. But don’t truly great drivers drive it quicker than the thing goes?

    1. What mistake did Bottas’s teammate do? Also, I think Massa had a better pace.

    2. petebaldwin (@)
      8th June 2015, 17:35

      @bullfrog – Imagine how crazy everyone would be going if Verstappen had made the mistake Nasr did…

  11. Okay, so there were very few truly outstanding contenders. Vettel comes to mind, but that red flag incident makes it impossible for me to vote for him. That has to be the silliest mistake so far this year, and that’s not for a lack of silly mistakes … Hats off to him, however, for thoroughly eclipsing Räikkönen, and, even though he finished slightly behind the Finn, making the latter’s talk about needing better qualifyings, and nothing more, sound incredibly hollow.

    What about Hamilton? I guess his performance lacked something extra. Keeping your team mate just over the 1 second gap for most of the race is quite a nice feat, but since said team mate had to avoid driving in the slipstream for many laps to keep his brakes from failing, this sounds somewhat less exciting. The fact that Mercedes follows the rules by the letter when Rosberg asks for information about Hamilton, but seems to have a more liberal approach when it’s Hamilton who’s asking, also casts some shadow over a well-deserved and clean performance whenever it counted.

    I’m going for the inevitable outsider vote: Massa.
    Let me explain why:
    When Massa pitted, after spending 37 laps in traffic through no fault of his own (after all, it was a turbo charger failure that got him stuck in Q1), he rejoined the track with a gap of 59 seconds to the lead and more than 37 seconds behind his team mate, Bottas. Obviously, those numbers aren’t too impressive.
    But from then on, his race was outstanding. Having to complete 33 laps on the super-soft tyres, more than anyone else that day, he unleashed his pace and finished the race with a gap of less than 16 seconds to Bottas. Thus, his final stint was on average more than 6 tenths per lap faster than his team mate’s – on a track that hardly allows such differences, and with tyres that must’ve been marginal in the final laps.
    To top it off, he also managed to reduce his gap to Hamilton by some 3 seconds. Doesn’t sound too impressive at first, but in other words, his final stint was faster than the Mercedes’! With a car that lost 40 seconds to the Mercedes in Bottas’s hands!

    To sum it up: Even though his result looks a bit meager, I don’t think anyone deserves it more than Felipe Massa.

    1. he fact that Mercedes follows the rules by the letter when Rosberg asks for information about Hamilton, but seems to have a more liberal approach when it’s Hamilton who’s asking

      I must have missed this – can you provide a link or quotes?

        1. @jerseyf1:
          What @hahailham1 said. I’m afraid I have no links on the subject as of now, but surely Keith will provide us with his radio message transcript soon.

      1. It was cringe-worthy from Mercedes really. Blatant number 1 moment from the team.

      2. @jerseyf1 maybe @keithcollantine will post the radio message for us later on, i’ll quote @afonic quote on another article :

        I remember Lewis’ engineer telling him that “the other car is OK on fuel but a bit worse on brakes” or something like that, and then a few laps later Nico asked “hows the other car on fuel” to get a reply from the pits “I can’t comment on that”.

      3. The German and Austrian broadcasters also picked up on that and were talking about why Hamilton was being being given information on Rosberg’s fuel/brake problem status.

    2. agree with this one, vote for massa, too.

    3. I find all this ‘he must be a number 1’ stuff ridiculous. I mean what are you folks trying to get from this? Yet another rod to smack him over the head because you don’t like him and he has this embarrassing ability to win three times as many races as his team mate in that ‘dominant car’ regardless of where he starts? Honestly grow up!

      More to the point – yes there was a tiny ‘coaching’ infringement somewhere there. By an engineer who had put up with pretty much everything you can imagine in the last two weeks and to add just even more misery, he had his father die during that time span.
      Surely even the most rabid on here can see the man was under extreme pressure both on and off the track and that as the ‘engineer’ that called Monaco, has probably been beating himself up even more that you guys can.

      So what do the LH anti brigade do? Immediately start with the ‘look he is being coached’ or ‘LH has a number 1 status’ as if his results do not actually suggest he could not go anywhere and expect such! But no he lives in a team that treats them equally and his poor grieving engineer makes a slight slip that frankly made zero difference to the race yet somehow, once again the ‘anti’ brigade are there with their clubs to beat him over the head with.

      Have just a little humility folks – Bonno lost his father and a very important race for his chap all in a week. A slip of the tongue that they were warned and did not repeat is hardly the reason NR could not win the race!
      Look at the reality – the only time he has even looked like battling or winning over LH is with super new sticky tyres against knackered yards such as Bahrain 14 (he lost) or starting at the front. And that does not work too well given how many times LH gets past him when he does. In fact only tracks that hate overtaking give him a chance. And that’s when he is in front!

      Given in three years and 50 odd races he has yet to take the fight to LH on track, overtake him and win without something dramatic helping him… Well knowing the fuel levels a few laps from the end.. No sorry – not biting…

      1. Well my problem isn’t with Rosberg or Hamilton and who is number 1, I couldn’t care less. I had just watched a race where for 2 hours the two leading cars were driving 1-2 secs apart, and still it was so boring the director was showing us battles for the 10th place.

        So anything that Mercedes could have done to make sure their drivers won’t fight, yes it concerns me. I don’t have the data the judge that, but lets say, just for the sake of the argument, that Nico has had some extra fuel. Then the reply “I can’t comment on that” could have been “you have some extra fuel, go for it”, quite a difference, isn’t it?

        I would also like to know if letting a driver know of another driver’s fuel level is allowed or not, and if not, why Lewis didn’t get a warning.

        1. I understand your point, but it would also be quite different if they said “low on fuel Nico, save some” wouldn’t it. Had they said that, no doubt people would say its about giving Hamilton an easy win etc etc. We’ve seen before they don’t mind the drivers fighting, we’ve also seen both drivers are highly likely to ignore anything the team says anyway, so why do people think Rosberg wouldn’t put up a fight. Looking at actual data from the race its clear the gap was only closed because Nico was using more fuel than Hamilton at that stage. When Hamilton used more the gap grew, then shrunk when Nico used more. No conspiracy, just common sense really. The more fuel you use the faster a driver can go. As far as missing out goes then Rosberg knows his much fuel he started the race with, and how much he’s used per lap, so he wouldn’t ever be in a situation where he’s shocked to finish the race with a huge amount of unused fuel.

      2. you make some fair points. But there were two infractions that I recall… the 50meter advisement and a while later, the 100meter one. Given that Nico was advised prior to this that he was good on fuel and not so much on brakes, I think that while he was driving in dirty air, Hamilton was developing an issue. Perhaps Nico, missed (was deprived?) a chance to use a bunch of fuel, ride into the dirty air and hound LH potentially for a pass. The fairly abrupt cessation of info to Nico from the pit wall (at least that we caught on-air) will undoubtedly bring out some conspiracy theorists … (ala: here’s your seven points back Lewis)…

        1. Fair points but…

          Not once has Nico ever ‘taken a fight’ to Lewis unless there was an outstanding performance difference (tyres – Bahrain etc etc) and a kg of fuel extra one way or the other was never going to change that regardless of who did what.
          We have to be a bit sensible – NR is a great driver. He is just up against someone on another plane – like it or not. And Nico did the next best thing – bank the points when he could rather than be embarrassed or simply lose them due to attempting a race he knew he was not going to win. Pretending he could ‘take the fight’ to LH kind of ignores the last 30 plus races where he actually has done nothing of the kind unless he had a distinct advantage and even then – lost!

          He is not stupid – he knows banking points when he can has quite remarkably kept him in the fight for the last two years despite being completely out driven all day long.

          1. I do not pretend to like Hamilton- but he is a better driver. Another plane? As in Senna? Nope. Not in his dreams.

            You entirely missed my point- had Nico been made aware of the potential vulnerability of LH, he might have acted differently. (after all, LH had been advised of Nico’s issues and had been advised at least twice on how to save his drive)

            Perhaps I’m ‘pretending’ that this is ‘sensible’ enough for you ;-)

    4. Since Nico was GIVEN a race win in Monaco, the team were right to deny him Lewis’ information in Canada. The team still owe Hamilton big time this year. Nico’s 2 wins have come when the team made a mistake pitting Lewis an extra time. 2015 should be legendary for Lewis and Mercedes.

    5. Very well commented. All this speed carried on the second stint and the first stint full of overtakes that required talent and pace, how could he not be choosen the best driver of this race?

  12. Certainly a toss-up between the two Williams drivers and the likes of Hulkenberg and Ericsson. Went with Massa in the end, a very solid recovery drive after a poor qualifying through no fault of his own.

  13. went for Hulkenberg. Did absolute best of what was possible in the car both in qualy and race. Destroyed Perez the whole weekend to bounce back from a difficult Monaco

    Other 4 drivers who did exceptional jobs this weekend were Hamilton, Vettel, Bottas and Massa. Had Grosjean not made the mistake would’ve added him too

    Raikkonen, Maldonado, Kvyat and Sainz were very good too

  14. Maldonado had a pretty solid race. Bout time he got some luck after his misfortunes in Spain and Monaco where he arguably didn’t deserve to leave point-less.

  15. I voted LH simply because the title says “Vote for your Canadian GP Driver of the Weekend” and no for who did a bit better job in Sunday etc. LH did a very good job overall.

    1. LH should be discounted because Merc cars are just so good. I don’t think anyone would argue with the fact that it’s easier for any driver to win when you have a clearly superior car.

      1. @smartrip it’s not that easy for Nico. Hamilton is in the best car and wins races because he is a superior driver.

        1. When he got in that car it wasn’t the best car. It was like the 4th best or something. So what does that say about him? I think he is one of the best drivers, but best car doesn’t equal best driver automatically.

        2. But the question was who is the Driver of the weekend,Not “Who is the Driver of the weekend unless they happen to be in a superior car”.

          1. But when Vettel was taking pole and winning races, being in the best car was always considered disqualifying in terms of DOTW.

        3. @jerseyf1 Hamilton is a great driver but he has a huge advantage by having the Merc car. He doesn’t have to fight through traffic, dirty air, etc. All he has to do is have a good start and defend.
          Not saying Hamilton isn’t good – just saying that he’s winning most of the races because he has a superior car, not because he’s pulling some amazing driver magic week in and week out.

          1. This is an excellent point. All thing being equal, the Mercs should pretty much always end up 1 & 2. Their downfall this year appears to be gray-matter related.

          2. Then explain why when he did not hAve the best car for example in the red bull Vettel years… He won more races despite many issues than the other candidates?

          3. @Drg Because most of the time his car was better than other candidates. Sometimes his car was even better than RBR. Jenson also had similar results.

          4. That’s my point. I’m not saying LH’s a bad driver. He did decently in those RB years but Vettel still dominated because he had the better car.
            Both Vettel and LH are great drivers, no one doubts that. But their true test of skill is how they do in a “regular” car.

          5. @drg Won more races than who? Alonso won the same number (11) between 2010-13, both obviously far less than Vettel.

      2. Explain how Rosberg has such trouble… In the same car?

        Or are you joining the ‘he is number 1 and being coached’ club? Get real. He has won in absolute dogs of cars and like him or loathe him, is absolutely up there as one of the finest drivers of F1 history. His fashion sense or media profile? Even his fashion choices.., well I don’t give a toss frankly. I watch races not Big Brother or Next top Model…

        I am starting to wonder just what all this complete negativity is really down to? The fact you have forums to join the ‘crowd’ just to feel good or an actual evaluation of a sport that some of us have spent a lifetime watching and in many cases participating in…

        1. Haha wow, calm down, champ. Take breather!
          Look, I don’t think Rosberg has trouble at all – he dominates the field just like Hamilton. I think Hamilton is a better driver than him; that’s why Hamilton beats him. So I’m not saying Hamilton bad (you can relax now).
          All I’m saying is that to start at P1, in an obviously better car, gives you a HUGE advantage. That’s all haha.
          (I’m starting to wonder that maybe you should watch Big Brother and America’s next top model. It’ll provide you an outlet for your knee-jerk reactions to forum comments…)

          1. I do not need to calm down – I am not upset I assure you. The fact remains that NR in the very same car is doing the next best job. Banking the points knowing he can’t take the ‘fight’ he talks about, to LH unless there is a distinct performance advantage. What annoys me is during the other ‘dominant’ years pretty much one guy was taking the fight to RB on a regular basis and winning (and I don’t mean banking points through reliability and determination Al la FA regardless of the end of year platings) despite the sometimes hilarious mechanical and reliability issues suffered – yet because he finally gets a car that can win and does so, he must be discounted from any consideration?

            Now when Vettel starts getting poles, performing heroic races through the field (like all the time rather than the scrappy stuff so far) and is the only other chap winning races regularly despite breaking down half the time or his pit stops causing chaos during a four year stretch of ‘dominance’ from others and then coming fourth at the end of the year regardless due to the final couple of races then we hopefully will use the same criteria when he has a car he can win in for a couple of years?
            I just see it as double standards – but well, it Lewis…

          2. Some Lewis fans are acting like he is the most underrated driver. You are like “Is it ‘cos he’s Lewis?”.

            Vettel doesn’t have to have the same destiny as Lewis did. Did Lewis start in a midfield car? No. It doesn’t actually detract from his value. Should we wait for Lewis to become youngest quadruple WDC to “prove himself”? No. He doesn’t have to prove himself anymore. Neither does Vettel. Vettel’s doing a good job. Good for him. Also good for Hamilton as he’s also doing a good job. Vettel doesn’t have to come close and lose championship because his car breaks down or he was unlucky etc. He already had that. Moreover he also managed to win the WDC despite that. If someone’s getting poles in dry conditions, it just shows that his car is capable of that and the driver delivered. Moreover, Vettel isn’t scrappy through field. He isn’t using a Mercedes which is faster a couple of seconds than the cars he is overtaking. Or he doesn’t always wait for a DRS zone to just breeze pass people. You may argue that would be the smart thing to do, or he is a tad too aggressive for your taste, but he isn’t scappy. For example he had 2 incidents last race: Alonso and the Hulk. If you have been watching some time now, that was another exciting chapter for the ongoing on-track battle of Alonso vs Vettel. Hulk overtake was most surprising, because they were inside the chicane together! It was daring, and Hulk was going too fast to get inside with Vettel, which is why Vettel bailed in the second part, which is allowed. If you want to keep watching boring DRS stuff, there were plenty of them too.

          3. Look, no one is doubting LH. There is no double standard. Everyone knows both Vettel and LH are great drivers.
            What I’m saying is that if you give an average driver the Merc car, you can expect them to do pretty well against the rest of the field.
            I would argue it takes more skill to do the scrappy stuff than to be in the best car in the best starting position.
            This is true of Merc now and RB a few years back. That’s NOT the same thing as having a double standard…

    2. There were some drivers who did a good job, HAM, BOT, MAL, KVY, ERI, SAI.
      But VET and MAS had the toughest job to complete. Lewis didn’t feel real presure from Nico.

    3. @bluechris If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will think its whole life it is stupid. Mercedes is supposed to be in P1/P2, you can’t expect a Force India to be there…

  16. Vettel. Great recovery despite all the misfortune he had all weekend. Great pace overall compared to his teammate, aggressive and determined driving.

  17. Massa without a doubt

  18. This time, I wanted to vote for someone who has been perfect all week-end, with zero mistake and a nice result. Only two drivers would qualify for that, and it wole Hamilton and Bottas. But a victory would be expected for Lewis, while 3rd place for Bottas ahead of both Ferraris was more than his car was capable of. I voted for Valtteri!

    1. Even though his teammate did a better job…

      1. Only 16s behind!

        1. I hope you are not implying that he didn’t do an even better job because he finished 16secs behind.
          He couldn’t qualify properly because of his PU, much like Vettel.

  19. I will cast no vote. Nobody did something worth more than any other driver. Yes Vettel and Massa drove through the field but their cars together with DRS were plenty faster than the others. You don’t credit an LMP1 driver for overtaking GT cars do you? It’s almost the same really…

    Bottas could be others their choice, why I ask? He just drove the race, nobody behind could even match his stop speed and the cars ahead were plenty faster. Yes he finished third but really only because Kimi had that incident, otherwise that would have never happend.

    Kimi, unimpressive as is the trend this season. Verstappen the talent he is could do nothing with his worthless Renault. McLarens were nowhere, not that I expected them to be anywhere.

    As I voted 6 for average, drivers just did what they expected.

  20. No standout performances this weekend, so I suppose I “must” vote for Lewis.

    1. just because he won?

      1. Seems like a reasonably good yardstick for driver of the weekend!

        1. I think it’s actually quite a poor yardstick given all the advantages Hamilton has…

  21. Graham (@guitargraham)
    8th June 2015, 15:15

    vettel’s mistake was in overtaking under the red flags, and being at 200mph at the time too was totally unforgivable. it would usually result in a total exclusion from practically any other motor race on the planet. ive seen race bans for less and yet some are still voting for him. sigh

    1. He obviously meant no offence–probably got distracted and forgot about the red flag–and no harm was done. Other drivers in the past overtook under a red flag(Button, Rosberg, Ricciardo) and received far less harsher penalties than Vettel, if any. If anything, Vettel’s penalty was inconsistent and unfairly harsh.
      If it’s about being too fast under a red flag, then practically all drivers should receive a penalty for that, because they all were fast, including Manor in question.

      For me Vettel is no doubt the DotW, fought back after all the misfortune he had.

      1. +1 I think there should be a speed limit under red flag.

      2. @sammy if it was because he “got distracted” while a red flag was out then it’s even more unforgivable. That “no harm was done” is categorically no defence at all. It was dangerous and reckless behaviour that he got of lightly for. There’s no way he should be driver of the weekend after that.

        1. It was a clear, empty track, in clear conditions, with nothing bad going on, and the red flag was because of an incident that happened elsewhere on the track. There was nothing dangerous about overtaking someone in such conditions. Vettel didn’t overtake to gain an unfair advantage or something, so there was literally no harm done at all. But okay, technically he broke the rule and got harshly punished for that, but technically even the driver he overtook broke the rule because all drivers “are supposed to drive back to the pits slowly” and pretty much all drivers were doing over 200k/h, which is against the regulations too. So let’s not use double standards and pretend he committed some unforgivable offence.

          1. @kairat

            I started writing a detailed response, but decided that if you didn’t realise how appalling his mistake was then anything I said wasn’t going to convince you.

    2. What are you talking about? Button received a much less harsh penalty for overtaking under red flags in the 2013 USGP. I can’t recall any driver ever getting a race ban for this infraction. The usual Vettel double-standards are still being applied.

      1. @rm Vettel has over 40% of the vote however.

      2. Although the calling for a race ban is over the top.

    3. A bit dramatic, they were simply cruising back to the pits after a McLaren-Honda was parked off-track earlier in the lap. The Manor was so slow that he thought it had a problem! That’s the 2014 Ferrari engine..

    4. I agree with the punishment. But he probably knew where/what the problem on-track was anyway. Radio.

  22. I voted LH because he did no errors and went faster than the other top contenders who did no errors. To be expected no doubt, but still.

    I enjoyed Massa’s race (and Bottas’s, what a difference a good combination of drivers makes !) but it was also to be expected. Vettel did great to come back but he put himself partially in the trouble to begin with. Maldonado did good at last (though Grosjean had the measure of him until his error). The hulk did ok but I didn’t see anything stellar from there. I guess both TR did good given what they had. Same goes for Kvyat (and eclipsing Ricciardo is a trend he wants to keep going)

    All the others had to many difficulties our did too many errors to be counted in.

    1. I forgot the count for how many times Hamilton locked the tyres….

  23. Felipe for me …. the bold move on Ericsson at Turn 2 & made the super soft last for 30+ laps. A very calm and mature drive from start to finish

  24. Rick Lopez (@viscountviktor)
    8th June 2015, 16:13

    I voted for Massa for the pass on Ericsson

  25. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
    8th June 2015, 16:19

    Bottas!

  26. voted for Vettel but props to Ericsson for his defensive driving on Massa, especially holding out on the outside of turn 2 where theres very poor grip

  27. ColdFly F1 (@)
    8th June 2015, 16:41

    difficult as not one single driver stood out (similar to previous 2 races).
    It was good to see the not-so-usual-suspects to show a good race: Maldonado, Ericsson, Kvyat. But none of them good enough to get my DOTW though.
    Hamilton not because winning in a Merc should not get you an automatic DOTW, and his misses on Friday and Saturday does not qualify him for the W part.
    Massa and Vettel did both do well in the race, as expected. I liked Vettel more as he seemed to fight harder for the overtaking moves, whereas Massa seemed to be able to rely on the Mercedes engine and DRS more than anything.
    In the end for me it is Vettel, maybe also for what-could-have-been had he started from the 2nd row.

    1. ColdFly F1 (@)
      8th June 2015, 16:43

      PS – I (contemplated but) did not vote for Bottas. He did nothing wrong, had a very solid race, and deserved podium finish. But (through no fault of him) could not show any real racing, as Kimi gifted him 3rd place.

    2. @coldfly

      Wait, what misses for Hamilton on Friday and Saturday? Equally, why should winning in a Merc automatically disqualify you from DOTW.

      As for Vettel, his red flag faux pas borderline worthy of disqualifying him from the race, let alone for DOTW.

      1. ColdFly F1 (@)
        8th June 2015, 17:53

        Spinning, crashing, bumping through the final chicane! @fluxsource
        Winning in a Merc does NOT disqualify you for DOTW (not sure why you claim that).

        PS – I missed the memo that penalised drivers are not eligible for DOTW.

      2. @fluxsource

        Wait, what misses for Hamilton on Friday

        Crashing in practice. Though I’m of the opinion that practice shouldn’t be a factor in these votes, as only qualifying and the race really count.

      3. @fluxsource being in a Merc doesn’t disqualify you from DOTW, it just handicaps you. A lot of drivers would win in that car if they had pole – it’s a testament to how superior the car is, not how much skill a driver has.
        Think about the skill required to start in the back, with a worse car, and having to fight for places. That takes far more driver skill than defending pole in a far superior car…

    3. I agree with most of what you said. I also voted for Vettel, since compared to Massa he had twice the number of overtakes, didn’t just rely on DRS for them, and eventually finished ahead of Massa.

  28. Wasn’t that impressed with anyone, so I went for Felipe Massa, as he seemed to be one of the few drivers who was actually doing anything.

  29. Vettel, of course. A great champion, like Hamilton who also did a good weekend.
    Bottas, Massa, Ericcson have a good weekend also.

  30. petebaldwin (@)
    8th June 2015, 17:24

    I can honestly say that the race didn’t grab my attention enough for me to give a fair opinion. I had the race on and was sat in front of the TV but my mind kept wondering. At one point, I even offered to go over to the shop to get some bread during the race – in previous years, the living room has been a no-noise area once the coverage starts but this weekend, I’d have enjoyed the company!

    Hamilton will inevitably get lots of votes because he won the race with the only real competition coming from Vettel because he DRSed quite a few cars. Verstappen will score well because he’s young and Bottas will score well because Williams haven’t been on the podium for a while.

    I guess it comes down to what impresses you more; pressing a button to move round a car every few laps, lifting and costing for the whole race managing the gap to your team mate in a car that could comfortably go a few seconds a lap quicker or finishing on the podium because the guy who usually finishes 3rd had a terrible quali and had to start from the back?

    1. Maybe because you didn’t pay much attention, but Vettel didn’t just rely on DRS for overtakes which made them more exciting naturally. But other than that, you are right.

  31. in the comments a lot of people are saying the voted or will vote for Massa, yet he has only 10% of the votes so far. Where’s the love?

    1. Well Vettel’s kinda obvious, so no comment needed probably.

  32. It’s either one of the Williams drivers or Vettel… Seb and Felipe were faultless in qualifying and were destined to be up in front, and after a great race both recovered well. Bottas was solid, but didn’t have to work as hard as his team mate, and Vettel was just a little more scrappy than Massa, whom he overtook off track. So, for this time, and I hope my decision isn’t biased, I’ve gone for Felipe.

    1. Vettel might have looked more scrappy because unlike Felipe he didn’t just rely on DRS (except for Ericsson), and he had to overtake twice the number of cars and Massa jumped some of the big names during his pit stop.

  33. This was a tricky one for me but as this is driver of the weekend and not driver of the race I went for Maldonado, I know others made up more places and Seb’s qualifying was no fault of his own but as Pastor didn’t crash I’ll let him have this one, hats off to Massa, Vettel and Bottas, also Hamster for the win.

  34. Voted for V Bottas with Seb V a close second…. POOR Romain G, the guy can not get a break… Never give up Romain. Always like Massa and Kimi as well and why is it that Dan R can not get his car going faster??? Actually I like all of the drivers EXCEPT the now ordained by Leigh, rock star lewis… Thanks, Norris

  35. The groundhog for driving himself clear of F1 cars at full throttle.

  36. Last race Verstappen was third, and now Vettel will be first. What next? Maldonado?

  37. Vettel without question. A lot of things went wrong for him pre-race – technical glitch that put paid to his qualification in Q1; the 5-place grid penalty to boot; a questionably timed first pit stop that went badly wrong; losing further time in the fracas with Alonso. despite all that he overtook several cars, many of them twice and was actually gaining on his teammate when he ran out of laps. To finish 5th under those circumstances was excellent.

    1. Also he didn’t just rely on DRS, kudos to him.

  38. Hamilton, Bottas and Kvyat were the best this weekend. My vote went to Bottas – he was super fast, had everything under control and got himself a fine result.

    1. Well if I were to vote for “having everything under control”, I would be voting for Hamilton. Bottas’s teammate had a more stellar race than him, but Vettel had an even more stellar race than Massa.

  39. Gotta be felipe. Great race, nice overtaking and great pace. Hopefully at Austria the Williams can challenge like last year. Bottas was also great.

  40. Bottas for the weekend, Vettel for Sunday.

  41. I never count practice for these votes, just qualifying and race, so Vettel it is.

    Yeah, the red flag overtake was pretty stupid, but it didn’t seem reckless at all and they had long passed the section with the accident.

  42. Tempted to choose Felipe for some nice moves but I gave it to Rosberg for sticking extremely close to Hamilton even though he’s clearly not allowed to do so.

    1. LOL. I see what you did here……

  43. Kvyat for me. Vettel can’t get driver of the weekend after that red flag infringement. I don’t understand this poll.

  44. Massa here.
    His car isn’t as fast as a Ferrari and he didn’t have as many new tyres as Vettel to go for a 2 stop.

    On lap 8 Vettel was just behind him and 62 laps later only some seconds ahead.

    1. His car isn’t as fast as a Ferrari

      What do you base that claim on?

      1. Why would Vettel have more tyres than Massa? By the way, 2 stops is slower than 1 in Canada.

  45. No one stood out. Voted for Bottas.
    Hamilton were good, Rosberg boring as always, Vettel and Massa were great.
    Hamilton is getting the same treatment as Vettel received when he dominated. Which is kind of normal, altough some of people comments are clearly made because they don’t like the driver and don’t look to talent, etc. But i still have doubts if Alonso would get the same treatment. Of course to be able to see that Alonso would have to dominate for a long period, so… highly unlikely to have my doubts sorted it out.

  46. jorge ortiz (@jorgeairesortiz)
    8th June 2015, 20:41

    I vote massively for Massa! ;-)

  47. It’s between Massa and Vettel for me, as both started at the back through no fault of their own, but came through the field brilliantly to get strong results.

    However, Vettel made the silly mistake in practice to overtake under red flags, which is kind of unforgivable. So my vote goes to Massa.

  48. Vettel is the driver of the day

    He passed under red in FP3 and got his valid penalty per the regulations, like any other driver does. His starting so far out of the top 10 on the grid was not of his fault, without the penalty he would have started p15. He drove the socks off that Ferrari to finish P5

  49. I haven’t read anything in this article which justifies excluding the beaver from driver of the weekend.

    Easily the most entertaining driver on telly, and showed massive testicular fortitude staring down cars on the straight too.

    +1 for Track Beaver.

  50. I think Vettel deserves it.

  51. Can’t bring myself to vote for Vettel after watching Alonso defend against him in that McLaren.

    So for me it’s pretty much level between Bottas and Hamilton. Hamilton has to endure the pressure from a team mate nipping at his heels so he gets my vote.

  52. It has to be Hamilton. Noteworthy effort from Max, showed much better race pace than Sainz who qualified one position higher but had no penalties.

  53. Nico Hulkenberg for his incredible courage of driving against the flow after spinning on track. How the stewards did not see any problem with that is beyond me.

    Or maybe I should vote for Kimi for the smoke effects. Or maybe for Maldonado. Against all odds, he did not crash.

  54. Vettel.

    It may have been that he had more downforce, but the Ferrari didn’t have the same straight line speed Massa had. The DRS was barely effective for Vettel, and only brought him close at the end of the back straight. Massa was flying past cars half way down the same straight.

    I also liked in the in the interview with Sky after the race his said he needed to go look at the video to see what he could have done better on the first lap. Constantly learning.

    Don’t understand the votes for Bottas – really did nothing except put the car where it should have been. He was no more spectacular than Rosberg who had legitimate tire issues in Q3 and stayed within a couple of seconds of Ham.

    Hats off to Massa, Hulkenberg, Maldonado, and Kvyat. Kvyat’s come on strong the last two races and was able to keep a faster Grojean behind him at the end.

    1. +1 Did anyone count the number of overtakes from Vettel? Before the race I thought he would get stuck behind a Mercedes, actually Hulkenberg, so I was surprised and pleased. Overtake on the Hulk was shocking! Good job really :)

  55. Its Lewis hamilton.vettel’s move on Alonso and hulkenburg are not good.massa did better job than him.better Ferrari strategy helped him.vettel’s wheel to wheel racing is never been a good one.

    1. vettel’s wheel to wheel racing is never been a good one.

      @manas – people still believe that nonsense?

      1. @xtwl to be fair, Vettel did mess up a few times in Canada. Also I thought he didn’t use the DRS zones quite effectively. I don’t remember which race it was but Alonso used the first DRS zone to close in on the leading car and used the second to overtake them.

        This made him not suffer from an attack in the second DRS zone and pull away from the car he had just overtaken. Maybe Vettel will continue developing and become a master at that but at the moment he is lagging. Could be that he has not had to fight cars for places mostly since he always stuck it to pole if the pace was there :)

        @manas I wouldn’t go as far as telling ‘never’ been a good one. Vettel did manage to come from behind to win the title in Abu Dhabi and also in Brazil where he was facing the wrong way after the first corner.

        1. @evered7 – Some mistakes in one race hardly make such statements have any value. Vettel is very good in wheel to wheel. Instead of being ever patient as Alonso sometimes is Vettel went for it straight away knowing the risk. Those moves on Alonso and Hulkenberg might have succeeded and we would then all call it the moves of the race. Hamilton has been driving from pole many times in the last two seasons just overtaking backmarkers, it’s not a skill you unlearn as these men are the among the most talented the sport has ever seen. I didn’t hear anyone saying Hamilton is poor in a wheel to wheel fight when he could not pass Vettel on the massive straight in Spain…

          The double standards held against Vettel, the easy swing ‘his car’, ‘always from pole’ should stop. It’s getting old. Hamilton is doing the exact same thing as Vettel did, even in a much much better car without (let’s be honest) any rival too.

          1. @xtwl Vettel is 27 I suppose? I think he has a lot of time to learn the tricks in the game (not saying he doesn’t know it already, but we haven’t had the chance to see them).

            The earlier label of ‘crash-kid’ coupled with him being on pole for most of 2010-2013 might have not been the ideal scenario for him to stake a place as a good wheel-wheel driver.

            Alonso during that period had to come through the field many a times and these things stick in people’s minds. Not really Vettel’s fault.

            And yes, Hamilton having the fastest car on the grid by a mile still managed to play crash cars when coming from behind in Germany (was it?). Didn’t really show him in good light.

            The putting the car on pole was a compliment to his raw pace not to belittle him with that fact.

            Hamilton might break a lot of records with his Mercedes but people will know that the car he was driving was in a different league compared to others and like you say a rival not really troubling him.

        2. Vettel made one small mistake this weekend – the red flag incident in practice. Curiously similar incidents have happened in the more recent past where the stewards turned a blind eye. Moreover he would have started 16th anyway so the fallout was absolutely marginal.
          He started 3 places behind Massa, whose Mercedes powered Williams should be far more handy at passing midfield cars because of higher top speed.
          And although Vettels first pit stop was a shambles and there was no SC to bring him back in to contention, he still got himself passed Massa and collected 10 championship points.
          Yes his overtake on Hulkenberg was rough, but it was clean, they did not touch and Hulk and FI made no complaints – rather the opposite.
          And yes he had to line up Alonso a second time but so what? If thats your best argument to show that Vettel can’t go wheel to wheel it just goes to show how biased some people seem to be.

          Sorry for the rant, love ya’ll!

    2. I saw someone(@evered7) talking about the “crash kid” moniker here, but that was in 2010 and the guy who said it was one of the team bosses from McLaren (Dennis or Whitmarsh). That was psychological crap to destabilize the guy to get the title. Vettel is among the least accident-prone guys on track right now, along with Alonso.
      I also think Vettel is still pretty young and will develop&learn more. But that doesn’t mean I think he is worse than someone else or substandard.

      You think he is scrappy on wheel-to-wheel, and he wasn’t using his DRS effectively.
      For one, his car doesn’t have the top speed Massa had. Felipe used DRS for almost all of his passes or he jumped some Mercedes cars in the pit. Vettel had to work harder to get past Mercedes PUs and that took him couple of more DRS zones. Or he had to do something extra like he did with Hulkenberg. I actually really liked that move, so did Bob Fernley actually. Thing with Alonso, Vettel was probably impatient but they have this ongoing saga with their on-track duels. They both probably like it. Second time I was disappointed when he just used DRS. This is the thing. We are so used to seeing DRS, when the driver wants to go for something more daring he gets harshly criticized or punished. Today with this aerodynamics and chunky front wings, DRS-less overtaking -without a car which has a superior raw pace advantage- must be even harder than what we had seen before DRS was invented.

  56. I see a lot of people have voted for Vettel and Hamilton, but their incidents in practice made me not choose them.

    I would have voted for Grosjean up until he crashed with Stevens. This left me with two choices only.

    Danil Kvyat and Nico Hulkenburg. Both had a great weekend. Hulk putting the car in 7th position and then had a good race.
    Kvyat was also very good throughout the weekend. Very much ahead of his “last year wonderboy” teammate. So I voted for Kvyat in the end. Actually I’m surprised that both Kvyat and Hulkenburg only got 3 % of votes. They deserved much better result.

  57. Sebastian Vettel:
    1. 18th to 5th (Gained 13 places)
    Despite: Turbocharger Failure in Qualifying
    5 place grid penalty
    A slow first pit stop
    Contact with Alonso

    1. absolutely fantastic drive
      fully deserves it

      1. +1 Gained 13 places but half of those cars he overtook twice.

  58. Bottas “was as quick as the thing goes”. I think he deserves the DOW.

    As for Vettel, very good progress during the race but the issue with the red flag is very poor for a driver with his experience.

    I ended voting on Lewis. He controlled the race brilliantly, not taking any risks, in a track that is hard on the cars.

  59. If 2 years ago someone told me Vettel would be voted the DofW on the weekend Hamilton wins convincingly, I would have thought they were crazy. It’s funny how things change.
    Anyway, a deserved DotW for Vettel. Brilliant drive, without help of a SC.

    1. Amazing that Hamilton drives to boring wins from pole and Vettel brings in the entertainment with his drive through the field. LOL

  60. I actually went for Maldonado – he was strong in qualy and fairly consistent in the race. hamilton was excellent as usual but i was put off voting for him after he said how easy it was. vettel had a good race but relative to everyone but mercedes he had a significant car advantage.

    hulkenberg was unlucky, could have had a great result.

    1. “…vettel had a good race but relative to everyone but mercedes he had a significant car advantage.”
      He overtook cars with Mercedes PU. If your car doesn’t go much faster than another car in qualifying it is hard to overtake that car in the race despite a significantly superior race pace. It’s not like Hamilton with Mercedes coming through the field. Remember the 10 sec Hamilton lost to Vettel in Malaysia and how he couldn’t bring down that gap, Vettel managed to catch up with his teammate despite overtaking something like 20 cars. It was brilliant.

    2. NO! – Just no ok? Did you even pay attention to the race?
      VET had to overtake plenty of Merc powered cars and we saw evidence of that in how many of his overtakes were not completed under DRS. That – for me – was the most compelling part of this race.
      The Ferrari might be a better chassis than most but MAS was clearly far better poised for a drive through the field.
      This shows us just how well VET did and with no SC to shorten the gap and a horrible pitstop on top!

  61. To me, all the red flag incident comments are just excuse not to vote for him.

  62. geoffgroom44 (@)
    9th June 2015, 17:52

    I vote for Lewis Hamilton. Ok.Ok.I know some don’t find it exciting but since the sport is very much about ‘being in control’ then that also applies to the driver who is in control of the whole race, as he was for most (not quite all) of the practice/qualifying sessions as well. The question asks us to vote for ‘the best performer’, so Lewis gets my vote.

  63. Seb for me. Although not the cleanest of races, some incidents are to be expected when you are charging your way up from 18th on the grid. But he got the job done nicely and mainly neatly and ended up a few seconds behind his team mate by the end. Stellar!

  64. I don’t think any driver particularly stood out this weekend and you could make a case for a few drivers.

    Hamilton had problems in practice but put the quick laps in when it mattered in qualifying, in the race he made sure to always keep Rosberg over a second back and justout of DRS range.

    Both Mercedes seemed to be managing fuel, tyres and brakes for most of the race and so I don’t think they could have pushed significantly harder and finished the race.

    Vettel and Massa both qualified out of position well down the grid with car troubles on Saturday and both put in good recovery drives to earn some healthy points on Sunday.

    Bottas managed the first non Mercedes or Ferrari podium this season and although I don’t recall seeing much of him during the race I think he got all he could out of the weekend.

    I think all those drivers finished where you would have expected given the cars they had and in the case of Vettel and Massa the car problems they had, and so it was a close decision on who to vote for.

    If Hamilton had been more dominant against Rosberg over the weekend I would probably have voted for him.

    Also if Vettel had made cleaner work of getting through the field and not had the minor issues with Alonso or Hulkenberg I could easily have voted for him.

    In the end though I decided to vote for Bottas.

    1. What issues? VET had to line up ALO a second time, so that’s an issue nowadays? I’m sure you’re kidding ;)
      VET didn’t touch HUL at all, he spun because he went too far up the kerb – moreover FI and HUL statet after the race that the move was hard but fair and an example of good tight racing.
      If those two incidents are all you can come up with when you try to argue that VET wasn’t top notch this sunday it just goes to show how good VET actually drove as even the most biased observers can’t seem to come up with any real faults of his!
      He passed all those Merc powered cars, often in non-DRS sections of the track because they have better top speeds and even came out in front of MAS too. All this with no SC to shorten the gaps and a slow first pitstop on top one might add.
      That’s as remarkable a drive through the field as any I can recall.

  65. I went for Carlos in the end, on the basis that he’s under-represented.

  66. Bottas managed the first non Mercedes or Ferrari podium this season and although I don’t recall seeing much of him during the race I think he got all he could out of the weekend.
    (…)
    In the end though I decided to vote for Bottas.

    I said before that I see in Valtteri a very strong driver, much probably a future world champion, and a well rounded, solid contender.
    But somehow this image is fading, I have to admit. Valtteri indeed a very good driver, but his races lately, even capturing good amount of points, have been supremely boring: the kind of driver that you see at the start and at the end, because in the middle there is almost no action.
    Of course, part of this can be due to the fact that most of the time Valtteri and Felipe are actually traveling alone, but for example in Canada Valtteri’s strongest points have been, in my opinion, the almost total absence of mistakes. Good pace, no mistakes. Clean sheet. Kimi spun, and Valtteri took the place: Kimi made a mistake, Valtteri didn´t. Almost clinical. Of course this is not a bad thing. But we don´t remember clinical drivers, we remember the dudes who give us emotions on the track.
    I don´t know, but in Canada Felipe ended up at the back of the grid because of a problem outside his responsibility, and made the most of the car. Valtteri captured a podium in an invisible race, Felipe captured points racing with a dagger between the teeth.
    Massa for me.

    1. I agree with what you said…

    2. Prost was clinical. Depends on personal opinion but I found him awesome. It’s not Bottas fault he had no wheel to wheel racing he was not going to make a mistake because Kimi did just so he can have a battle and win driver of the weekend poll.

      I like these polls but sometimes drivers are victims of circumstance that they do not win it. If Vettel started 3rd and finished 3rd he would not win this poll but he started 18th finished 5th he will win it. Bet Vettel would swap races with Bottas.

      1. Meh. I’m not sure. After the race he looked like he had some fun.

      2. Bet Vettel would swap races with Bottas.

        Yes, no doubt he would. Which does not mean Bottas drove better on the weekend. On the contrary, he almost certainly would not have qualified fourth or finished third if Vettel had not had engine problems in qualifying. The same is arguably true with respect to Massa as well.

      3. Vettel finished 9 secs or something down Bottas. If he pitted earlier the first time, maybe he would have been right alongside him by the end of the race.

  67. Voted for Vettel and to the surprise found that he was leading the pools so far !!!!

    1. pools = polls

      @keithCollantine please consider the request for providing an edit functionality to the post until the first 3 minutes. Then it can be finalized ad posted to others automatically.

  68. SEBASTIAN VETTEL gets my vote.

  69. How Vettel can sweep this poll is beyond me. It was a good, if messy, recovery drive on Sunday but I’m sure if you’d asked him to sum up his entire weekend he’d describe it as dire. Considering the hopes that Ferrari had for the weekend, they under-performed significantly.

    Hamilton can only ever match the perfect result expected of him, Bottas exceeded expectations. The only upside to this race is that insomnia clinics now have a new video to help patients …

    1. I think you didn’t see Vettel’s face after the race. It looked like he had some fun.

  70. I don’t think I understand how this works…….Did Vettel not ignore a red flag on Saturday?

    1. It’s true that VET made a mistake at the end of P3, but as he ended up more or less at the end of the field due to engine issues anyway the fallout was marginal. Also keep in mind that in the past similar incidents have been overlooked by the stewards.
      On sunday he positively ploughed threw the field, passed quite a few merc powered cars and outraced MAS who had a far easier time overtaking in the DRS-zone. All this without the help of a SC to shorten the gaps and despite a dismal first stop.
      More to the point he was the only driver to deliver something even remotely spectacular as he was forced into some unconventional overtaking due to his lack of top speed when fighting merc powered cars.
      I would even go as far as to say he was the only reason i didn’t fall a sleep halfway through the race and that in itself makes him a worthy DOTW.

    2. Yeah. Also Alonso reportedly tried to blackmail his team boss, and Hamilton lied to the stewards. In another sport those would have resulted in ban. But they get to be chosen as DOTW now and again, right?

  71. Keith Crossley
    13th June 2015, 2:48

    So many comments that ignore the reality of “driver of the weekend”

    I was there and it seemed to me – and amassing opinions of all the other people around – there was only one driver of the dat – Lewis.

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