Vote for your 2016 Italian Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend

2016 Italian Grand Prix

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

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

Driver performance summary

DriverStartedGap to team mate (Q)Laps leading team matePittedFinishedGap to team mate (R)
Lewis Hamilton1st-0.478s1/5312nd+15.07s
Nico Rosberg2nd+0.478s52/5311st-15.07s
Sebastian Vettel3rd-0.093s51/5323rd-6.571s
Kimi Raikkonen4th+0.093s2/5324th+6.571s
Felipe Massa11th+0.468s8/5329th+14.602s
Valtteri Bottas5th-0.468s45/5326th-14.602s
Daniel Ricciardo6th-0.022s53/5325th-8.941s
Daniil Kvyat16th+0.164s0/362
Nico Hulkenberg9th+0.022s5/53210th+13.702s
Sergio Perez8th-0.022s48/5328th-13.702s
Kevin Magnussen21st+0.206s6/7217th
Jolyon Palmer20th-0.206s1/71
Max Verstappen7th+0.022s0/5327th+8.941s
Carlos Sainz Jnr15th-0.164s36/36215th
Marcus Ericsson19th+0.131s5/6116th
Felipe Nasr18th-0.131s1/63
Fernando Alonso12th-0.126s35/52314th+26.524s
Jenson Button14th+0.126s17/52212th-26.524s
Pascal Wehrlein13th23/261
Esteban Ocon22nd3/26118th
Romain Grosjean17th+0.236s47/52111th-20.743s
Esteban Gutierrez10th-0.236s5/52213th+20.743s

    Vote for your driver of the weekend

    Which driver do you think did the best job throughout the race weekend?

    Who got the most out of their car in qualifying and the race? Who put their team mate in the shade?

    Cast your vote below and explain why you chose the driver you picked in the comments.

    Who was the best driver of the 2016 Italian Grand Prix weekend?

    • Esteban Gutierrez (0%)
    • Romain Grosjean (3%)
    • Esteban Ocon (0%)
    • Pascal Wehrlein (4%)
    • Jenson Button (5%)
    • Fernando Alonso (4%)
    • Felipe Nasr (0%)
    • Marcus Ericsson (1%)
    • Carlos Sainz Jnr (0%)
    • Daniil Kvyat (0%)
    • Jolyon Palmer (0%)
    • Kevin Magnussen (0%)
    • Sergio Perez (1%)
    • Nico Hulkenberg (0%)
    • Max Verstappen (1%)
    • Daniel Ricciardo (37%)
    • Valtteri Bottas (6%)
    • Felipe Massa (1%)
    • Kimi Raikkonen (1%)
    • Sebastian Vettel (6%)
    • Nico Rosberg (26%)
    • Lewis Hamilton (3%)

    Total Voters: 385

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    Author information

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

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    88 comments on “Vote for your 2016 Italian Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend”

    1. Wow, I really can’t pick one this time.

    2. It has to be ROS this time. I voted for him. Honourable mention for RIC.

      1. Agreed, Rosberg should for once be the one !
        Quite surprising that Hamilton gets any votes? Hamilton was on pole but flunked the start. Essentially loosing his race win by doing so. Really challenging to give a driver the DOW for that. =8-!
        The votes for Ricciardo are maybe this week as much a NO-vote to Verstappen? Ricciardo started 6th and ended 5th.
        Verstappen started 7th and ended 7th. So much from ‘the golden boy’ this weekend…

        Ricciardo and Rosberg are the two drivers that did the best vs their teammates of all finishing and none others really made anything impressive or of significance compared to the car/team at their disposal… But Rosberg was the race winner, he did overtake his teammate in the process and he is the driver today that won with the biggest time margin against his teammate. Reason why I voted Rosberg. (1st time ever btw)

        Honorable mention to Button and Alonso for some good tight racing as the champs and gentlemen they are on track and putting Dennis on edge in his pitlane mansion…

        1. Well Max got into anti stall at the start so he really didn’t don’t that bad.

          Your comment looks a lot like some weird shot to hate on Max

          1. You say this is expressing hating someone:
            “Verstappen started 7th and ended 7th. So much from ‘the golden boy’ this weekend…” ???
            To me its more matter of fact. We have over past weeks seen Max being named ‘the golden boy’ in F1 in several media and by fellow posters.
            As Max had quite an anonymous race today, I find it hard to vote for him today.
            Sorry if you find that offending? But I am certainly not hating him at all.

            1. Must be because I’m not a native English speaker. Calling him the golden boy sounds really ironic to me

            2. Don’t know who coined this term to describe Max as the golden boy, but seen quotes from several F1 moguls using it to name Max. And I don’t think that was to make fun of him. On the contrary. He is actually helping to make F1 interesting to more folks and more excitement/danger/wheel banging/blunt messaging to the press/taking risks/etc etc. All that stuff we tend to forget that used to be F1. ;o)
              And no worries Patrick, not English myself either, so know foreign languages can be challenging.
              Try and Google “Max Verstappen golden boy” and you will find more than 30,000 web pages already with this expression. First you find is this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formulaone/article-3592748/Max-Verstappen-Formula-One-s-golden-boy-expected-Dutch-teen-win-Spanish-Grand-Prix-Red-Bull-debut.html

          2. The start was Verstappen’s own fault, as it was with Hamilton and Gutiérrez. Verstappen never accepts blame for any of his incidents, and always tries to find excuses.

            1. He went into anti-stall, that was confirmed.
              It may be his fault or not. I can’t tell.
              But it is not an excuse – just what happened.

            2. Uzair Syed, guess you had your opinion on the start from last week as well within seconds…
              A team needs to investigatehow come a car got stalled, it is a software setting, the driver is dropping the clutch and the car should take off, in case of Verstappen the car went in to neutral.

              You can simply say it was his fault, same goes for Hamilton… Guiterez on he other hand is in a league of it’s own for blowing his starts

            3. @maton, that would’ve launch control or traction control, which is banned, it is simple, he dropped the clutch and thn controlled the throttle wrong, dropped revs and went to anti stalk, lucky for him it has anti stall, other wise he would have been stuck on the grid.

        2. Much as I like Rosberg I find hard to vote for him this weekend.

          He did much worse than his teammate on Saturday to begin with.

          Today he was OK but nothing terribly special. Technically he overtook his teammate but come on… all he did was a decent start while Hamilton botched his. The rest of the race all Rosberg had to do was cruise along. Nothing wrong but nothing noteworthy also.

          Then who was DOTW? Ricciardo had a decent quali, a decent race and a pass on Bottas that was a joy to watch. Not outstanding but he gets my vote in the country of the blind.

          1. @hyoko, I wholeheartedly agree that it was nothing special.
            I gave my vote to him ’cause he has 7 wins and no DOTW award here. Bieberton has 1 though. So, in race where nobody did nothing, it’s the perfect time to give ROS this award, just beating his teammate and winning.

        3. You’re surprised that people vote for Hamilton? He did one mistake only: he messed up his start.
          He had a huge margin to Rosberg in qualy (nearly half a second) and recovered well in the race.
          On the other hand, Rosberg was not up to the task on saturday but flawless today.
          All in all, they are pretty even to me over the week-end.

        4. Of the drivers that messed up their start Verstappen was the only one that regained his starting position. 12th to 7th, not bad.

          It only goes to show that Monza is an car and engine track, not a drivers track.
          Red Bull were the 3rd team performance wise.
          With a better start Max might have ended 5th or 6th. Red Bull lost 2 points compared to what was reasonably possible.

    3. Tough. It cannot go to either Mercedes because of their performances in qualifying and the race. I think I will give it to Ricciardo for getting the most out of his car. P5 was the maximum for Red Bull.

    4. Maybe this is the weekend I skip this part. I didn’t see anyone do anything special on both days to warrant a ‘DOTW’ award. Ricciardo maybe for his pass but it was too reliant on Bottas giving him a clean pass on the corner.

      Guti could have got it for his awesome qualifying, had he scored some points today. That hope was taken care of, at the lights.

      Not voting this time.

      1. Yep, I’m giving BOT my DOTW. He well and truly out-performed his teammate and also quickly and sensibly realised what would happen if he tried to defend that one against RIC. It cost him a couple of points but put Williams back in front of FI. Great qualifying and great race.

    5. I would like to mention honorable Nico. Who didnt mess up his race…

      But plenty of drivers did that.

      D.Ric. Did an awesome overtake on aggressive strategy. So that is about it, pretty low standards for DotW…clearly best of them.

    6. Pascal Wehrlein. Great weekend (again), great quali, great race. Standout in a weekend with few standouts. His turn.

      1. Me too, great performance in qualifying, and was driving very well in the race until the car let him down. Obviously a lot of what ifs, but I think he’d have been in with a good chance for a point if he’d got to the end.

      2. @magon4 @beneboy Likewise, that’s who I voted for. It’s easy to forget about backmarkers as DOTW, but when they qualify, start, and race so well (until their car gives up), they really deserve the credit, as Wehrlein does.

      3. I so wanted to vote for him as well. But I always find it difficult to vote on drivers that DNF (even when they are not at fault). With that said he did delivered once again.

        In the end I votes dor Ricciard, he was the only one a little bit more than normal

    7. What did Ricciardo do what was so awesome?? Is it this bad with F1 to name a driver who did 1 good overtake….riddiculous

        1. OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
          4th September 2016, 16:40

          @christosts I think it might be some kind of general mindset. I mean, people still disagree with Max’s defensive moves in Spa, I have read TONS of comments saying he is overhyped, and that Dani Ric is being underrated. So then many people decide to vote for Dan, just because they are still angry at Max.
          Of course, these could be just my crazy conclussions, but it’s just an idea.
          Besides that, if we talk about overtakes, there were many drivers (both Ferraris, Bottas and Dani Ric) who overtook Lewis today. That doesn’t tell me they were outstanding, it was just a bad start from Lewis, who, once again, got second. It seems that no matter where those Mercs start, or if their drivers got scruffy, they are guaranteed first and second. It makes it kind of boring. And NO, it was not that way in Red Bull “dominant” times.

          1. You’re right it was never like that in the Red Bull days because RB would hardly ever, if ever, get bad starts or start further down the grid.

            1. @fifthlion

              You’ve never seen Webber start I reckon?

            2. Please check Webber’s stats for 2011. It was a year of start-horror for him. Think he lost more than 15 grid places at race starts just during first half of that season. Spa was also one in the second half he flunked…

        1. I agree about Ric. I don’t understand the big difference in voting.
          Think it’s hard this time. Ric did a good job, decent. One nice move. But also did Vet and Rai. And Ros. May be Bot? But also Ham, apart from the bad start. He had some nice overtakes. Then again you can also say that about Ves, poor start but good race. Also some good overtakes. And not only with DRS.
          I think they were all very close in their performance.
          I voted Ros, because of of a decent race, but it also could be one of the others.

      1. I agree, in terms of the rest of the weekend not being spectacular, however it is important to remember that not many people did stand out this weekend, and he looked strong throughout the race, with good pace, so purely from that he’s a reasonable choice. Although, I didn’t vote for him personally, as I likewise thought he wasn’t the best.

      2. Because there is more than just spectacular overtakes and gaining five thousand positions. Ricciardo qualified the Red Bull on its best spot possible, drove a very good race to finish ahead of Bottas and needed one chance to overtake the Finn. Bottas should have finished ahead of him easily.

      3. Renault engine vs Mercedes engine at the power track of all power tracks.

      4. I voted for him because he really maximized the weekend, realistically they weren’t going to get a better result in the Red Bull unless both Mercs crashed and the Ferraris messed up strategy or something. The pass on Bottas of course did contribute – he put his entire weekend on the line and pulled the pass off brilliantly, to ensure that the “maximum possible” 5th place was achieved, but more importantly he out qualified his team mate (even if only by a hair) and was way ahead of him for the race.

    8. Definitely Button. He fell down to last place at the start but managed to pass many cars including his teammate to finish 12th.

      1. I would vote Jenson driver of the day, but I can’t give driver of the *weekend* to him since he got out-qualified by Fernando.

        1. Classic Jenson, screws up qualification and the start but races like a demon, came back from last and still beat his team mate.

    9. I gave this one to Vettel. Finished where he started, best of the rest. Probably the maximum of his Ferrari.

    10. Toughest one of the year this. Rosberg and Button were mighty impressive in the race but were beaten in qualifying by their teammates. Several drivers put in some decent performance to beat their teammate in qualifying and the race such as Vettel, Ricciardo, Bottas, Perez and Wehrlein. Also Hamilton and Gutierrez did excellent in quali but didn’t well in the race. I’m going to sit on the fence for this one, pretty much an impossible job to choose

    11. Rosberg deserves it. Got beaten by Hamilton in the quali, but drove flawless from start to finish.

      1. +1 Boring but solid! Because nobody else shined more, it goes to ROS from me…

    12. No real standout performance, so for me the winner is the driver of the weekend to me. Rosberg it is!

    13. It has to be Rosberg for starting 2nd and getting the win and controlling the race beautifully.

      1. nearly .5sec down in qually makes it tough to pick ros surely

    14. Grosjean — only driver to gain six places during the race — OK, this choice is more “least worst” than best ;=}

    15. Can’t give it to anyone. No one performed in such a way I would give them my vote.

      Rosberg lost out big in Qauli before Lewis lost at the start so can’t give it to either Mercs.
      Ferrari ended where we expected they would be.
      Ricciardo had one amazing overtake helped by the fact he was on SS, but that’s about it and Max was nowhere to be found. Williams dissapointing on a low drag circuit. Force India likewise.

    16. petebaldwin (@)
      4th September 2016, 17:49

      No-one stood out too much… Can’t give it to Rosberg as he got absolutely hammered in Quali. Hamilton had a poor start and threw a win away. Ferrari were the 2nd fastest by a long way so 3rd & 4th was a given. Ricciardo made a decent overtake and finished where you’d expect him to. I guess Ricciardo because of the overtaking manoeuvre but if there was a “no-one” option, I’d have gone for that!

    17. Peppermint-Lemon (@)
      4th September 2016, 17:52

      Jenson for his storming race today

    18. Rosberg to me. Not only did he had a good start by he also drove flawlessly and closed the gap to Lewis

    19. Keith, judging by the tone of the comments perhaps you ought to add and extra item to the choices ‘Nobody’.
      The only option we have on weekend like this is to simply not vote and that skews the results.
      Do the numbers voting vary significantly from race to race?

    20. Wehrlein for me. Great qualifying and a great race until the failure.

    21. Vettel. Also good job by Rosberg, Ricciardo, Kimi and Grosjean.

    22. Not sure why ricciardo has such a large portion of votes?

      1. Not sure why Rosberg has… Driver of the weekend?

        If I think back in the weekend:

        Quali impressive from
        Lewis
        Ricciardo
        Bottas
        Guittierez
        Wehrlein

        Race… I remember good moves/race from:
        Ricciardo
        Button
        Hamilton (on Bottas if you were wondering beautiful set up)
        Vettel
        Grosjean

        Rosberg doesn’t feature. Yes he drove it home but start was ok-ish and once the Merc is in clear air you just need to stroke it home.

        1. @tdm but rosberg hasnt been awarded driver of the weekend?

          1. Despite it is no doubt amazingly hard focused work from everybody at his race team including from Rosberg himself – A lone leading Mercedes way out front in the lead does not get much attention anymore these days. E.g. notice how little time we saw Rosbergs car during the race broadcast? The machine is simply too superior vs the rest. Only anything negative will get the media attention these days. (a flunked start, a crash, a
            broken engine, a heated brake disc, blown tyre…)
            Wasn’t this btw the reason why when Renault stopped in F1 years back when they were so dominant?
            The positive commercial value was simply no longer there vs the negatives…

        2. Yes @tdm, Hamilton prepared that overtake beautifully!
          I think it’s overlooked because it’s Hamilton in the W07 (and most people are fed up of seeing him), but altering the line to not be in the dirty air in the corner (while being faster) and rejoin the main straight just under the wing of the Williams to complete the overtake (not need for DRS here…).
          Not the most spectacular, but on of the most beautiful overtake of the year.

          1. I’ve given it to Nico but LH had a great Qualy and overtook Bottas amazingly.

    23. Ric for me! Took the fight to Williams and and although was close with Bottas, he made a great lunge as he knew the speed deficit he had. Qualified strong and raced strong too. Nothing spectacular but the whole weekend was a bore-fest so Ric gets it!

      One point I wanted to make was Lewis’ lack of sportsmanship whereby he never really congratulates Nico and is always the other way around. It’s weird. When Lewis is on pole it’s always Nico extending his hand and when the results are opposite, it’s still Nico extending his hand. I also noticed Lewis standing in the corner for a while. I understand he is disappointed but at least show some sportsmanship!

      Wearing cool glasses and jewellery would only make you popular to some extent, you’ve to show sportsmanship to truly earn the next level of respect!

      I was really disappointed with Lewis!

    24. Yes (@come-on-kubica)
      4th September 2016, 19:20

      Alonso for his team radio and just going for a fastest lap because he felt like it.

    25. Got to be Ricciardo. Absolutely maximized the position on the worst track for his car on the calendar. Destroyed MV both in qualy and race. Made an amazing overtake from wayyy back on Bottas. What more could you ask for?

      Close second for me is Vettel who also did the maximum. Very good weekends too by Rosberg, Bottas and Perez

      1. destroyed as in 0.022 seconds… ehm?

        1. Duncan Idaho (@)
          4th September 2016, 22:28

          In the way that gopher gets destroyed – tapped on the head every time he stuck his head up.

        2. 9-2…..yep pretty much owned.

    26. Willem Cecchi (@)
      4th September 2016, 20:18

      Daniel Ricciardo. Balls out pass.

    27. Not an easy one this week:
      Could be Bottas how he kept Hamilton behind one pure speed and skill.
      But then if should be Ricciardo for his reeling in and overtaking of that same Bottas.
      Or Rosberg for knowing that pole is nice, but worth nothing if you’re slow getting off the staring grid at the lights. And he gets some extra bonus points for turning the thousands of fans to support him.

      Not sure if he’s a DOTW, but Alonso did something special. Not just the way he raced, but also his decision to go for new tyres and get a FLAP. Just for the fun of it!

      1. Oops, forgot Vettel. He did exactly what he had to do, no mistake, did the best he could have done with his Ferrari.

    28. I vote for Verstappen… because he did a good job, unless his bad start and overtaking Perez… in a boring race….

    29. No one really stood out… from where I was sitting I’d maybe say Ricciardo, as he outqualified his team-mate, did a very nice overtake and got the very most out of his package on race day. Couldn’t really have achieved more.

      Or Alonso, for laughing on the team radio and doing the fastest lap. One of those two.

    30. Rosberg was thoroughly outclassed leading up to the race, and benefited from an awful start by Hamilton rather than any real shining moment of his own. Ricciardo deserves this vote, that lunge came practically started in Belgium, that it stuck he deserves full credit for.

    31. Can we have an option for no one? There really wasn’t a stand out performance from anyone at all

    32. Alonso didn’t go for a fastest lap because he felt like it – he did it because he was embarrassed at being passed by Button and needed to salvage some self-respect. On other occasions that Jenson has out-driven him he’s ‘found’ problems with his car. Fernando is driven by ego, and if Vandoorne poses a real challenge he will retire – even if it’s half-way through the season. And I think Ron Dennis is aware of this; hence ‘innovative three-driver solution”.

    33. On a track that relies so much on engine power, I’m picking ricciardo as 5th place should really have been a Williams or force India.

    34. Has to be noone. I vote for Alonso for that fastest lap at the end.

    35. Didn’t vote for anyone. No one stood out really. Missed that option in the list.

    36. Guybrush Threepwood
      5th September 2016, 4:09

      A boring race really, without much action so threre are slim pickings for DOTW.

      When looking at who maximised their car’s performance it would be between Vettel and Ricciardo for me, however Ricciardo gets the nod as really the Williams should have been quicker and Ricciardo pulled off a great overtaking move as opposed to the Sunday cruise amongst the woods that everyone else seemed to endure.

      Hamilton had a poor race – screwed up his start and then screwed up T1 and with it any chance of putting pressure on Rosberg. Rosberg drove a cakewalk to victory but was comprehensively out-performed on Saturday. I guess that’s the only negative about driving a car that is a second per lap faster than the competition – people don’t take your victories seriously unless you have to fight for them.

    37. Ricciardo.
      The Mercs guys need to do something spetacular to deserve it as they are so superior.

      And what both did today is what they have been doing a lot on the past years.
      One gets away well and go for the win, the other one gets away poorly and still recovers to be 2nd place.

    38. No one really stood out this time, so I’ll give it to more than one driver: Alonso for his funny radio messages, LOL, Ricciardo for his late-race pass on Bottas and finishing as high as 5th on a power circuit.

    39. It is a difficult choice to pick a single driver who has put in stunning performance(s) throughout the weekend at Monza. Qualifying results at least for the first two rows were as per expectation. The Williams car was competitive. But a stunning overtake from Ricciardo on Bottas (who probably though he had the Red Bull covered) and a clever tyre strategy from Red Bull produced the most memorable moment of the race. If we look at Ricciardo’s performance otherwise, he was able to put the car ahead of his teammate on Saturday and kept the start and the stints clean in his pursuit of fifth place. So an overall solid performance earns him my DOTW.

    40. Jenson Button for his drive in the race, a good fight back to 12th having been punted off on lap 1.

    41. Ricciardo. Got the best out of the Red Bull in qualifying (although Verstappen pushed him hard), and was one of only a few drivers to do anything of interest in the race. That lunge was simply extraordinary! Fifth was definitely the absolute maximum that a Red Bull could have achieved in the race unless something happened in front.

    42. As many wrote, not easy this week but I fianlly gave my vote to Nico R. Liked Daniel R. and V. Bottas a lot as well. Great having two races in a row………… Sonny AKA racernorriski

    43. Dan for the great overtake and the fact not too much else happened.

      I think some have not been voting for the Merc guys on some weekends as they are over the dominance (as am I) but they cant help but work with the car they have.

    44. As is usually the case when I don’t find the race entertaining I struggle to pick a driver of the weekend as no one really impressed me that much.

      Most drivers finished roughly where you would expect them to finish.

      Some drivers who were good in qualifying had a poor race while some who had a good race were beaten by their teammates in qualifying, which usually rules them out of the running for my driver of the weekend vote unless they have a stellar race.

      In the end I decided to vote for Ricciardo, once again probably getting the best out of his car and finishing as high as he could.

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