Vote for your 2017 Spanish Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend

2017 Spanish Grand Prix

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Which Formula One driver made the most of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend?

It’s time to give your verdict on which driver did the best with the equipment at their disposal over the last five days.

Review how each driver got on below and vote for who impressed you the most at Circuit de Catalunya.

Driver performance summary

DriverStartedFinishedRace changeLap 1 changeHighest positionLowest positionGap to team mate*
Lewis Hamilton110-113
Valtteri Bottas3013
Daniel Ricciardo63+3+234
Max Verstappen5-141919
Sebastian Vettel220+114
Kimi Raikkonen4
Sergio Perez84+4+347-11.342
Esteban Ocon105+5+45911.342
Felipe Massa913-4-91318-11.591
Lance Stroll1816+2+5121611.591
Fernando Alonso712-5-41117
Stoffel Vandoorne20+41517
Carlos Sainz Jnr128+4+3713-13.339
Daniil Kvyat199+10+291713.339
Romain Grosjean1410+4+4511Not on same lap
Kevin Magnussen1114-3+3814Not on same lap
Nico Hulkenberg136+7+6610Not on same lap
Jolyon Palmer1715+2+31418Not on same lap
Marcus Ericsson1611+5+1815Not on same lap
Pascal Wehrlein157+8+3512Not on same lap

    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 2017 Spanish Grand Prix weekend?

    • No opinion (0%)
    • Pascal Wehrlein (35%)
    • Marcus Ericsson (0%)
    • Jolyon Palmer (0%)
    • Nico Hulkenberg (3%)
    • Kevin Magnussen (0%)
    • Romain Grosjean (0%)
    • Daniil Kvyat (1%)
    • Carlos Sainz Jnr (0%)
    • Stoffel Vandoorne (0%)
    • Fernando Alonso (6%)
    • Lance Stroll (0%)
    • Felipe Massa (0%)
    • Esteban Ocon (3%)
    • Sergio Perez (7%)
    • Kimi Raikkonen (3%)
    • Sebastian Vettel (14%)
    • Max Verstappen (0%)
    • Daniel Ricciardo (1%)
    • Valtteri Bottas (0%)
    • Lewis Hamilton (26%)

    Total Voters: 511

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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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    98 comments on “Vote for your 2017 Spanish Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend”

    1. For me neither of the top 2 deserve to be voted as DOTW.
      VET did a huge mistake on quali, couldn’t get past BOT and I think he is co-responsible for not pitting under VSC, which was the perfect moment.
      HAM, besides his terrible start on the race, got benefited 3 times this weekend. From VET’s mistake on quali, BOT’s holding up of VET and from VSC deployment.
      Each one of them take credit for a good overtake maneuvre, VET on BOT and HAM on VET, but that’s not enough. The phrases “amazing drive” or “flawless performance” are totally ruled out here, given the superior machineries they have on their hands.
      I would be surprised if they get lots of votes.

      DOTW? WEH.
      Driving the worst -by far- car on the grid and successfully staying in front of the fourth car and on P7 is a HUGE achievement.
      And I expect that this should be rewarded and WEH will break the percentage record for the DOTW award.
      Really impressive performance there.

      1. There is a huge amount of pressure on the top guys. So I’d say Hamilton keeping his head cool taking pole and the win, when Vettel couldn’t while driving an essentially faster car, is quite an achievement.

        Still I guess Wehrlein will get it. Long strategies that happen to work are usually highly regarded. Yet I doubt Wehrlein is going to break Bottas’ high score.

        1. Hamilton put in a great first run in a lap where me managed things perfectly. He proved this on his second run where he was .245 up but in doing so took too much out of the tyres so lost time in sector 3. Vettel said he made a mistake but how much was his fault and how much was due to taking too much out of the tyres in at the start of the lap ? It’s too simple to say Hamilton got a lucky pole. The evidence suggests he judged the tyres perfectly to give the best overall lap time. Plus you cant really say a mistake from another driver makes Hamilton less deserving… he didn’t make the mistake.

        2. Yep, Hamilton is a God. Like he was in Russia.

          1. You’re the guy who votes for anybody but Hamilton when he wins, aren’t ya.

      2. Also @sakis it’s a massive contradiction to say Hamilton got lucky with the VSC so doesn’t deserve DOTW but not mention that WEH also gained massively from it.

        1. I gave an explanation and a number of reasons why BOTH of the top 2 do not deserve to be voted and why WEH totally deserves to get this.
          But your HAM coloured glasses do not let you see this, do they?

      3. Wait, so Seb doesn’t deserve to be voted DOTW because of his mistake and Lewis doesn’t deserve it because of… the same mistake? Makes sense. VSC is a random occurrence and it benefitted many drivers. Some (like Ferrari) didn’t use the opportunity, while others (like Mercedes and Sauber) did. Valtteri didn’t make it easy for Seb to pass, but should he let him through?

        Pascal did a good job, but got benefitted too, a lot more than Lewis or any other driver, to be honest. Kimi and Max retired with suspension damage and Alonso was forced off-track. That’s 3 places right there. Sauber placed him on an unusual one-stop strategy, so obviously he gained a lot after the first round of pit stops (was running 5th at one point). Then came the VSC, and if there is a driver who benefitted the most, then it has to be Pascal. Conveniently it came at the right moment for his single pit stop and yet he made a mistake right there.

        This whole thing would be a non-story, had Kimi, Max, Valtteri and Fernando reminded in contention.

        1. @maroonjack
          Alright guys.
          It seems that there is reading and comprehending problem here.
          VET and HAM have a superior machinery and for the reasons I have already mentioned for each one of them, THEY DID NOT DO ANYTHING SPECIAL THIS WEEKEND. You do not have to agree with my opinion but at least try to understand it.
          Of course BOT was not supposed to let VET through but given that a) at that stage of the race Ferrari was the fastest car on the track and b) VET had totally fresh tyres while BOT had 25 laps ones, it should have been “Either I’ll kill you or I’ll die”. You know what I mean. This was not the case and it took him soooo long to do it.
          Of course WEH gained massively from both the one stop strategy and the VSC momentum but given that his machinery is the worst on the grid, he was able to withstand and withhold the pressure from much faster and better cars behind him. THIS THING IS SPECIAL.

          This whole thing would be a non-story, had…

          Well, it is a story.
          History isn’t written with “If”, “Had”, “Suppose”, “Assume” etc. but it’s written with this kind of facts and incidents. The sooner you realize it the better. I’ve seen numerous posts using the same lame and narrow-minded argument.

          1. Jonathan Davies
            15th May 2017, 20:20

            So by your logic we should never vote for a driver in a top team because “they had better machinery”?

            1. Sundar Srinivas Harish
              16th May 2017, 4:47

              @Jonathan You seem to be taking Sakis’ words in lawyer terms. He means to say that “in his eyes” Pascal did an awesome job this weekend – Sauber is literally at the back of the grid, and he literally kept better cars behind him. I don’t believe that Sakis wants to take away Lewis’ and Seb’s efforts because they were in better machinery.

    2. Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
      14th May 2017, 19:09

      Pascal Wehrlen!He got lucky with some retirements & VSC,but he kept behind him much much faster cars!With an 2016 spec engine!Super efford

      1. Accidents and luck will always be needed for Sauber to score some points, but that is not enough (evidence is Erricson’s result). A great drive and strategy have to be spot on, and Pascal and his crew delivered. Too bad about the pit entry mistake, that might prove to be a costly mistake in the constructors championship because i feel McLaren will narrowly beat them in the end.

        1. Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
          15th May 2017, 10:07

          Who knows,Sauber might score again…Tbh,i found myself wondering how much better the F.I-Williams battle would have been with Wehrlein in Stroll’s place.Massa is still performing pretty decently(bad luck in the past 2 races) & imagine Wehrlein fighting with Ocon.It would have been great for us watching,but we could judge Ocon-Wehrlein more easily!!

          1. @miltosgreekfan with Honda probably having a say on who drives the Sauber next year. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Wehrlein in the Williams for 2018 (if he keeps performing). Maybe FI even if Perez goes to Ferrari

            1. Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
              15th May 2017, 11:47

              @johnmilk I would bet on an Japanese driver next year in Sauber.Kobayashi will be in good age,knows Sauber so he will be a good match.Wehrlein definetely will go to a midfield team(at least) & who knows,if Mercedes decides not to keep Bottas(not high chances),he might be there…Otherwise,F.I seems more like the place to go,rather than Williams(With Martini being involved as well)

    3. I’m undecided about who to vote. Pascal did magnificiently to take that Sauber to 7th (8th after the penalty). But Kvyat turned his weekend upside down, finishing very close to Carlos despite qualifying last and running two very long stints on softs.

      Perez continued to deliver, and Ocon continues to score. We’re always reminded that the Force India isn’t up to it yet but the drivers make it look like it’s very competitive. Proper skill.

      But Hamilton and Vettel were superb today. Hamilton sounded absolutely wasted on the radio, and he was resting his head already with 20 laps to go. It looked like a serious physical challenge between the two, a flat out battle. Fantastic.

      If i were to nitpick, Vettel wasn’t “perfect” during the weekend, he made a mistake in qualy. So my vote goes to Lewis.

      1. If you want to nitpick, Hamilton wasn’t “perfect” either. He lost out on the start to Vettel. Needed Bottas to run interference to slow Vettel and then Mercedes executed a perfect tire strategy.

        Btw, fair play to Mercedes using Bottas that way – it was key to helping the team win the race. It also shows us why it gets old when Kimi complains (and his fans) about Ferrari using him the same way, or trying to – i.e., China. Just saying it wasn’t all about Hamilton outdriving Vettel for the win.

    4. Can I vote for 5 drivers? Perez, Ocon, Hulkenberg, Wehrlein and Kvyat all did an excellent job.

      1. What about palmer. I voted for him just to see if the graph works

    5. I’m a broken record but Force india are giving me the best reason why midfield teams should invest in great drivers rather than pay drivers. Perez is superb and Occon is learning fast and slowly creaping back on him. Beautiful.

      Palmer and Stroll on the other hand offer the counter point to this argument. Their gap to their team mates in performance are dreadful. I mean Ericsson has been lambasted as below par those last years but looks comparatively quite legit

      1. In fact, Torro rosso overtaking williams in the championship is also another proof that drivers mater.

      2. In Perez, Force India have the luxury of having an excellent driver who brings money to the team, he’s the ideal driver for them, as he has money and consistently good points finishes.

        1. I agree. Perez brings a healthy amount of money, but he is in F1 and at Force India on pure merit. He does a great job and is very consistent. Very pleased for him.

      3. Have to agree @tango. I think the new regs are helping separate the wheat from the chaff, and money alone ain’t enough

    6. Some very impressive driving, and also some not-so-impressive driving throughout the field, but only one driver punched massively above his weight. Pascal Wehrlein did an Alonso by putting his Sauber somewhere it didn’t belong, not cracking under the enormous pressure applied by Sainz while almost keeping up with the pace of Hülkenberg in front of him. His penalty for taking an illegal line into the pits is but a minor flaw that pales when compared to that monstrous first stint of his. 33 laps on soft tyres, while maintaining a pace that was still faster than his team mate’s on 18 laps fresher tyres of the same compound, allowed him to skip a round of pit stops and score some vital points for his ailing team. Simply impressive.

      1. Werhlein was called into the pits at the very last second by his team so I don’t actually think that going the wrong side of the bollard was entirely his fault. If the team had told him to box ten seconds earlier, it might have ended differently.

    7. Difficult one this. Between Perez and Pascal.

      I went with the latter, I think no one was expecting a Sauber to finish that high in a track that highly depends on downforce. Regardless of the circumstances he made a one stop work, he was on 33 laps old set of softs and Hulk was having some trouble catching him (he actually just overtook him on the pit-stop). And then defended brilliantly on the mediums. Shame the penalty which may cast some shadow on the performance, but I would like to see when they called him in.

      And if Alonso is a lion, Perez is the leader of an opportunistic, focused and highly letal pack of wolves. What can one say about FI and their drivers? They smell the weakness in their prey and they take it with no mercy. And at the moment the difference to RB in front is smaller than the difference to STR behind, that tells ua everything about them really.

      1. Oh I forgot Palmer, so silly of me. Consistency seems to be his strong point

        1. Palmer’s consistent, but not as consistent as Stroll. Sometimes Palmer looks like an F1 driver.

          1. Sometimes Palmer looks like an F1 driver

            @repete86 haven’t we agreed that he is consistent? That sentence contradicts what you said previously

            1. @johnmilk
              Palmer’s not as consistently terrible as Stroll is, so Stroll is more consistent.

      2. It was the very late call to pit that made him miss the the pit entry thus incurring the penalty.

        1. thanks OOliver, as always the broadcast forgot to show us all the relevant info

    8. GtisBetter (@)
      14th May 2017, 19:38

      Though one. Hamilton showed some great driving. He stayed within 2 sec at the start, got a bit lucky with bottas, but the patient setup to not only overtake Vettel, but to jump out of DRS and stay there was magnificent. But wehrlein was also brilliant. I ended up giving it to Pascal.

    9. Vettel was the fastest, he lost 4+8 sec, hamilton was more lucky.

      1. Indeed Vettel had the faster car and still lost. Both in Q3 he tripped up as well as during the race.

        1. Lol wut? Watching races on the radio or just a salty individual?

          1. A very salty individual. Just look at his history. Those 4 titles Vettel won still wake him up in the middle of the night.

        2. The Mercedes was the faster car this weekend

    10. The “Driver of the Weekend” (or Driver of the Day by Formula 1) is more of a “Who had the car which was working the best compared to its normal performance” award. It’s something I’ve always noticed, nothing against WEH in particular.
      I think it’s impossible to judge a driver on a single race anyway. How do you judge Hulk’s performance when his teammate is basically not there? Would any other driver have done better than Hamilton today? Looking at Bottas’ pace, I’m not sure, he looked really good.
      Sorry if this doesn’t contribute to the discussion at all :) It’s just something I always felt about single races evaluations. A half season is the minimum for me.

      1. @francorchamps17 I dont see a problem here. Ofc. this is not supposed to be the final judgement of a lifetime career or something like that. Its a fanvote of which driver impressed them the most during the weekend and theres nothing else to it.

        Some will vote Alonso because he qualifyed good, Some will vote Pascal because he got points noone expected, Some will vote an unlucky guy down the field that impressed them and some will vote their favorite driver regardless of what happened.

        1. Indeed. Kimi was out of the race from the start, and yet, thanks to his little fan, Kimi got 4% of the votes. It’s all about impressing people during the weekend. Ricciardo scored ZERO percent to date this year (or this race as of right now, and he finished on the podium) – it doesn’t mean he is a poor driver, it just means others were more impressive due to various reasons and circumstances.

      2. indeed, the DOTW title will always be a little biased towards the underdog. And it’s normal, otherwise this would be a given for the winner of the race in a weekend where he also got pole. I do believe Lewis should deserve this one because he got fiercely fought pole and raced without big mistakes under pressure, but Wehrlein’s effort is too good to be glanced over. So my vote goes to him.

    11. Voted for Wehrlein, excellently composed drive. He seems to have matured a lot since USA last year. Managing to fight off Sainz, as well as pull away from the gaggle of cars along with Sainz meaning he only lost 1 position with the penalty, especially considering those cars behind him (the Haas and Toro Rosso) are all much quicker cars. Got into Q2 on Saturday (although just .005s ahead of Ericsson in Q1, but still), and then made the 1 stop work to perfection to get into 7th. And to those saying the VSC helped him – all the cars behind him also pitted under VSC, so they came out exactly where they went in (except Hulkenberg who did leapfrog Wehrlein in the pits).

      Shoutouts too to the 2 Force India drivers and Hulkenberg for brilliant races too, Hulk showing why Palmer shouldn’t be in F1 – Palmer had nothing wrong with the car and was absolutely nowhere. Also Kvyat redeemed himself very well from Saturday, managing to pick up 2 points from last on the grid, so well done to him too.

      1. @hugh11
        All the cars behind him also pitted before the safetycar which is why they where behind him. The 1 stop worked to perfection thanks to the VSC.

    12. To balance the focus by most on only the Sunday I decided to give my vote this time to Alonso.

      1. Had to go with ‘Nando too.

        His lap in Quali was simply the stand out effort of the weekend. How he got that underpowered GP2 car where he did was nothing short of miraculous.

        During the race, there were some good performances, but the one thing that I will remember about the race weekend was that lap.

    13. Hamilton.

      I thought it was goodbye with Vettel taking the start and dissapearing in the distance but he did what Ferrari/Vettel couldnt in the last race. There is a safetycar because ofc. it is but it didnt downright hand him the position and we actually saw an overtake for the lead (even twice) and a heavily panting Hamilton kept his cool the entire race. He got heavily challenged by Bottas last race and now he has stepped up to the challenge (and Bottas apperently have gone back into second rate driving). The fight between Vettel and Hamilton will be awesome this season and the driver matters as much as the car this time around which shows down the entire field.

      Sauber and Pascal is a worthy contender aswell but after that the entire field kinda was an dissapointment but still managed an very interesting race.

      1. Bottas was the nr 2 today. Its funny you didn’t see that. Ferrari, who “has” this nr1 and 2 policy didn’t even once used Kimi to help Vettel this season, at least not so obviosly, but Mercedes did it on couple of occasions already, two times just in Bahrain. Its hard to challenge what your brain is used to, its scientificaly proven.

        1. Kimi is never in a good position to be used!

          I agree though Mercedes were using Bottas quite badly there, unfortunately this is where Bottas more calculated character doesn’t help him compared to Kimi who would definitely not take that treatement at this stage of the season.

          1. Correct, Kimi hasn’t been there when he would have been most useful the entire season.

        2. @Antonio Ofc. Bottas is number 2 after Mercs previous screw up. Do you expect me to vote an off pace number 2 as driver of the weekend?

          My brain will never get used to doing that…

    14. Like someone else did above, can I vote for 5 drivers?

      1. Wehrlein – What a drive. A definite 10/10. Only it wasn’t 10/10 because he failed to enter the pits which cost him P7. Still, definitely my driver of the race. Wow!
      2. Hülkenberg – In a world where Force India is apparently ahead of the midfield, Nico must be the best of the rest. Solid. Nice.
      3. Hamilton – Lost the start. Did everything right after that.
      4. Vettel – Won the start. Did everything right after that, except winning
      5. Ericsson – Really solid drive, was on for points until unlucky with the VSC. He exited right behind Vandoorne who simply ran into Massa. Pulled off some great, and for him quite uncharacteristic, overtaking moves. Twice past Stroll and also passing Alonso.

      1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
        14th May 2017, 22:42

        @chrischrill

        Looks like we have similar thoughts about Ericsson again. Wherlein did do an excellent job but I can’t say Ericsson has been far behind him at all this weekend. 0.005 off in qualifying and both did a great job in the race. Wherlien did some great defending and was helped by his one stop strategy and the safety car. Ericsson exactly as you say did some great moves on Alonso and Stroll. He was infact stuck behind Stroll for quite some time due to the speed difference on the straits but he somehow managed a brillient pass int he end and climbed up quite a bit to 11th. If he was on the same strategy as his team mate, he could well have done just as well, possibly better as Wherlien got a penalty. But they both did a great job all the same.

      2. Hey Chris, you’re forgetting Perez and Ocon, could easily replace Hulkenberg and Ericcson on your list, …I think so

        1. @luis: Certainly did not. Had this been a top 10, they’d be on it without a doubt. There were a lot of strong drives this race, and I felt that Hulk and Ericsson more strongly exceeded my expectations.

          1. Ericsson is the surprise of the season for me so far.

    15. Voted for Wehrlein, although it also could have been for Hamilton, Perez or Hulk, but a Sauber finishing 7th just makes me a bit more happy. :)

      MCDotYsF: Palmer and Stroll. Please release them from their suffering.
      (Most Crappy Drivers of the Year so Far)

    16. Wehrlein, who else?

      Vettel, nein. But honorable mention for the start and the pass on Bottas

      Hamilton, much less, somewhat better than Stroll or Palmer, but massively lucky today

      Another honorable mention for Alonso, great qualifying effort

    17. For me it is difficult to choose between Perez and Wehrlein, in the end I decided for Perez.
      Excellent work all weekend.
      …in a Force India!!!, well done!!!

    18. Wehrlein. A Sauber in P7? Really? Also great weekend by Hamilton, Vettel, Perez, Ocon, Hulkenberg, Kvyat (last to P9!!!).

      1. +1 I agree with your comment it was really hard to decide who was the driver of this weekend.

    19. I voted for Vettel because I firmly believe that he should and would have won this race but for his team’s strategic error. He did everything right himself – managed to claim a front row grid position after engine problems earlier in the weekend and get the jump on Hamilton at the start and maintaining the gap ahead. The combination of Merc strategy, team tactics (with Bottas) and the VSC timing won the race for them.

      1. Vettel by his own admission said several times over the entire weekend that he was consistently making a mistake in sector 3. So your logic is wrong. Ask Vettel. Lewis did not make that mistake. Strategy and reliability will determine the WDC this year because both Lewis and Vettel are phenomenal sportsman.

        1. nah, Hamilton’s mistake was his poor start.

          btw, Vettel’s point is that historically he’s had issues with Sector 3 and that was the issue he had in qualifying. But he made it right by his start.

          So whose “mistake” was worse?

          But I totally agree, strategy and reliability will be the difference. I think so far it’s been a bit back and forth. I’d give Merc the edge in reliability and the slight edge in strategy as well, especially yesterday. I do think the Merc is slightly faster both in qualifying and the race, which means Ferrari really needs to nail their strategy all the time.

      2. Would he (Vettel) of won if they did the same strategy? How would we know. id almost say it was way more impressive that Mercedes and Lewis won that race. Its that tight up the front

    20. Close call between Hamilton, Perez and Wehrlein.

      In the end, I have voted for Wehrlein for his excellent defensive driving for nearly half the race, earning him a well deserved P7.

    21. I wonder how close Palmer is to losing his seat this season. If he continues like this, surely he’ll be out of there before Belgium.

      1. Renault don’t really have a suitable back-up. Sirotkin is hardly better (maybe worth a punt?) nor is Rowland (and he has F2 commitments). So unless they steal someone from another team, don’t see it

        1. Sundar Srinivas Harish
          16th May 2017, 4:53

          Sirotkin can hardly be judged ATM. IIRC, both of his test drives so far were cut short by mechanical failures. His efforts in GP2 were pretty good, although Renault might have considered sponsoring him for a third season (or until they intend to put him in F1 full-time.)

    22. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      15th May 2017, 9:38

      I do wonder if there would be anywhere near this number of votes for Wherlein if Botts, Raikonnen and Verstappen hadn’t retired. Massa having about 4 contacts that were not his fault taking him right to the back will have helped as well. And then the fact that Wherlein got a 5 second penalty and 2 penalty points as well as only beating Ericsson (who many consider to be one of the worst on the grid) by 0.005 seconds in qualifying. I agree Wheilein had a brilliant weekend, but not as great as many think surely. Ericsson was hardly any worse if you consider the strategy he was on.

      1. Then again, finishing is part of it. Sure, lots of retirements up front which helped Wehrlein, but he still finished ahead of Renaults, Haas cars, Williams cars, Toro Rossos, and McLarens. We didn’t expect that from the Swiss squad.

    23. Nutcase of the weekend probably goes to Sainz.

      1. Agreed! The way that he exited the pit lane should have incurred a big penalty. That was hot-headed, dangerous driving. Hopefully he gets a lecture at the next driver’s meeting.

    24. Shame I can’t vote for the new regs making driver numbers more visible. Honestly wish they would keep the shark fins just for number placement. Love it, these are the easy, no-brainer, nice things to give the fans!

    25. Based on Saturday alone, I’d vote Alonso. The pace he extracted from that car, after all the problems on Friday was marvellous. However, his race got ruined in the second corner and from that point on he drove an anonymous race. So in the end Wehrlein was an easy pick for this weekend. Amazing how he held off those faster cars. These points are very important to Sauber.

    26. As a Ferrari, first, Vettel second supporter: Gave it to Hamilton. Fastest in all but one session. Fastest lap. Keep calm during the race, was relaxed and smily during intervews.
      My take is that the Mercedes was very, very marginally the fastest car, but Hamilton needed to give it all to bag the win.

      Wehrlein, yes he did a good race, way better than the Sauber merits, but beat Ericsson by only 5/1000 to get to Q2 and was behind in FP1, FP2 anf FP3.

      So as Driver of the The Weekend: HAM

    27. Pascal Wehrlein is my winner. More than just the solid drive he put in for his comeback. Russia was little less than rubbish from him but this weekend. What a drive. Yes the front row had us knowing with tention at the nearest thing we could get our chops round. But Wehrlein just showed his brillience. Who knows what he could have done for Manor had they been here and had their car been as competitive as it looked. Potential to be a one with his name in the record books.

    28. Slight hesitation between PASC and LEW, but voted for the later as he fought like a pig to get the win, although the team helped I couldn’t see a Rosberg or a Bottas snatching the win in such circumstances, so yes definitely the Lewis we all know, honourable mentions for Pascal who drove a fantastic race and great team play from Bottas.
      Massa blocking tactics reminds of Hill blocking Schumacher and letting Heinz Harald through, truly epic.

    29. Vettel should have won, but too many team mistakes, Hamilton luck out again and if no Bottas no win. I mean Taking Kimi/Vers out, then block Vettel and the programmed VSC looks like official number 2 driver.

    30. Hamilton. Pole win fastest lap in a high preassure battle against title rival. Some things helped but same could be said for the Sauber driver who was also very good.

    31. Voted LH. Had pole, won the race. Despite circumstances of not maintaining the lead into turn one, the VSC etc etc, that’s racing. Anything can happen and often does.

    32. Michael Brown (@)
      15th May 2017, 15:36

      Raikkonen

    33. Scuderia-Racing-Or-Ping-Pong (@)
      15th May 2017, 18:02

      Wehrlein was definitely the Driver of the Weekend. Taking a car with a 2016 Ferrari power unit to a points finish was something I never predicted would happen to them.

    34. I should really have gone for Hamilton for the weekend, but I think Vettel should get some reward for his superb overtake of Bottas. Truly one of the most genius overtakes I’ve ever seen: jinking right to move Bottas right, then a slight left to make Bottas change direction again before he got too close to the edge of the track, then back to the right to drive up a line which Bottas couldn’t defend without taking a penalty. What set it apart was that it was all preemptive of Bottas’ responses, with a small margin of error. (I’ll forgive him for catching the grass.) As good as anything in the pre-DRS era. It doesn’t seem to have got much notice but I loved it.

    35. I say Wehrlein, but Kvyat also had a very good race to come from the back to the points

    36. My vote for driver of the weekend went to Wehrlein he may have had a bit of luck with the VSC but he was the only driver to make the one-stop strategy work, and although he received a time penalty for his entry to the pits he still managed to achieve his best result in F1 with eighth and Sauber’s first points of the season.

      The standout performance from qualifying for me was Alonso, managing to be seventh in the McLaren fastest behind only the top three teams of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull was something special. Sadly we didn’t get to see if he could manage a points finish after his coming together with Massa at the start but at least he managed to finish a race for the first time this year.

      Pererz kept up his string of consistent performances this season and took advantage of all the tops teams only having one car finish to secure fourth place.

      Hamilton got the hat trick of pole, fastest lap and the race win, although he lost the lead at the start he made up for it by chasing down Vettel and overtaking him to secure victory. Various circumstances did help him, and he had good reason to thank the whole team as they all made a contribution to his victory from the designers and engineers producing a great car, the strategy people for making the right calls in response to Ferrari and his teammate who put up a strong defence against Vettel.

    37. We are missing a point. Yes Sauber is a bad car…but mainly due to a bad Engine. I expect Sauber on the points in Monaco and the “aero races”. ERI missed Q2 by nothing. Sauber aero updates worked fine. Remember that was Sauber strategy for this year….spend the money in upgrades and not on engine. We now know that Sauber already decided to cut ties with Ferrari, so Ferrari didn’t want Sauber to have this enhanced 2017 (compared to 2016). I believe Sauber expected better performance in the first 4 races but all 2017 engines but Honda proved to be better than 2016 ones.
      On and all this was Sauber only upgrade of the year. I expect no changes in the car until Spa. With little chances in Monaco, maybe Azerbaijan and Hungary. Last update as usual in Singapore. For a low budget year this is great work by the Swiss outfit. 5) TR (19) 6) Williams (18) 7) Renault (14) 8) Haas (9). Being in that group with the lower budget is something to be proud of. Kudos Sauber!!!!

      1. @mumito Sauber is bringing more upgrades than the last 4 years why do you expect them to stop that trend?

        1. Gabriel: Sauber has “power” handicap from the get go. Successful chassis and aero updates can erase that handicap in certain circuits where power is not that important.
          As the season develops, and new engines upgrades are being introduced, the power deficit will be huge. There would be no point in developing (spending money). See Toro Rosso season using a year old Ferrari Engine. Decent at first…second half of the season….14 or back.
          I’m sure 2017 was always meant to be a transition year for Sauber. Financial aid made this transition year better than 2014 and 2016 already.

          1. @mumito Yeh its a transitionyear and they are moving to Honda but i dont see why they would completly stop the flow of upgrades when they have started so agressivly. Especially when the upgrades payed of so well for them.
            You see teams bringing upgrades bigger than the powerdeficit all the time.

            1. When Mercedes, Renault, and Ferrari start to develop their engines (remember tokens does not exist anymore) the Power deficit will be huge. No aero or chassis upgrade will cover for the loss of power. In other words….once the other teams develop the engine…is game over for Sauber because it’s stuck with the 2016 Ferrari PU.
              Sauber will not develop the car (spend money on the car). Sauber will be last no matter what they do on the aero/chassis environment. Again…watch last year Toro Rosso.
              This is not my point of view…this is Sauber official plan.
              Monaco, Hungary, Singapore are the best opportunities for Sauber. Expect updates for those races.

              Hey…I would like to have updates every race…I’m a Sauber fan….but that’s not happening. Money is king.

    38. 3% of the votes to Kimi? Really??

    39. Can we do to Palmer what we did to Chilton and just give him votes regardless?

    40. Vettel for the best overtake. Wherlein and Hamilton come in second.

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