2016 European Grand Prix driver ratings

2016 European Grand Prix

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Nico Rosberg took an emphatic victory in Baku while several of his rivals further down the order also impressed. Here’s the ratings for the full field.

Mercedes

Rosberg bounced back after practice problems
Lewis Hamilton – Looked utterly in control throughout practice which made his haphazard qualifying performance all the more baffling. He lined up tenth after crashing in Q3, held his place at the start but then began to pick off his rivals including the fast Williams of Bottas. His progress was then delayed by an engine problem which was solved by a switch change after around 15 laps, though by then he was confined to fifth.

Nico Rosberg – It was Rosberg’s turn to run the harder tyre during practice which he felt disguised his pace on Friday, along with a loss of power in the second session. He came to the fore in qualifying and took an emphatic pole position as Hamilton tripped up. He was never headed in the race and while he was never seriously tested either it’s hard to see what more he could have done.

Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel – Ferrari were not the force they were in Canada. Red Bull and Force India beat them in qualifying, though only very narrowly. Querying Ferrari’s pit call ultimately had no bearing on his finishing position, and its doubtful he could have finished higher than second.

Raikkonen lost out to Perez
Kimi Raikkonen – Hampered by more reliability problems during practice but took fifth on the grid. In the race his pace compared well with Vettel’s considering his earlier pit stop, but he compromised himself by picking up an unnecessary penalty for crossing the pit entry line.

Williams

Felipe Massa – Didn’t click with the circuit as quickly as Bottas did but qualified ahead. Rear tyre degradation was the story of his race, forcing him to make an extra pit stop as he fell to tenth place.

Valtteri Bottas – Flew on Friday but was frustrated on Saturday. A drain cover damaged his car at the start of final practice, confining him to the pits for the rest of the session, and his final qualifying run was compromised when he caught Verstappen at the start of his lap. He crept up the order early on the race but couldn’t keep Hamilton behind him. But unlike his team mate he made a one-stopper work and took a decent sixth.

Red Bull

Ricciardo was on the front row again
Daniel Ricciardo – After being the first to hit a barrier on Friday he bounced back on Saturday, grabbing a spot on the front row by matching Vettel’s lap time to within a thousandth of a second but doing so moments before the Ferrari driver, putting him ahead. However Red Bull’s low downforce set-up meant they struggled with their tyres in the race and both drivers had to pit twice, dropping backwards.

Max Verstappen – Was infuriated by Bottas in qualifying as he kept finding the Williams trying to occupy the same piece of track as him. He started well, passing Bottas and Kvyat, then fell foul to the same tyre problems which wrecked his team mate’s race. On his second set he was able to pass Massa and Hulkenberg for eighth behind Ricciardo.

Force India

Perez delivered his second podium of the year
Nico Hulkenberg – Blew his chance of starting at the front when he spun in Q2 and then had a mix-up with his race engineer on the radio which scuppered his attempt to do another lap. He picked up damaged when he was hit by Gutierrez at the start but it was starting the race on the soft tyres which spoiled his day: he was struggling for grip on super-softs by the end and was demoted to ninth by the Red Bulls.

Sergio Perez – Would have started on the front row but a crash during final practice left him with a broken gearbox which had to be replaced, earning a five-place grid penalty. Nonetheless from seventh he gained places from Massa and Kvyat at the start, then took the fight to Raikkonen after delaying his first pit stop, passing the Ferrari on the final lap. Third was great, but clearly second was possible.

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Renault

Kevin Magnussen – It was an excruciating weekend for Renault as both cars qualified at the back. Magnussen opted to start from the pits so he could change his suspension set-up and the move paid off – he made it up to 11th at one point before the Renault’s lack of speed was exploited by Button, Nasr and Grosjean.

Jolyon Palmer – The only positive to be drawn from qualifying for Paler was that Magnussen’s time indicated there wasn’t much more performed to be found from the car. An error at the first corner at the start cost him a chance of beating his team mate, and he also flat-spotted a set of softs tyres forcing an early pit stop.

Toro Rosso

Suspension failure claimed both Toro Rossos
Daniil Kvyat – Was able to hold his head up again after a trouble-free run in qualifying earned him a solid sixth on the grid. Unfortunately a suspension failure kept him from delivering on the car’s potential.

Carlos Sainz Jnr – Ran strongly on Friday but after changing his brakes on Saturday he wasn’t as confident in the car and failed to make it into Q3. He had just made his second pit stop and was looking to go on the attack when he also suffered a suspension failure.

Sauber

Marcus Ericsson – Quick work by the Sauber mechanics between first and second practice to change Ericsson’s engine meant he didn’t lose too much time. He admitted over-driving in qualifying and ended up 20th on the grid. In the race he found his tyres were going off more quickly than expected and had to make two pit stops, and at the flag he had only Haryanto’s Manor behind him.

Felipe Nasr – Got the most out of his car in qualifying and took advantage of Button’s problems to reach Q2. Like Ericsson he had to pit twice but his pace was better and he got past Magnussen’s Renault for 12th.

McLaren

A gearbox glitch forced Alonso out
Fernando Alonso – Didn’t think a place in Q3 was possible but was disappointed to qualify as low as he did after a yellow flag meant he couldn’t use DRS on his last lap. Had it not been for his gearbox problem he would probably have taken 11th but the McLaren wasn’t quick enough for points on Sunday.

Jenson Button – His first qualifying effort went awry when he skidded off at turn 15 and his second was spoiled by traffic. The upshot was he failed to make it beyond Q1. However he started well, moving up to 15th as he passed several rivals on the outside of turn one, and jumped Nasr at the first pit stop to get on Alonso’s tail and ultimately deliver the result his team mate would have had.

Manor

Pascal Wehrlein – Wasn’t able to use DRS on his last qualifying effort and started 18th. He tried to make a one-stop strategy work and ran as high as eighth at one point before slipping back. Manor left his first pit stop until after half-distance so he actually regained some places from drivers who were making their second stops before coming in himself. For all that he was down in 19th when his brakes gave up.

Haryanto’s only pit stop was on lap one
Rio Haryanto – Seemed to click with the circuit quickly and did a solid and clean job in qualifying to line up ahead of Wehrlein. However he hit Gutierrez at the start and had to pit for a new wing. His only chance of a competitive finish was to run to the finish on softs, which he did, though inevitably he struggled for pace.

Haas

Romain Grosjean – Despite heading down the escape road more than once in qualifying he took 11th on the grid. In the race he pitted earlier than planned for soft tyres due to rear graining on the super-softs, then was forced in again as his power unit temperature was increasing due to rubbish in his radiators. At this point Haas could only put him on mediums as they didn’t have any fresh soft tyres left. He came home 13th after passing Magnussen.

Esteban Gutierrez – Still not back to full strength following his recent illness, Gutierrez visited many of Baku’s run-off areas during practice. He didn’t make a great started and made matters worse by running into Hulkenberg, dropping back to 17th. With a damaged floor and wing Gutierrez had to pit for repairs, which left him behind the Renaults at the flag.

2016 European Grand Prix

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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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69 comments on “2016 European Grand Prix driver ratings”

  1. Most of the times i agree with the point.
    This time there are several interesting differences.

    Rosberg, steady drive but 4 max. ( nothing special, just the best car on the best position)
    Verstappen: 4 points, very good drive when the medium tirpes began to work . Strong passing of Massa
    ( i discard all the boring drs enabled passings on the straight..from every driver btw)
    Perez, 5 points. Getting on the podium with a B=Class car is top.
    Alonso 3 points, nice drive but nothin special. Just a good 3 ;)’Kvyat and Saintz, just the other way around.

    1. Perez doesnt have a B-Class car anymore.

      1. Come next race where downforce is needed we may see that B-Class car come back and of course Red Bull go Up. I agree the car is nothing special Perez is driving the wheels off that thing.

      2. petebaldwin (@)
        20th June 2016, 16:35

        He does – they are a customer ream.

    2. ColdFly F1 (@)
      20th June 2016, 16:19

      strong drive by Perez, and I agree its a B-class car.
      At least B-class as in 2nd only to Mercedes, and followed by C- to K-class.

      All Mercedes powered cars showed to be strong in Baku.
      Manor punched above their weight as a result.
      Williams was strong, but on this circuit a tad behind the FI’s
      Force India appeared to be the 2nd best car for this circuit.

    3. Perez’s race pace was better than the Ferrari so I agree he might have had 2nd place without his practice crash. RAI had a penalty and HAM had a problem so he’s on the podium.

      Rosberg had a grand slam and a perfect weekend. It’s still something special. His pace in qualy made Hamilton push beyond his limits. And he made a perfect start ahead of the fast-starting Ferraris.

      By the way: the article states that HAM solved his problem by a switch change. However in his post-race interview he said he didn’t touch anything (the setting apparently “reset” itself).

    4. Did you not see the Friday FP times, Force India were the 2nd best team in the race sims after Merc? Definitely not B-class for the weekend and if Perez hadn’t botched his car he would have easily lined up on the front row. Perfect track for all Merc runners.

      In much the same way as when Vettel won the TR, the chassis was the same as the RBR and that chassis was the best in the wet. The Ferrari engine was what made the difference that weekend between RBR and TR. The car was brilliant for the weekend much like it was for FI this weekend.

  2. The ratings above are pretty much why I gave the nod to Nico for dotw.

  3. My driver ratings:

    Mercedes:
    Hamilton – 1/5 – Terrible performance in qualifying which potentially compromised other drivers. He was not as fast as he should have been in the race.
    Rosberg – 5/5 – Took pole position, set the fastest lap, and won the race while leading every lap. Perfect performance and he needed this after 3 poor races.

    Ferrari:
    Vettel – 4/5 – Capitalized on a disrupted Q3 to get into a top 3 position (because of Perez’s penalty) even though the Ferrari was not capable of anything above P5. Kept it clean in the race, and took a good podium.
    Raikkonen – 2/5 – Retire please.

    Williams:
    Bottas – 4/5 – Got the most out of his Williams in the race after he was hampered by Hamilton’s incident and his encounters with Verstappen. Could not challenge the cars ahead as they were too fast. Decent effort.
    Massa – 2/5 – He was nowhere in the entire weekend. The only reason why he’s getting a 2 is because he didn’t crash.

    Red Bull:
    Ricciardo – 3/5 – Did a very good job in qualifying to get onto the front row. However, in the race he lacked pace.
    Verstappen – 3/5 – Got tangled up with Bottas in qualifying and could not improve his lap time because of this. His race was sightly better, but was unable to make up ground in the first half of the race.

    Force India:
    Perez – 4/5 – It would have been a 5 if he didn’t earn a penalty for crashing in practice. He delivered a supreme performance in qualifying and earned a well-deserved podium after passing Raikkonen on the final lap. My driver of the race.
    Hulkenberg – 2/5 – Was never able to keep up with his teammate and went from being in a decent points position to being in a weak points position in 5 laps.

    Renault:
    Magnussen – 3/5 – He did as much as he could in the slow Renault in the race, but had a disappointing qualifying behind the Manors.
    Palmer – 2/5 – Swap him for Ocon please.

    Toro Rosso:
    Sainz – 3/5 – Disappointing qualifying from him, but was unfortunately hit with a suspension problem in the race.
    Kvyat – 4/5 – Excellent qualifying from him but was unfortunately hit with the same issue as his teammate in the race.

    Sauber:
    Nasr – 4/5 – Outperformed his teammate massively and was able to get into Q2. Made up a few positions in the race, but was unable to get points as the pace of his Sauber hindered him once again.
    Ericsson – 2/5 – A disappointing weekend from him after a run of decent performances. The Sauber lacked a lot of pace which made him unable to make up ground.

    McLaren:
    Alonso – 4/5 – Good effort from him to get into Q2, but his car let him down once again in the race.
    Button – 3/5 – Traffic in Q1 caused him to not be able to set a competitive lap time. He drove very well in the race, but it is a matter of what could have been if he hadn’t had his troubles in qualifying.

    Manor:
    Wehrlein – 3/5 – Got outqualified by his teammate. He was having a strong race but his brakes unfortunately gave up on him.
    Haryanto – 3/5 – A very good effort in qualifying, but was unable to make an impact in the race and finished last once again.

    Haas:
    Grosjean – 4/5 – Good efforts in qualifying and the race, but unfortunately couldn’t make it into the points.
    Gutierrez – 2/5 – Not a very good performance from him, but I’ll let him off this time when considering his illness.

    1. I’m actually considering giving Palmer a 1, but his Renault was very slow which is why I gave him a 2, just.

      1. What is your problem with Raikkonen? He qualified just behind Vettel DESPITE NOT SETTING A FINAL LAP in Q3, compromised by strategy (maybe a 2 stop was intended to begin with) and a penalty that sort of fair. Why the hell should he retire?

          1. Raikkonen is well past his sell-by date. He hasn’t been a world class driver since 2008. There are so many other talents such as Vandoorne and Ocon who deserve a seat in Formula 1. He is just there to be the number 2 driver for Ferrari in my opinion.

          2. Regarding comments about Kimi, aka, should he retire?
            Just driving the car around with not many great results to show.
            Wonder when will we be accepting to talk in same tone about Massa, Button, and Alonso…?

            All very good to great drivers. But will we ever see them flourish again by consistent podium finishes?

          3. @ultimateuzair
            If he wins a race this season, would you still give him a 1/5 just because he’s ‘well past his sell-by date’?

    2. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      21st June 2016, 10:44

      I agree with most of this. However, I think I would have given Massa 2.5/5 and not 2/5. He had a very reasonable qualifying and I would say that is was the teams strategy that let him down most in the race. He had a very early first stop. Bottas did do a fair bit better so I wouldn’t give Massa 3/5 but I feel just 2 is a little low. Although he didn’t do that well in practice either I suppose. However, I wouldn’t say he has been nowhere all weekend.

      I don’t think Rosberg had an amazing race. He hasn’t done anything wrong but he hasn’t clearly been the strongest all of the weekend. The race also looked rather uneventful for him. He did very well but I would give him a solid 4.

      I don’t think Raikkonen had a great weekend but giving a 2 and just saying “retire please” doesn’t describe his race. I would either give him a 2.5/5 or a 3/5. He didn’t do that badly but that mistake wasn’t sensible and he clearly didn’t have the pace of Vettel.

      I agree about Palmer too. It is so hard to judge as that car looks to be pretty bad. I do keep thinking though that he is hardly any better than Maldonado was. I am actually one of the few that don’t think Maldonado was that bad last year. It was by far bad luck that let him down. He had several pretty strong races but he was in a better car than Palmer has now.
      I think Palmer just needs more time but if he keeps preforming like this, I think he should get replaced next year.

  4. Rosberg-5? when he had the class of the field car at least 1s faster than anyone else? Not sure what Vettel could have done more this weekend. Even got the RB on track.

    1. ColdFly F1 (@)
      20th June 2016, 16:23

      What else did you want Rosberg to do to earn a 5? @evered7
      Should he have finished >50sec ahead?
      What for? Just to get the approval of critical fans?

      1. If Rosberg’s a 5, Vettel can get a 5. 5 is when he can beat Hamilton on track. Given that Hamilton crashed all by his own, but Rosberg’s advantage was so huge that he could have knit a sweater while driving and still won by 10 seconds.

        Get a win by battling a car with similar pace as him. Then he gets a 5. @coldfly

        Same goes for Hamilton.

        1. @evered7 So it’s Rosberg his fault Hamilton crashed in Q3 and wasn’t there to fight him? Rosberg truly deserved a 5. He had a perfect weekend, one that could’ve been Hamiltons had he not ruined his own race in Q3 as he did look the faster of the two.

          1. If Rosberg’s a 5, Vettel’s a 5 as well. That’s all I am saying. This is considering that Rosberg had no equal car matching his pace this weekend in the race. @xtwl

      2. petebaldwin (@)
        20th June 2016, 16:46

        @coldfly – I don’t disagree with you but it does leave a question…. For example, what more could Wehrlein have done? Or what more could have Perez done?

        For me, a 5 means you have just driven your (equal) best race ever. That wasn’t Rosberg at his best – because he didn’t need to be! He had a decent start and by the end of the first lap, was out of DRS range for the rest of the race!

        The answer is probably that Nico couldn’t have done any more to deserve a 5 – doesn’t mean his drive was worth one though!

        1. petebaldwin (@)
          20th June 2016, 16:48

          Put it this way – asking what Nico would have to do to deserve top marks in Baku is like putting Floyd Maywether in a boxing ring against a man with no arms and asking what he’d have to do to deserve a 10/10 performance. It wouldn’t be possible because he wouldn’t be challenged.

      3. Well to play devils advocate his qualy wasn’t exactly “on it”. He was 3-4 tenths down on what Hamilton was doing in the first sector alone, even though Hamilton was struggling with his cars balance. His pole lap was “good enough”, not perfect.

        In the race even though he was unchallenged and could just coast around the track for the most part he still made an unforced error and put his car in an incorrect engine mode. Had it been a race with closer competition (like Canada) he could have easily lost the win.

      4. Simply put, for a driver to win DOTD or a 5 they should put in a performance worthy of a great race.
        I.e. Not just being able to keep a car that blows away all others on top speed out of the wall on a track with 23s worth of full throttle!

        Realistically, the only driver that should be considered for anything this weekend should be Perez. Came back from a P3 mistake to finish 3rd in front of both Williams who should have taken the opportunity.

        All RB6 has managed this year is easy wins; good quali admittedly, but no pressure or struggle in a race situation. not convinced for the title, and certainly not convinced for everyone giving him DOTD for Baku!

      5. Perez only 4 points ????? I think the English media judges Perez as though he’s got a top car. Perez is not getting the merit it deserves. Instead they give 5 points to Rosberg, well earned, but also with a huge element of luck as he’s got the best car on the grid and he always was slower than his teammate. I just don’t get the double standards of the people giving the marks.

      6. Well … if you denied Perez a 5 because of his crash on Saturday let’s then judge Rosber for his overall performance during the weekend. Rosberg was slower than his teammate on Friday and Saturday. That means that the only other driver Rosber really competes against was better than Rosberg himself. So … do we assess the performance during the race alone or not?

    2. Show me a single significant mistake from Rosberg the whole weekend and then argue.

      1. When you have a car that is 1s+ faster than the next car and the guy who in the same machine suddenly has a meltdown, not doing a mistake isn’t a great achievement.

        He was second best to Hamilton all week long until the Qualifiers.

        1. petebaldwin (@)
          20th June 2016, 16:54

          Look at tennis – if Andy Murray plays Djokovic or Nadal, you’d expect him to make a few mistakes in the game. If he plays against a child who has never heard of tennis before, you’d expect him to make a few less!

          There was no-one other than Lewis with the car to put any pressure on Rosberg and Lewis threw away his chance (several times)

        2. @evered7

          “When you have a car that is 1s+ faster than the next car and the guy who in the same machine suddenly has a meltdown”
          For the pole lap that Rosberg did, Hamilton crashed BEHIND him on track. So Hamilton wasn’t completely done and dusted at that point. You could see how hard he was pushing when sparks came from his right front scraping a wall on that pole lap.

          “He was second best to Hamilton all week long until the Qualifiers.”

          He was running a different program to Hamilton, in FP3 atleast. He was on the slower tires and so a comparison is not fair.

          1. He is lucky that Hamilton crashed; could have crashed himself as well. Hamilton was up by 4 tenths on the first sector alone. You can twist it anyway you want. There wasn’t a car in the vicinity of that Mercedes in the Q’s or race.

            That is enough to not give him a 5. People actually had to fight for their places whereas he did a Sunday drive to the win.

          2. Correct. Nico also made his fast quali lap on first try, so had even one fresh set of tyres more than Hamilton had for the race. While Hamilton also had flat-spotted one of his. But got allowance exceptionally by FIA to change for the race…

          3. @evered7

            He is lucky that Hamilton crashed; could have crashed himself as well.

            That is the most ridiculous comment I have ever read on this site. How on earth is Rosberg “lucky” that he didn’t crash and his teammate did?

            Hamilton was up by 4 tenths on the first sector alone.

            Hamilton was faster than him in the first sector all weekend long. In Q1 where both drivers got a clean lap in, Rosberg was 0.1 s faster than Hamilton despite (again) dropping a few tenths in the first sector. He was making up his time in the middle part of the lap. Lewis felt the pressure and choked big time.

            You can twist it anyway you want.

            You literally just said that Rosberg was lucky that he didn’t crash. I’m not sure that you are in a position to tell others that they are “twisting things”.

          4. @kingshark Most ridiculous comment would have your ‘eating the hat’ comment. Not sure if you stayed true to it. So don’t get to advising me on commenting.

            Hamilton was fastest in all three practice sessions and the only one who actually lost time in FP3 whereas others all gained time. So I think there is some merit in him telling something changed in the car.

            Lewis choked. No doubts about it. I am merely commenting on the fact that Rosberg gets a 5 when he had no equal car in the race and the only one that was, crashed during Q3. If he gets a 5, Perez, Vettel can all have a 5 as well.

            @kingshark

          5. @everes7
            What “eating the hat” comment? Regardless, I doubt it was as delusional as “Rosberg was lucky that he didn’t crash and Hamilton did”. You can use your brilliant logic to discredit any win in the history of Formula 1.

            Hamilton’s speed in practice was meaningless, completely meaningless. You don’t know the fuel load and program he ran in FP2 to FP3. When Rosberg was faster than Hamilton in practice in Barcelona but subsequently lost pace relative to his teammate in qualifying, no one was using setup as an excuse to his inability to take pole. Only Hamilton has the privilege of these excuses, probably because Sky F1 has everyone convinced that nobody can actually beat him in a straight fight.

            Hamilton is actually leading the DOTW poll for Canada, despite the fact that ramming Rosberg off the track in Turn 1 eliminated any competition he had in equal cars, and he made a terrible start; yet people are arguing against a 5 for Rosberg for a perfect weekend and grand slam.

          6. @kingshark Sure, having a couple of tenths advantage vs a almost a full second advantage (1s+ in race) is one and the same. Not to mention that Hamilton was chasing Vettel in Canada while Rosberg drove off into the distance with his 1s+ advantage in Baku. Keith has already come up with an article explaining how Mercedes sudden increase in gap over the rest might be temporary. If all were the same, why have such an article at all.

            You know very well about the hat comment. Revisit your history and you will get to know.

            And I bet you know all about delusional since your comments reeks of it now.

            If Rosberg’s a 5, Vettel/Perez are 5 as well. Nothing much to be discussed here.

          7. @evered7

            Not to mention that Hamilton was chasing Vettel in Canada while Rosberg drove off into the distance with his 1s+ advantage in Baku.

            And who’s fault was it that Hamilton was chasing Vettel in Canada whereas Rosberg was cruising up front in Baku? Hamilton’s, because he got a slow start and made life difficult for himself. Rosberg made the perfect start and made life easy for himself. This is an argument why Rosberg’s drive was better, not Hamilton’s.

            If Hamilton actually nailed the start in Canada as Rosberg did in Baku, he would have made his race win seem so much easier. Therefore, Rosberg’s win was better.

            If Rosberg’s a 5, Vettel/Perez are 5 as well. Nothing much to be discussed here.

            Perez crashed in FP3 and cost himself 2nd in the grand scheme of things, so no, he does not deserve a 5. Vettel’s 5 is OK.

            A grand slam and beating your teammate in the same equipment fair and square deserves nothing less than a 5.

        3. Second best.. Until the moment it mattered… Then he was first best as long as it mattered.

      2. petebaldwin (@)
        20th June 2016, 16:50

        @sravan-pe – There are plenty of drivers who didn’t make a mistake over the whole weekend. Their cars weren’t quick enough to compete with Tier-1 though.

        1. @petebaldwin
          Right. So now you’re saying Rosberg deserves no credit for not sticking up the fastest car in the wall, are you?

          1. petebaldwin (@)
            20th June 2016, 18:16

            @sravan-pe I’m not saying he deserves no credit. It was a good drive on a difficult, new track. He made no mistakes whereas Hamilton was very poor. Probably a 7/10.

            Rosberg would admit that wasn’t his the most challenging win once he got off the line. His race was against himself – not to put it in the wall.

          2. petebaldwin (@)
            20th June 2016, 18:17

            In fact, 8/10 because he held the lead in a slow starting Merc.

      3. “Show me a single significant mistake from Rosberg the whole weekend and then argue.” }

        Define significant. He put his PU in the wrong mode causing a performance drop, if any other team’s car had the pace to challenge MB then he could have very easily lost the win right there. It would have been gustofwindgate all over again.

        1. @Martin
          ‘Significant’ as in the ones Hamilton made.

          1. So you think that him not making a mistake Hamilton made justifies a 5?

          2. Let’s not discuss the performance of Lewis last weekend. I guess the only reason he doesn’t get a 1 is that this is a British website. He messed up almost every lap in qualifying and could not even reach the podium on raceday with a car his teammate drove a second faster than anyone else.

      4. Many drivers don’t make mistakes all weekend; should they win DOTD? Your argument makes no sense.

        1. rosberg was flawless and won. what more can he do? leading the race is the position with the most pressure and add to that his increasingly precarious position in the championship. i think it was possibly his best drive, up there with barcelona last year.

  5. Really funny these discussions on the Merc drivers. Bottom line seems to be that a lot of people think they can never be the driver of the weekend because they have the fastest car. While I disagree (I think no one did a particularly better job than Rosberg last weekend) I must admit I sometimes feel that way too. On the other hand: what’s left of our heroes if we think this way. Senna, Prost and Schumacher all had the best car when they won their championships. Was it just their first winnings in less impressive cars that make them legendary? Surely not for me!

    1. I agree with you!
      Regarding performing during the free practice sessions: It doesn’t really matter at all, as long as you get the testing done so you are all set for optimal quali and race. And ultimately of course that you do not trash the car. ;o)
      DOTW should be based on your performance when it really matters: Qualifying and the race.

  6. What struck me as awesome was the astounding resemblance of the Azeri President with
    Vlad Dracula.

    Not trying to be derogatory to either as Vlad was hash but fair. At this point, I have
    no information whatsoever from which to judge H.E. Ilham Aliyev.

    I found Baku extraordinarily beautiful.

  7. Let me be another one to express my displeasure at Merc driver ratings.
    Ham – 2/5 you say. Weekend consists of practice quali and race. Top marks for practice, bottom for Quali. Gaining 5 places with a sick car is surely worth something.

    Much bigger problem is Rosberg’s rating. With car superiority and team mate out of the picture it wasn’t the question of ‘what more he could have done’ but rather what other driver wouldn’t be able to do the same in the race? probably 90%.

    Results don’t tell the whole picture, that’s why we have official classification but then a poll and discussions here. For me this poll is about how well a driver does against the expected outcome. For example if Ric has 3rd best car and comes 5th or 6th, that’s the expected outcome. If he comes 3rd he’s doing well, 1st – he’s had an awesome race.

    Back to Rosberg… for Rosberg to have a good weekend he needs to beat his teammate who is on form. (Ham wasn’t)
    To have a great weekend he needs to beat Ham on form in quali, overtake him on track and win. Rosberg has rarely done this. He then for me rarely outperform the expected and here he’s done nothing extraordinary. Ham simply shot himself in the foot in quali and had an engine problem in the race.

    1. @Ivan, The Mercedes wasn’t sick, the driver hasn’t read the manual and probably didn’t bother to listen to the engineers before the start. It’s like my kid not making his homework, failing a test and blaming the teacher. The result of all issues were to trace back to one point: the crash in Qual.
      To Rosberg: Keeping the machine in top condition while finishing first is getting a 10/10 on a test. He might gotten lucky he knew all answers on the questions, but that’s the way life is…
      To Vettel: Finishing second while driving the third best car should mean a very high score.
      Making the choice to not gamble on a qualification-only-setup, like RedBull and Williams did, is finally a decent act from the Red Stallions…

      1. It sounds like your interpretation of what happened. Mine is very different. I hear that team preset wrong position before start. I hear that team said Ham was not suppose to know the settings. I hear that Ros did not have the same issue, his was self inflicted so he just changed it back. Perhaps Ros did not read the manual since he caused his own problem.

        Ros got 25 points – that’s how life is. 5/5 rating is a view that needs to be questioned. And don’t try to attribute the ability to keep a car in top condition to Rosberg just because Ham had a problem, it’s absurd.

        1. @ivan-vinitskyy
          Practice is beyond meaningless. They were running on different programs. Hamilton’s qualifying was the biggest choke I have seen in a long time. With a car that was 1 second faster than the opposition, he managed 10th and made countless mistakes. What Lewis did on in the first 20 laps of the race was nothing but expected with his car superiority. If anything I was surprised that it took him so long to get up to P5. There’s no way he deserves anything more than a 2.

      2. The Mercedes wasn’t sick, the driver hasn’t read the manual and probably didn’t bother to listen to the engineers before the start.

        Have you even listened to what Merc said?

        HAM’s had wrong settings, set by the engineers, from the start. They have said it was not something he would be expected to know.

        ROS selected a new engine mode, which gave him the same fault. However, as he had just selected it, he knew to just change it back to clear the fault.

        Let me give an analogy: Your child has been in your car, playing with the radio. On a journey, you realise the radio doesn’t sound right. Would you be able to figure it out instantly? That was HAM’s position, and he was pushing his car to the limit while trying to find which setting was wrong. ROS’s position was more akin to driving along, pressing a button, realising the radio had started sounding wrong, and pressing the same button to get things back.

        That said, I mostly agree with the rating given to HAM. He was very poor in Qualifying, and even with a slightly sick car (it must only have been slight, as otherwise Merc would have pitted him and changed it) he did nothing special.

    2. @ivan-vinitskyy, your sources also said that Hamilton’s engine problem was just temporary over approx. 10 laps and represented only a 2-3/10th of a second per lap.

  8. William Jones
    21st June 2016, 10:31

    Scores are entirely subjective.

    Some people award a 5/5 only if that driver produces a world class performance.

    Others award a 5/5 for a driver being the best on the day

    Others again award a 5/5 for a driver who got the best results on the day

    Yet others award a 5/5 for excellence in every area

    Others award a 5/5 for a moment of brilliance.

    Arguing with each other about scores you would award is the same as arguing about whether red or blue is the better colour.

    1. But it’s obviously red right?

  9. My ratings (1-10)

    Rosberg – 9 (Great driving. Grand Slam. never had to fight for it though)
    Hamilton – 5 (Messy weekend, not a great race. Looked rather pale)

    Vettel – 7 (Did well with what he had, especially compared to what the Ferrari did on Friday)
    Raikkonen – 6 (Pretty much matched Vettel on different strategy, -1 for the pit lane entry)

    Massa – 5 (Invisible. Still scored a point)
    Bottas – 7 (Made his strategy work and fought Hamilton well for a long time)

    Ricciardo – 6 (Got the strategy a bit wrong but made the most of it)
    Verstappen – 6 (Got the strategy a bit wrong too but also made the most of it)

    Hülkenberg – 5 (Where even was he? Hit at the start and then just slipped around)
    Perez – 9 (Would be a 10 had it been for his accident in FP3. Well, yeah, I rate the weekend)

    Magnussen – 7 (Very strong to start from pitlane and get close to points. His big problem was lack of top speed)
    Palmer – 3 (What can I say? Keeps losing to his team mate. He is too weak)

    Kvyat – 7 (Retired but not really his fault. Looked on pace for the first time in a while)
    Sainz – 6 (Fairly quick but never shined like he sometimes can)

    Ericsson – 3 (This was his weakest race this year by far, compounded by a bad strategy from Sauber)
    Nasr – 8 (In comparison his strongest race this year by far)

    Alonso – 7
    Button – 6

    Wehrlein – 6
    Haryanto – 5

    Grosjean – 4 (erratic all weekend)
    Gutierrez – 4

    Got bored writing explanations for the driver ratings. Oh well.

  10. Some people don’t like the fact that there are quite a few of us who are overly critical with Mercedes drivers. That’s OK. I am a pure racing fan (and attacking football also) Let me ask you a question. Let’s say that in the forthcoming Premier League a specific team, Leicester for instance, starts with a 3-0 advantage before kickoff on EVERY SINGLE GAME. Sometimes the final score is going to be 3-0 or 3-1 and most of the times is going to be 4-0, 5-0 and 6-1. How would you feel about it? How would you feel with comments like “4-0. What a stellar performance!”, “6-1. Top of the world”.
    Come on, let’s hear your comments on this.

    1. @sakis

      I refer you to all the comments on this analogy on the other story (https://www.racefans.net/2016/06/21/why-mercedes-return-to-dominance-may-be-temporary/).

      This is a completely false argument, which does not fit. The way to give an equivalent would be to have Merc starting a minute before the other teams are allowed to set off, which would be unfair.

      Please try to find an analogy which actually fits the facts.

  11. I would have given Perez, Buttton and Verstappen a higher grade. All three got everything there was to find out of their cars.
    Rosberg was not challenged and should have 4

    1. Rosberg this time did best with what he have something his team member could not do. that was pole, race win & fastest lap. That’s a 5.

      Perez is a 5+1000, maybe next podium he is everybody’s friend. I heard Macca want’s Perez trophies.

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