Vote for your Hungarian GP Driver of the Weekend

2015 Hungarian Grand Prix

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

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

Hungarian Grand Prix driver-by-driver

Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton – Swept all three practice sessions with little drama besides the occasional lock-up, and continued his domination into qualifying where he headed all three parts and sealed his ninth pole position of the year. But his domination of the weekend ended within seconds of the start: relegated to fourth in the first few corners, he then went off at turn six, slipping to tenth (and somewhat unfairly blaming his team mate for the error). He’d fought his way back to fourth when he came under attack from Ricciardo and thumped into the Red Bull, necessitating a front wing change and earning a drive-through penalty. Nonetheless he recovered to sixth at the chequered flag and edged further ahead of Rosberg in the championship.

Nico Rosberg – The team apologised to Rosberg after his “difficult day” which they said was down to an error in setting his car up which went unnoticed. He bounced back in final practice to end up within a tenth of Hamilton, but in qualifying he was puzzled by persistent understeer and ended up over half a second off his team mate. After Hamilton took himself out of contention Rosberg was unable to close on the Ferraris – he was 22 seconds behind before the Safety Car period. Seemingly preoccupied with staying ahead of Hamilton, a conservative call for medium compound tyres under the Safety Car blunted his challenge late in the race. A lack of circumspection in his battle with Ricciardo was heavily penalised – the puncture dropped him to eighth, and spoiled what could have been a profitable day.

Red Bull

Daniel Ricciardo – Hampered by an engine failure on Friday afternoon but qualified strongly. The only driver to save a set of soft tyres in Q1, two rapid laps in Q3 secured him fourth on the grid, just three-hundredths of a second off Vettel. Having struggled to get away from the dirty side of the grid he was hit by Bottas at turn – the first of three collisions on that part of the track. After Kvyat waved him through Ricciardo passed Hulkenberg but after switching to medium tyres he couldn’t keep Hamilton’s Mercedes behind. That paid off when the Safety Car appeared, however, as he was able to switch to softs and go on the attack. He was hit by Hamilton as he passed the Mercedes, but was still able to go after Rosberg. Again there was contact, which forced Ricciardo in for a new front wing and cost him a shot at victory.

Daniil Kvyat – Out-paced Ricciardo in practice but was disappointed with his qualifying effort which left him seventh. After locking up heavily at the start of the race he was ordered to let Ricciardo through, which he was not happy about, but he caught a lucky break when he switched to soft tyres before the Safety Car came out. Although he had to run a long, 36-lap stint on them and picked up a ten-second penalty for going off the track while passing Hamilton, Kvyat steered clear of the unfolding chaos to grab a career-best second place.

Williams

Felipe Massa – Eighth on the grid meant he was last in the Ferrari/Red Bull/Williams qualifying battle, and sloppy parking on the grid meant a five-second penalty. That dropped him back in the pack, and an early switch to soft tyres (even earlier than Kvyat’s) didn’t work out – a third pit stop was required, which dropped him out of the points.

Valtteri Bottas – Ran Williams’ new front wing and secured sixth on the grid, and was running fourth early on. Having been jumped by Hamilton and Ricciardo at the first round of pit stops, he was poised to profit from their post-restart scrap when he was tagged by Verstappen, picking up a puncture.

Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel – Didn’t seem to quite have a match for Raikkonen’s pace in practice but led the way for the team in qualifying to take an increasingly familiar third place on the grid. A superb start put him in the lead from where he used Ferrari’s soft tyre pace to great effect – Raikkonen was ten seconds behind even when his car was still healthy. The Safety Car period was exactly what he didn’t need but his nearest rivals mostly took themselves out of contention as he grabbed his second victory of the season.

Kimi Raikkonen – The Hungarian Grand Prix was a depressing litany of misfortune for Raikkonen. First his front wing failed on Friday, then a water leak sidelined him on Saturday. The latter kept him from doing a run on the soft tyres ahead of qualifying, and he ended up fifth on the grid. He followed Vettel through at the start, passing Rosberg for second in turn two, and though he didn’t have his team mate’s pace he was on for a solid second place when his MGU-K packed up. Even then a points finish might have been possible had the Safety Car not wiped out the buffer he’d built over his pursuers.

McLaren

Fernando Alonso – At a track which minimised the McLaren’s shortcomings, Alonso looked set to take full advantage until his car let him down in qualifying. He jumped up to 12th at the start but was passed by Verstappen shortly afterwards. The pair were destined to finish in that order after Alonso made a canny switch to soft tyres during the Safety Car period and muscled past the other, ailing Toro Rosso of Sainz.

Jenson Button – Baffled by his car’s behaviour in final practice, but would have made the cut for Q2 had it not been for a power unit problem which robbed him of ERS delivery on the straight. Unlike Alonso, Button did not pit to change tyres under the Safety Car, and he was powerless to prevent his rivals demoting him to ninth. Nonetheless, this was McLaren’s first double points score of 2015.

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Force India

Nico Hulkenberg – Had to sit out second practice and much of the first session while the team investigated the cause of Perez’s crash. Once back on track he looked quick again however, setting the sixth-fastest time in final practice. He produced another astonishing start – leaping to sixth, then slipstreaming past Kvyat for fifth – and his race continued to run true to form as quicker rivals leapfrogged his Force India during the pit stops. A solid points finish was in the offing when his front wing collapsed on the pit straight, sending him into the barriers.

Sergio Perez – A right-rear suspension failure cause a substantial crash in first practice, and Perez admitted afterwards he’d been scared when his car flipped over. He bounced back to take 13th on the grid and mimicked his team mate by making up five places at the start. However he was turfed off the track by Maldonado while passing the Lotus, and with a damaged car and a lengthening brake pedal Force India later opted to retire him.

Toro Rosso

Max Verstappen – An electrical problem confined him to the garage halfway through Friday practice, but he bounced back to become Toro Rosso’s only representative in Q3. He started poorly, falling to 13th, but after passing Alonso a well-timed pit stop moved him up to ninth. When the Safety Car came out he had not long since changed to mediums, and switching back to softs put him in a strong position at the restart. However he broke the speed limit under the Safety Car period and had to serve a drive-through penalty. Without that, he might have had his first podium finish. Instead he was fourth, his best result so far, though he was fortunate to escape a penalty after tangling with Bottas.

Carlos Sainz Jnr – Put Toro Rosso in the top five in final practice but stumbled in qualifying, unhappy with his car’s braking as the track conditions changed, and ended up 12th. Running sixth after the Safety Car period, yet another Toro Rosso failure forced him into retirement.

Lotus

Romain Grosjean – Missing first practice was less of a disadvantage than usual compared to his team mate. Once again his was the only Lotus in Q3 and he also managed to save a set of soft tyres for the race. But he made a terrible start and finished the first lap in 16th, then collected a five-second penalty for an unsafe release from the pits. His race came alive after the Safety Car period, rising to sixth as those ahead hit trouble, before being demoted by Rosberg’s recovering Mercedes.

Pastor Maldonado – Lotus missed the beginning of final practice as Pirelli had withheld their tyres due to a payment dispute. The timing of the red flag in Q2 was unfortunate for him, though it was for several other drivers too, and he ended up missing the cut. His race was a depressing litany of mistakes which a driver in his fifth year of F1 should not be making: contact with Perez, speeding in the pits and overtaking under the Safety Car. And yet somehow his penalty points total only increased by two.

Sauber

Marcus Ericsson – Both Sauber drivers received the confidence-boosting news that they’d been retained for 2016 ahead of the race weekend. Ericsson out-qualified his team mate but the pair had only the Manors behind them. A race of attrition presented the opportunity to pick up a point and Ericsson was the one who capitalised, leading Nasr home.

Felipe Nasr – Struggled with overheating tyres in qualifying and lined up 19th. An anonymous weekend continued into the race, where he complained of being stuck in traffic and was 11th behind Ericsson at the flag.

Manor

Will Stevens – Admitted to a mistake on his first qualifying run, then struggled to improve on it on his second. Scrapped with Merhi over the final two places before retiring with a vibration.

Roberto Merhi – Having already raced at the Hungaroring this year, Merhi sat out the first practice session while Fabio Leimer had his first run in the car. Nonetheless he out-qualified Stevens and briefly got ahead of the Saubers at the start, but had to pit to have a loose headrest seen to. He was running ahead of Stevens when his team mate dropped out.

Driver of the Weekend: My choice

After his crushing performances on Friday and Saturday I didn’t expect I would end up selecting anyone other than Hamilton, but his disastrous race put paid to that. However there were several other drivers who deserved consideration.

Hulkenberg was one of them again, although he missed the cut for Q3 he started well and again had the Force India running higher than it belonged. And it was hard to resist picking Vettel as he was in excellent form on race day, simply leaving the opposition behind after making a dream start and coping with a Safety Car period he really did not need.

But instead I chose a driver who had three collisions during his race.

I doubt there was a hundredth of a second left in Ricciardo’s Red Bull once he was done with it on Saturday. He was the only driver to make it through Q1 without using soft tyres, and he came very close to beating Vettel to that all-important third place.

As a result he had to start off-line, and he tangled with Bottas at the start. Nonetheless he passed Hulkenberg and took maximum advantage of the Safety Car period by switching to softs. He couldn’t do much about being hit by Hamilton, and although his attempt to pass Rosberg was optimistic he was entitled to be on the racing line when the pair made contact. Without that, he had the pace to attack Rosberg and Vettel for victory. Third place was the least his weekend’s efforts deserved.



Qualifying and race results summary

DriverStartedGap to team mate (Q)Laps leading team matePittedFinishedGap to team mate (R)
Lewis Hamilton1st-0.575s5/6936th-6.851s
Nico Rosberg2nd+0.575s64/6938th+6.851s
Daniel Ricciardo4th-0.558s56/6933rd+9.336s
Daniil Kvyat7th+0.558s13/6922nd-9.336s
Felipe Massa8th+0.315s22/69312th-5.95s
Valtteri Bottas6th-0.315s47/69313th+5.95s
Sebastian Vettel3rd-0.281s54/5521st
Kimi Raikkonen5th+0.281s1/553
Fernando Alonso15th-0.176s64/6935th-17.949s
Jenson Button16th+0.176s5/6929th+17.949s
Nico Hulkenberg11th-0.635s40/412
Sergio Perez13th+0.635s1/413
Max Verstappen9th-0.088s45/6034th
Carlos Sainz Jnr12th+0.088s15/602
Romain Grosjean10th-0.804s56/6937th-26.564s
Pastor Maldonado14th+0.804s13/69214th+26.564s
Marcus Ericsson17th-0.154s68/69310th-4.328s
Felipe Nasr18th+0.154s1/69311th+4.328s
Will Stevens20th+0.533s38/65216thNot on same lap
Roberto Merhi19th-0.533s27/65215thNot on same lap

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.

Vote for the best driver of the 2015 Hungarian Grand Prix weekend

  • Roberto Merhi (0%)
  • Will Stevens (0%)
  • Felipe Nasr (0%)
  • Marcus Ericsson (1%)
  • Pastor Maldonado (1%)
  • Romain Grosjean (0%)
  • Carlos Sainz Jnr (0%)
  • Max Verstappen (4%)
  • Sergio Perez (0%)
  • Nico Hulkenberg (1%)
  • Jenson Button (0%)
  • Fernando Alonso (16%)
  • Kimi Raikkonen (2%)
  • Sebastian Vettel (52%)
  • Valtteri Bottas (0%)
  • Felipe Massa (0%)
  • Daniil Kvyat (6%)
  • Daniel Ricciardo (14%)
  • Nico Rosberg (0%)
  • Lewis Hamilton (3%)

Total Voters: 745

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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231 comments on “Vote for your Hungarian GP Driver of the Weekend”

  1. Seb. Easy one.

    1. I wish I could vote for James Allison :) Voted Seb too, with Riccardo a close second

      1. Yeah. That’s Vettel effect on his engineer. I would love to be his engineer.

      2. I wish I would have vote for Kimi, was doing a solid job and had a great start

    2. I thought it was 2013. lol

    3. Phenomenal stuff with probably the 3rd best car of the race… Gobsmacked.

      1. Raikkonen was also amazing though.

        1. It would have been one of the most beautiful 1-2s I’ve had the pleasure of watching.

    4. Agree, but I also think Alonso deserves it as well with his result with that McLaren.
      Btw, I do not understand why there are people who voted for Hamilton after messing up his race with his mistakes. I also do not believe that somebody actually voted for Maldonado :-/

    5. Kvyat was about to get lapped before the safety car and finished second. Tells you all you need to know about the DOTW also known as Sebastian Vettel and the rest of the drivers who finished behind him.

  2. For me, the driver of the weekend is Daniel Ricciardo. He outqualified his teammate, and would have definitely finished ahead of his teammate, and possibly fight for the win if it wasn’t for the two stupid Mercedes, Rosberg and Hamilton screwing up his race.

    1. Honourable mentions to Vettel, Alonso, Kvyat, Verstappen and maybe Raikkonen.

      1. And Hulkenberg.

        1. And Maldonado for showing us how to get a rare type of hattricks.

    2. @ultimateuzai

      Seriously? Atrocious start, even before the Bottas incident, needed team orders, was involved in a late incident in which he was partly to blame, and the only reason he did what he did later was due to the sheer luck of having both a safety car and soft tyres and the same time.

      1. The team planned it that way. There is always the possibility of a safety car at Hungary, so the team took a calculated risk. It certainly wasn’t dumb luck that both Red Bulls were on soft tyres at the end.

        1. @debaser91

          The safety car could as well have been in the middle of the race (!).

          If you plan for A and not for B (both A and B being completely out of your control or prediction capabilities) and it indeed A does happen, it’s sheer luck.

          1. It wasn’t just sheer luck. They decided to leave the softs until the last stint in the knowledge that they would be in a good position if there was a safety car. They took a gamble, sure, but it was calculated.

          2. @debaser91 “Calculated” implied there was something to calculate. There wasn’t. You can’t calculate when a safety car may or may not come. It was simply a dice roll, nothing more. Stop repeating yourself if you have nothing new to add, please.

          3. Man you’re rude.

          4. @debaser91 My apologies if I come off that way, I just hate conversations in which people repeat themselves for the sake of repeating themselves.

            In your first post you said it was calculated risk and it wasn’t dumb luck, and in your second you said… it was a calculated risk and it wasn’t dumb luck. Granted, I’ve been also been guilty of this.

            I agree my post was unnecessarily rude, so I repeat my apologies. Though that doesn’t change we should avoid repeating ourselves, it’s a wonderful way of taking all the fun of internet chatter.

          5. Lol. I won’t be dictated to by you. If you don’t mind.
            It was not a dice roll. They decided to put the medium tyres on in the middle stint so that they would be strong at the end of the race, and also if there was a safety car they would be sitting pretty. A clear, strategical decision. Of course you cannot predict exactly when the safety car comes out. That is why it is called a RISK, not a sure thing.

          6. @debaser91

            It was not a dice roll.

            Christian Horner said to the BBC it was a dice roll. I assume you know better.

          7. @debaser91
            Horner to the BBC “We rolled the dice and hopefully we might have a chance of sneaking a podium.”

            http://www.bbc.com/sport/live/formula1/32542934

          8. @debaser91

            okay, let’s say it’s not sheer luck. That was a team call. It wasn’t exception driving. The restart was around lap 49/50 and the contact was around lap 63/64. That’s 15 laps of having superior tires and he could not pass Rosberg. His one chance was a desperate lunge that didn’t work. If there’s no contact with Rosberg, it’s doubtful Ric would have passed Rosberg before the end of the race.

            Even if he does pass Rosberg (after 15 laps), Vettel was still slightly faster than Rosberg and managing the gap, so it’s unlikely Ric would be able to pass Vet for the win.

            DOTW shouldn’t be based on would’ves, could’ves, should’ves. He didn’t.

            DR had a very good race but before the SC came out he was 5th and quite a margin behind. It wasn’t like he was on the heels of the the leading cars (RAI, ROS, VET) the entire race. DOTW, if not Vet, would have to be RAI or ALO. Raikkonen’s start was phenomenal and was running clearly in 2nd the entire race and only a mechanical scuppered an otherwise stellar drive (and he also was seriously compromised in FP3 with the water leak and wasn’t able to do a run on the option tires).

            But Vet nailed qualifying in probably the 3rd fastest car (behind the RBs), had an amazing start, pulled the gap, and when the SC came out, managed the gap in a car that was probably 3rd fastest of the 3 cars in the final laps.

            This should answer the question, is it the car or the driver and Vet can only win in the best car. In Hungary he won in the 3rd best car. That’s quality right there.

          9. @uan +1 Very good summary there.

          10. If you go further down you will see that I voted for Vettel as DOTW. I don’t know why you think I voted for Ricciardo.

            The reason Ricciardo couldn’t get past Rosberg is because the Renault power unit is down on power compared to the Merc. That’s why he had to banzai Nico in an attempt to get past, it’s the only shot he had.

            And the Ferrari was the 2nd best car on pace this weekend. It was a great drive by Seb but you don’t need to spoof it up more than necessary.

    3. I wanted to give it to Dan, just for his hat.

      And a repeat of last year’s win (at Ferrari’s expense once again) looked on for a moment, but then it got messy with Rosberg. But he’d been right back on form after a couple of dodgy races, and really driven a car to 4th on the grid that looked evil from the onboards during practice.

      But it had to be Seb, who just looked safe in the lead (compare with Massa at Silverstone), driving away early on in typical Vettel style. And his radio message nailed it, as @coldfly says.

    4. Yeah I think I’ll go for Ricky as well, he was very strong all weekend and pulled off some sweet overtakes. Vettel is a close second, his performance was reminiscent of a couple years back, dominant victory from the front.

      1. There are 2 guys starting the race side-by-side. One of them goes around the pole sitter into turn 1 in brilliant fashion while the other goes backwards behind his teammate who started 7th. By the end of first lap the guy on the lead opens up a three seconds lead over supposedly faster cars. By the time safety car comes out he’s also fourth-five seconds ahead of the guy who started right next to him. That guy gets stuck behind his teammate who flat spotted his tyres and gets by him thanks to team orders. After the safety car comes back in, lead guy has the slowest car among the top 3, but manages to stay there somehow even though gap comes down under a second repeatedly. Other guy has at least 3 contacts throughout the race, 2 of which is championship contenders but anyway, then finishes 3rd behind his teammate despite having the fastest car after the safety car 20 laps before the end.

        I mean Alonso surely had a better race than Ricciardo. Imo, Ricciardo’s race wasn’t that better than Hamilton’s.

        1. Imo, Ricciardo’s race wasn’t that better than Hamilton’s.

          True. But I notice that after spending the race slipping on banana skins and stepping on garden rakes, Hamilton is still pulling 5% of the vote at present.

          1. I can’t understand that for the life of me! I sometimes give it pass to people who overweight the race compared to the rest of weekend, because that’s the main point. But with Hamilton’s admission it was one his worst races. Hardly deserving any accolade!

        2. I don’t put much weight on starts, it’s mostly down to clutch settings which are the engineers’ domain (until next race I think? Not sure on the specifics).

          Considering where he ended up and his car’s top speed disadvantage I think he did well to get to where he was, he was clearly faster than Kyvat too. None of Ricciardo’s contacts were his fault in my opinion either.

          Once Vettel got into the lead he was in his comfort zone, he drove a very good race, but it wasn’t hugely spectacular I think. If you judge his race by the gap to Raikkonen rather than Rosberg then it looks quite similar to most races this year. The Ferrari was simply much faster than we expected yesterday, and with Rosberg way off the pace of Hamilton, and Hamilton and Ricciardo stuck in the midfield, he didn’t have much competition.

          1. @george

            I don’t put much weight on starts

            None of Ricciardo’s contacts were his fault in my opinion either.

            What a convenient set of “opinions” to make a specific driver look better :)

          2. I’ve consistently said that about starts, I could find another example if you like.
            As for the second, well to say they’re not his fault is not to say they were unavoidable, but I don’t feel he caused any of them. I don’t have any affinity for Ricciardo, in fact Vettel is one of my favourite drivers on the grid, these are my honest opinions.

          3. @george Kvyat didn’t seem to have a problem at the start. I assume you don’t count that either. Or it was due his engineers only, right?

            Lol.

          4. Vettel’s first lap alone would make him a very strong candidate for the driver of the race.

          5. Ferrari was more like the 3rd fastest car in Hungary.

    5. RIC? Horredous start, some clumsy challenges, needed team orders. Need I say more?

    6. I don’t know how people can claim that incident was Rosbergs fault, it was a textbook “Driver-trying-to-overtake-dives-into-a-closing-wedge” crash.

      1. See Monaco.

    7. Me too, a real racers racer.

    8. I fail to see how Ricciardo did a better job than Hulkenberg this weekend, yet he has 14 times as many votes …

  3. Appart from the obvious vote to Vettel, I’m going for Hulkenberg. He had a fantastic race until the wing failed. He would’ve finished well in the points, continuing his form from a couple of races. Great stuff.

    Tho I think I also have to thank him for triggering such a spectacular race.

    1. How about Hamilton? If Vettel or most other champions were in the Merc it would have been a boring lights to flag parade with the safety car of little consequence. Hamilton’s bumbling helped show how competetive the rest of the field is.

      Honorable mention to Rosberg for being unable to setup his Merc and run away.

  4. You could realistically give it to any of the top five drivers, even though some made errors throughout the weekend. For me the stand out drivers after re-watching the race were Alonso and Vettel. Both drove flawlessly.

    I’ll give it to Vettel though as he out-qualified his team-mate, dominated Raikkonen in the race (prior to Kimi’s problems), looked after the car well, and was able to manage the gap to Rosberg superbly when put under pressure. A great win from a great driver.

    1. Well put.

  5. Seb Vettel. Peerless race perfomance, and would have won at a canter had it not been for the safety car.

    1. Someone else pointed it out, he might have lapped the entire field without the safety car if Rosberg-Ricciardo-Hamilton tangled up the way they did in any case. Really remarkable.

      1. Simon (@weeniebeenie)
        27th July 2015, 15:38

        That would never have happened without the SC though.

      2. Yes, it would be highly improbable that those incidents would have occurred. Interesting nonetheless!

      3. Those 3 (Rosberg-Hamilton-Ricciardo) were highly likely to come together at some points based on their strategy and pace. Who knows what would have happened anyway….
        What I actually wanted to point out is how much all those mistakes cost everyone and they lost that amount of time to Vettel banging wheels actually. They all lost a whole LAP to him! Shocking lol!

  6. It can only be Vettel. The other two remarkable performances weren’t close or were drastically affected by sheer luck.

    Alonso for example, finished 4 places ahead of Button, remarkable. But of those 4 places 2 of them were due to the Mercedes duo having issues when they did, in a way that they affected Button but not him. Had the issues happened 3-4 laps earlier, they would passed him too. And I’m leaving the one place he got for his car being less unreliable in qualifying. He was stronger than Button the whole weekend, but nowhere as much as the four places show.

    Riccardo had an atrocious start, needed team orders to clear one place for him, and was involved in late incident in which he was partly to blame. It wasn’t strategical flair that put him on soft late in the game, they rolled the dice and it worked for him thanks to the safety car. Still finished behind his team mate.

    1. Also on Alonso vs Button, the got the soft tyres in the latest part of the race but Button didn’t.

    2. Alonso for example, finished 4 places ahead of Button, remarkable. But of those 4 places 2 of them were due to the Mercedes duo having issues when they did, in a way that they affected Button but not him. Had the issues happened 3-4 laps earlier, they would passed him too.

      Then Button should have been closer to Alonso, that way he too could have benefited from Mercedes’ misfortunes. Anyway, Alonso was better than Button by a similar or even bigger margin to what Vettel was better than Raikkonen (before Kimi’s problems).

      1. @kingshark
        I would agree, had both have the same strategy. But after the SC Alonso got the softs (which wasn’t even a planned strategy, the pitstop was due to the brakes overheating), which proved to be the superior strategy.
        It was a case of McLaren choosing the wrong strategy and a bit of dumb luck correcting it for Alonso, but not Button. Kudos for his drive, sure, he indeed had the upper hand over Button the whole weekend. Just not by that much.

        1. I agree with you. +1

        2. Also, Button would have been faster than Alonso in the first part of quali without ERS issue, so we really don’t know how their quali might have turned out eventually.

  7. Considering that before the safety car Kvyat was like a lap down from Vettel, I wonder if he would have lapped the entire field… LOL

  8. Sorry, but Ricciardo was 45secs down the road from Vettel before the safety car. He started right next to him and fell behind his teammate at the start. Red Bull had a similar pace to Ferrari. It was not acceptable that he was so behind the leader and only managed to catch up with him thanks to the safety car. Without that who knows really, he might have finished a lap down from Vettel even if he still finished 3rd.

    1. It is completely acceptable.
      If you look at their starts, they are always screwed by the engine. The starts are ok but then it always tooks longer to get to speed.

      Safety Car is a part of the race. “If it didn’t happened” but it happened. End of story.
      I bet you don’t say “if it was not for the rain on Silverstone Vettel would be P6”.

      It’s the story of the race.

      And Ricciardo was a delight to see yesterday. I think this season in one of the worst i have saw but these last 2 races were pretty decent and fun. And yesterday he had a good share of responsability for it.

      1. If you look at their starts, they are always screwed by the engine. The starts are ok but then it always tooks longer to get to speed.

        Neither Kvyat, nor Verstappen nor Sainz had such a terrible start, though.

        Safety Car is a part of the race. “If it didn’t happened” but it happened. End of story.

        True. That doesn’t change the fact though, that before it he was 45s behind the guy he started just after, which was the point the guy you’re quoting made.

        I bet you don’t say “if it was not for the rain on Silverstone Vettel would be P6″.

        Different scenario, though. Rain affects all cars equally, while the SC’s effect is bigger depending on how big your gap to the next guy is. Another difference, under rain Vettel triumphed because he drove masterfully under difficult conditions, the SC doesn’t have that element of driver skill. It just reduces the gap, regardless of how well/badly a driver drives.

    2. Red Bull had a similar pace to Ferrari

      No, Ferrari was clearly faster. Only in the final stint, where Vettel was on mediums and Ricciardo on softs, was Daniel faster than Seb.

      1. Ferrari wasn’t clearly faster. Ricciardo was doing the same pace for most of the race. Ricciardo’s start hurt him (as it does most of the time), then getting stuck behind Kvyat also didn’t help. By the time he was let through only Hamilton was faster on the same harder compound.

        But, of course knowing you, you’ll be saying the Ferrari was the fastest car this weekend…

        I guess it really is difficult to admit Vettel just did an amazing job this weekend. Especially for Alonso fans.

      2. Red Bull had around the same race pace as Ferrari in clean air. Who knows, maybe they would have been even faster without the traffic and extra tyre wear as a consequence to that.

  9. For me Vettel and Ricciardo were the two major contenders for this poll. They had similar weekends, both had the measure of their teammates, both were able to stand up to the challenge of Mercedes (Vettel defending from Rosberg, Ricciardo attacking Hamilton) and both had very little spare pace left in their reserves.

    But there is one key difference, while the SC disadvantaged Vettel, it benefited Ricciardo. Ricciardo was the highest placed car with soft tyres on it and given the pace difference between the two tyres, was a favorite for the victory. Even after the contact with Hamilton (which wasn’t Ricciardo’s fault) he was still the fastest driver on the track underlining the importance of the soft tyres. But then he blew it with Rosberg. He made a completely banzai move which would have resulted in definite contact had Rosberg taken his usual line through the corner. That Rosberg had the presence of mind at the entry of the corner but didn’t have at the exit of the corner in no way clears Ricciardo of the blame. He should have won the race, but he didn’t. Hence, Vettel for the DOTW.

    1. @sumedhvidwans
      The Red Bull is about 10kph slower than the Mercedes though, there was no other way to pass than a ‘banzai move’, and he was running out of tyres and laps at that point. So I don’t agree he would have won the race, if he hadn’t have gone for it best case scenario is he would have finished 3rd, where he did anyway.

      1. @george

        So I don’t agree he would have won the race, if he hadn’t have gone for it best case scenario is he would have finished 3rd, where he did anyway.

        He wouldn’t have ruined another’s driver race though (!)

        1. Well, who ruined who’s is arguable.

      2. I think he should have qualified ahead of Ferrari in the first place though. Also if he didn’t go backwards at the start, he might have had a better shot instead of the huge chasm to the race leader prior to SC.

  10. I dunno, after all Vettel had an easy drive in the best car

    :))

    Seriously it’s a close call between him Alonso and Hulk. I’m going for Hulk on balance, robbed of a great result as @fer-no65 says.

  11. I don’t know if anyone realizes but Vettel’s first lap was amazing. He was more than 3 seconds ahead of Mercedes by the end of first lap! It must have been one of the best first laps ever…

  12. ColdFly F1 (@)
    27th July 2015, 14:21

    Vettel earned DOTW a few seconds after finishing.

    “Merci Jules, cette victoire est pour toi. You will always be in our hearts. We know sooner or later you would have been in this team.”

  13. Vettel. Quite clear this weekend. Although Ricciardo impresses me with his racing spirit almost every time I see him.

  14. Vettel for me! No doubt about that!

    Honorable mention for Ricciardo, who might not have a perfect race, but added excitement to it by racing with his heart.

  15. Easiest choice of the year, Vettel.

  16. Vettel, but with Alonso a very close second. Vettel’s last stint did it for me, he just kept on breaking DRS so Rosberg couldn’t benefit from it.

    Behind these two, there were a number of drivers who also did very well:
    – Ricciardo. Fought tooth and nail for it.
    – Kvyat. Didn’t have Ricciardo’s speed but kept his nose clean and scored a career, and nation’s, best.
    – Verstappen. Fourth in the STR!
    – Hulkenberg. Perfect race, DNF wasn’t his fault.
    – Grosjean. Great race, unsafe release wasn’t his fault.

    1. Yeah. I thought they (Rosberg&Ricciardo) would have surely gotten him after the safety car was out. That was incredible the way he kept breaking DRS from Rosberg. Very good stuff.

  17. Definetly Maldonado. He broke the record for most penalties in one race. Amazing performance, surely the best this year.

    1. Agree. And the dedication. He made the team stay at the track so he could server the last of his drive-thru penalties this morning.

  18. It wasn’t just a good start, 4 drivers were side by side on the straight and Vettel was outside of Hamilton. The whole lap was brilliant stuff.

  19. Great weekend for Seb, and an amazing drive on Sunday that we barely got to see due to all the action behind him.
    Honorable mention for Fernando.

  20. How can it be anyone else than Vettel?

    1. People often vote more based on fan-status or sheer spectacle. Hamilton is scoring more than Hulkenberg, for example.

    2. For me, Vettel had one outstanding lap & the rest was a given. The drivers behind him had much more to do and in slower cars (ignoring the Mercs, of course).

      1. Looking easy doesn’t mean that it was given and had nothing to do

      2. @dev_iant

        The drivers behind him had much more to do

        Because they weren’t driving as well (looking at the top 3 teams). Raikkonen didn’t have the pace, Rosberg was stuck behind RAI, Hamilton made a mistake after being passed. RIC had an atrocious start and needed team orders to get by. KVY had a good start, but he needed to compensate the lackluster qualifying.

        Then, after the SC, Rosberg couldn’t get the gap to less than 1s, which meant he didn’t have DRS and put him under additional pressure by RIC. Then the incident happened.
        Sure, it seemed like he had less to do, but that was because he had the pace and was error-free, which is not something RAI, ROS, HAM, RIC, KVY did.

      3. Slower cars? Surely you don’t mean Mercedes or Red Bull? I don’t think Ferrari was faster than either of those.

        1. Well Vettel and Raikkonen pulled a big gap on Rosberg (about 10s and 7s respectively after 19 laps) under the same conditions. Even if you assume Hamilton was half a second per lap faster than Rosberg that still only puts Merc at about the same pace as Ferrari. At no point did Red Bull appear to have better pace than Ferrari, they only kept up in the last stint because they were on softs.

          1. @george

            Rosberg is not Mercedes. I’ve said it several times. Rosberg is not good enough to become champion. Even on his best days he’s still dependant on Hamilton’s performance.

  21. I knew there would be some comedians voting for Hamilton, but it’s more than just a few!

    1. Why? Lewis finished first in FP1, FP2, FP3, Q1, Q2 and Q3. Started on pole. It’s driver of the weekend, not driver of the race…

      1. The mistakes he made on Sunday were more than enough to nullify everything he did on Friday and Saturday. @anon

      2. I’m pretty sure more sentient beings would consider the race to be a lot more important than FP1, FP2, FP3 and Qualy… (btw, FP1 and 2 are not part of the weekend, just sayin’)

      3. I think his mistakes on this race alone was enough to question whether he is the driver of the season. lol. Luckily there is a long way to go. Maybe others might do worse than he did before someone else this season is deemed to be better overall. *cough* Vettel *cough*

    2. @Brace So someone is comedian if they disagree with your choice. I thought people could vote for whomever they wanted. Guess I was wrong. Look up what ‘weekend’ means, it may surprise you.

      1. So what if it’s the “weekend”? He outqualified his teammate. Also I think Ferrari were supposed to be slower than Red Bull this weekend…
        Though I agree with you that people can vote for whomever they want of course.

    3. Hey, if hamilton harnessed his talent it wouldn’t have been worth talking about. 1-2, F1 is boring, blah, blah….

      Sure, Vettel drove the best, but Hamilton was more fun. Perfect for two days, then complete meltdown. It wasn’t his brilliant 2013 victory, but it was better to watch than most races.

      Anybody else, well, other than Rosberg, would have won in the Merc. Sonce Vettel will rightly win the vote, I gave a vote to Hamilton for his antics.

    4. Plus, Hamilton drove the worse race we could have predicted, and he still extended his points lead over Rosberg. : )

  22. Vette. Great start and amazing driving throughout. Kept Rosberg at bay after the restart.

  23. Raikkonen has lost it, only staying with F due to history.
    Rosberg is a midfield driver.
    Vettel outstanding!
    Ericsson fought good in the slow Sauber.
    Hulkenberg impressive, F should take him for 2016.

    1. You just picked the worst race to say that Raikkonen has lost it.
      He had a great start and was almost on the same pace as Vettel before he had to retire due to no mistake of his own.

    2. I think both Ferrari drivers were supreme in Hungary. They both had blistering pace with their cars compared to Mercedes and Red Bull drivers who arguably had better suited cars for Hungary. It would have been a very well deserved 1-2 for drivers. And, probably more due to the drivers than the car.

  24. Alonso, without a doubt. Ricciardo second.

  25. @dh1996 Joke post, right?

    1. Yeah, 15% of all voters were joking.

      1. @dh1996 Not that part. The “without a doubt”, completely ignoring Vettel and even putting Riccardo (the guy who lost 5 places in the start, needed team orders and was in a late incident in which at best he was partially to blame).

        All in all a not very smart post.

        1. The guy who would’ve won the race if Rosberg would’ve used his brain a little more.

          1. @dh1996 Yeah, the “would have” (with a huge dose of luck, SC + late soft tiers) get the vote but not the “actually did” (with luck actually against him, SC).
            As I said, not particularly smart argumentation here.

  26. Nick (@theawesomefish)
    27th July 2015, 15:14

    Has to be Vettel this time out, in my view, with Alonso a close second. The rest of the field either stood out for the wrong reasons, or didn’t stand out at all for me.

  27. Real tough decision between Vettel and Hulkenberg this week. Both bounced back from a tough Friday and qualified very well, both made epic starts, but Hulkenberg was unlucky. I went for Vettel based on the fact that even after the restart, he was able to resist Rosberg. Close one though.

  28. Voted for Kvyat, kept his head cool, didn’t give up, and most importantly out paced his overrated team mate one of his finest drives despite his errors and proved Red Bull to be wrong on their decisions once more.

    1. +1
      I don’t get why people are voting for Ricciardo. He got the help via team orders to get past Kvyat and then made a banzai move to get in front of Rosberg which ruined both driver’s race. Had it been a Perez or Maldonado or Verstappen making that move, everyone would have started blaming them for the error. It was a very average race by Ricciardo in my opinion.

      1. @mjf1fan

        I don’t get why people are voting for Ricciardo.

        He’s popular. And he provided spectacle. Same reasons why Hamilton has more votes than Hulkenberg.

        1. @Albert, yeah right. He is popular and this is an Internet poll.. I need to chill. Lol

      2. It was a bit crash, bang wallop from Ricciardo, but boy does that Turn 1 party trick of his entertain!

      3. I agree with everthing but it didn’t wreck both drivers race, just Rosbergs. Ricciardo still managed a podium after his bold maneuver

    2. @abdelilah

      and most importantly out paced his overrated team mate….

      Ummmmm I don’t recall Kvyat outpacing Riccardo at any point during the race, he may have finished ahead due to circumstance, but outpaced???

      1. How come he went in front of Ricciardo then ? and beside that had RB let him race he would have had a better pace anyway (my own opinion).

    3. @abdelilah
      I am a long-time fan of Kvyat, and while I am extremely happy he got the second place, I would not nominate him for DOTW this time – he was outqualified and outpaced by RIC and at the start admitted that huge lock-up which squared his tyres. His race for 2/3ds of the distance was rather unremarkable. Did I say I am still really happy with the result?

  29. Hamilton with 4 per cent of the vote? Ahahahahaha….

    1. he doesn’t even deserve that 4 percent
      lol!!

  30. Went with Alonso, kept his nose clean.

  31. Vettel is pretty much the only right pick. Flawless start, great pace compared to Kimi and Rosberg on softs. He was unlucky with the SC, when all his efforts were nullified and he was put under pressure. He had the slowest car out of Top 3 and managed to keep Rosberg out of his DRS zone. Just brilliant.

    I have no idea why people are even voting for RIC. Atrocious start, team orders, clumsy challenges, he ruined Rosberg’s race.

    1. absolutely agree with you mate

    2. Spot on.

  32. Alonso was quietly brilliant this weekend. Showed strong pace in practices where teammate Button was languishing in Mclaren’s usual position. Alonso was very unlucky not to progress further in Q2, given his promising pace in the improving McLaren-Honda. Steadily making progress in the race, and stayed out of trouble when everyone went crash-happy. His 5th place was indeed a massive morale boost for McLaren!

    1. Hear, hear!

    2. also, ALO provided a lot of entertainment with the whole ‘pushing the car into the pits’ at Q2… to bad he wasn’t allowed back in Qualy: he might have qualified even further up the grid!

      also vote for him, btw!

  33. Easiest Driver of the Weekend choice of the Entire Season
    My Vote goes to the ONE and ONLY…….
    (THE LEGEND WHO IS SEBASTIAN VETTEL)

    1. Not Chesney Hawkes then?

      But yes, Vettel is doing his reputation nothing but good this season. Pleased for him.

  34. Vettel without doubt. Despite a few niggles during the practice, he got P3 on the grid and made the best use of a good start by overhauling the Mercs and going on to win the race. It could have gone astray with the Safety Car situation but the team and driver keep their collective heads.
    But a special mention for Alonso. To get P5 in that dog of a car was a real achievement.

    BTW, I could not understand why anyone voted for Hamilton. OK, he was quickest on Friday and Saturday in the fastest car by some distance and so what’s the big deal? As far as the race went, he made several errors which even he recognised and apologised for and was distinctly lucky to finish ahead of Rosberg.

    1. He has a higher possibility of winning this season if he spins during the practice. I think he definitely finishes on the podium.

  35. Seb. For not using his index finger after getting out of the car.

  36. Sebastian Vettel. Had a great start taking both Mercedes at turn 1 and also helped teammate Kimi with a clear line to jump ahead of the Mercedes too.

    Drove away with relentless consistency to establish a huge gap before SC neutralized the advantage. Even after the restart, drove the wheels off the car to never come under pressure from Rosberg bar once when he was inside a second and in DRS range.

    Kept his cool like a monk amidst all the carnage around him in the race especially on an emotional weekend for the team. A very mature radio message at the end of a very tough and demanding race both physically and emotionally.

    Special mentions to Alonso who kept his head down and got the points for his team in his favorite 5th spot. Kvyat for not letting the initial team orders get to him and finishing the race on a high for his first podium of the career.

    As much as I would like to vote for Ricciardo, the only reason he was even in the picture was due to the SC and team orders. Terrible start once more to drop back behind slow cars. Just not cut out for DOTW.

    1. “Kept his cool like a monk” LOL!

  37. Qualified high as possible, best start of the field by a country mile, build a massive gap by the last turn and showed a 2013-Vettel-esque performance untill a SC put a serious threat to his win. Again he started very good, and Rosberg who should have at least been able to hustle him could not even make it look like he was thinking about a pass. Nothing was given to the man but he took it all home. Brilliant stuff from Vettel, a drive wothy of a four times champion, let us once again hope the doubters have shelved their critique.

    1. +1 Couldn’t agree with you more!

    2. That first lap was amazing. Incredible. Jaw-dropping. He was visually faster than everyone else.

  38. VET for me. His first lap was amazing and the rest a flawless performance. Even under pressure he held ROS at bay and made it look easy.

    1. +1 Definetely agree with you!

    2. That was an EPIC first lap!

  39. Who voted for Lewis!? That was the worst I’ve ever seen him drive! Like 2011 all over again…

  40. Why should Verstappen get penalized for Bottas puncture? That would make no sense at all as Verstappen clearly brakesmto avoid contact. If anyone should get penalized, it is Bottas, for cutting while knowing there is another driver there.

    That said, he didnt deserve a penalty over his puncture, but the puncture itself was 100% his own fault, as there was not one situation where Verstappen could have avoided Bottas.

  41. Vettel, with honorable mentions to Alonso, Verstappen, and particularly Mehri, for outperforming Stevens all weekend.

  42. Alonso.

    I don’t understand why Ricciardo is getting more votes than Kvyat. It wasn’t all Rosberg’s that collision and he basically threw away a 2nd or even the win.

  43. Danny Ric for me if only because entertainment value is a factor in my decision making. If not, Seb is the obvious choice.

  44. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    27th July 2015, 20:18

    You guys have no clue what you are talking about – if the Mercedes had started correctly, Lewis would have driven to Spa by the time Vettel crossed the line…

    It’s only because the Mercedes has starting issues as evidenced by the Williams’ at Silverstone passing both Mercs’ that Vettel won.

    1. @freelittlebirds And because Rosberg didn’t have the pace. And because Hamilton made big mistakes twice.

      So Vettel “only” won by having the right machinery (the start), having the pace (which Rosberg and Raikkonen didn’t) and not making mistakes (like Hamilton). So, perfectly worthy winner and DOTW.

      1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        27th July 2015, 22:15

        @albert you are trying to apply sense in choosing the DOTW and that’s got nothing to do with this vote:-)

    2. You guys have no clue what you are talking about

      Really?

    3. “You guys have no clue what you are talking about”

      I thought I was on Pluto

  45. Ricciardo! Looked on it from Friday, beat Kimi in qualy, was the man of the race with incredible moves at turn 1 despite slow top speed even with DRS, fought his way through despite suffering from others’ errors and took a podium!

    1. @fixy What a beautiful way of twisting the facts. Really impressive.

      1. @Albert Why all the hate on Ricciardo in all your posts I’ve seen? What facts did @fixy twist that have you ‘really impressed’? This is an opinion based poll on who we think was driver of the race weekend, people are entitled to their opinions, be it voting for Vettel, Ricciardo, Alonso, Hamilton, Verstappen etc… No one opinion is right. FYI, I voted for Vettel.

        1. @ultimatemp4-4

          Why all the hate on Ricciardo in all your posts I’ve seen?

          What “hate”? I have said absolutely nothing negatively about him. I consider him an exceptional driver. I simply pointed out his not particularly brilliant moments this race. And there were a few of them.

          What facts did @fixy twist that have you ‘really impressed’?

          I’ve already pointed out Ricciardo’s race “highlights” in other posts, I assume you’ve already read them (going by the “hate” thing).

          This is an opinion based poll on who we think was driver of the race weekend, people are entitled to their opinions, be it voting for Vettel, Ricciardo, Alonso, Hamilton, Verstappen etc…

          Thanks for the obvious, captain. Sure, people are entitled to their opinions about which driver was DOTW, but so am I about their arguments. So?

    2. He should have qualified 3rd. And had a better start. No point in outqualifying your teammate if you are still going to end up behind him by the end of first lap.

  46. Riccardo without competition.

    1. Those things must be jokes

  47. I voted Alonso.

    I know, I know, his result can be put down to a bit of luck with regards to an incident packed race and some retirements. But, it also took a lot of ‘keeping your nose clean’ and a large helping of being there to take advantage.

    The same could be said of the top five, who all put in top performances (Nico wasn’t half bad until his puncture either). If Hamilton didn’t have the rough race he ended up having, his free practice and qualifying form suggests that he had the speed to beat Vettel, so Vettel was a little lucky too (not to take anything away from his sensational win, though).

    1. @andybantam

      If Hamilton didn’t have the rough race he ended up having, his free practice and qualifying form suggests that he had the speed to beat Vettel, so Vettel was a little lucky too

      If your rivals make mistakes and you don’t, that’s not called “luck”, that’s called performing better.

      What’s next? “He wasn’t faster, he was just lucky his rival was slower”…

      1. No, no. You misunderstand.

        I was trying to imply that, if Hamilton didn’t make some very uncharacteristic errors, he had the tools to take the fight to Vettel.

        I’m not saying that Vettel only won because he was lucky, I’m saying that winning sometimes requires fate to disrupt a few things and I’m definitely not saying that there’s anything wrong with winning a race by being there to take advantage of a little disruption.

        Vettel was flawless, that is not in any doubt. But, Hamilton had the fastest car all weekend by some margin. That’s just a fact. If he had an incident free race, he’d have won. But he didn’t. So, everyone was a little lucky he was off form. But they were there to take advantage entirely by their own merit. Credit to them! They all drove a fantastic race.

        But this is a vote for driver of the weekend.

        1. @andybantam

          So, everyone was a little lucky he was off form.

          My point exactly. “He was lucky Hamilton drove worse”. Nonsense.

          1. What?

          2. LOL psyche him out!

        2. @andybantam

          if Hamilton didn’t make some very uncharacteristic errors, he had the tools to take the fight to Vettel.

          The most important tool is keeping your cool while all those around you are losing theres.

          Hamilton didn’t have the tools to win yesterday. Yes he had the faster car, etc. But he couldn’t keep his cool when it really mattered. Not on that, he lost it TWICE. Once on lap 1 at turn 6 and then again at the restart when he might have gotten on the podium with his pace (which was massively improved when he broke his wing on Ricciardo’s car and pitted and got onto a set of primes).

          If the Mercs poor start was “luck” for Vettel, than the Merc’s superior aero/chassis/engine (non of which Ham/Ros built or designed) are part of their luck every week.

          Also, for some reason, Hamilton seems much more frazzled when things don’t go right this year than last.

          1. Vettel was flawless. I did say that, didn’t I?

            I realise Seb didn’t make any mistakes, therefore he put in a better performance than Hamilton.

            I don’t really understand what your problem is.

            It’s a good job that polls work by voting for who ever you deem good enough. So, here’s an idea. You vote for who you like and so will I.

            Peace!

    2. I would feel lucky to be in a Mercedes car with a Mercedes engine as well.

  48. Alonso, Hulkenberg and Vettel all had exceptional races. Superb performances by all 3 of them.

    Daniel Ricciardo undid his qualifying job by the terrible start he had. He was a long long way behind Vettel before the SC as well. I also feel he was overly agressive and could have avoided the collision with Rosberg (although the same can be said for Rosberg himself).

    In the end I voted for Vettel for doing the perfect race. The start and first lap were top notch. Made no errors whatsoever.

  49. I think Alonso’s 5th was the biggest accomplishment this weekend.

  50. Must be Lewis Hamilton.

    Completely dominated practice and qualifying and did a stellar job recovering from his teammate’s dirty driving by finishing in front of him and extending his points advantage.

  51. Vettel or Alonso. These two are the best in my opinion and share similar traits. Neither are be the fastest but they are fast enough and don’t wilt under pressure as Hamilton and Rosberg did this weekend.
    I like Riccardo but I think he made a silly move which could have cost him any points – at least he tried.
    Rosberg showed why he isn’t a top tier driver by “playing it safe” with Vettel to collect more points to surpass Hamilton in the WDC competition. And it came back to bite him.
    Hamilton also showed once again, as he did in Hungary last year, he comes unglued when he faces adversity. Lots of speed but too fragile to be called great.

    1. I agree with the gist of that. But I don’t think Vettel or Alonso are really slower than -let’s say- Hamilton. Maybe maybe Alonso has a tenth less in quali, but I don’t think Vettel is less of a qualifier. I think he might be even faster… And Alonso has brilliant qualis where he gets things out of the car I don’t think Hamilton can get…

  52. I know it’s DOTW but why do some guys keep on insisting that a drivers performance during FP & Q is much more important than their performance during the race?

    1. @mim5

      Because it allows them to praise their favorite driver. Some people seem to choose the DOTW first, then review the arguments, not the other way around.

      1. Confirmation bias.

        1. Albert .. thats exactly what I do, I vote before reading the comments. The simple reason for that is that my vote should represent my opinion regardless of what other people think. I can think for myself.. The vote shouldn’t be affected by how well some members on this page can present their argument for or against a driver. Well, thats my opinion anyway..

          1. @me4me When I said “arguments” I didn’t mean “other people’s argument’s”.

          2. Problem is deciding the DOTW based on who is your favorite driver in general. Not who performed best during the weekend.

  53. Went with Vettel, had a torrid build up, qualified the best he could still and won the race in a firm manner.

    Praises to the rest of the top 4, Raikkonen and Hulkenberg.

  54. petebaldwin (@)
    27th July 2015, 23:20

    After several races without an obvious winner of DOTW for me, this one is absolutely clear. Simply for the race alone, Vettel. Unbelievable drive from him – I thought the win was gone when the safety car came out but he was never really in trouble from Rosberg in the laps before him and Ricciardo clashed.

  55. Tough call between Vettel and Alonso. Vettel drove an immaculate race and won in probably the third fastest car.

    But Alonso finished 5th in a car that should have been 15th. Helped by others misfortune yes, but he finished in the mid pack avoiding all that misfortune going on around him. Other drivers were dive bombing and smashing into each other and he was just calmly collecting positions.

    1. Yeah I agree he had a brilliant race. But luck was more involved in his race considering the lack of pace/DNF/late punishments from Lotus,Williams,Force India,Sainz,Mercedes and Raikkonen. It actually automatically catapults him into 5th position. Considering Vettel had his lead melted in 1 lap and teammate taken out of contention, basically bad luck, I went for him. Alonso would have been my other choice though.

  56. If it was for the race i would say Seb, but cant put him DOTW, was shocking in practice and dint do much else till the race.
    So after all the adversity Daniel Ricciardo had to go through, he is my DOTW hands down

    1. @johns23

      was shocking in practice and dint do much else till the race

      Except maximizing his car in qualifying. And of course, the race is just as important as Free Practice 1, 2, 3. Of course. I must say, I was prepared for people to vote based on nonsense, but not on this level.

      1. Cmon Albert, surely your used to it by now!

    2. @johns23

      actually I’d say it was just the opposite. The whole point of free practices are not to perform well, it’s to set your car up for Sunday. Saturday FP is to dial in qualifying.

      That the car was all over the place on Friday, way off the pace, the work Vettel did with his engineers to get on top of it, to qualify P3 (which shouldn’t have been on the cards with Ricciardo) shows that Vettel/Ferrari actually did some monster work Friday night and during FP3. Not headline stuff, but important nonetheless.

      So for all the work Hamilton did, his car was horribly set up for the race. Lots of glory in practice, but firing duds when it mattered.

      1. Yeah i know how it works.
        Hamilton would of won had he led into turn 1 anyway, but that’s just my opinion after watching the race.

        1. You KNOW LH would have won?? You Hammi-fan lemmings make me laugh

          1. Pretty sure based on form, you would not bet against him. i would say 90% of F1 fans would say the same. What would i know anyway, im just a Hammi-fan lemming apparently.

    3. So, the one that lost a lot of places in the start, that had to had team orders to pass his team mate is the one that deserves the DOTW. Really?

      1. Weird logic to me. Each to their own I guess.

  57. Vettel, easily.

  58. Vettel, Vettel, or Sebastian.

  59. VET, VES and KVY are the easy votes. I do consider ALO, BUT and ERI put on a great performance. Sauber biased…I have to go with ERI.

  60. Neil (@neilosjames)
    28th July 2015, 4:18

    Alonso or Vettel for me.

    Alonso had a good first lap to partially make up for his car breaking down in qualifying, was quick (well, McLaren-quick) throughout and managed his softs nicely at the end. Plus a bonus point for the car-push in quali.

    Vettel qualified very well, was intelligent and precise at the start (knew Hamilton would get out of his way so he could have a better line into T1) and drove a flawless race from the front.

    Reckon Vettel edges it, but I voted for Alonso because he deserves a break.

  61. Is it possible to vote for the stewards? They really had their hands full this round.

  62. That 1% for Maldonado. If he makes 2% he’s a clear winner…

  63. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
    28th July 2015, 8:42

    So difficult to vote for one! I would vote for Ricciardo, Kvyat, Alonso or Verstappen, but Vettel goes for my vote.

  64. Would give it to Ricciardo for his show, but that crash with Rosberg was unnecessary. Vettel then.

  65. Not an Alonso fan but … he did waaaaaaaaay better than Ricciardo this weekend and should have more votes. Like has been said above

    Atrocious start, even before the Bottas incident, needed team orders, was involved in a late incident in which he was partly to blame

    Meanwhile I voted for Vettel. It’s sad you can’t vote for three drivers and rank them. I’d have gone for 1) Vettel 2) Hülkenberg 3) Alonso

  66. Alonso or Vettel for me. Though surprised to see Verstappen isn’t getting many votes, had a very solid weekend all round.

  67. As much as I loathe him, it has to be “Finger Boy” this weekend. Until the race Lewis was a dead cert but those three mistakes cost him seriously in the race.

  68. The Colgate Kid deserves this….

  69. Did someone see how STR held Sainz on his pit stop a little bit longer than necessary? funny how they pitted Max before him (even though he was behind) and that is how he got overtaken. Am I the only one who saw that?

    1. Neil (@neilosjames)
      28th July 2015, 15:09

      Didn’t notice them needlessly holding him, but it did strike me as strange that Verstappen got to pit first. Unless they’d decided it all in advance (which wouldn’t make a lot of sense).

      1. Mercedes pitted Lewis ahead of Nico, even though Nico was the leading Merc driver at the time.

    2. To the Max !
      28th July 2015, 16:04

      It would have been an unsafe release if they would have let him go right away…Alonso had a fast pit stop right behind him.

      The pit stop of Max being first was to try and get both cars ahead of Massa.

    3. They undercut Sainz with Verstappen. Max thought he was faster but Sainz got stuck behind Alonso because of the undercut, so we didn’t even see if Verstappen was really any faster than Sainz. Real pit for Sainz, as he not only lost out to his teammate, he lost out to Alonso too.

  70. Again, being a Kimi fan is hard, last I voted DOTW was back in 2013.

  71. As much as I wanted to give my vote to Fernando, I went with Vettel. I had a small tinge of doubt about his abilities but not to the point of continually questioning him. None here anymore. As others pointed out, his opening lap and the breaking of drs on Ros was brilliant.

    Metions for me, Kvyat, Alo, Raik, Hulk.

  72. Even though I want Hamilton to win the championship I am very surprised he has 3% of the vote here

  73. Seb Vettel… Obviously!

  74. I had a few contenders for driver of the weekend.

    Vettel qualified best of the rest behind the Mercedes and then made a great start to take the lead, after he showed he was faster than Rosberg early in the race the only time I thought he might not win was after the safety when Ricciardo was the only lead driver on the soft tyres, but Ricciardo didn’t manage to mount a challenge in the end.

    When Alonso’s McLaren broke down in qualifying most drivers would probably have accepted that that was their Saturday over but he showed his determination and will to succeed by pushing the car back to the pits even if it was all in vain in the end.

    He put in a great drive in the race to get fifth, McLaren best result of the season, although he was helped by the safety car and quicker cars having problems.

    Hulkenberg was again putting in another good performance until his wing failure put him out.

    Ricciardo also impressed again, although he did have to get his team to get Kvyat to let him past early on after his collision at the start dropped him behind his teammate. The safety car seemed to have played right into his and his team’s strategy call but his coming together with Rosberg ended any hopes of challenging for the victory.

    It was a tight call between Vettel and Alonso but in the end I voted for Alonso, hopefully McLaren and Honda can sort out their problems so he can be back fighting at the front as soon as possible.

  75. Feels cheap to vote for Vettel, as he (for whatever reason) had the best car for the race, as evidenced by the ease with which even Räikkönen was able to drive away from everyone else. But this race was characterised by very poor driving from quite a few drivers, and Vettel wasn’t one of them. Instead, he controlled the race perfectly once he reached the top. Not an absolutely outstanding performance, but a very strong, error-free one.

    On an unrelated note:
    Total disagreement with Keith’s analysis of the Rosberg-Ricciardo incident. While I think it was okay not to penalise the Aussie, as the incident was within the frame of proper racing, I completely disagree with his blaming Rosberg for Ricciardo slicing his rear tyre. Sorry mate, but in that case I think you’re pretty biased.

    1. “Feels cheap to vote for Vettel, as he (for whatever reason) had the best car for the race”
      Really? If you followed the lap times you could see that Ferrari was not faster than Mercedes or Red Bull.
      The fact that Raikkonen also had a good start and a good pace doesn’t devalue what Vettel did. It was simply one of the best 1-2 from a team’s drivers.
      Vettel’s first lap where he pulled more than 3 secs from Mercedes and the way he fought to keep out of DRS after SC period even when he was within half a sec of Rosberg was outstanding. Not to mention the fact that he was in another league compared to most of drivers in race day. Kvyat was just barely ahead of Vettel before the safety car and got a 10 sec penalty. He lost a whole lap to him and finished 2nd. Imagine how much time others behind him lost to Vettel during the race.
      It was an extremely dominant display of driving from the winner on a dry track with a car at best 2nd, probably the 3rd fastest.

  76. Vettel. Not only because I’m a great fan of him but also, he proved himself once again what driver he is. IMO he’s a a legend! When he made that move my mind was blown into pieces!

    1. It was very enjoyable listening to him talking about that start in BBC interview.

  77. I’m not at all unsurprised by the lack of votes for Kvyat. He was ordinary all weekend, slower than his team mate, and picked up a time penalty in the race for an off-track overtake. He really lucked into second. Though if I can say one positive thing, at least he was there to pick up the pieces, but that doesn’t constitute a Driver of the Weekend vote.

  78. Verstappen wasnt penalized for hitting Bottas, he was penalized for speeding under SC.

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