Vote for your 2015 British GP Driver of the Weekend

2015 British Grand Prix

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

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

British Grand Prix driver-by-driver

Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton – Looked genuinely uncomfortable in the warmer conditions on Friday, but overnight changes seemed to result in a car he was much happier with. He duly took his eighth pole position of the year – as in Austria his first lap was good enough and neither Mercedes driver improved on their second runs. Having reverted to an old clutch set-up for his start he blamed a lack of grip on his grid position for a sluggish getaway which allowed both Williams drivers past. He briefly got back in front of Bottas only to lose the position again while attacking Massa. He told the team he couldn’t pass Bottas, but his lap 19 pit stop and a flying out lap ensured he jumped both the FW37s. He had a brief off at Copse when the rain arrived, and after the track dried he began to struggle with his front tyres. However his decision to pit on lap 43 for intermediates just as the rain was returning was inspired, and won him the race.

Nico Rosberg – Gearbox problems impaired his practice running on Friday and Saturday but he was clearly very quick. However having been a tenth of a second off Hamilton on his first run in Q3 Rosberg couldn’t improve on his final run, blaming a loss of grip on one of his front tyres. Having been passed by the two Williams drivers at the start he spent the first stint stuck behind Hamilton, and the pit stops failed to get him in front of either of the Williams drivers, though he came very close. Despite a brief off at Woodcote when the rain fell he quickly picked off Bottas and Massa, then slashed Hamilton’s lead. But he stayed out a lap longer than his team mate on slick tyres, which ended his bid for victory.

Red Bull

Daniel Ricciardo – Still seems unsettled and wasn’t quite on Kvyat’s pace in practice, but would have been seventh on the grid had he not been among the many drivers to lose a lap time for running wide. Arguably triggered the first-lap collision which put three drivers out, but was cleared, he then retired before half-distance with an electrical problem.

Daniil Kvyat – A spin late in the race when the rain returned certainly cost him a better finish – at least fifth, probably fourth in front of the Williams drivers. Until that point he’d been on great form, qualifying seventh behind six faster cars and using an early pit stop to jump ahead of Hulkenberg.

Williams

Felipe Massa – Williams seemed further from the pace than usual on Friday but it all came good on Saturday as they ejected Ferrari from row two, led by Massa. A brilliant start then propelled him into the lead, but his team mate was clearly quicker at this point and Massa came under pressure. His first pit stop was slightly slow as the team chose to clear debris from his rear wing, but even without that he wouldn’t have stayed ahead of Hamilton (though it might have been less close with Rosberg). When the rain fell Rosberg passed him easily at Village, and he was jumped in the pits by Vettel, falling to fourth.

Valtteri Bottas – Susie Wolff drove his car in first practice, then in qualifying he was narrowly beaten by Massa. Having given Hamilton a bit of an easy time at The Loop on lap one, Bottas pounced at the restart to take up second behind Massa. In Hamilton’s view, Bottas was quicker than Massa, and had Williams not initially told him not to pass his team mate Bottas might have got ahead at this point. Hamilton jumped him in the pits and Rosberg overtook him when the rain began to fall. Having been slightly slower than Massa on the hard tyres, Bottas lost far more time on intermediates at the end of the race, and was nearly passed by Kvyat.

Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel – Was held up by Massa during his final out-lap in Q3, which may have affected his tyre preparation, then had “a really bad start” from sixth on the grid. It got worse at the restart where he fell behind Perez, though he took that place back on lap nine. An early first pit stop got him in front of Kvyat and Hulkenberg, and when it started to rain he passed Raikkonen. Significantly quicker than the Williams drivers at this point, a well-timed pit stop got him ahead of them for a podium which had looked unlikely earlier in the race.

Kimi Raikkonen – Looked quick from the word go in practice and deserved to line up in front of Vettel. He was passed by Hulkenberg at the start, but pit strategy got him back ahead. But it all went wrong when the rain arrived and Vettel shot past him. Raikkonen made the call for intermediates but sooner regretted it as the track started to dry, ruining his tyres. He spun, made another stop for fresh rubber and was lapped before finishing eighth.

McLaren

Fernando Alonso – Both McLaren drivers made it to the team’s home race without incurring more penalties for changing power unit parts, though Alonso came close as the team was reprimanded for accidentally fitting one of Button’s tyres to his car. He spun trying to avoid the Lotus drivers at the start and inadvertently ended Button’s race. The high rate of retirements helped him salvage a point, however.

Jenson Button – Sounded very unhappy with his car’s balance throughout practice, so it was no surprise to see him line up with just the Manors in his mirrors. The melee at turn one brought an early end to his 16th home race.

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Force India

Nico Hulkenberg – Force India’s heavily revised car looked best in Hulkenberg’s hands and he duly took it into Q3. A superb start – which he described as the best he’s ever made in F1 – put him ahead of both Ferraris. However they pitted before him, as did Kvyat, which cost him a total of three places, though Raikkonen’s troubles later elevated him back to seventh.

Sergio Perez – Narrowly missed out on joining his team mate in the top ten shoot-out but said the updated VJM08 still has much untapped potential. Scrapped with both the Ferrari drivers during the race but finished behind both of them, saying he waited too long to put on intermediates at the end.

Toro Rosso

Max Verstappen – Very pleased with his car after final practice but was caught out at Village in Q1, spinning off. The team later identified a throttle torque calibration problem which was blamed for his Q2 elimination. He was the only driver to start the race on the hard compound tyres, but after the restart he spun into retirement at Farm.

Carlos Sainz Jnr – “We knew Carlos would be strong as he had already tested here with us before,” said chief race engineer Phil Charles. Sure enough he was the only Toro Rosso driver in Q3, lining up eighth. But he made a poor start and slipped out of the points before an electrical problem ended his weekend’s work.

Lotus

Romain Grosjean – As usual he spent first practice watching Jolyon Palmer drive his car, but he lost more track time in the second session by spinning off at Luffield. Puzzled by his car’s balance in Q2, he registered his lowing qualifying position of the year. Pinned between Ricciardo and Maldonado at the start of the race, damage from the collision forced him out.

Pastor Maldonado – Like Grosjean, Maldonado also dropped out in Q2, and was also eliminated in the first-lap collision at Village.

Sauber

Marcus Ericsson – Missed first practice as Raffaele Marciello was in his car. Got through into Q2 but only ended up one place in front of his team mate, suggesting this was the Sauber’s level. Points were possible in the race but he got his tyre strategy badly wrong when the rain fell: pitting too soon for intermediates then compounding his error by switching to slicks just before the rain returned.

Felipe Nasr – Didn’t get his tyres in the right temperature range in Q1 and was eliminated. A gearbox fault on his reconnaissance lap meant he was a non-starter.

Manor

Will Stevens – Was more comfortable with the car balance on Friday as the pair evaluated the team’s upgrade package. He out-qualified Merhi by a whopping two seconds but lost time in the pits when his team weren’t ready for him. An early switch to intermediates also made life difficult – he spun off on worn tyres late in the race, losing his front wing.

Roberto Merhi – Had a spin at Luffield during second practice but managed to get going again just as the red flags came out. Was one of many drivers to have a time deleted in qualifying, but even so was a long was off his team mate’s pace. Nonetheless he avoided the major pitfalls in the race to take a best-yet finish of 12th.

Driver of the Weekend: My choice

Hamilton got an awful lot right at his home race: a great start, a superbly-judged call to put intermediate tyres on and great pace when the track was at its wettest. He looked vulnerable shortly before the rain returned, however, and he did squander one place with a failed attempt to pass Massa at the restart.

Similarly Vettel was in excellent form on a wet track and having seemingly been out of contention manage to salvage a podium finish. However his early difficulties were mostly of his own making and it was a surprise to see him out-qualified by Raikkonen for once.

Massa deserves credit for an excellent start but it was clear in the opening phase of the race he was the slowest of the leading quartet. He fared better when the rain came than Bottas, however. Another driver who impressed in the rain was Kvyat, although his spin (unseen by the television cameras) definitely prevented him from finishing higher up.

All of which leaves me casting my vote for the same driver as last time: Nico Hulkenberg. He got the job done noticeably better than his team mate in qualifying again, made an excellent start, and only lost places to drivers who had quicker cars underneath them.



Qualifying and race results summary

DriverStartedGap to team mate (Q)Laps leading team matePittedFinishedGap to team mate (R)
Lewis Hamilton1st-0.113s50/5221st-10.956s
Nico Rosberg2nd+0.113s2/5222nd+10.956s
Daniel Ricciardo10th-0.073s0/212
Daniil Kvyat7th+0.073s21/2126th
Felipe Massa3rd-0.064s51/5224th-26.355s
Valtteri Bottas4th+0.064s1/5225th+26.355s
Sebastian Vettel6th+0.168s14/5123rdNot on same lap
Kimi Raikkonen5th-0.168s37/5138thNot on same lap
Fernando Alonso17th-0.248s0/0310th
Jenson Button18th+0.248s0/00
Nico Hulkenberg9th-0.391s50/5127thNot on same lap
Sergio Perez11th+0.391s1/5129thNot on same lap
Max Verstappen13th+0.431s0/30
Carlos Sainz Jnr8th-0.431s3/31
Romain Grosjean12th-0.222s0/00
Pastor Maldonado14th+0.222s0/00
Marcus Ericsson15th-0.245s0/0411th
Felipe Nasr16th+0.245s0/0
Will Stevens19th-0.592s43/49213th+62.457s
Roberto Merhi20th+0.592s6/49212th-62.457s

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 British Grand Prix weekend?

  • Roberto Merhi (1%)
  • Will Stevens (0%)
  • Felipe Nasr (0%)
  • Marcus Ericsson (0%)
  • Pastor Maldonado (0%)
  • Romain Grosjean (0%)
  • Carlos Sainz Jnr (0%)
  • Max Verstappen (0%)
  • Sergio Perez (0%)
  • Nico Hulkenberg (16%)
  • Jenson Button (0%)
  • Fernando Alonso (3%)
  • Kimi Raikkonen (1%)
  • Sebastian Vettel (11%)
  • Valtteri Bottas (2%)
  • Felipe Massa (11%)
  • Daniil Kvyat (7%)
  • Daniel Ricciardo (0%)
  • Nico Rosberg (2%)
  • Lewis Hamilton (44%)

Total Voters: 585

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Keith Collantine
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213 comments on “Vote for your 2015 British GP Driver of the Weekend”

  1. James (@jamesjames123abc)
    6th July 2015, 13:03

    My vote goes to Daniil Kvyat. He qualified ahead of his teammate and kept pace with the Ferraris in the race. A spin, combined with pitting a lap later than Vettel when it was wet, prevented him from almost taking a podium (he was ~2 seconds behind Vettel before the rain). Given the pace of the front-running cars, finishing 6th was a great effort.

    Honourable mentions go to Hamilton and Massa.

    1. Kvyat wouldn’t have been on podium in any case, since he was behind Vettel. Even if he pitted when Vettel did, he would have been 4th at best.

      But a good drive by him.

    2. Me too. First time I’ve voted for him.

    3. Just watch this: https://vid.me/1n0N
      I think this is why he’s not spinning in the straights unlike Raikkonen. Wow.
      LOL That’s INCREDIBLE!

      Also, is he assessing the rain level there?

  2. Candidates for me were Hamilton/Vettel/Merhi

    Went for Roberto Merhi because he kept calm throughout the race, did not crash and stayed on track to finish ahead of his teammate

    Did NOT vote for Hamilton because his pole positon and win were both largely due ALOT and i repeat ALOT of LUCK.

    1. @sameercader define LUCK…

      1. ColdFly F1 (@)
        6th July 2015, 13:19

        @psynrg, let me try:
        Luck (noun) – success brought by luck, or by one’s own actions but unrecognised as such by people who envy this person.

        1. @coldfly That doesn’t define luck, it merely demonstrates a use in context.

          My point is there is no such thing as luck. Stuff happens. There are coincidences, basically stuff happening at the same time. We can only ever say something is luck in hindsight.

          It’s therefore a matter of subjective opinion. Sure it could be said Lewis was lucky that it rained some more. It could equally be said Nico was unlucky that it rained some more.

          However there are mitigating circumstances. Lewis got pole, dropped to 3rd, got the undercut, took the lead, pulled out a gap, tyres cooled, Nico closed, Lewis on cold tyres and having a view of lap the before Nico, Lewis pits for inters, Nico’s tyres cool down, no grip has to pit next lap for inters.

          So, Lewis had the advantage by getting the lead back in the first place. On this occasion he was in the right place at the right time because of all his prior actions.

          I don’t believe in luck. it’s a made up thing, used by observers who only in hindsight use it to account for something they couldn’t predict.

          Win the lottery? Only if your numbers coincide with the ones drawn on the night. Call it luck if it makes oyu happy, but the term doesn’t mean anything really.

          1. ColdFly F1 (@)
            6th July 2015, 14:42

            @psynrg – I thought my sarcasm was obvious!

          2. @coldfly You know what – I had blinkers on at the time, must admit I just thought it was @sameercader, without looking, my bad!

            (in retrospect, a smart bit of sarcasm will always initially pull the wool :) )

          3. Luck: when preparation meets opportunity

    2. How exactly was the pole lucky? As for the race, he was a bit lucky, but so was Rosberg that it rained in the first place.

      1. petebaldwin (@)
        6th July 2015, 15:11

        @debaser91 – It’s funny isn’t it – when it works in his favour, it’s pure luck. When it works against him (ie Monaco last year), it’s his own fault.

        1. ?? he wasnt fast enough in monaco last year – then rosberg made a mistake, he still might not have been fast enough. How does this compare to this race where he WAS lucky – afterall he pitted because he was going slow and his tyres were worn, and not so much because the rain was coming, he lucked in by pitting early – as the rain started to fall heavier when he pitted!, it was their for everyone to see! vettel also lucked in.

    3. @sameercader Not how I see it. Putting the car on pole was not luck. Making the undercut work with very fast in and out laps was not luck. If it had remained dry then he would have just cruised on to the win, probably with Rosberg (his championship rival) in 4th, which is far better for Hamilton than the result he got, so a bit of bad luck there. He used what he could see to call for inters at exactly the right time – a handy combination of luck and judgement there.

      The call for inters is the only part of the race where good luck for Hamilton was involved, and even then it was his call and his judgement. He’d put in the hard work to win that race in the previous 40-odd laps. Penalising him for a good call that let him keep that place seems more than a little harsh.

      1. +1. How can putting a car on pole, stunning in and out laps, an inspired call for inters, and subsequently winning the race be termed lucky?? All for a guy who lost 2 places at the start?

        If so, Vettel must also have been lucky – as he and the team made the same inspired call. Rosberg was also lucky – as he could not pass the Williams until the rain came. Pure silliness!

        1. Was it Hamilton and Mercedes who made the call for inters?

      2. +2
        I think that Williams technical chief Pat Symonds would agree with you, as he described Hamilton’s in lap as being ” stunning, ” and another account regarding his out lap on hard tires, also as being storming.

    4. Not the pole, but the win in hindsight was fortunate as he was significantly slower in the rain on slicks than Rosberg, and by a fluke really happened to pit at right time. He did however look to be in control in the dry.

      I still wouldn’t vote for him though. My vote would go to Kvyat, despite the spin. He was impressive all weekend.

      1. Judging all weekend’s performance by 3 laps, you are a special one. Tell me how great was Rosberg’s pace in the rain on slicks on the lap Hamilton pitted.

        1. @Max Jacobson – please answer this question and enlighten us.

        2. Well if you lose that much time in 3 laps, people will judge you by those. Even if he did it on purpose, we wouldn’t know now, would we?

        3. @listas @kbdavies I don’t know where you pulled three laps from. Try six.

          Lap 37: +11.29
          Lap 38: +10.66 (-0.63)
          Lap 39: +8.69 (-1.97)
          Lap 40: +7.71 (-0.98)
          Lap 41: +5.75 (-1.96)
          Lap 42: +3.75 (-2.00)

          PIT

          Lap 43: +4.42 (+0.67)

          Recall that by pitting at Silverstone, there is a laptime improvement due to the shorter distance travelled and the lack of corners negotiated. The gain is ~1.5s (calculated from the increase to the gap to the previous lap to the following driver from Räikkönen and Hamilton). Therefore, Rosberg was in the region of 1s faster on lap 43.

          That is a significant reduction, and indicative of a real struggle on Hamilton’s part that may very well have lost him the race, had he not been pressured into pitting (and it coinciding that it paid off).

          So I don’t feel he earned it. My vote would thus be reserved for Kvyat or Hülkenberg as I feel they performed to a consistently high standard (aside from Kvyat’s spin).

          1. So 6 laps (instead of 3) is a better judge of Rosbergs performance over Hamilton?? On a 52 lap circuit?? How many times have we sen Rosberg take chunks out of Lewis when he is leading the race? And how many times has he passed him of track? Now i’ve heard it all.

          2. @kbdavies At such an alarming rate in changeable conditions, yes. That shows an element of skill that Hamilton was lacking. We’re talking about the best driver of the weekend here remember, not Hamilton’s merits in isolation.

            Also note, the pit lane gain was probably greater in the rain as you lose relatively more time in corners than on straights in the rain.

          3. @Vettel1 – “That shows an element of skill that Hamilton was lacking. ” – Looooool! You must be high on some good quality reefers. No disrespect, how long have you been watching F1? I ask, because if you do know ANYTHING about F1, you would know Lewis is the best amongst the current crop F1 drivers in changeable or wet conditions. In fact, if you look at the all the changeable condition races he had with Jenson Button (the so called king of changeable weather conditions) – where both cars finished, Lewis actually came out on top. His Silverstone wet weather win in 2008 is still talked about in hallowed terms today – far more than Jenson’s 2011 Canadian win. Why? because it was not a tyre change assisted win.

          4. When did it get personal? I’ve been watching F1 for virtually Hamilton’s entire career, but I think that’s irrelevant.

            On the day, the figures speak for themselves. We are talking here about the best of all the drivers on this specific weekend, not Hamilton throughout his career. I’m not quite sure what is so difficult to register about that.

            All I am doing is providing my argument as to why I wouldn’t vote Hamilton, which is because I felt he was lucky to beat his teammate.

      2. The pace difference in those 2 laps were simply because Hamilton had lost temp & pressure in his tyres after controlling the pace at the front, Rosberg on the other hand was fighting with the Williams keeping the tyres in a better working temp, If this difference was genuine pace appose to just tyres pressures then it would of continued after the pit stop, however Rosberg was actually slower than Lewis in the same conditions once he had pitted.

        Rosberg is a good driver but no driver is between 1.5 & 2 seconds a lap faster than their teammate on the same tyres if all is equal in the race.

        1. Mr win or lose
          7th July 2015, 8:05

          So then it was Hamilton’s fault to control his pace, which led to a drop in tyre temperatures.
          Unfortunately there was no direct fight between the Mercedes drivers, as they were fighting the Williams’, so it’s hard to compare their speeds earlier in the race. Rosberg managed the changing weather conditions better, but he couldn’t benefit from it. After the pitstops there was a 10-second gap, so he settled for 2nd place.

          1. Hamilton’s pace had nothing to do with tyre temps dropping badly as he wasnt following anyone, he got the full cold air thus temp/pressure problem! Rosberg was constantly racing behind cars, his final lap didnt really improve much, hamilton pulled more than 8 secs! not 1-2 secs! also he wasnt going faster then hamilton, in those 6 laps hamilton was slowing down faster due to facing the cold air and surface head on, rosberg wasnt speeding up, he was slowing down just his slow down period was slower due to massa effect he was following…

    5. I understand why one would look at Merhi, unfortunately though the written review of his weekend really doesn’t output the problems of being 10cm taller and 10kg heavier than your teammate on an overweight car.

    6. I disagree, it wasn’t good luck that won the race for Mercedes, it was good management.
      It was fairly obvious that Williams needed their cars to work as a team if they were to have a chance of winning, but Massa seemed more interested in finishing ahead of Bottas than driving for the team. It was also fairly obvious that Mercedes would, after the tyre changes, somehow manage it so their drivers would come out in front of Massa and Bottas. So for the Mercedes drivers it was more or less a waiting game for both Hamilton and Rosberg. I’m not quite sure how they expected to jump the Williams drivers, maybe pit a few laps earlier? Regardless, it was fairly obvious that with, I think it was 2.5 seconds covering the first 4 drivers, that Mercedes was going to end up in front.
      Then the rain came, and Hamilton, in a display of nearly perfect timing, chose the exact right time to go to Intermediates, and chose at the very last second before passing the pitlane entrance when it was too late for both Massa and Bottas. The decision was made after they had passed the pitlane entrance, so they had to wait a whole lap, driving cautiously around the track, while Hamilton, Rosberg, and Vettel were racing away with the podium places.
      Sadly, I don’t think Williams will get this opportunity again.

  3. Hulkenberg!

    When we talk about Bottas v Hulkenberg for the Ferrari seat, it’s getting increasingly tricky to produce any argument against Hulkenberg. Please don’t pass him off as the next Heidfeld, Ferrari.

    1. Yeah, I voted for him as well. Impeccable weekend – he only lost places during the race because Force India devised a very conservative strategy for this race; I presume with one eye on long-term potential (e. g. to get to know how the car degrades the mediums they’ve left the first stint too long for this race’s strategic situation).

    2. Hulkenberg is great driver, although I’m not sure that some of the radio that has been transmitted from him being quite aggressive with his team will go against him in a favour of a generally much calmer Bottas. All driver do lose their cool on occasion but rarely enough for their engineer to come on the radio and basically “have a go” at their driver as happened in Hungary before his crash last year I believe (could be wrong on the race, just a faint reminder it was Hungary)

      Both have the potential to be massively quick but personally if Ferrari are thinking about the future Bottas seems the better bet for me. Just my opinion of course and nothing against Hulk.

      1. As a counter, I feel Hulkenberg shows more of a killer instinct, and, by virtue of that, would be more incisive in a championship battle, and would probably be a better team leader than Bottas, should that ever come into play. Clearly, he led Sauber’s late 2013 revival.

        Put Hulk in Bottas’s shoes this weekend. Would he have made a move on Massa stick? He does possess more ruthlessness than Bottas.

        Also, Hulk is a better wet/changeable conditions driver, IMO. And keep in mind that I’m not discounting Bottas’ 3rd in Canada 2013 Qualy.

        1. @vrshank To back that up, Hulkenberg had the fastest lap by 1 second as the track dried up, before Rosberg beat that the next lap by 1 second again to be 2 seconds faster than Hamilton on that lap.

          You can see why Williams would rehire him again now if they lose Bottas, as they are comfortable again and do not need Maldonado + cash (as happened for 2011).

          1. PS. Given that Massa would retire soon, there’s a chance their back up line up is something like Hulk + Nasr, with Nasr continuing the Brazilian sponsorships and Sauber moving on to Ferrari juniors like Marciello.

          2. True. But as a Force India fan, I want Hulkenberg somehow staying put. The chances of that happening are looking increasingly unlikely, though.

        2. @vrshank I agree with you for the most part, but then Ferrari don’t need that do they? They already have Seb for that and although he says there is no clear No.1 in the team it’s hardly likely that whoever replaces Kimi will be anything but the No.2 and will become the new Massa at the team.

          What Ferrari need is a driver who can consistently put the points on the board for the team and deliver when their “no.1” doesn’t after all Ferrari want to be champions again, in the constructors more than the drivers, this role lends itself more easily to Bottas.

          1. I’m not sure how Arrivabene and the new management would fit with Ferrari’s traditional philosophy, but indeed Bottas is rumored to be first in line, most probably for the reasons you mentioned.

            Talking about Massa, how about taking him back lolol

      2. There is a reason he is called the “Hulk” at it’s not because of his name.

        1. *and it’s not…

    3. He cant do much more can he. Poor bloke will get passed up again

  4. ColdFly F1 (@)
    6th July 2015, 13:04

    This time it goes to many drivers:
    Torro Roso duo for free practise sessions
    Hamilton for quali
    Massa is for me DOTW until corner 1;
    Bottas from then until it got slippery
    Rosberg from there when he was taking the extra risk
    Hamilton almost got it back with the great pit call
    Alonso (yes he drove as well) for gaining 7 positions
    Merhi for beating Alonso an gaining 8 positions.

    1. @coldfly Why is Massa DOTW until corner 1?

      And did you mean Merhi for beating Stevens?

      It was between Hamilton, Massa and Hulkenberg for me. I voted Massa as he drove very well especially in the damp/wet which surprised me as he is not known for his wet driving! Beating Bottas by 26 seconds was very good and Williams strategy let them down by leaving them out too long on slicks otherwise he would have probably got the podium.

      1. ColdFly F1 (@)
        6th July 2015, 14:48

        Why is Massa DOTW until corner 1?

        For having a stellar start; the rest was less impressive.

        And did you mean Merhi for beating Stevens?

        for gaining more places than Alonso ;)

        @zippyone, I though Rosberg was more impressive in the ‘damp’ than Massa; and in the wet there were various good drivers (incl. Hamilton, Vettel, Kvyat, etc. etc.).

        1. Oh I see, thanks.

          Yes Rosberg was impressive in the damp but the rest not so. Massa outqualified Bottas (just!), made a fantastic start, kept Bottas behind him when he was clearly faster and finished 26 seconds ahead of him so overall he had a great weekend so that’s why I voted for him.

      2. Did you know Massa is twice as likely to win a race in wet than dry? Very interesting statistics. Especially after Slilverstone’08 (that was “that” race, wasn’t it? lol).

        1. Ferrari’s throttle map that day was bizarre, Massa and Raikkonen span countless times applying any power, before which Raikkonen was right on Hamilton’s tail at the first stop.

          1. It was sort of funny tbh :)

          2. Talking about Ferrari throttle maps… I think this is why Vettel is not spinning unlike Raikkonen: https://vid.me/1n0N
            And I think that might be how he knows when to pit lol.

            All in all, that’s an amazing piece of driving. I felt very emotional watching that.

          3. I’m very glad you shared that video – the wave in the middle is brilliant!

  5. It was between Vettel and Kvyat for me for their fantastic driving in slippery and wet conditions in inferior cars, but Kvyat spun and Vettel overtook his teammate on track and made the right call himself, so the vote goes to him.

    1. Vettel was outqualified by his teammate, who was also faster than him in every practice. Driver of the race? yes. DOTW? No.

      Kvyat spun because he was still on slicks when it poured.

      1. Kvyat could have pitted the same lap Vettel did. It actually puts Vettel’s decision to pit into context. Neither the guys ahead of him, nor the ones behind him pitted, but he chose exactly that lap.

        1. we don’t know exactly what went on. For what is worth, it could be that he was crying to pit, but the team was saying “hold on, the rain will be over next lap” or something like that. Just guessing. He’s not a driver with enough gravity to make such decisions, yet.

          And even with that spin, he finished 3 places above Hulkenberg, who was ahead of the Ferraris in the opening part, and who is now geting more votes than Kvyat for DOTW. His pace in the wet was blistering! For me it was the main drama towards the end of the race, to watch the timing and see how rapidly he was catching up with Bottas. Without that the finale of the race would be just dull.

          1. ahh, sorry, it’s Perez who’s 3 places behind. Still, even with that spin he finished ahead of Hulk.

          2. I think it was Kvyat who decided to pit. But he’s much less experienced in F1 and no matter he had a good race. But guess work from us really doesn’t make sense as a positive for him. Then, there were other drivers waited until the same lap that didn’t spin.

      2. Agreed @njoydesign. Driver of the race, not of the weekend due to a sub-par qualifying and a poor start.

    2. This is a great video to watch: https://vid.me/1n0N

    3. (@kairat)
      Even on a pro-Vettel site like this, I really don’t get the support for him in this race. Out-qualified by his old and off-form teammate, crucified at the start (being hopeless as ever in traffic) and then proceeded to luck into a podium. Really nothing to shout home about.

      Bottas easily driver of the day, held up only by Massa and hopeless Williams strategists.

      1. Bottas was atrocious in the wet!

      2. I hope that was sarcasm. Well, I think Vettel was at least better than Hamilton. Though you can count qualifying against him.

        Probably only one without any mistake was Hulkenberg though.

        Bottas though? lol only thing going for him was his medium compound stint. He was slower in qualifying, slower with hard compound, slowest in the wet!

      3. By pro-Vettel, do you mean a website on which people are not attacking him regularly for the hell of it?
        I think this site is one of the most humane ones regarding all drivers.

        1. Yes, exactly that. It’s refreshingly unique.

      4. a pro-Vettel site like this

        F1 Fanatic is not ‘pro’ or ‘anti’ any driver. As you have offered nothing to suggest why you claim otherwise, this is obviously a statement which only reflects your own preferences.

      5. Bottas easily driver of the day, held up only by Massa and hopeless Williams strategists.

        Bottas couldn’t pass Massa, then he was just awful in the wet. Not only that, but his engineers had to talk him out of doing a Kimi and switching to inters too early. His engineers saved him from falling even further, if anything.

  6. My Driver of the Weekend vote goes to Hamilton: He did a superior job getting his 3rd home race win with a hattrick and many British fans supported them to win this race cause Hamilton got a weapon which helped him win, also amazing work for Mercedes planning a undercut to lead ahead of the two Williams of Massa and Bottas, also Rosberg is also done a pretty amazing job as well to overtake them too. So I’m sure Hamilton was the Driver of the Weekend for me because he did great job to react with the fans what he needs to win, be aggressive, win a 3rd title and keep ahead of Rosberg.

    1. sorry cannot follow you. p1 and p2 pace was not worth a mention. the only performance that stood out was was in qualifying. as sam cadeer wrote a few posts above hamiltons win was because a lot of luck. he could manage to get past both of the williams under dry conditions, same as rosberg. only the undercut brought him in front of massa and bottas. when weather changed to wet rosberg closed the gap by almost 2secs every lap. to pit was the only chance for hamillton to stay in front. so no uber-performance by hamilton at all. imho the dotw trophy should go to hulkenberg whos race was without mistakes. outperformed his teammate the whole weekend. should be next years teammate of seb.

      1. couldnt manage ! ;)

      2. petebaldwin (@)
        6th July 2015, 15:15

        Why would FP1 and FP2 get brought into it though? The times aren’t indicative of anything – the sole purpose of FP1, FP2 and FP3 is to get the car ready for qualifying and the race. Considering Hamilton came top in both of those sessions were good enough.

        1. it says driver of the WEEKEND, which includes FP1-3 as well as qualifying and race.
          the times are not the point. But ROS beat HAM in FP1 and FP2 despite technical problems.

          1. Very well said. This time I’d say Hamilton will be undeserved DOTW.

  7. Sorry if I have mistaken here, I don’t think it’s weapon but Weather helped Hamilton to win the home-race for 3rd time.

    1. @bandon23 Hamilton was in first before any rain arrived. If anything, the weather put his win in jeopardy.

      1. Not so. It was definitely raining on our grandstand long before HAM pitted.

        The question was when did the rain become so hard that inters were needed. That depended on the car and the driver. HAM’s tyres looked wet before ROS’s, MAS’s and BOT’s. Presumably they were cooler for some reason, possibly because he had been on them longer than the other drivers (less rubber – less heating, or he was working them less to make them last). Anyway he said his decision to pit was made because he could not get enough heat in the hard tyres. He correctly thought that he would be quicker on inters. Ironically the reason the other drivers made the wrong decision may have been that they were managing their tyre temperatures better.

        Anyway DOTW should be the one who makes the best of his equipment, not the one who is given the best equipment. I think that was HUL, but perhaps the B-spec car was part of the reason for his speed. I’ll reassess my decision after a couple more races.

        1. I think that makes Vettel’s decision all the more impressive. He was already fast with slicks on wet track. But he chose the magic lap to pit for inters anyway.

    2. @bandon23 I have no idea what you’re talking about – I haven’t referred to a “weapon” or anything like that.

  8. I think I’ll go for Hulkenberg – no mistakes, got best out of it (apart from possible pit stop strategy; though Ferrari were faster generally).

    1. @bosyber Hulkenberg for me too. Qualified well, great start and drove strongly to finish as well as he could’ve done.

  9. Both Mercedes drivers benefited from the weather at certain points, Rosberg with warmed up tires on a damp track and Hamilton on inter’s at the right time. If it had stayed dry Hamilton would have won the race anyway so the rain wasn’t lucky for him, he did his job and beat Rosberg but it wasn’t his greatest drive. Massa wasn’t quick enough in the dry, Bottas wasn’t quick enough in the wet. Vettel benefited from the weather as much as Hamilton did and was no where in the dry, and Kimi made bad decisions, Kvyat or Hulkenburg…. Kvyat he had some fun on the first lap and if he had one more lap would have beat Bottas. Was there or thereabouts in the wet and the dry.

    1. I’m sorry, but how was Kvyat was ” there or thereabouts in the wet and the dry” but Vettel wasn’t? Kvyat had exactly the same pace as Vettel in the dry (was about 2s behind Vettel while Vettel was about 2 seconds behind Raikkonen). And Kvyat spun on inters.

      1. Kvyat had the same pace in the dry in a Red bull, as Vettel in a Ferrari, even better than I thought!! Vettel was being beaten by his teammate in the dry, something that doesn’t normally happen, I just hold the likes of Vettel to a higher standard than Kyvat, same reason I didn’t vote Hamilton.

        1. Yeah but you assume Ferrari was faster than Red Bull. I don’t think that was the case. It’s not like Vettel was miles behind his teammate either. They all had 2 sec gaps, because Kvyat couldn’t overtake the guys in front.
          Though I think both Kvyat and Vettel are my favorites for DOTW.
          Also, Kvyat is doing a very good job overall.
          I also hold Vettel to a higher standard which I think he showed with the timing of his pit stop. You may count that as luck, but I think he has a pretty good judgment. In the end he got a podium out of that race.

      2. Kvyat did not spin on inters, those were slicks, because he had to go a whole lap after Vettel pitted before getting his set of inters.

        And for anyone who was watching the timing during the race, in the rain phase, when the director of the feed was just randomly showing the top 4, where no action was happening, he was the highlight – this “will he catch Bottas” kept me on the edge of my seat.

        1. He should have pitted then. If he did, he would have finished ahead of Bottas for sure. OK only Vettel&Hamilton got in the pit at the magic lap, but then Hulkenberg didn’t spin just because he was out in the wet with slicks. Or did he? Well, I wouldn’t know for sure since we didn’t see Kvyat and Raikkonen spinning either….

          1. hehe, true. We actually learned about that spin from him, later confirmed by the team. Did Kimi even mention his? Ahh well, he wouldn’t have said much even if he passed five guys in one corner…

          2. lol, true.

  10. Ended up going for Massa, great quali, great start and yes he was the slowest of the leading 4 in the first stint, but he got into that position so it was up to the other guys to overtake him, something they all failed to do. Car wasn’t really on it in the wet still did a decent job to maintain 4th. Also credit Hamilton, Hulk, Kvyat, Alonso and Sainz too.

    1. I voted for Massa too. Obviously Bottas was faster than Massa, he was able to use DRS. If one payed attention to the time laps of the first stint, one will see that Massa was faster on the second sector, where there is not DRS zone. This proves Bottas was wrong by thinking he was faster than Massa. On the others sectos, Massa was doing the alternative driving as he did against Vettel in Austria, which means he was slower on the corners but faster on the exit with higher traction. Seeing the Bottas onboard camera it is clear how he approches Massa on the braking zone and apex of the corners, but from that Massa just pulled away. Bottas is still not mature yet to know when he is faster than Massa.

      1. I agree with what you said about Bottas not really being faster than Massa. I think it looked that way because of his defensive driving.

        1. Thank you guys, I don’t think Bottas was told to hold position for more than 2 laps, Rosberg also accused Hamilton of backing him up when he was managing his race, why didn’t he pass after those 2 laps and the race isn’t just first stint it is from start to finish and Massa got there 26 seconds ahead of him

      2. I voted for Massa too. Obviously Bottas was faster than Massa, he was able to use DRS. If one payed attention to the time laps of the first stint, one will see that Massa was faster on the second sector, where there is not DRS zone. This proves Bottas was wrong by thinking he was faster than Massa. On the others sectos, Massa was doing the alternative driving as he did against Vettel in Austria, which means he was slower on the corners but faster on the exit with higher traction. Seeing the Bottas onboard camera it is clear how he approches Massa on the braking zone and apex of the corners, but from that Massa just pulled away. Bottas is still not mature yet to know when he is faster than Massa.
        Agree 100%

      3. @v27racing their respective in-laps suggest that Bottas had much pace in hand over Massa. Bottas’ inlap was 1.5 seconds faster than Massa’s. That’s a BIG difference.

  11. Kvyat was the guy punching above his weight in the race for me. Nearly had both Ferraris before the safety car, ok he spun but then he was right with Bottas by the end, and didn’t look like a man with a power disadvantage.
    Plenty of opportunities for everybody to make mistakes, and they did. Massa was good under pressure (though it was all a bit too “managed” for my liking), fine result for Vettel but it was mostly well-timed stops, more the team than the driver, plus he had a rubbish start.

    1. Vettel lost 1 more place than the likes of Hamilton, Rosberg, Raikkonen at the start. But then he overtook Perez. I think he more than made up for that, considering it was him who made the pit call, not the team.

  12. @keithcollantine – I think we need an option for “No driver of the weekend.” I guess one could argue that someone who thinks that (me for this week) could just not vote, but that’s not really the same thing.

    Lewis had a good P3 and a good first run in Q3, but not a good second Q3 run; got mugged off the line (again) and only held off ROS with good pit timing and just enough rain to make the inters work. Nico ran well in P1, P2, and most of qualifying until his second run in Q3; but mugged off the line and while his wet weather pace was fantastic, he missed his chance. The Williams pair impressed in qualy, really impressed in the opening stint, but faded.

    So, for me, no one was really good all weekend.

    1. Mustavo Gaia
      6th July 2015, 16:08

      +1

    2. Lewis issue is P1 and P2 have been traced to a problem in the ride height of his car. How can this be his fault? Morse, since when did P1 and P2 start counting toward a drivers performance on a race weekend? Is not the whole point of the practice sessions to find the right setup for quali and race? if this is so, then his pole and win suggests that the sessions achieved their aim. I really cant understand some comments.

  13. Andy (@andybantam)
    6th July 2015, 14:21

    It just has to be Hamilton. I know there’s always a hue of Lewis tinted glasses at every British GP, but, this weekend, he really was that good.

    There were some other fantastic drive this weekend, too. But I can only vote for one.

    1. His massively superior car saved his bacon after he made several errors.

      1. That’s the benefit of being on the best car.
        Every year, two drivers have the privilege.
        And looks like since last year at least, your driver is not the chosen one. lol.

        1. Well what is the reason he is in the best car though? Is it because Mercedes/Brawn etc thought he was the best? Or is it because other guys were at better cars at the time and there was no room for him there?

          1. Mercedes was not just hiring drivers. They fired/hired quite a lot of senior staff. I remember a lot of criticism for it at the time. But if you look at the people who came in to the team in 2013 they have done a sterling job.

            In 2013 Mercedes was investing for the 2014-2020 CVC contract which replaced the Concord Agreement. It has been reported that a 2nd WCC this year earns Mercedes a €150m bonus, so the strategy was obvious: hire the best and go for the bonus as quickly as possible. AFAIK no other team has this incentive, and since Bernie made teams sign contracts until 2020 we will not have a level playing field for several more years.

  14. Hard choice between Hamilton and Hulkenberg, but since I don’t like voting Mercedes-drivers, I went for Hulk. I had almost lost my faith but could he still end up to Ferrari next season?

  15. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
    6th July 2015, 14:26

    Vettel, from a “disappointing” 6th to an unbelievable 3rd.

    1. @iluvsoundtracks I disagree, Vettel was pretty lacklustre until the last 15 laps. Outqualified by his teammate (who is not a renown qualifier), bad start, and was behind his teammate for a long time. Personally, I’ll give it to Kvyat, Hulkenberg or Alonso.

      1. Yet he did get the podium. Even then.

        1. @sare Yes, but it is Driver of the Weekend, and throughout the weekend, Vettel was NOT a stand-out performer, being outqualified by KR etc.

          1. No one was a stand-out performer tbh. It might as well be Vettel. At least he might have been the best after start. I won’t blame him for the start since Mercedes&Ferrari had a bad start as team while Williams had a good start as team. He might have lost 1 more place then those guys I think, but then he overtook Perez and by the time he finished the race, he had more than made up for everything with his pit call. Take Hamilton, he also lost a place to Bottas while he was trying to pass Massa, which is also what happened to Vettel at the start or restart or something. He finished way above where he started and when it’s wet he’s been as fast as Mercedes.

  16. Clearly Lewis. He got pole easily and with a big margin, he had a great start, he took an advantage of the safety car in the re-start without any mistakes, he passed cars in the track not during pit stops and he made the right call for inters because he has an old injury from the war and knows the weather like a pro.

    Sorry but I have already at least 2 races that where won by Nico and people voted another driver because he didn’t overtook any cars on track and blah blah blah.

    Hulk was again the man of the weekend. Top class job! Alonso was very lucky and scored a point. Kimi was good until the first stop and Massa was good too without any mistakes.

    1. he took an advantage of the safety car in the re-start without any mistakes

      I’m sorry, what?! Were we watching the same race? Cause what I saw at the re-start was a opportunistic move from Hamilton which might have cost him the race had it remained dry and Williams reacted to Mercedes immediately.

      1. @babis1980 Sorry, I missed the sarcasm.

  17. I realized that Hamilton and Vettel had a pretty similar race.
    Both had a bad start and so did their teammates.
    Both lost position trying to gain at the start/restart (don’t remember).
    Vettel did lose 1 more position, but then he also overtook Perez.
    Both undercut the guys in front.
    When it started to rain Hamilton was much slower than Rosberg and almost got overtaken, in contrast Vettel was faster than Raikkonen and overtook him.
    Both made the “magic call”.
    Both were mighty fast in the wet.
    Result:
    Hamilton finished where he started even if he was down on 3rd at one point and won the race,
    Vettel finished 3rd on podium when he started 6th and was 9th at one point.

    So, Vettel for me.

    Honorable mentions: Kvyat, Hulkenberg, Massa.

    1. what is the point of it being DOTW when it just ends up beng DOTR. =)

      1. So you just automatically disqualify someone when they are outqualified then? That’s you prerogative. But good luck with that :)

        1. Well, again, it’s the driver of the WEEKEND, not just race. If you were thrashed by your underperforming teammate on Fri and Sat, lost places on start and recovered them via pitstops, and then made one perfect call to change the tyres, which netted you the podium… yeah, driver of the race, could be, with a stretch. But not the weekend. Whatever you want to label me, but assessing this critically, Vettel had not earned DOTW in my eyes. And this is coming from a Ferrari fan, mind you.

          1. Well good for you. Are you a Kimi fan though? I mean, how was Vettel “thrashed” exactly? Because he qualified +0.168 sec behind the teammate who has been on average more than 0.6 sec slower than him? Because while he was trying to gain position he was overtaken like Hamilton? Because unlike Hamilton he did manage to overtake the guy who passed him? Because he was fast enough like Hamilton to make the undercut work in order to gain 2 positions? Because he overtook the teammate of the guy Raikkonen was stuck behind? How do you think he was thrashed by Raikkonen on Friday exactly? Never mind that it’s Friday, and there have been many other occasions Raikkonen did better laps than him on practice sessions. He spun in Malaysia, almost qualified pole, then went onto win the race. So did Hamilton and Rosberg on other occasions. You mean he was thrashed by Raikkonen who had been overtaken by Vettel before Kimi even decided to pit?
            You can decide whomever you want as worthy of DOTW. But to me it’s a bit of a stretch of imagination to say he was “thrashed”. And this is coming from a non-Ferrari fan, mind you.

      2. I guess the Race holds the most weight, a reason why the points are awarded for the Race & not for Qualifying or Free Practice. Of course FP sessions & Qualy are massively important as without them you’re race is likely to be hindered but everybody’s end game & barometer is the Race. The Race is the final outcome of the weekend it’s fair to basis the success & performance of a weekend based on your race resulting. This is Racing after all.

  18. I wish I could nominate the Mercedes team as driver of the week because this a week in which strategy shined more than driver effort. Hamilton did a great job but they nailed those pit stops with perfection, reminded me of the Schumi/Ferrari days.

    Having said that, a (dis) honorable mention should go to Williams, who shined for the all the wrong reasons and really threw away a chance at the podium and maybe a victory.

    Anyway, in terms of drivers, my top 3 are:

    1. Hamilton
    2. Hulkenberg
    3. Rosberg
    Honorable mention: Massa, just for that killer start

  19. Well I think Hamilton did probably less than Vettel in the race to deserve DOTW.

  20. Baffling that Hamilton gets almost 45% of the votes so far. He should be a contender for dotw, but the margin he currently has over the other contenders is not very objective (But is it ever objective?).

    I vote Kvyat. He was consistently faster than Ricciardo all weekend (except a few hundredths slower in FP1) and had a good race as well + no bad sessions like a lot of other drivers.

  21. Rick Lopez (@viscountviktor)
    6th July 2015, 16:09

    Massa, outqualfied teammate, great start, held his position, let down by team.

    1. Vettel in Spain.
      Now that I mentioned, Vettel in Austria was the same. Then again in Canada.
      Ferrari are getting worse and worse. So Williams and Massa might have other opportunities…

  22. For me, the only contenders were Kvyat and Hulkenberg. I cannot vote on this one as it was extremely close between the two.

    1. In the end, I had to use eeny meeny miny moe to decide.

  23. I am torn between Massa and Hamilton and I normally don’t vote for Mercedes drivers due to the car advantage, however, last week I gave it to Rosberg and this week I give it to Hamilton. Hamilton nearly didn’t get my vote due to the slip up on the restart of the safety car however his drive and pit call bought him this for me. I don’t know why Rosberg has been voted so highly this race.

    As for Maldonado, I was thinking he was good in the last couple of races, he may have saved his car in the last race but he didn’t this time and shows that he is still driving beyond being in control.

    Kudos to Vettel also for the pit stop and well done to the Force India drivers.

    1. I don’t know why Rosberg has been voted so highly this race.

      Is he? Only 2% voted for him

      1. Yeah I just spotted that too. I was looking at the wrong Nico.

  24. It was very tough to choose between Danii Kvyat and Nico Hulkenberg…

    Kvyat again outperforming his teammate whole weekend. Was very close to Vettel throughout the race until Vettel pitted for intermediate tyres. Despite the spin, got very close to Bottas and could have overtaken him..had there been another lap. I think Ricciardo must be getting the same feeling as Vettel got last year, when his car had problems in almost every race weekend and suddenly your teammate is looking better than you when his car is having trouble – free weekends.

    Hulkenberg…. Smashed Perez throughout the weekend.. Had a great start… Jumped both Ferraris and was only behind them due to a conservative strategy adopted by FI. He seems to be very high on confidence since his LeMans win and it is definitely showing in his performance. Hopefully he gets the Ferrari seat for next year..

    Honourable mentions to Vettel, Massa, Hamilton and Alonso.

    1. Oops, forgot to mention whom I voted for. =) I voted for Kvyat.

  25. f1 should become a spec series… so we can accurately judge driver of the weekend. Hamilton won the race after mistakes and then lucked in with pitting when it rained most — he was only fighting 3 cars anyway… would he have been so fortunate in a spec series? unlikely. the competion in f1 is a joke, it is so pathetic, it is the stupidest “racing” series in the world with the ridiculous restrictions in testing and development, hence it should be a Spec series. f1 would again be the pinnacle of world motorsport if it was a spec series. F1s current “pinnacle” power to weight ratio is the only thing keeping it faster then other series, and saving it from total farce. WEC lmp1s have more efficient aerodynamics and more efficient motors, and 30+ world class racing series have better racing, mainly due to closer competition.

    1. The last time HAM was in a ‘spec’ series was 2006, when he won GP2 with some stunning drives. His Sunday race at Silverstone was better than most of his F1 races. With all F1’s cost-cutting rules it is becoming a spec series, so perhaps we’ll soon get the same level of entertainment on a regular basis.

  26. I have to say that I wasn’t too impressed by any of the front runners.
    Hamilton’s weekend wasn’t great. He did win, he did beat Rosberg when it counted, but the way to this result wasn’t as glorious as it may appear in retrospect. Beating Rosberg in the qualy was a nice start to the weekend (I always ignore the FP when judging a driver’s performance), but his advantage was rather small, and he was arguably lucky that the track obviously became significantly slower after the first attempt. During the second run, Rosberg’s sector times were faster than Hamilton’s, but a slower track meant they were both roughly half a second off the pace. This is not to say that Hamilton’s pole wasn’t deserved, as he did outpace Rosberg with his first flying lap, but the fact that the track suddenly became slower and made Rosberg’s second effort moot makes it hard to deny that the qualifying was decided not only by the drivers’ skill, but also by force majeure, and this is not the only instance of that happening during the weekend.
    Come Sunday, Hamilton’s start was just as sluggish as Rosberg’s, so it would be unjust to blame him for it. He did well in recovering P2 from a somewhat neglectful Bottas, who, despite his claims of having been denied a possible race win by his team, didn’t really excel in Silverstone. His attempt at turning the tables after an early Safety Car started off looking pretty good, but he spoiled his chances by pushing too hard, and an unimpressed defensive move by Massa left him a sitting duck, and dropped him back in P3. Never having been able to challenge the Williamses on the track, he was able to jump both front-runners with an undercut pit stop that allowed him to make use of his car’s superior pace in clean air. Due to his track position, his team mate Rosberg didn’t get the same chance, and thus ended up stuck again in P4, while Hamilton was finally able to pull clear from his former companions. It’s obvious that Hamilton didn’t do a bad job in that phase, but seeing as Rosberg simply didn’t get the chance to use the same strategy, on can’t be quite sure if that really was excellent, or just the car’s pace paying out. Then, the rain came, and Hamilton’s confortable lead came under threat by a charging Rosberg, who not only managed to shake off the Williamses with ease, but brought down Hamilton’s lead by 2 seconds per lap. On lap 43, Rosberg had almost reeled Hamilton in, and a wheel-to-wheel battle was beginning to shape up, with the odds seemingly in Rosberg’s favour.
    Then, Hamilton pitted. To me, there was not the shadow of a doubt that this was a gamble he had to take. Would he have stood a chance by staying on track and trying to defend against his team mate, who was constantly so much quicker at that time? Probably not. Therefore, he opted for an early tyre change. At worst, this would’ve cost him P1, the position he was almost certainly going to lose anyways. At best, the conditions would worsen quickly enough for the slicks to become too slow.
    He said after the race that he opted for a tyre change because he felt that the rain was getting much heavier shortly before entering the pits. Well, I’m not saying that I don’t believe him, but I don’t think that this is the whole story. For instance, the front runers’ lap times show no sign of a significant loss of pace on lap 43, and the times posted by the Mercedes, Williams, Ferrari, Force India and Red Bull drivers were faster than any single lap time by anyone on intermediates at any stage in the race. Hamilton’s in-lap was his fastest lap since the rain had started coming down. That’s why I think that the real explanation for Hamilton’s pit stop is not an existing downpour that he interpreted correctly, but rather the aforementioned gamble, plus his own subjective impression in his car. While Rosberg was apparently still finding enough grip to push without fear of running off the track, Hamilton was desperately struggling for grip, so that he over-estimated the actual amount of water on the track. Then, force majeure came into play again. Rosberg, thinking that Lewis had just gifted him the win, received a watery welcome in the lead. Even with the new Silverstone’s quirky pit entry, his in-lap was 12 seconds slower than the lap before, and he returned to the track with a gap of 9 seconds behind his team mate.
    These numbers underline the point I’m trying to make: Losing 12 seconds and coming out 9 seconds behind means that Hamilton’s pit stop had really been a gamble. Had the the track not become 12 seconds slower during that lap, but “only” 3 seconds (which would still have been consistent with increasing rain), the outcome could’ve been very different.

    Long story short:
    Hamilton did qualify on pole and went on to win the race, but his performance was far from perfect. He made a couple of mistakes during the race and gained positions without actually overtaking on the track (not counting the successful overtake against Bottas, as he lost the position shortly after), and he ran into some serious trouble when his team mate was in clear air for the first time in the race. In the end, the race was decided by a coin flip, and Hamilton was the winner.

    Phew. Now, that was lenghty. But I’m not done yet.
    Why I can’t vote for Rosberg:
    Well, most of his race I already discussed in the bit about Hamilton. He qualified in P2 (even though there was also a bit of bad luck involved, as mentioned above). His start was just as bad as Hamilton’s, and, just like Hamilton, he was able to follow the cars in front of him very closely without ever having a real chance of overtaking. He didn’t get the opportunity to undercut the Williamses, as Hamilton’s early stop had alerted the Grove team, and Massa narrowly managed to stay ahead even though he lost a second in the pits. From then on, Rosberg was stuck again, with Bottas achieving the improbable feat of rejoining the track behind Massa, but in front of Rosberg. The first drops of rain helped Rosberg’s race, after it had started looking like he was going to lose 13 points against his team mate. He jumped the Williams drivers, whose cars continue to be afraid of water, and rapidly closed in on his previously unchallenged team mate. The situation that decided the race must’ve smacked of irony of fate to Rosberg, as the combination of Hamilton’s poor performance and Rosberg’s confidence in the damp helped the former make a decision that turned out to be the right one.
    Long story short (I’m going to make this my signature phrase): Rosberg was beaten by Hamilton, and it wasn’t undeserved, but Rosberg had a few excellent moments, and he might’ve won the race if the weather had behaved a tad differently. I would rank his performance equally high as Hamilton’s: Good, but also too flawed to consider him DotW.

    Vettel’s race weekend went from pretty bad to satisfactory. Losing the qualifying battle for the first time against his less-than-outstanding team mate can be considered a major flaw, dropping back to P9 in the first couple of lap wasn’t too impressive, either. Luckily for him, a wise strategy with a very early stop sorted things out for him, and he was back on Räikkönen’s tail, following him with a gap of around 2 seconds for most of the second stint. Once the rain started falling, he easily closed the gap and overtook a struggling Räikkönen, whose race turned into another abomination from then on. He then made the same strategy call as Hamilton, although I’m a little bit more inclined to believe that he did in fact see a downpour coming, as he had been 20 seconds behind the Mercs at that stage. In doing that, he managed to jump the Williamses, who had been leading the Ferraris since Saturday, and was also able to shake Kvyat, who had been following him very closely before the final round of pit stops. P3 was a very satisfactory end of the weekend for him and Ferrari.
    Long story short (I told you so):
    Being outqualified by Räikkönen is a huge minus on my list. Then, a bad start and more positions lost. Put under massive pressure by Kvyat. Not DotW material.

    Räikkönen:
    Just kidding. His performance has nothing to do with the DotW poll.

    Massa:
    Outqualified his team mate again. 6-3 for the Brazilian, not bad for someone who was as popular as chopped liver just two years ago. Performed a rocket start that made the Mercs look like GP2 cars. Had a bit of a sleepy restart behind the Safety Car, but defended well against Hamilton. Was struggling for grip during the first stint, but didn’t crack under the pressure from Bottas, who had DRS assistance. Had debris removed from his front wing during the first pit stop, which might explain why his car wasn’t to his liking in the opening stages of the race. The slow stop almost cost him a position against Rosberg, but he was able to keep the Mercedes driver behind him, and he had a stronger second stint during which he managed to slowly pull away from Bottas, especially when the rain started falling. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do much to defend against Hamilton’s undercut and Rosberg’s superior performance on a damp track, when the Williams cars were not feeling at ease. He went on to drive away from Bottas on the intermediate tyres, but unfortunately for him, Vettel had stolen his podium position by stopping a lap earlier. P4 was a bitter ending to a race that he had lead from the start, but there hadn’t been much he could’ve done to achieve a better result. He beat his team mate fair and square, but the rain destroyed his chances of repeating his best podium finish with Williams.
    Long story short:
    Can’t DotW him due to slow first stint and sluggish Safety Car restart, but otherwise, he was a strong contender.

    Bottas:
    Was pipped to P3 by just 6/100s by Massa, but emulated his team mate’s brilliant getaway, before making a rookie mistake and leaving the door open for Hamilton, who politely accepted the offer. He reclaimed P2 after Hamilton’s over-ambitious attack on Massa had failed, and spent most of the first stint complaining about his team mate’s slow pace, while unsuccessfully trying to snatch the lead from him. He did look faster, but that advantage probably wasn’t as massive as he believed it to be. He fell out of the DRS window once during the first stint (on lap 6), and he gained 0.34 seconds in the following lap, with only one DRS activation. It’s had to see how this kind of pace would’ve helped Williams’s chances in any way if they had ordered Massa to let Bottas overtake him. After the pit stop, he slowly dropped back behind Massa (although he had been in the DRS window for the first 4 laps), and ended up losing almost half a minute in the rain, barely defending P5 against Kvyat.
    Long story short:
    Lost the qualifying battle, made a mistake at the start, was slower than Massa throughout most of the race. Being somewhat quicker in the first stint is a plus, but his overall performance wasn’t too impressive. Not a DotW candidate.

    I’m a bit torn between Hülkenberg and Kvyat. Both have shown strong performances in the last couple of races. Kvyat has a very strong team mate who was able to beat a reigning quadruple world champion on merit, and he’s looking stronger than him right now. Hülkenberg’s team mate doesn’t quite have the same reputation, but a growing number of experts say that he might be under-estimated, and that his depressing season with McLaren wasn’t indicative of his real potential. Both Kvyat and Hülkenberg managed to challenge the Ferraris for some time during the race, although it is evident that their cars aren’t comparable to the Prancing Horses.
    It’s a tough decision. I mentioned the phase when light rain was falling and the track was damp, and Rosberg went after Hamilton and lapped 2 seconds quicker than the leader. Well, during that phase, both Kvyat and Hülkenberg were even faster than Rosberg. They both brought their gap down by over 13 seconds between laps 37 and 42. Sadly, I can’t make a fair decision. I’m choosing Hülkenberg because I like him more, and because I want him to finally take this accursèd Ferrari seat he ought to have taken 3 years ago.

    1. @nase
      Is your comment available in an audio version? :)

    2. Kvyat also did spin. But they were both very good.

      “Both Kvyat and Hülkenberg managed to challenge the Ferraris for some time during the race, although it is evident that their cars aren’t comparable to the Prancing Horses.”
      How do you know their cars are not comparable to Ferrari? It is common belief I guess that Ferrari are the second best at the moment. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the 2nd fastest at all tracks, 2nd fastest qualifier, 2nd fastest chassis/aero with 2nd fastest PU. I think Red Bull was even faster than Ferrari this weekend and Force India was not far behind.

      1. @miky:

        How do you know their cars are not comparable to Ferrari?

        I don’t know it for a fact, but pretty much all the evidence points towards it. I am of course taking he peculiarities of the circuit into account (and I think the post you replied to clearly shows that under-analysis isn’t my style) when I say that Ferrari weren’t at their strongest in Silverstone, but still definitely stronger than Red Bull (even though they seemed much more at ease than on any other circuit so far, perhaps barring Monaco) and Force India. After all, the Ferraris did qualify on P5 and P6, while Red Bull’s P7 and P10 or Force India’s P9 and P11 clearly show that they didn’t quite have the same pace.
        The Ferraris’ top speed advantage ranged somewhere between 8 and 15 kph over the Red Bulls, which isn’t negligible on a high-speed circuit like Silverstone. They also had better traction, as evidenced by the finish line top speeds during the race.
        When asked why he didn’t try to react to the Ferraris’ early pit stops, Nico Hülkenberg replied that he and his team were well aware that they don’t enjoy the same level of downforce that the Ferraris have, so that their tyre degradation didn’t allow them to envisage such a long final stint.

        That’s the kind of evidence I base my assumptions on.

    3. what a great post! game set and match! ;) you are not wearing hamilton-glasses like many guys here! couldnt applaud more.

    4. I have read some contents in my time but thanks to the length, I have realised that some people called ‘fans’ actually have absolutely no idea what they are either talking about or commenting on. It is a shame frankly and one that could be quite easily rectified by a little research and perhaps an attempt at a low level club race or test day in a single seater. What it is doing is feed into a mass of negativity that makes me as a fan and participant (successful too) of many forms of Motorsport, really quite fed up.

      There are dozens of incorrect statements in your missive. Far too many to list but just for example…
      LH Qualy – track was slower issue – really? If you had ever raced or driven at Silverstone you would know that the wind variation on a gusty day can ruin any run. Getting one banker in was actually a combination of reading the conditions and applying real skill. To suggest NR was somehow unlucky because the track was slower for the second run? Just wow! You really do not understand what you are watching.

      Then you suggest mistakes were made – mistakes? Because people leading championships tried an on track overtake against someone with a real history of happily using ‘the smash into you method of defence’ and had nothing to lose at the same time? Yet still you were brave enough. That in your eyes was a mistake? Yet you then complain about a lack of on track overtakes and criticise the obvious option of letting the team mates leading get on with it as it was clear from radio calls that they were going to work as a two car single team and thus create a huge tow effect? In other words the low risk option was use in and out lap pace to make a jump in the pits. This was used and worked and was praised. Yet this was all somehow lucky or wrong?

      You then comment on various starts by individuals when clearly you have never made such starts or even grid starts in other formula or you would know that the grid can and does vary both over place and time (as we have heard – and could see, some grid slots are worse than others, there is a slight uphill component and Williams were right on the nail. It is not that everyone else screwed up as they did not – it is just Williams drivers did it better and should be applauded not criticised!) you should go to Brands Hatch. Pole is a complete disadvantage as is much of the front row. It’s uphill! The rear is downhill.

      There is a lot more frankly and your comment could be pulled apart from many technical angles but i just can’t be bothered and I would thus just implore you to learn more about what you are seeing, understand the technology behind things you seem to think have little other than variances from drivers you don’t like to go right or wrong, or as I said, try it for yourself.

      My only conclusion is that despite a rather interesting race and one that was actually hugely enjoying for many, you simply are unhappy about it regardless.

      That seems to say more about you than the drivers, teams or F1 and I hope things getter better for you over the coming months.

      1. After failing to find a remotely appropriate answer to the tone in this post, let me just say that I wish that this discussion had taken place in real life, where I would’ve simply walked out of hearing distance after hearing the first few sentences. This sequence of point-missing (or whatever the adjective form of “missing the point” might be) statements, whose real communicative value seems to consist of mere variations of “I don’t like you and your opinion” would’ve been what they should’ve been: Naught but sound and fury. Not a piece of written text that continues to exist next to mine, no matter how much I try to ignore it.

        Okay, I think that’s enough setting the tone for now, and considering the load of thinly-veiled insults that you hurled at me, it almost feels like a de-escalation. Now for some actual replies:
        There are dozens of incorrect statements in your missive. Far too many to list but just for example…

        blah – track was slower issue – blah wind variation on a gusty day blah reading the conditions and applying real skill blah somehow unlucky because the track was slower for the second run blah

        Leaving my single-seater experience at Silverstone aside (careful, or I might start asking for your M.A. in English litterature before reading a single word you write), I can’t see how you came to the conclusion that these arguments speak against what I wrote. There was not a single driver who managed to improve his time in the second run. So what does that imply? A) The track as a whole had become slower due to wind and temperature changes, and there was not much one could do about it, or B) They were all simply not as skilfull and good at reading the weather as Hamilton during his first attempt?
        My observation was that, after a very good first flying lap that gave Hamilton P1, Rosberg was quicker in the second attempt – but slower overall, which was probably due to the track becoming slower. By connecting the dots, one can easily come to the conclusion that there may have been a tiny bit of bad luck involved on Rosberg’s side (which is not to say that Rosberg should’ve definitely had pole, and Hamilton to be ashamed). How this is an outrage to you is frankly beyond me.

        blah tried an on track overtake against someone with a real history of happily using ‘the smash into you method of defence’ and had nothing to lose at the same time?

        What I’m reading from this is that you must really dislike Massa (probably some 2011 grudge lingering on), and that the sheer fact that Massa was the one attacked by Lewis somehow turns blocking one’s tyres while trying to go around the outside of a slow corner, subsequently leaving the track and losing a position into not-a-mistake.
        I probably haven’t spent enough time in single-seaters to recognise the devil in Massa and his presence makes other drivers’ acts look like mistakes when they really aren’t.

        Yet you then complain about a lack of on track overtakes and criticise the obvious option of letting the team mates leading get on with it as it was clear from radio calls that they were going to work as a two car single team and thus create a huge tow effect? In other words the low risk option was use in and out lap pace to make a jump in the pits. This was used and worked and was praised. Yet this was all somehow lucky or wrong?

        Is it just me, or is this bit of writing really hard to distinguish from incoherent rambling? I’m not sure I can follow your line of thought.
        Anyways, your argumentation can be summarised to an argument in favour of Mercedes as the Team of the Weekend (which is fine, but my thoughts were on the subject of DotW) and another instance of an aggressively rhetorical question based off the implicit assumption that me not praising Hamilton is equivalent to me hating him and being an overall nuisance and all that.

        you should go to Brands Hatch

        I must’ve missed the memo that the race was started in Brands Hatch. Did Hamilton start the Austrian GP from Brands Hatch, too? Because that would explain a thing or two.
        Sarcasm aside, I fail to see how Brands Hatch is the slightest bit relevant here. Or anything about starts. I praised the Williams drivers for their starts while explicitly saying that it would be unjust to criticise Hamilton for his start, as Rosberg’s was identical (read: whatever happened here, it probably wasn’t the drivers’ fault). So I have no clue as to why you suddenly go blah blah about single seater start experience when it’s utterly irrelevant.

        My only conclusion is that despite a rather interesting race and one that was actually hugely enjoying for many, you simply are unhappy about it regardless.

        I voted the race a 9, and briefly considered rating it even higher if it hadn’t been for a measly grid of 15 cars making it past the first lap.
        What does that tell us? That you’re really, really bad at interpreting people’s thought. So, please stop doing that.

        I would thus just implore you to learn more about what you are seeing, understand the technology behind things you seem to think have little other than variances from drivers you don’t like to go right or wrong, or as I said, try it for yourself.

        Words cannot express how much this kind of small-minded belittlement is annoying me. Trust me – I’ve tried, and I know a lot of words.
        “Hurr durr! Behold and heed my words: You must begin to understand things, little one, for you have no single-seater experience!”
        That’s the kind of statement I was referring to when I complained about thinly-veiled insults.
        Since we’ve reached the implorations section, I would implore you to go partake in as much single-seater racing as you like, or do virtually anything else, as long as you leave me in peace. Adieu.

  27. Could have given it to Kvyat. He seems established as the fastest RB driver now in qualifying and race. Seemed invisible all the while but stayed in touch with the cars with greater power than his. Ricciardo’s stock is free falling for quite sometime now and doesn’t seem to be arrested even after the ‘chassis change’.

    Hamilton lost out at the start and the restart as well. Good call on the pitstop but he was going to pit what with Rosberg gaining rapidly on him.

    Vettel lost a few places at the start too and had an underwhelming first few laps. But managed to overtake Perez and then used the pitstop to jump the rest of the queue. Finally, managed to overtake Kimi and made a good call on the pitstop like Hamilton to take advantage of the inters.

    A podium was out of reach during the dry parts of the race, but he made it in the end through some intelligent pit work and gutsy driving.

    Vettel DOTW for me. That control in the wet before overtaking Kimi was cherry on top.

    1. Yeah. His Ferrari don’t seem as driveable as Mercedes in wet but somehow he is just as fast as them if not faster. That’s amazing. His Malaysia almost-pole lap was good too. He’s really good in wet.

        1. What is THAT!?!! wow wow WOW

          I am trying not to cry. Bit of a weird reaction I guess…

          1. By the way, it’s just over 1 minute but it has so much going on.

        2. Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about.
          No actually. I didn’t imagine anything as mesmerizing…

        3. @mim5, great video! Pretty tricky conditions. He catched up to RAI extremely quickly.

          1. @me4me Raikkonen is tiptoeing through the wet section, I guess that’s why he pitted right after

        4. @mim5 thank you for sharing the video. Also makes sense why Kimi pitted so soon. Would have ended up spinning somewhere soon if he didn’t change. Worse, a crash.

          Ferrari have to fix the issue of getting heat into the tires. They are not too good to go one stop less than Mercs and most races are only two stoppers these days. So their advantage isn’t too great to influence a race.

  28. Kvyat. Personally I don’t think any driver really stood out this weekend.

  29. kvyat gets my vote.

    it’s been a tough year so far, but now he’s seemingly got to grips with his car, beating ricciardo a lot lately. i think he could be a force to be reckoned with once red bull gives him a better car.

  30. Non-vote for me this time. Nearly went for Hulk as really his anonymous day wasn’t his fault – hopefully he’s due to move up a team or two over the winter. I just don’t see why anyone would have Bottas over him. Such a pity Kvyat had that spin, but he’s still young.

  31. Seb for me.

  32. This should be a clear win for Lewis. Bringing free practice sessions in a DOTW considerations is just plain silly. Firstly, the issues Lewis suffered in FP1 ansd FP2 have been traced to a ride height issue in his car. Secondly, free practice sessions are meant to hone car setup for quali and race. They are NOT a measure of performance.

    Thirdly, he did get pole, and he did win the race – none of which included “luck”. If it was luck, how come the other contenders did not suffer the same luck?? Rosberg said he though he Lewis made a mistake. Williams neglected to bring either of the drivers in. Vettel also pitted a lap after.

    The team said it was the call was inspired because of more, Lewis said essentially the same, and fans at the race close to the circuit said the same. However, many are still clutching to the unproven assertion that he was “lucky”.

    The issue of Rosberg catching hims was because Lewis was trying to make his tyres last till the end – so they lost temp because he was driving slowly, and Rosberg was on a “Plan B (2 stopper). For anyone to think Rosberg can suddenly become 2secs/lap faster than Lewis in the rain – a pace he never showed before, and without a car/engine problem from Lewis, is plain ridiculous.

    This was simply a well won victory. Kudos where it is due.

    1. “a pace he never showed before” Monaco 2008 maybe? Where in a midfield team he was setting fastest laps with a heavy car. I think Hamilton is a contender for DOTW but I gave it to Hulkenberg, as he just can’t seem to put a foot wrong recently

      1. @leftedf1 – Thought Hamilton won that race with a long and very fast stint after picking up a puncture, while Rosberg crashed out on his own. Korea 2010, though, was a race where Rosberg was faster in an inferior car, passing LH on track, before Webber wiped him out.

        1. I remember watching the race, just wishing kubica would win. He became my favourite driver during that season. It does go down as one of Hams greatest drives and deservedly so

    2. “Vettel also pitted a lap after.”
      No, Vettel pitted the same lap as Hamilton. I don’t know what inspired him though, must be the clouds…

      1. The difference as I see it between Hamilton’s decision to pit and Vettel’s is that Vettel was not under immediate pressure. Also of course it was ~20s later, so the weather could have changed in that time frame.

    3. Exactly!

      No one was lucky – they were reading variable conditions with masses of data including rain on your hands or a visor and making the right calls!

  33. Hamilton. Pole position, and solved his troubles brilliantly on the track.
    Mentions to Massa and Vettel.

  34. For the first time this year I voted for Lewis Hamilton. His reactions on and off the track were spot on. A well deserved win.

  35. Apex Assassin
    6th July 2015, 19:12

    I vote for Bottas for not acting like Mark Webber and making half-assed moves on his teamie. He showed great professionalism and maturity, which if i were looking at someone to partner with Vettel at Ferrari would be a huge point.

    1. I thought he was still trying to get pass Massa after he was ordered not to.

  36. Hamilton gets it, as he took the treble of win, pole and fastest lap, and made the right call with the stop. Hulkenberg, Rosberg and Kyvat are honourable mentions.

  37. for the first time i voted for lewis, that pit call (idk whether it is team or him who decided it) on slightly wet track even made his teammate thought that lewis throw his lead. others might do the same but in lewis case he’s the front runner and he’s the 1st one to come in. I read it somewhere that vettel did the same because ferrari saw merc doing this. pls correct me if i’m wrong in this case.

    if the race stay dry i would vote massa all day, he sparks our race, doing nice defensive move against drs-ed bottas, dirty wing which almost cost him 2nd in pit, and pulling 3s over bottas in the hard tyre. but i cant be impressed with williams pace at wet, although he is pulling over 20s from his teammate. Had he pull into the pit the same time as Hamilton, we would probably see a battle between either Massa and Rosberg or Massa and Vettel.

    But still, i want to see this kind of race again. put him 3rd in qualifying and let him ‘do the silverstone’ start. It sure will sparks some light of excitement to our beloved sport.

    1. “I read it somewhere that vettel did the same because ferrari saw merc doing this. pls correct me if i’m wrong in this case.”
      Yeah, you’re wrong. Pit decision was made by Vettel himself, and he didn’t know the leader had pitted until he was already in the box.

  38. I would love to see a more rain dominant race. It seems like Vettel is just as fast as Mercedes in the rain. He was soooo so close to pole in Malaysia too.

    1. Actually he wasn’t lapping close to Mercedes in the rain. Ham was the fastest.

      1. No, he was.

        Look at the lap times then. He was lapping close/as fast/faster in comparison to Mercedes.

        HAM:
        1:52.659
        1:51.473
        1:50.676
        1:50.344
        1:50.625
        1:50.510
        1:50.997
        1:52.028

        ROS:
        1:51.281
        1:51.415
        1:50.889
        1:51.148
        1:51.083
        1:51.439
        1:51.223

        VET:
        1:53.881
        1:52.552
        1:51.884
        1:50.642
        1:50.559
        1:50.291
        1:50.614
        1:51.155

  39. Kvyat and Ricciardo are starting to remind me of Vettel and Webber, in that order.

  40. I think Hamilton deserves this.

  41. Tough to call. I can’t choose Hamilton, the rain saved his neck. Rosberg was closing him down at an alarming rate, even as a Hamilton fan I have to say he was a bit lucky.

    Kyvat would have been my choice but for his spin. The coverage didn’t focus on him much but he was quietly working through the field and beating his team mate comfortably.

    So I guess it’s Hulkenberg. I don’t really think that car could have done any more.

  42. No contest.

    \\ L E W I S H A M I L T O N //

  43. Neil (@neilosjames)
    7th July 2015, 0:08

    This one’s the most difficult of the season for me because no one was stand-out impressive. Hamilton won but he screwed up the move on Massa and lost a place to Bottas, then got lucky with the fresh rainfall near the end… Vettel did well from the 37th or 38th lap but was nowhere before that. Kvyat was impressive until the spin that cost him fourth/a shot at third. Raikkonen was good until the rain too.

    So I’d say a driver who had a solid but seemingly drama-free race (apart from his start) deserves it – Hulkenberg, for the second race in a row.

    1. Hamilton had a 7 seconds lead when the rain started. Rosberg had 2 Williams ahead of him which he couldn’t overtake.

      If someone was lucky because of the rain, it’s definitely not Hamilton.

      1. Neil (@neilosjames)
        7th July 2015, 3:13

        I meant the second rain shower, before Hamilton’s final stop.

        1. How can reading the weather right (aided by tons of weather maps back in the pits) be lucky?

          He made a brilliant call. It is not about the rain. It’s about when you put the tyres on – particularly at Silverstone which is a very long flat track and windy. In other words part can be wet. Part dry and in between. Thus the timing and reading of the grip levels is critical.

          Rosberg in his wish to catch LH did not read the conditions correctly and chose wrong. As did most. Vettel, again a good track reader did the same as LH.

          That right there has nothing to do with luck, everything to do with skill and managing a huge variety of conflicting information.

          Given Monaco, I am seriously impressed he trusted his call.

          1. Neil (@neilosjames)
            7th July 2015, 14:25

            Reading the weather isn’t lucky (well, a little bit, but not much).

            The luck I was referring to was that it happened at all. That it happened when his team-mate was closing in at about two seconds per lap was even more fortunate.

            Not to take anything away from his excellent pit call and overall driving… but that period of the race, when Rosberg was massively quicker, was why I didn’t pick him as my DoTD.

      2. Rosberg is the lucky one….He was in 4th to stay until it rained.
        He lucked into 2nd place.

        1. The reason he was consigned to 4th was because he was unable to use the undercut as effectively as Hamilton, due to him having the preferential strategy as the lead Mercedes. The chances are he would have pulled the same trick as before even if the rain hadn’t come down.

  44. Massa again.
    It’s great to see him on a good shape again. He completely wrecked Bottas after the pit stops.

    If Bottas is this “WDC material” everybody says, Massa is doing a great job against him.

    1. He certainly drove well given the obvious issues of a low downforce car in the wet – impressive.
      It’s actually a shame they did not get a podium.

      Some on here seem to thing the DOTW is undeserved for many drivers because they were lucky.
      I am sure most of them (LH, FM VB) would be quite happy without that kind of luck! They were actually all unlucky to a huge extent due to the rain!

  45. Not one driver really perfect this weekend, but got to give it to Hamilton. After passed from the start, failed overtake attempt on SC restart and getting passed by Bottas as the result, he took control of the race comfortably after first pit stop. A right call for inters sealed the deal (and it was no more luck than Rosberg that got a damp track for 3 laps where he is best at).

    Massa also strong contender but he probably cost Williams better result by refusing to let Bottas past (to be fair, it could be the team decision too). Also both Williams really bad at rain and rain is part of the race, so no DOTW for him today.

    Vettel has superb race result but really bad all weekend before the rain. So, no.

    Hulkenberg, after promising start he slipped down the order quite badly even before the rain. That’s what killed it for me. An exceptional driver should be able to extract something after that start, even in inferior car.

    Kvyat probably win DOTW if not the spin that almost certainly cost him 1 more position. But before the rain came, his race is nothing special too.

    1. @sonicslv Some clearly have different standards for NH than for other drivers. Was he overtaken by someone on track? Does the driver decide the pit strategy by himself? Given the ultimate laptime difference between Ferrari, RBR vs FI it’s a small miracle he managed to stay ahead even till the pitstops(Perez got overtaken by the slower Ferrari driver this weekend, remember?)

      Seriously, perfect qualy, perfect start, maximum possible position in the race, team-mate nowhere in the vicinity, yet somehow he should’ve done more? Sure, whatever…

      1. @montreal95 While I can agree he got perfect qualy,start and teammate nowhere near his vicinity at that race, I disagree he got maximum possible position in the race. He should be able to be in front of Kvyat. If he managed to do outstanding performance at the start of the race, he should be able to at least keep that kind of performance throughout the race (the strategy -and the team- got some blame too since he not covered any of Ferrari stops which is their main competitor at that stage). This is why I rated Massa and Vettel higher for this week DOTW because they are improving (albeit from really bad performance for Vettel’s case and his standard).

        Of course this is my personal opinion and you’re free to disagree with it. I just try to explain my thought process, which in general is a driver must have good qualy and race (perform at same level or improving) and not making any silly or genuine mistake but cost them dearly. FP mistakes is tolerated unless it was really silly mistake. And of course their race result relative to their car strength (HAM is expected to win, ROS to win or 2nd, Ferrari is 3rd and 4th, etc).

        1. @sonicslv Sorry for taking long to reply. And sorry again but I just don’t agree with you. Kvyat and RBR were just too fast. In fact had Kvyat not spun briefly he would be definitely in front of both Williams’ drivers and fighting Vettel for podium

          RBR are traditionally strong at Silverstone because their forte is high speed corners. FI are traditionally weak at the venue. Had they not brought the B-spec they would be kicked out in Q1 with both drivers

          There’s only so much a driver can do. Even a great driver like Alonso can’t do anything with the Mclaren. And Hulkenberg can do only so much against much faster cars around him. If it was the 1970’s I’d agree with you. It was the last time the driver’s importance was almost equal and somtimes higher than the car’s. Not now though

          1. @montreal95 Well we don’t need to convert each other opinion as long as we have healthy discussion XD.

            While I agree about RBR and FI traditionally is strong and weak at Silverstone but I still think Hulk performance is not DOTW material on this race. He had a great start and actually his laptime with Kyvat is pretty similar throughout the race. That and he already shown that he can drive better in rain before makes me think that he should be able to finish in front of Kvyat. To be fair though, FI wait too slow to pit him on 1st stint and he lost 3 places there, but Kvyat also spun so probably the lost times negates each other.

            Also I think a good driver still can do what seemingly impossible. Alonso somehow get a point, finishing ahead of Sauber quite comfortably. We still see some brilliant driving from Button last year in the-better-than-this-year-but-still-bad-car McLaren.

    2. People have different standards for Vettel and Hamilton too. Vettel had a very very similar race to Hamilton, except maybe it was a little bit better.
      This attitude makes me think that people perceive Vettel to be in another league compared to Hamilton, and he should be doing a lot better to be appreciated as much. Is it a subconscious recognition of his excellence? Or a logical fallacy that’s been brought about by mindless dislike/hate.

      Not really directed to @sonicslv , just something I realized…

      1. Well I think its natural to hold different people to different standard because it is fact that their cars is different. I think why Vettel is not DOTW material for lot of people because he have a bad form of qualy and first stint this week.
        Also, why Hamilton wins DOTW a lot more than Vettel probably because Rosberg is perceived a stronger teammate compared to Webber in RB days. I mean Rosberg is always looking comfortable to stick near to Lewis most of the time and look can take the win anytime Lewis make a mistake, while Webber slips up far behind Vettel in late RB domination era, even not enough to be 2nd in WCC.

  46. Hulkenberg. Perfect weekend for 3rd time in a row(4th if you include Le Mans). He really is The Incredible Hulk!

    When he’s on a roll like that, he really looks like a world beater. If he doesn’t get a single chance to prove himself in a top team it would be lunacy. But then F1 is full of lunatics unfortunately

    Honorable mentions:

    Hamilton-he wasn’t trouble free and made mistakes but bounced back beautifully. A close second in my book

    Massa-had lower ultimate pace than Bottas but did everything right from his point of view

    Kvyat-getting the RBR to the highest position it could possibly get

    Raikkonen-yes Raikkonen and not Vettel. Because let’s not forget, up until the rain came he was faster than SV all weekend. A perfect answer to idiot DC who clearly has sour grapes still about being destroyed by KR when they were team-mates(seriously was there ever another driver who was destroyed by all his team-mates apart from Klien and Liuzzi and yet had 11 year career in top teams? And the Hulk doesn’t get a single chance as of yet!)
    And as for when the rain came-Vettel clearly had more downforce on his car thru different setup- he was 3.5 kph slower than KR in the speed trap which is a significant margin for identical cars

    1. Vettel was significantly faster in the rain. If we assume that’s because of his setup rather than his skill, shouldn’t we blame the setup (rather than the driver) for being slower in dry conditions ?

      1. No. Then we would need to behave rationally. You cannot hate on Vettel by being rational.

      2. Remember kids:
        Vettel faster than teammate= car
        Vettel slower than teammate= him

    2. You mean the DC that outperformed Hakkinen in more than 1 season?

      You cannot exclude the wet part. Raikkonen got overtaken by his teammate, couldn’t keep it on track so had to pit earlier for inters, spun, couldn’t manage his inters til the end so he had to pit again.

      The guy who “bounced back beautifully” did definitely not have a better race than Vettel. Did you even follow Vettel’s race? Not to mention, if Raikkonen followed Vettel 2 sec behind a stint long, people would claim he was actually faster than Vettel. Biased much?

      1. oya When was DC out-performing Hakkinen? In 2001 when he was heading for retirement? Please don’t tell me 1997, that year when Hakkinen lead multiple races yet his car broke down on him in all of those but one. what was the qualy score? 11-6 to Hakkinen

        DC was as useless as top team drivers come. How he survived in top team for such a long period of under-performing is a great mystery. And now he turned into a bitter and useless commentator. But I’m sure he’ll improve, work hard and next year will be his year at last

    3. Raikkonen is my second favourite driver, but he’s got to do better. He did well until the rain, but with his call, and then a spin, this was no “perfect answer to […..] DC”.

      1. @david-a I’m sure the fact he beat your first favorite driver the whole weekend until the aformentioned first favorite lucked into rain has something to do with it…

        1. @montreal95 – According to you, Vettel’s better pace in the rain was down to setups and luck. But Raikkonen’s being ahead in the dry (and only by 2s before the rain, at that), had nothing to do with setup?

          As I said earlier:

          Vettel faster than teammate= car
          Vettel slower than teammate= him

  47. I’ve gone for Massa. He really held his own during that first stint, brilliantly keeping ahead of his teammate. And then he managed to hold off Rosberg during the pitstops, despite Rosberg being a few inches behind on pit exit. The rain is always a death knell for Williams, so it’s no surprise that Williams ended up miles behind the leaders in the end. But what did surprise me is that Massa managed to create a half-minute gap over Bottas after the rain started. One of Massa’s best performances since he joined Williams.

  48. Massa for me.

    A Merc on pole and Ham over Ros? Not to surprising. But Massa P3 over his much higher rated teammate? Then brilliant start and leading until the undercut by Merc where their pace advantage would make the difference. Though in fairness, Hamilton had a great in and out lap after his first stint.

    Massa was never going to challenge for the win, but holding on for a strong P2 if there’s no rain. With the rain, he did much better than Bottas (Bottas on lap 39 radioed in that he needed to pit and the team had to tell him to stay out).

    Vettel excellent in the wet, and a good job to Kvyat and Hamilton too.

  49. Hamilton,

    his choice to come in for intermediates proved right and requires a level of insight and feeling for what is happening that is all too rare these days. Top that off with him being on top in qualify and genuinely having a much faster pace then the rest of the field and he is in a class of his own this UK GP weekend.

  50. There were a few contenders for driver of the weekend for me, they included.

    Hamilton – Put problems in practice behind in to put in the quickest lap when in mattered in qualifying, made another poor start to lose the lead and then lost another place at the restart. Some quick laps around his pit stop saw him retake the lead and then timing the change to inters proved decisive.

    At the time I was one of those who thought he had changed from slicks to soon and that he had thrown the victory away but it turned out to be perfect lap to make the change in the end.

    Kvyat – Earlier in the season I wondered if the promotion to Red Bull had come too soon, and while I still believe another year at Toro Rosso would probably have been for the best in the long term, Kvyat has definitely improved in recent races and put in a good performance this weekend.

    Massa – Was quicker than his teammate on Saturday to get third on the grid and then made a brilliant start to take the lead and managed to retain the lead until the pit stops even though the cars behind seemed quicker. It was a shame the car wasn’t as good in the wet which meant he missed out on what would have been a deserved podium.

    Hulkenberg – Continuing his impressive form since winning Le Mans with another good qualifying and race.

    In the end I decided to vote for Massa.

  51. Alonso made a bold strategy to achieve a tenth place. Showed the great pilot that is. Congratulations for Hulkenberg, Massa and Hamilton who also made great race

  52. Massa. Again. He dominated his team mate all weekend long, overtook the Mercedes and stayed there until the pit stops, drove superbly on slick tyres on a damp track, where in his best year – 2008 – he failed miserably. He gave Bottas a thirty-second deficit in the second part of the race alone and lost places due to Williams’ conservative choices. He’s never driven so well, so consistently.

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