Vote for your 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend

2016 Bahrain Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

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

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

Bahrain Grand Prix driver-by-driver

Mercedes

Hamilton carried damage from the start
Lewis Hamilton – Said his pole position lap was his first clean lap of the weekend – although he did top the times in Q2 as well. His start wasn’t up to scratch again but Bottas did the most damage to his race by clattering into him. Carried floor damage for the rest of the race which probably cost him a few tenths more than his 0.195s lap time deficit to Rosberg. Third was probably the best the car could do given that.

Nico Rosberg – “I was sure that I had got pole when I crossed the line” said Rosberg – he was less than a tenth of a second away from Hamilton and joined him on the front row again. He got away more cleanly than his team mate and as his closest rivals had all hit trouble before the race was a lap old he motored on to an untroubled win.

Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel – Lost a quarter of an hour’s running in second practice due to a suspension problem. In qualifying he made a slight mistake at the last corner but he was never going to find the half-second gap to Mercedes. His race prospects ended on the formation lap when the Ferrari motor expired.

After a slow start, Raikkonen took second
Kimi Raikkonen – The gap between Raikkonen and his team mate ahead widened during qualifying but he claimed fourth on the grid which became third when Vettel’s car died. However a slow start dropped him to fifth and by the time he had DRS’d past the likes of Ricciardo and Massa, Rosberg was too far up the road to be caught.

Williams

Felipe Massa – Williams only had one example of their new front wing for Bahrain and Massa received it by dint of being their leading driver in the championship going into the weekend. It proved a mixed blessing: the new part only arrived in time for final practice and although it gave the car a stronger front end it left Massa scrambling to rebalance the FW38. Having grabbed second at the start he slipped back on medium tyres and an error while being lapped by Rosberg opened the door for Kvyat to push him down to eighth.

Valtteri Bottas – A much better qualifying performance than in Australia but not enough to keep Red Bull from beating Williams to fifth place. He made a stunning start followed by an uncharacteristically ambitious move on Hamilton which failed to pay off and earned him a drive-through penalty. Had much better pace than Massa on medium and soft tyres but ended up ninth.

Red Bull

Ricciardo claimed fourth again
Daniel Ricciardo – A stellar qualifying lap saw Ricciardo claim fifth place on the grid despite having the fifth-slowest car in a straight line (albeit the fastest Renault). He tried to take advantage of the turn one chaos but ended up hitting Bottas with his front wing. The team elected not to change it – another indication the RB12 generates prodigious amounts of downforce. A very early change to soft tyres allowed him to use the undercut to his advantage throughout the rest of the race, and brought the car home a fine fourth once again.

Daniil Kvyat – Dejected after another disappointing run in qualifying – although he went out in Q2 instead of Q1 he still lined up ten places behind his team mate. “We were pretty much nowhere,” he admitted. The race went much better: he made up three places at the start and ran a long opening stint to give him the benefit of fresher tyres while others were on more worn rubber. This helped him pass rivals despite the Red Bull’s lack of straight-line speed, and an opportunistic move on Massa netted a damage-limiting seventh.

Force India

Nico Hulkenberg – Overnight tweaks ahead of qualifying paid off: “During qualifying the car just got better and better, and I think the track improvement came towards us as well,” he said. The reward was a place in Q3 – and its accompanying disadvantage of having to start the race on used tyres. He only made slight contact at turn one with his front wing but the team felt it necessary to pit him, ended his chance of points.

Sergio Perez – Said he was “unlucky” to drop out in Q3 after being eliminated by an improvement by Wehrlein. He made a terrific start, gaining six places, then threw it away with a careless move on Sainz on lap two. “I was in his tow and when I went onto the marbles on the inside I just couldn’t stop the car enough,” he admitted.

Go ad-free for just £1 per month

>> Find out more and sign up

Renault

An error in practice cost Magnussen a shot at the points
Kevin Magnussen – Drove through a red light in second practice when being called into the weigh bridge. The team failed to notice the oversight and the result was Magnussen had to start the race from the pits. He made up 11 places in the race – as many as he could without earning a point. “We were so close to scoring points,” he said afterwards, “it’s frustrating to think what could have been had we not incurred a penalty”.

Jolyon Palmer – Renault’s pace was much weaker in Bahrain but Palmer qualified just a couple of tenths off his team mate. However he failed to start the race due to a hydraulic problem.

Toro Rosso

Max Verstappen – There wasn’t much to choose between the Toro Rossos in qualifying – Verstappen edged Sainz by just four-hundredths of a second. The pair fought hard on the first lap but Verstappen, running the super-soft tyres, prevailed. A long third stint on medium tyres allowed him to attack in the final stint on super-softs, although they were dropping off qualifying at the end of the race. He took sixth off Massa but ran out of time to get Grosjean.

Carlos Sainz Jnr – Sainz would have started ahead of Verstappen if he’d been able to replicate his Q1 lap time in Q2. Starting on the soft tyres meant he was immediately under attack at the start, and his race was ruined when he was hit by Perez.

Sauber

Marcus Ericsson – Felt happy with his set-up but wasn’t able to make the cut for Q2 and lined up behind Wehrlein. Said a power loss restricted him on the opening lap, and was preoccupied with saving fuel at the end of the race.

Felipe Nasr – The first driver to drop out in qualifying, Nasr was very unhappy with the balance of his Sauber. After a strong start he kept Ericsson behind to begin with but dropped behind his team mate before the end.

McLaren

Vandoorne grabbed a point on his debut
Stoffel Vandoorne – Called up to take Alonso’s place on Thursday, Vandoorne spent the flight to Bahrain familiarising himself with the MP4-31’s controls and on Saturday placed himself ahead of Button on the grid. His opening lap wasn’t the best – Button slipped by him at turn ten, then at the final corner Vandoorne out-braked himself and did well to recover the positions he lost. After that he settled in and produced a strong drive, taking advantage of McLaren’s much-improved pace to claim a well-earned point.

Jenson Button – An encouraging third-quickest for McLaren on Friday only translated into 14th place on the grid. But the race was a case of what might have been: he was running within DRS range of Verstappen, who went on to finish sixth, when the Honda power unit failed.

Manor

Pascal Wehrlein – Starred in qualifying by placing his Manor an excellent 16th on the grid. He improved on that in the race, taking advantage of the opportunity to race against and pass the Force Indias, and professed himself happier with Manor’s tyre degradation.

Rio Haryanto – Disappointed to be the second driver out in Q1 having been satisfied with the MRT05’s handling in final practice. Saw the chequered flag for the first time this year, albeit well behind his team mate.

Haas

Grosjean went one better than Melbourne
Romain Grosjean – Haas could have made it into Q3 but Grosjean admitted he was pleased to lose the place to Hulkenberg, which meant he could start the race on new tyres. The team used that to great effect during the race, running three super-soft stints which allowed Grosjean to attack. Clearly revelling in the car, he took on and passed the likes of Massa and Ricciardo, though he had to settle for fifth behind the latter.

Esteban Gutierrez – Only a tenth of a second slower than Grosjean but that meant he started four places further back. Gutierrez made a brilliant start but was again doomed not to finish, this time due to a suspected brake disc problem.

Qualifying and race results summary

DriverStartedGap to team mate (Q)Laps leading team matePittedFinishedGap to team mate (R)
Lewis Hamilton1st-0.077s1/5733rd+30.148s
Nico Rosberg2nd+0.077s56/5731st-30.148s
Sebastian Vettel3rd-0.232s0/0
Kimi Raikkonen4th+0.232s0/032nd
Felipe Massa7th+0.002s51/5628th-6.951s
Valtteri Bottas6th-0.002s5/5629th+6.951s
Daniel Ricciardo5th-1.119s45/5634thNot on same lap
Daniil Kvyat15th+1.119s11/5637thNot on same lap
Nico Hulkenberg8th-0.207s23/56415th-1.828s
Sergio Perez18th+0.207s33/56316th+1.828s
Kevin Magnussen22nd-0.257s0/0311th
Jolyon Palmer19th+0.257s0/0
Max Verstappen10th-0.044s29/2936th
Carlos Sainz Jnr11th+0.044s0/292
Marcus Ericsson17th-1.548s42/56212th-8.588s
Felipe Nasr21st+1.548s14/56314th+8.588s
Stoffel Vandoorne12th-0.064s0/6310th
Jenson Button14th+0.064s6/60
Pascal Wehrlein16th-1.384s53/56313th-27.907s
Rio Haryanto20th+1.384s3/56317th+27.907s
Romain Grosjean9th-0.189s9/935th
Esteban Gutierrez13th+0.189s0/91
Stoffel Vandoorne12th-0.064s0/6310th

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 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix weekend?

    • Esteban Gutierrez (0%)
    • Romain Grosjean (39%)
    • Rio Haryanto (0%)
    • Pascal Wehrlein (12%)
    • Jenson Button (0%)
    • Stoffel Vandoorne (25%)
    • Felipe Nasr (0%)
    • Marcus Ericsson (1%)
    • Carlos Sainz Jnr (0%)
    • Max Verstappen (3%)
    • Jolyon Palmer (0%)
    • Kevin Magnussen (1%)
    • Sergio Perez (0%)
    • Nico Hulkenberg (0%)
    • Daniil Kvyat (1%)
    • Daniel Ricciardo (5%)
    • Valtteri Bottas (0%)
    • Felipe Massa (0%)
    • Kimi Raikkonen (5%)
    • Sebastian Vettel (0%)
    • Nico Rosberg (5%)
    • Lewis Hamilton (1%)

    Total Voters: 667

     Loading ...

    An F1 Fanatic account is required in order to vote. If you do not have one, register an account here or read more about registering here
    When this poll is closed the result will be displayed instead of the voting form.

    Author information

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

    Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

    141 comments on “Vote for your 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend”

    1. Romain Grosjean!

      1. Honourable mentions to Daniel Ricciardo, Stoffel Vandoorne and Pascal Wehrlein.

      2. @ultimateuzair Why? It has to be Vandoorne. No testing, flew in overnight to shock the establishment. Beat Button on qualifying, which is not that special anyway. First weekend, clean start, clean race, and a point which is more than McLaren could deliver.

        1. I totally agree with you. I was very impressed. Romain did another spectacular job once again, but my vote is for the Rookie.

          1. I was between grosjean and vandoorne although a few others stood out. Grosjean edged it for me though because he was on a bold strategy with alot of good overtakes.

            1. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
              4th April 2016, 18:35

              Same, another exemplary drive from RoGro, interestingly on the opposite strategy from two weeks previous, a worthy winner at this stage.
              My DOTW has to be Vandoorne though. A late call up, straight up to speed, out quali’d Jenson, avoided the lap 1 scenes and maximised the cars potential in the race. You can’t hassle the Stoff.

        2. I agree that Vandoorne did a brilliant job, but don’t forget that Button was the lead McLaren until his engine failed.

          1. The fact Vandoorne even had Button in sight is a testament just how good his weekend has been.

          2. @ultimateuzair
            “Button was the lead McLaren until his engine failed.”
            Most of that is due to the shambles at turn 1 though.

        3. Peppermint-Lemon (@)
          4th April 2016, 23:36

          Button had 0.7sec over stoffel until quali. Jenson was ahead of him shortly after the start. Vandoorne did a good job but overall was destroyed by Jenson on pure pace.

          1. @peppermint-lemon I hardly think the word ‘destroyed’ is correct here. And even if you would like to use that word it would almost be comical had Button not been able to do that to someone who has never driven the car and has never entered a GP before this weekend whilst he himself is luring at the record of most GPs…

          2. “Destroyed” Button was out qualified by a rookie

          3. @peppermint-lemon in FP1, Vandoorne was 1 second behind. In FP2 he was 0.7 seconds behind. In FP3 he was a few hundredths behind (despite having to wait out half of the session in the garage due to a problem). In Q he was a few hundredths ahead.

            I see a pattern there. Sure, Button “destroyed” Vandoorne during the latter’s first day in the car when he was getting familiar with the car. Much less on the second though, and qualifying is where it counts as to pure single-lap pace.

            As for the race, Button got ahead on merit but Vandoorne wasn’t too far off. I think that speaks to Vandoorne’s advantage rather than to his detriment.

      3. Peppermint-Lemon (@)
        4th April 2016, 23:37

        100%

    2. Stoffel Vandoorne!

    3. Grosjean for me as well but kudos to Vandoorne and his opening race weekend.

      1. I voted Romain Grosjean too but Keith i would like to vote a top 3 so you can vote for first second and third best driver as i find it hard to select the best driver when i had a feeling of more then 1 driver was the best.
        First 5 points second 3 and third 1 point then you have a beter view of the best driver overview.
        Other wise i would have Romain Grosjean, Max Verstappen and Stoffel Vandoorne

    4. Of the weekend? It gotta be Stoffel Vandoorne!

      The ‘kid’ scored a point in his first-ever F1 race replacing an injured two-time world champion at the last moment. He was clean like a whistle all the weekend, made no mistake and did the job. It’ll be long to wait until next year to see him again.

      (I’m a big fan of him since his F4 days along with Norman Nato and Paul Loup Chatin. Here is a link to a documentary made from these times – in French: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZDazBORYGU)

    5. Stoffel Vandoorne or Romain Grosjean. Hard to choose but went with Stoffel cause he proved that he deserved a full time race seat in that race

    6. Rosberg

      He didn’t put a foot wrong all weekend. Apart from the quali he was always in front of his team-mate, and just by 0.05 seconds, that was probably because a bird sneezed too close to his car.

      I understand why people are going for Grosjean, but this weekend I cannot forget that we still didn’t have a comparison from the other side of the garage, that is the main reason why I went to Rosberg

      Honourable mention to Vettel, he was on fire too

      1. Vettel was on fire… quite literally

        1. He was also smoking hot.

        2. @johnmilk @gechichan Well he was smoking….as @juro said.

          1. @davidnotcoulthard where there is smoke there is fire

            Is this an English saying as well? Doesn’t sound right

            1. Peppermint-Lemon (@)
              4th April 2016, 23:42

              Yeah in England, most would say “there’s no smoke without fire”. Not knocking you though cause my ability to speak other languages is admittedly poor.

            2. Thanks @peppermint-lemon I was trying to say that

      2. I still don’t know how people can give driver of the weekend to anyone who was outqualified or outraced by a team mate, it just seems wrong to me. Sure the race is where it all counts, but this is a vote on total weekend performance and when it counted in qualifying Rosberg was found wanting. It may have only been a tiny margin, but its enough.

        1. @geemac Although to be fair Lewis’ start was found wanting too…….

          1. Which is why he didn’t get my vote either @davidnotcoulthard. ;)

            1. @geemac Oh…OK, then.

        2. Rosberg has made it clear a fast start is better than a sexy qualifying lap.

          Especially for teams like Merc and Ferrari, who already know where they will be on the grid.

          1. All Rosberg really made clear in Bahrain was that getting a fast start is better than getting t-boned by someone who had lost control of their car.

            Between the grid and turn one the race looked to have all the makings of either 2014’s Merc Duel or 2015’s Kimi on the hunt. In the end it was quite a boring processional race for the podium places. Much better further down the field though.

            DOTW for me is between Grosjean or Wehrlein, both were mega.

        3. @geemac I get your point. The weekend starts with FP1. And if I consider Grosjean or Vandoorne for example I don’t have a comparison during the race, both their teammates retired very earlier in the race. Sure Halmilton was hindered right at the start, but Rosberg manage to capitalise on that and never was under threat from Kimi

          And I mean the times in qualy were so similar that it can be explained by a gush of wind at the wrong time. In this particular case I think it would be unfair not to consider Rosberg.

        4. One could argue that being second was all part of Rosberg’s plan, so he got the better side of the track, and so everyone is watching Hamilton and planning their strategy around car 44 and not Rosberg.

      3. I too voted for Rosberg. Yes, he won from being second on the grid, but F1 is a team sport, the driver is just one part a big team of engineers and mechanics and designers. Winning a race isn’t simply the driver, it is everyone in the team playing their part. Winning is proof those people did their jobs well.

    7. ColdFly F1 (@)
      4th April 2016, 14:01

      Voted Romain Grosjean. He really deserved it this time round (in Melbourne he did nothing special or any overtaking other than ending up higher than expected for a Haas).

      I would have loved to give my DOTW to Alonso. The way he ‘drove’ that comment back at JH, just great.

      Also very impressed with Stoffel, Pascal, and Max; but also Nico and Kimi.

    8. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      4th April 2016, 14:05

      Seeing that Grosjean is going to win a deserved DOTW, I gave my vote to Stoffel to boost his numbers! No doubt these 2 were the best drivers this weekend. You guys are absolutely right, Stoffel deserves to be in F1.

      1. My second choice aswell.

    9. Have to go with Grosjean because of the super aggressive super soft tire strategy that propelled him to 5th place. He was able to take great advantage of overtaking in order to keep the strategy alive.

      Vandoorne also a worthy vote, great debut in a car that is still struggling.

    10. Ben (@scuderia29)
      4th April 2016, 14:25

      Wehrlein anyone? That’s where my vote went, lightning in qualifying and took it to both sauber and renault in the race in his little manor, he was excellent.

      1. i voted for Wehrlein too. He drove well beyond the car’s potential both in qualifying and race. Also, 6th fastest lap time in the race.

        1. And third in max speed.

      2. Yes! Stunning qualifying and an equally brilliant race!

      3. Yup, I voted the same way (reasons in my comment below). His performance was remarkable.

      4. You’re right. I’ve voted Vandoorne but would like to change now! What a superb qualifying lap and race.

      5. I voted Pascal too.

    11. Must be Vandoorne !
      Ten years later, people would remember this GP because of him, just like 1991 Belgium GP.

      1. Re Wehrlein and Grosjean,
        People are just surprised by Manor’s and Haas’ pace, and tend to believe that their drivers outperfromed the cars, which (looking at their teammates’ performance) can’t convince me.
        For me, Wehrlein did a great job, if not Alonso’s injury, he should get this Dotw, then Ricciardo and K-Mag did a very good job, too. Romain did a good job, but there are better performers yesterday.

        1. Kyle (@hammerheadgb)
          4th April 2016, 17:56

          I agree with you about Haas, two results from two finishes indicates that the car is genuinely competitive in the midfield (although 5th and 6th are still strong results for the situation). With Manor I prefer to give Wehrlein the benefit of the doubt at the moment, much like Grosjean got in the first race, that this could well have been an exceptional performance. Pascal got my vote for this reason.

          Well done to Stoffel also, 10th is a strong result on that track for the Honda engine, but it’s tough to judge whether the performance was exceptional without a team-mate reference for most of the race.

      2. Wow slow down my friend. Let him have a full season first, not just 1 race. He will be solid I’m sure of it. Although remember Magnussen? a lot of pressure for Vandoorne to deliver once he gets the opportunity

      3. LOL, he did a descent/good job but it was only one race and we can only hope to see him back next year as nothing is set in stone.

    12. Romain Grosjean, with honorable mentions to Pascal Wehrlein, Marcus Ericsson and Stoffel Vandoorne. Great drives around the midfield.

    13. What does Lewis Hamilton have to do to finally win a race? If not for Bottas recklessly torpedoing his merc he had this race in the bag. Bottas must be really desperate to save his dead-end career and make such rookie errors.
      Saturday was an impressive showing from the reigning champ, considering the team put him on a supbar strategy (yet again, *sigh*) and had to carry a damage worth a second per lap Lewis still stayed within striking range for the victory and provided great entertainment while slicing through the field. You have to wonder what he would’ve been capable of given the chance.
      I hope Nico gets his well-deserved bad luck soon. (Un)fortunately bad luck doesn’t affect them equally and only Nico can take advantage of Ham’s bad luck, because normally Ham is in front of Nico.

      1. Learn how to start properly?

      2. He just needs to make a better start from pole! And racing incidents happen. Why wish bad luck on others ??

      3. Nico was already in front of Ham when he was punted by Bottas

      4. “I hope Nico gets his well-deserved bad luck soon” . Hamilton fans…. age average 12

        1. Ha ha ha I am 37 and agree it’s a terrible unsporting thing to wish. I much prefer to watch a good exiting race and leave them (drivers) to do their best on track and rest does not matter.

          1. 45 here, and used to support Ham until the moment he left McLaren. I’ve always been a team’s fan rather than a driver fan

        2. Mark in Florida
          5th April 2016, 17:06

          +1 on that. I will say that Hamilton’s behavior has seemed much better and more mature this year. Maybe it will catch on with his fans as well.

      5. So this season MIGHT turn out to be entertaining and you are already complaining?

        Rosberg had a 25 point lead after the first race in 2014 and still blew it, things are still looking pretty damn good for #44 #BLESSED, don’t worry.

    14. In DOTW, is there a requirement to vote only for drivers who have participated in the race? For I, for one, would like to vote for Alonso as the DOTW, for his sick burn into the face of Johnny Herbert. He is a driver and he did it over the weekend, why shouldn’t he win the DOTW?

      1. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
        4th April 2016, 19:02

        Should have at least thrown the man comment of the day

    15. Rosberg no doubt… Except 2 things… Q3 Lewis got him… And after start his race was uneventful.

      So voted Grosjean for epic overtakes and awesome fight to fifth.

      Vandoorne also did well but arguably not as good.

      1. I think Vettel and Hamilton would have spiced this race up my street if it wasn’t for the DNS and accident.

    16. Romain for me, but a big shout out for Stoffel & Pascal, who both did good.

      1. I wouldn’t mind betting that Pascal probably got more TV coverage for Manor in that one race, than they got all last year! By-the-way, did anyone else notice how good that Manor looked under the lights?

        1. Michael Brown
          4th April 2016, 15:24

          they make blue look better than sauber

        2. @ijw1 Shinier than those orange-white-blue buses in Jakarta, I guess.

    17. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
      4th April 2016, 15:00

      Verstappen for me!

    18. Rosberg is the clear winner for me. The only “mistake” he had is Hamilton doing mega lap on qualifying, which completely overshadowed his own really good lap. Not much can be said on race day because he driving alone in the front but it’s obvious he still have lot of speed in case someone did managed to catch him.

    19. Ricciardo. Best of the rest again despite a tight midfield. Is the RB car the 3rd best car on the grid? Possibly, Possibly not. I think the Williams and possibly the TR are better packages right now. If not, it is close and the driver makes the difference. But he just keeps doing the same thing he has done for 3 years. Best of the rest. Not the best start and first corner contact for a damaged wing. Who cares, best of the rest anyway. It isn’t a coincidence that he keeps finding himself there. Or that 2 years ago he was the only non Merc driver to win a GP.

      Honourable mentions to heaps of people.
      – Rosberg : Big weekend. He only failed, by a small margin on one lap for the entire weekend. Otherwise he was on it in every other lap. If he wasn’t in a Merc, he might have been my driver of the weekend.
      – RG : Impressive and he is an underated driver with massive skill. However are we giving him too much credit. He is driving the Ferrari B car, not a new F1 car.
      – Wehrlein : Wow, but is it him or is the new Merc engine that good. Should he be there anyway? I am impressed so far, but you can only judge him by his team mate and well…. Anyway. I am impressed so far by him.
      – Vandoorne : Very nice for a newcomer to F1. Out qualified Button. Raced well. Shame Button didn’t race, because we don’t have anything to judge him by. Still impressive.

      Honourable Mentions
      – Hamilton : Put it on pole. Brought it home in a good position and in front of Ricciardo despite damage.
      – Verstappen : Probably should have delivered more in qualifying. Made up for it in the race.
      – Ericsson : Did OK in a car not so good. Might have to asses my “pay driver” assessment of him in a few years.
      – Hamilton : Put it on pole. Brought it home in a good position and in front of Ricciardo despite damage.
      – KMag : Again did OK. Is he good? Is the car ok and he is underperforming? Who knows,. but it looked OK to me.

      In all, quite a lot of good performances. However, there were just as many bad performances. Williams, I am looking at you. Seriously guys. How may times can you stuff up the race strategy before realising you need to get someone with a brain in there? You should have been 4 and 5/6 in this race. Or at least 4 and 7 at the worst. Not 8th and 9th.

    20. I love the fact Grosjean is living the dream there at Haas. If anyone deserves it is him. However, without taking any credit away from him or his team, I get the feeling he winning this poll again due to the fact everybody expected to have a new Manos, HRT or Catherham.

      The truth is though, that Haas is simply unbelievably quick. Probably the 4th or 5th quickest car behing Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull this weekend and I would say on par with Toro Rosso (see also how quick Gutierrez was before he had to retire). So based on that, I rate Grosjeans performance on par with that of Verstappen, both very good, but will give it to Vandoorne.

    21. Rosberg. Good, clean start, 5 wins in a row puts him in elite company.

      Very honorable mentions to Grosjean, Vandoorne and Wehrlein.

      1. Ha! Forgot to vote before posting this and decided to change to Vandoorne. From never driving the car before practice in a race weekend to then scoring a point in the race. That is hard to ignore. Great job!

    22. (the attempts at people getting)Rio’s votes might end up hillarious. Wouldn’t be the first time (just Kubica inverted?). Anyway since Australia’s voting went OK I guess I needn’t have said that.

      Anyaway, Wherlein did an OK job in the race. And I guess his Q1 performance makes my mind up. WHE, then.

    23. I am an Indoesian but hats off to Wehrlein. His qualy lap is amazing and then he in the race he held off fast cars that should’ve overtake him pretty comfortably. Therefore he outperformed his car both in Saturday and Sunday, which means well deserved DOTW.

    24. Can you really vote for anyone else but Vandoorne? Sure Grosjean is an obvious choice but perhaps that Haas isn’t as sluggish as we thought to begin with, and we’re still certain the McLaren is. Either way great performances by both.

    25. Has to be Vandorne for me – he arrived late from Japan, having not driven the 2016 car at all, unlike other drivers.
      Was really cool.

    26. I believe that Toto claimed that the damage to Lewis’ car was costing him 1 sec/lap. Over 57? laps that’s ummm 57 seconds. He finished about 30 seconds behind the leader. I think Toto is saying that if Lewis did not have that damage he would have won the race by 27 seconds. My point being, if he only finished 30 seconds behind and had 57 seconds worth of damage, he made up 27 seconds during the race. DOTW easy ;)

      1. Well, numbers do not race!

      2. @glennb Or rather ROS would’ve simply driven faster, meaning a race that finished earlier (still don’t know who the winner would be, though).

      3. ColdFly F1 (@)
        4th April 2016, 17:25

        I believe that Someone claimed that the Manors are 3-4sec/lap off the Mercedes. Do you math ;-)

        1. maybe Lewis made up 27 secs, but Rosberg was out in front probably coasting, so couls easily have speeded up if he was under threat,

    27. Vandorne, followed by Grosjean.

      the Stoff’s performance was more impressive because he was drafted in last minute, to replace Alonso.
      Also, he has not had the chance to drive the 2016 car in testing like other drivers, so a phenomenal performance.

    28. Toughest choice in the last few years. A large group of drivers that deserve to be mentioned.
      Max verstappen, good qualify, but much better in the race; managed some nice overtakes.
      Romain Grosjean, impressive race yet again showing he deserved a better team then last years Renault/Lotus. Good overtakes
      Daniel Ricciardo, again a solid drive in the race combined with an astonishing lap in quali. Good overtakes
      Pascal Wehrlein, in a Manor… Manor… 16th in qualy and then a good race taking 13th. Wow. And on top of that overtaking by him, totally unexpected.
      Stoffel Vandoorne, last minute insertion into the GP, good qualify, beating his teammate and finishing in the points. On top of that some good overtakes and battles.

      Went for Pascal Wehrlein because of all of them he has the worst material and that requires him to shine brighter then others to impress.
      But if i could give more votes all of them would deserve one.

    29. Fernando Alonso!

      …for answering to Johnny Herbert with class! :))

      1. It wasn’t classy by Alonso and I think he regrets saying it to him like he did

        1. Do you think Johnny regrets writing it? Like DC said it long ago, opinions are like asses, everyone has one, and we live in a free speech world.

      2. Haha what Alonso said wasn’t classy in the slightest.

        Though if I were in his position I probably would have said the same. Can’t stand Herbert.

    30. Stoffel ‘Van Damme’ Vandoorne for me.

    31. Vandoorne’s weekend was superb bar his start, otherwise he would have got it.

      It is still too early to judge Wehrlein, because he has Haryanto as his team mate, and the Manor is quite clearly quick.

      So that leaves me really with Ricciardo, Verstappen or Grosjean. I went with Grosjean again this time.

      1. @craig-o Indeed. Vandoorne’s starts were already poor sometimes at critical moments if you watched the gp2 last year and the year before. But I still went for him, with Grosjean as a strong second.

    32. Adam (@rocketpanda)
      4th April 2016, 16:28

      Had to say Vandoorne. Little experience in the car, parachuted in at the last minute, outqualified his team-mate and scored points on debut. Given the relative pace of the McHonda to the rest of the field he literally did the maximum.

      Ricciardo, for some excellent overtakes and getting the maximum from the Red Bull. Grosjean who’s now showing that Haas isn’t bad at all. Also got to mention Ericsson – always thought he was a bit of a nothing but thought he did a lot there.

      Also I guess Rosberg and Raikkonen for showing they’re as good as their often higher rated team-mates.

    33. Why are people voting for Grosjean? I guess most still think Haas doesn’t have a good car (they do) and that he’s a driving god.

      1. @mattrc He’s driving well, though having the wretched Gutierrez as company probably helps!

      2. Even assuming the car is very, very quick, which I think for the most part it is. He still hasn’t put a foot wrong.

        Although, I also think Guti is doing really well. Despite his luck.

    34. I am going with Grosjean again. Sure, the car may be a bit better than we thought it was in Australia, but he still had to make the strategy work and that meant being super agressive AND not killing the pirellis. He made all the important passes and managed to stear clear of any mistake while maintaining great speed with what is at best the 5th car in outright speed (but I guess a “comfortable” car to drive on longer stints). With no dev to come, I hope he will make the most of this great start of the campaign.

      Plus, equal on points as the n°1 driver with a ferrari engine, who would have thought ?

      1. +1 this is also why I voted RG. The car can easily make the top 10 but P5 is another story. I believe RB, FI and Williams are slightly better than the Haas, and the driver + strategy made the difference. So astonishing fair P5 for RG.

    35. Kvyat was going to pass Massa anyway by virtue of being on faster and newer tyres.

      Bottas had better pace because Williams royally screwed up and put Massa on two stints of mediums, the slowest combination in the field.

      Massa also made a strong start before turn 1, but that’s not mentioned.

      1. Yeah i agree with you that Kvyat is rubbish driver.

    36. I know most people will say Grosjean or Vandoorne, and they both did perform incredibly well, but I have to give my vote to Pascal Wehrlien. He was on it all weekend, every time you saw him he seemed to be visibly hustling the car. His qualifying and race performances were top notch, to be mixing with Saubers, Renaults and Force Indias in the Manor is a remarkable feat.

      I had my doubt about Wehrlien, I don’t think DTM is the best place for young guys to learn their craft but I am a convert now. He has been exceptional in the first two races.

    37. Lewis Hamilton – Great pole. Broke the record. Recovered very well after incident. Remained calm and still brought the car home, on the podium and earned valuable points. Amazing that no objective minds recognised such feat. Great that F1 has all the promising next generation of drivers.

      1. Lewis did a great job apart from the start. However, there were at the very least 3 drivers who did a better job than him this weekend all things considered. They finished P4, P5 and P10 :)

      2. Lewis cocked the start up again. Also i think the Merc is so far ahead of the rest (even Ferrari) that it’s not that difficult to make up 6 places during a racein that car!

    38. Romain Grosjean for me. And very good job by Pascal Wehrlein, Marcus Ericsson and Stoffel Vandoorne.

    39. Vandoorne for me, sure, Grosjean was entertaining to watch but Vandoorne became one of the first drivers to score a maiden point on there debut in a car thats been a dog so far. Hopefully he can get a race seat next year since he’s one of those talents to look for.

    40. Neil (@neilosjames)
      4th April 2016, 18:16

      Went for Vandoorne. He not only beat Button in qualifying and scored a point, but he handled himself extremely well in on-track battles too. I’ve been a huge fan of his for some time but even I was a bit surprised by how composed and controlled he looked.

    41. speedy (@speedthunder)
      4th April 2016, 18:31

      Vandoorne had the best show. His talent has proved.

    42. Wehrlein for me, KMag a close second. Both got the absolute most out of their respective cars in what was a very promising weekend for F1’s youngsters. Grosjean was great, but I’m starting to wonder if the Haas car is actually just a lot better than we all seem to think. Grosjean had two great races, but Gut has two DNFs so we have no comparator.

      Would Grosjean be DOTW (and F1’s DOTD) if Gut had finished in 6th or 7th? Over Wehrlein who qualified ahead of Perez, brought a Manor home ahead of both SFIs, and outright dominated his teammate? Over KMag who almost got a backmarker into the points after starting from the pit lane?

    43. Voted for Grosjean. He had to work for his position, overtake cars and make the strategy work. He did it despite the team’s goof up at the pits.

      These are invaluable points for Haas and I hope they utilize the money to have a proper car challenging for points next season as well and not go down the Sauber route.

      Special mentions to Vandoorne as well for scoring points on his debut and running a clean race. Should take over from either one of the two folks from McLaren next season.

      Surprised that Kimi has less votes than Nico Rosberg. He actually had to pull out a couple of overtakes from the outside to get track position and make his strategy work unlike Rosberg who had a free cruise on a Sunday night. Granted he had a bad start but he did everything right from then on.

    44. For me there were 3 drivers all deserving of DoTW in Bahrain:

      Vandoorne-apart from the start, a perfect debut

      Ricciardo-perfect qualy, perfect race, 100% out of the package

      However my vote goes again to Grosjean. What a fantastic combination this hungry and talented driver+team is proving to be!

      Great performances also by NR, KR, LH, MV and PW

    45. Voted for Grosjean, he’s doing great things in that car. Vandoorne drover very well, too and in hindsight I probably should’ve voted for him, because who knows when we can vote for him again.
      A very good drive from Wehrlein, too. His Qualifying was terrific. Needs to work on tyre management though.
      Good drive from Ericsson answell, made a two stop work and was defending very well from cars with fresher tyres (it’s a shame that’s not mentioned in the article, but that’s probably because Keith doesn’t think much of Ericsson) and in the end had to manage fuel unfortunately. Still, he drove very well and beat his team mate by a lot in both Qualifying and the race.

    46. Ricciardo was the one who surprised me the most throughout the weekend. I almost never consider Red Bull as the third-fastest car when making my predictions, but Ricciardo made me think again this weekend. He was always up there, behind the Mercedes and Ferraris, and raced perfectly.
      Rosberg was clean, Raikkonen was super-determined, Wehrlein was battling higher than he should have been but was too cautious and a little rusty when he should have overtaken the Sauber. Vandoorne was solid and concentrated on keeping out of danger, which is what was worth him his point but gets outshadowed by more brilliant drives. Grosjean was perfect again, but that is about where Haas have to aim for having seen their pace.

    47. I like the idea of Vandoorne sitting on the plane with a steering wheel, making engine noises, and he did a solid race, some clean passes and a lap quicker than Button when it mattered. Not his fault his debut race featured the world’s worst qualifying system. I just can’t get too excited about a tenth place.

      Ricciardo deserves it – that was a great drive with that damage and lack of straightline speed. But Grosjean’s was the best story. Sure, we won’t know how good that car really is until Gutierrez gets some reliability and luck, but it was great to see someone making a go of the new tyre rules. I doubt a “big team” would have even let him do that.

    48. Vandoorneeeee. Jenson or Fernando is in danger of this guy for the future. Wherlein too would be close and of course, the hype Grosjean.

    49. This is a tough one..

      Vandoor is probably the best choice; Points in the Honda after dropping in with almost no notice.. but…

      Grosjean – needs no explanation
      Wehrlein – to me getting that Manor car to perform like that is almost more impressive than Haas..
      Kimi – After seeing Seb’s smoking ruin, and in the shadow of his own flameout in Australia, Kimi could have dialed it back and just brought the car home with some points.. but he’s the iceman and he brought it.. P2.. and ahead of Lewis is a good accomplishment
      Nico – He’s proving to be the real deal.. not as exciting to watch him at the front.. but he earned his P1.

    50. Hmmm… many seem to be going for Grosjean, and quite understandably so, but I´m beginning to think this astonishingly might be just the position where the car belongs. And because of this doubt, and as I already voted him last time, I went on too choose between Vandoorne and Wehrlein.

    51. Vandoorne, he had a really very good race!

    52. Didn’t really feel it’s fair to vote for grosjean coz Haas clearly have a good car (proved by the fact that I’m sure Gutierrez was a also set for a points finish) and couldn’t decide between vanddorne and Ricardo so I threw in the towel and went for wehrlein

    53. Re. Vandoorne; can we have some perspective? He didn’t step into the car on Sunday, there was a small matter of 3 practice sessions and qualifying too, so he wasn’t exactly parachuted in for the race itself. And he’s a highly experienced racing driver. Practice and qualifying suggested the McClaren was a couple of places outside the top 10 and, given the retirements that ensued, 10th was probably not as good as the car might have done in more experienced hands. Despite being a F1 rookie his performance was mature and measured; not without fault ( he was hustled at the start); but not without credit either. Good job, but hardly driver of the weekend.

      Rosberg didn’t put a foot wrong all weekend, and after a phenomenal qualifying lap and despite incurring substantial damage to his car, Louis also put in a great performance. They do, though, have the best car, so perhaps not surprising. For driver of the weekend I would say Wehrlein (he put the Manor in great positions in both qualifying and the race) or Riciardo, who was perhaps the only driver to put his car further up the grid (again in both qualifying and the race) than the car itself deserved. Honourable mentions to Verstappen, Grosjean, Kimi, Ericsson (and Vandoorne).

      1. Very well said

      2. If Rosberg didn’t put a foot wrong all weekend then why didn’t he outqualify Hamilton? Unless, putting his feet in all the right places still can’t get him pole

      3. Whoa, so Vandoorne had 3 full practice sessions and a handful of laps in qualifying. Well, that’s obviously enough to know the car fully and get every last millisecond out of it.

        Seriously? Of course not.
        The perspective that he arrived on Friday morning, jetlagged and totally unexperienced with the car having never driven it, that’s the correct perspective to take and shows how well he has done.

      4. Vandoorne didn’t had 1500 km of pre-season testing or had a race weekend under his belt like Button and STILL managed to outqualify Button.

        Please be serious, Vandoorne deserves DotW.

    54. Went For Danny boy (Ricciardo). I know that he is not driving a Hass or replaced Alonso but second race in a row he’s on fire! I love the way he drives and always looks like he’s attacking. Great overtakes and awesome performance in both quali and race when despite the damage he kept pushing and put the RB where it should not be on paper.

      1. Yeah I think he’s gone under the radar a bit, but he’s definitely getting the maximum a driver could from that car.

    55. Wehrlein for sure. Great effort

    56. Quite a hard one for DOTW between Stoffel, Romain and Nico.

      Romain put in an absolutely stellar drive and was the driver of the day on Sunday for sure. But the fact that he only outqualified Esteban by 0.18s shows that the Haas did have some serious pace for this race. Maybe Romain could have qualified ahead of the Hulk, given the pace that Haas showed.

      Rosberg was great on Sunday as well. Again he pipped Hamilton and controlled the race flawlessly. But then again, he’s been outqualified by his teammate again in Bahrain.

      Stoffel came in on Friday itself. Jumped in the Mclaren, got to grips with it on Friday, and outqualified Jenson on Saturday. Although he did trail Jenson before he retired, he only lost the position due to the turn 1 incident. I thought he kept a cool head, pulled some great vertaking moves and maximised the opportunity presented to him. He also scored Mclaren’s first point.

      In the end I went with Stoffel. It was commendable how he got to terms with the car so soon, outqualified his teammate and drove a solid race on Sunday to finish in the points in the woeful Mclaren.

    57. Grosjean for executing a bold strategy perfectly. Lost some times in the pits because new team still 5th.
      Also, easy to say now that yeah Haas is Ferrari B team but few weeks ago that was not that easy to see! Bold decision to leave Renault a safe place for him to go to the totally unknown Haas, so bonus points in my book.
      Rosberg and Vandoorne are just behind. Two great drive.

    58. Wehrlein and Vandoorne deserve the most kudos I think, though Grosjean put in another great race while Hamilton deserves some acknowledgement for getting back to third and being near enough Rosberg’s and Raikkonen’s pace in a damaged car.
      Rosberg’s race was his usual (as of late) ‘pick up the pieces’ drive which can’t really be faulted (even if it did rely somewhat on luck for his rivals being removed from the equation) while Raikkonen put in a solid, but not particularly fantastic race as he closed in more on Mercedes’ pit mistakes then on pure pace.

    59. I voted for Wehrlein. Out drove the car in the race and really caught the eye in quali.

    60. I’d give it to Hamilton. He lost the lead off the line but looked set to retake it until being dive bombed by Bottas. He then kept his head down and delivered a brilliant recovery drive which I think masked just how damaged the car really was.

      I’m reminded somewhat of the beginning of 2012 where he didn’t have the ideal start to the season but kept his cool and brought home consistent finishing positions until things swung back round in his favor again.

    61. For me it is between Grosjean and Ricciardo. They both had an amazing weekend, performed great in qualifying and in the race, and got as much points as they possibly could.

      Wehrlein did a great job as well, especially in qualifying. Rosberg too had a great weekend.

      Although I like Vandoorne, I think he got lucky this weekend. If Button had done his job, nailed his Q2 time, then Vandoorne wouldn’t have looked as good as he did. Keep in mind Vandoorne lagged behind all throughout practise. He did good to have a clean race though. There were plenty of moments he could have easily binned it.

    62. Ricciardo or Verstappen.

    63. Too late to vote but my driver of the weekend was Vandoorne, it was an impressive debut especially when you consider that he was called up on short notice and had not driven the car before, he then out qualified his vastly more experienced world champion teammate and went on to score McLaren’s first points of the season.

      Second would be Grosjean, he bettered his result from last time out on Haas’s F1 debut and this time it couldn’t be put down to race circumstances such as the red flag in Australia, so it seems that Haas may be more competitive in first season than many including myself thought.

      At the moment it is hard to judge just how good Grosjean is driving as the relative pace of all the cars is still not certain and his teammate has not managed to finish either of the race through no fault of his own.

      Other contenders were Verstappen and Wehrlein both drivers impressing in both qualifying and the race.

    Comments are closed.