Vote for your 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend

2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

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Which Formula One driver made the most of the Azerbaijan 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 Baku City Circuit.

Driver performance summary

DriverStartedFinishedRace changeLap 1 changeHighest positionLowest positionGap to team mate*
Lewis Hamilton15-40182.284
Valtteri Bottas220-18220-2.284
Daniel Ricciardo101+9+1117
Max Verstappen5+148
Sebastian Vettel440+217Not on same lap
Kimi Raikkonen314-11-2417Not on same lap
Sergio Perez6+3216
Esteban Ocon76+10316
Felipe Massa9+3314
Lance Stroll83+5028
Fernando Alonso199+10+1518-32.609
Stoffel Vandoorne1812+6+2111832.609
Carlos Sainz Jnr158+7-4719
Daniil Kvyat11-11112
Romain Grosjean1613+3+2919Not on same lap
Kevin Magnussen127+5+1311Not on same lap
Nico Hulkenberg13+3410
Jolyon Palmer20+31519
Marcus Ericsson1711+6+210152.701
Pascal Wehrlein1410+4+11017-2.701

    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 Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend?

    • No opinion (0%)
    • Pascal Wehrlein (0%)
    • Marcus Ericsson (0%)
    • Jolyon Palmer (0%)
    • Nico Hulkenberg (0%)
    • Kevin Magnussen (2%)
    • Romain Grosjean (0%)
    • Daniil Kvyat (0%)
    • Carlos Sainz Jnr (0%)
    • Stoffel Vandoorne (0%)
    • Fernando Alonso (6%)
    • Lance Stroll (49%)
    • Felipe Massa (1%)
    • Esteban Ocon (1%)
    • Sergio Perez (3%)
    • Kimi Raikkonen (0%)
    • Sebastian Vettel (3%)
    • Max Verstappen (2%)
    • Daniel Ricciardo (14%)
    • Valtteri Bottas (8%)
    • Lewis Hamilton (10%)

    Total Voters: 557

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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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    119 comments on “Vote for your 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend”

    1. Lance Stroll. Outqualified Massa, kept it out of the barriers, lost 2nd place only because of the OP MERCEDES ENGINE, first year in f1 and at one of the hardest tracks, think he deserves this one.

      1. +1 Agree completely

      2. Doesn’t the Williams have an OP Mercedes engine as well? Voted for Stroll as well btw ;)

      3. Andre Furtado
        25th June 2017, 23:54

        lol if people had not retired he would be all the way down the peck. Your argument of winning the driver award by being there doesn’t hold up. Hamilton drive was superb if anyone deserves it it’s him. Verstappen would be next. But stroll award for mediocracy feels silly.

      4. I believe Massa was far superior. He did overtake on track Raikonen, Perez, Ocon, Stroll and almost Vettel. The only driver that would’ve naturally finished ahead of him was Verstapen. (Hamilton and Vettel got punished for their own mistakes). A victory was highly possible. Stroll had just an average pace and some lucky.

        1. Hamilton wasn’t punished! his head support came loose forcing the team to pit him and fix it. Irrespective of all the restart drama, the victory was lost through no fault of his own.

        2. Which Hamilton mistake?
          People like you need to get over the bias.
          Your opinion is not fact by the way.

        3. In my opinion it was a mistake to brake like that in that point of the track.

          1. He didn’t brake, as shown by the FIA report.

            1. Except he did, as shown on the on screen overlay by the throttle/break/speed/gear graphic for the world to see unless your Sky and have an agenda.

      5. He out qualified Massa but Massa was much faster in the race and would have been ahead on the podium and could have even won if he hadn’t had the technical failure. I see no reason why Stroll should be driver of the weekend, he was just lucky.

      6. Agreed. A shame Bottas got him at the end but a great result anyway.

    2. Any of the top three deserve it.

      1. This is Driver of the Weekend. Riccardo crashed in Q3, Bottas crashed into Kimi in the race, so that leaves Stroll. I will give it to Stroll, for the podium plus being one of the few drivers who actually managed to stay on the track over the whole weekend.

        1. +1
          so many errors by so many drivers… Kinda makes this vote easy!

    3. Stroll, Alonso, Massa

      Or just anybody except for Seb and 44

    4. I think Stroll did an OK job, not many mistakes this weekend, less than most, but Ricciardo had a wonderful race. Kept his cool after losing out after an unplanned pitstop and made a wonderful move at the restart. Of course he was owned by his teammate for the rest of the weekend again, but I guess having some luck is a great asset for a driver!

      1. So you voted Driver of the Weekend the guy who ‘was owned by his teammate for the rest of the weekend’ :p
        @mosquito

    5. Voted Stroll. Good qualifying to beat Massa and had a flawless race to score a podium. Didn’t make any major mistakes the entire weekend.

      Hamilton drove a very good race before his issues, so did Perez before Ocon decided to crash into him, Massa could have won and Alonso scored McLaren’s first points from 19th on the grid.

    6. Vettel, of course. Hamilton stole his race.
      And Bottas Kimi race, by the way.
      Great race by Stroll and Ricciardo.

      1. Yes. Clearly Hamilton ruined Vettel’s race when Vettel ran into Hamilton…. Twice. Once very much on purpose…. Vettel was lucky he was allowed to continue.

        Voted for Stroll.

        1. @rick2k9, Hi 2dogs, I wanted to vote for Sebastien Maldonado but I can’t find him on the list, maybe it was Pastor Vettel, I’m confused but I’m sure I saw him driving a red car.

          1. That’s the funniest thing I have read in weeks!

        2. Best part of the race was HAM asking his teams Help to back Bottas into Vettel. Stop this whinig and arguements. Stroll Driver of the weekend.

      2. @jorge-lardone

        Vettel stole his own race. All he had to do was follow Lewis until he had his issue and then inherit the victory. Instead, he goes to play bumper cars and gets a penalty… LMAO

      3. Without the 10 seconds penalty, Vettle would have won the race.

    7. Has to be Stroll. Only other real contender for this is Alonso.

    8. I voted for Ricciardo not just because he won a difficult race but for his talent of making the best out of an awkward situation. I also think that the aerodynamics of the Red Bull helps his style of driving.

      Of course a very strong mention to Stroll as well.

      1. It doesn’t really help him to go quicker than his teammate lately.

        his talent is indeed to stay out of trouble, aka luck

        1. He’s got a win, 4 podiums and twice as much points as his teammate…. He consistantly puts in great drives, pulls of great moves and can always be counted on to be there when others fail to get a result. What’s not to like?!

          1. Verstappen out qualified him and was ahead when his engine failed the last 2 races

          2. I do like RIC. I’m actually happy for him. But he is really lucky this season he has the not failing car most of the time

        2. Starting to wondering if the only reason Verstappen is faster than Riccardo at times is he is driving the car beyond it’s limits and trashing it race after race.

          1. No-one with any inside knowledge does support this view.
            So forget it. A driver with more than his share of bad luck.. if it was Hamilton the talks about conspiracy started. Now it’s another thought aired without any basis.

          2. He’s not trashing his car. He’s just unlucky. It happens and it sucks.

      2. In my opinion, though, I can’t give it to RIC because he got out-qualified by his team mate.
        This is driver of the weekend, and whilst RIC was great today, he wasn’t so on-it yesterday.

        Stroll, whilst possibly less outstanding at any point during the weekend, was certainly one of the most consistently solid, and in my opinion, was THE most consistent when other drivers around him made errors at some point during the weekend.

        1. Bud qualifying is just qualifying. I know this is driver of the weekend but the money session is the race, and Ricciardo won.

          I base 80% – 90% of my vote off race performance. Qualifying doesn’t mean much.

          1. This logic is ridiculous. Ricciardo was off the pace of Verstappen all weekend. CRASHES OUT IN QUALIFYING by losing the rear and only got lucky because: 2 mercedes, 2 ferraris, Verstappen got huge bad luck. How does he get DOTW? . Not to mention that up to now in this season, Verstappen has been way better than him and more impressive.

      3. Same reason here, maximised the opportunity presented to him on Sunday by keeping a cool head and pulling off a superb double overtake. Even though he struggled on Saturday.

        Very close with Stroll though.

    9. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
      25th June 2017, 19:31

      Lance Stroll drove like he’s got high potential.

    10. Stroll. The kid is improving.

    11. Lance Stroll takes my vote.

      His podium finish wasn’t a totally lucky result. He had been quick all weekend, he beat his teammate in qualifying, kept out of the chaos, and never put a foot wrong. It seems as if his first points has boosted his confidence enormously, and he fully deserves this result.

      1. The only reason that he finished ahead of his teammate was a car failure. Massa did overtake all the cars that Stroll gained the position only by accidents.

    12. Stroll out qualified his team mate for the first time, then got his first podium. No one was particularly amazing, so he gets my vote

    13. I voted Vettel. He showed balls, drove perfectly, made it a thriller of a race by driving into Hamilton. Real Schumacher mentality! I loved it.

      Stroll, I just can’t root for, as he’s part of F1’s problem.

      1. I agree. I totally got Schumacher vibe from all of this. And it added quite a lot to the overall entertainment of the race. So at least he got that going for him, which is nice. But that’s where the good ends.

        Gotta say I don’t support this behavior at all. And while I don’t really like Hamilton’s calculated press responses most of the time, I agree that true colors showed up this weekend. Vettel always wanted to be seen as a cool-headed good guy, who condemns dangerous driving. Remember Vettel – Kvyat in China 2016?

        Well, you gotta be consistent. If you believe Hamilton brake-tested you, raise the issue with the team and stewards, or talk to him eye-to-eye, like you did with Kvyat. Don’t ram a driver for crying out loud. It’s a miracle he wasn’t banned outright, and it was incredibly stupid to endanger his championship chances this way.

        1. @zimkazimka Of course he should not have done it, but let’s not make it bigger than it is. It were just the wheels that collided with each other. None of these F1 cars will break apart after such contact. Yet, ppl pretend he committed a murder.

          It might not be the image Seb likes to have. But the image of heat headed guy I already had of him. He is cool off-track, but heated on track. And if things don’t go his way or injustice is done he loses it. I like to see this kind of characters. Today, Hamilton destroyed his race, and so Vettel got mad. In an instance he did something he probably regretted right away. Big deal.. he got an appropriate penalty and that’s it. However, I feel that Lewis should have had a penalty too. He is good at pretending to be the Moral Knight. But brake testing someone goes against the rules as well.

          1. Why is it that the stewards, who have access to the telemetry, don’t agree with you ?
            Vettel’s mistake, compounded by his clearly unacceptable behaviour, ruined his race – and he was extremely lucky to get off with such a light penalty.

            1. Because the stewards are a joke and they have proven this time and time again. Yet, when it plays into ppl’s cards, they pretend they are right because the stewards say so.

              According to the stewards, with all their telemetry access, Lewis did not lift or braked completely. What is this then? https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DDLpvqrXgAAAToD.jpg

            2. @SpaF. That’s you believing the graphics are drawn from the cars telemetry, when it’s in fact abstracted from a combination of the gps feed that we all can access from the website and some algorithms that analyse said data. It is not, I repeat not taken from sensor data, it cannot be relied on for anything more than a very general idea of what is going on in the car. The stewards DO have data drawn directly from the sensors and you’d better believe that it includes data directly from a potentiometer in the brake pedal, as well as the accelerator, and they have released a statement saying that Lewis was not pressing the brake and was lightly pressing the accelerator pedal. That’s from the pedals themselves, not the guesstimate algorithms.

          2. Here’s the thing – I don’t think most people are making it bigger than it is, if only it is actually impossible to make it even bigger. Imagine it happening in real life on a road. The guy just lines up beside you going 50 to 60 and slides right into you, because he THOUGHT you braked where you shouldn’t have. Never mind that the data proves otherwise. Do you think he’d get away with it this easy?

            It doesn’t matter that F1 cars can sustain such impacts. What matters is that this behavior must be condemned. In a sport where driving mistakes are punished, a deliberate action like this with light punishment sends all sorts of wrong signals.

      2. @spafrancorchamps If there was a Maldonado award for this race.. then yes… I would vote for Vettel.

        Since we are voting for BEST drivers of the weekend I’d save the vote for Lewis with honourable mentions to Stroll and Alonso.

    14. Stroll, K-Mag and Alonso

      Did their team mates both in quali and race

      1. I forgot about K-Mag. I think he certainly deserves a higher percentage of the votes than he has currently.

    15. Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
      25th June 2017, 20:09

      Τhe Williams duo.Before the season started many thought Massa-Stroll would have been the worst lineup on the grid,but both were very good on race day.Clean driving by both,pushing to the limits & generally a great weekend for the team despite Massa’s unfortunate DNF.

    16. This was probably the easiest Driver of the Weekend vote of the year.

    17. Voted for Stroll

      Struggled a lot until Canada but this weekend he was the faster Williams in qualy and he had a great result with P3 in the race

    18. Where do we vote on whether the FIA should release a video of the drivers’ briefing in Austria? I know they said they won’t be doing that anytime soon again but c’mon FIA… We need this.

      1. So true!!

    19. How can Hamilton be so low when he has a perfect weekend, best qualifying performance by far and would’ve won the race without his headrest problem.
      The fact that he’s behind Bottas on the poll is unbelievable, he outqualified him by 4 tenths and was faster during the race.

      1. The fact that he is behind Bottas (who came from a lap down to get second) proves that far from everyone is a totally blinkered Hamilton fan. The bottom line is that Bottas walks away from this weekend with 18 points to Hammy’s 10, everything else is just excuses, what-ifs and pigs-may-fly.

        1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
          25th June 2017, 22:25

          Last I checked Hamilton and Vettel caught up with Bottas and I can assure you the Mercedes was NOT the quickest car at the end of the race since Lewis wasn’t lapping faster than Vettel by 1-2 seconds…

        2. To Henrik:

          So you want to play the Fact card, eh? Alright then, I’ll throw some counter facts your way.

          Fact: Bottas 4 tenths slower than Ham in quali.

          Fact: Bottas being a lap down was HIS OWN FAULT for the contact he made with Raikkonen at turn one.

          Fact: Lapped cars are permitted to unlap themselves under safety car. It’s nothing special, particularly when you have multiple safety cars and a red flag closing everyone together, plus Mercedes engine & DRS.

          Fact: Finishing ahead and getting more points than someone else is not the be-all and end-all for a driver of the weekend vote.

          @francorchamps is quite right to at least raise the issue (since then, LH has more votes than VB anway), but you trying to quantify driver of the weekend by basing it on points and positions, there’s a bit more to it than that.

          Anyway, on a side note… For me this was Stroll’s weekend, even if he benefited from his team-mate’s woes. The amount of pressure he’s been under, to keep out of trouble and bring it home for the podium (and a solid quali too), it must have taken some considerable mental strength. That’s the kind of thing that gets you driver of the weekend.

          1. @Ninjenius. The ONLY fact that matters is in what order they take the chequered flag. Everything that precedes the race is only so much preparation and counts for *nothing* in the points table. Hamilton may have produced the qualifying lap of the season but STILL only finished fifth and behind Vettel. Ricciardo, who at one point was right at the back of the field, Bottas, who was a lap down, and in particular Stroll, who put in an absolutely brilliant and flawless drive after all the troubles he has had this season and all the flak that has come his way, are the only realistic candidates this weekend. Anyone who says, argues or votes otherwise is just delusional.

            1. @ Henrik

              The ONLY fact that matters is in what order they take the chequered flag.

              When voting for driver of the weekend I’d say that’s a very narrow-minded justification, but hey you’re entitled to your opinion and I’m not going to say your method or my method is objectively superior.

              Anyone who says, argues or votes otherwise is just delusional.

              Calling people that don’t agree with your views “delusional” is a pretty immature move. Let’s show some respect to each other here.

    20. It’s a no brainer. Stroll. The kid managed to answer his detractors today. Well done!

    21. Voted for Stroll.

      Has completely defied expectations in the last 2 weeks. It was only a month ago that people were saying he should be replaced before the end of the season. He put in a really professional performance for someone so young and inexperienced.

      Honorable mentions for Ricciardo, Bottas, Perez and Magnussen.

    22. I think that has to be Stroll here. Had Ricciardo not crashed during Q3, I would probably have voted for him.

      HM to KMag, Alonso and Bottas.

    23. @keithcollantine What is the point of these polls if the person who was slow on quali, got fortunate in the race due to his rivals crashing and engine failures (Raikkonen, Bottas and Verstappen) and then just rams into another car gets 3% when he should have gotten disqualified. On the other hand, Hamilton was unbeatable in qualifying and race( until he had to pit due to no fault of his own) and was able to successfully restart 3 times (with a 2km back straight) without losing a position gets 7%. His teammate got 2% more. Unbelievable! You lose to your teammate in quali, race day you crash into a rival on lap 1 ( I would say Bottas was at fault there) and you get 2% more because you got fortunate. Yes he came from the back but after the red flag he was essentially the leading faster car(Merc of Ferrari). On the last stint he was significantly slower than Hamilton and Vettel that caught up to him and finished right behind while battling with each other. How is that being better than your teammate in the race or in qualy, the only 2 sessions that really matter?
      And who wins it? Someone who was beaten by his teammate in qualifying and was outraced until Massa had a problem late in the race. He really impressed people with 3rd, but it was a crazy race and people don’t have high expectations for Stroll.
      Not to even mention someone who binned it in Q3 and basically inherited the lead while being slower than his teammate all weekend long gets 9%.
      This goes right there with the Rio Haryanto winning driver of the day in the F1 forum.
      Why is there the need for such a thing even? People have never been objective about this and never really will. I know if I don’t like it I can just ignore it, but a lot of people see this poll as an important measure of good drives when it’s just a measure of bias or a measure of who surprised most people. At this point it should just be renamed to Driver of the Masses.

      1. Not sure why you are so angry. This is an opinion poll purely for interest and entertainment and doesn’t count for anything. Everyone has different criteria for voting so of course you will see results that you consider ‘strange/inaccurate/just plain wrong’. If the results upset you then you probably shouldn’t read the articles.

      2. I guess that’s why @keithcollantine publishes an excellently argued driver ranking twice a year, that takes into account a bit more @redi; We are free to discuss why we agree, or not, with results of that, and with this poll.

      3. I couldn’t agree more!! @redi!

        I have read above someone ask how Bottas has more votes than Hamilton and a reply saying because he finished in front of Hamilton and nothing else matters. Then why bother voting at all as by that definition it should just be the race winner getting all the votes! Just stupid.

        It reminds me of how everyone calls Canada 2011 Jenson Button’s best ever drive…. How, when:
        1) He qualifies behind his teammate (Hamilton).
        2) His team-mate was much faster than him in the wet conditions (when Button is meant to be a demi-God in the wet, as proven by the fact Hamilton (and Schumacher) overtook him easily (after Hamilton dropped back due to tangling with Webber whilst trying to overtake) and Hamilton was gaining again and ready top overtake after falling behind (when he had to drive wide at the hairpin when battling to overtake Schumacher)).
        3) He had multiple avoidable (and arguably his fault) collisions with Alonso and Hamilton which finished both of their races, one of which I believe he got penalised for.
        Ok so after all that he managed to get from last to first, but he wouldn’t have been able to without safety cars and a lot of luckily timed pit stops. How that make sit his best drive I do not understand?
        Don’t get me wrong I am not anti-Button, I like the guy, just don’t think this was his best race and don’t see how people consider it was when the first half his driving was awful and got at least half lucky for the second half. I’d want my best race to be the one where I was the most skillful and made no mistakes and didn’t get lucky but earned the position I got !

    24. I voted Ricciardo, because I forgot this is driver of the weekend not the race, so I should voted Stroll, great weekend for him, well deserved podium.

    25. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      25th June 2017, 22:22

      This is hilarious – Daniel has a higher percentage than Lewis!

    26. Going to give it to Hamilton. Superb form all weekend, doesn’t win the race because a factor which wasn’t his fault.

      Ricciardo form is worse than Verstappen all weekend until the latter retired and Stroll was behind Massa until he retired too, so I don’t think he deserve DOTW more than Hamilton this week. Alonso form doesn’t look as strong as in other races, only this time his car actually collect the chequered flag.

      1. Andre Furtado
        25th June 2017, 23:32

        Don’t like Hamilton at all personally. But I give driver of the weekend to lees Hamilton himself. He drove that car like something out of this world. To give driver of the weekend just because someone finishes top 3 is ridiculous to me. (For those whose voted lance stroll). Inheriting a position because people ahead of crashed or had bad luck does not make you a good driver.

      2. Plus Hamilton handled this heartbreaking weekend like a champ. (At least what on I’ve read so far). A stupid floppy headrest cost him massively.

        Vettel leaves with about 10 points lead on the Championship. Hamilton should have left with about a 5 point lead.

        His only failure was not getting by Vettel. Which is a pretty tiny flaw given his teammate was being reeled.

      3. Stroll, Hamilton, Verstappen and Alonso were the star performers, unfortunately the two latter ones hit technical trouble (Alonso was much much slower in the end of the race). While it is tempting to vote for Stroll who is certainly the one which exceed expectations the most, I can hardly believe that being on par with Massa is as good a performance as being consistently several tenth faster that Bottas (who outdrove Massa last year). It must be Hamilton for me.

        1. Andre Furtado
          27th June 2017, 1:14

          lol how was stroll a star? The guy had a mediocre race inherited podium due to other people bad luck.

    27. I’m going to give it to Stroll, he deserves some love. I just hope the lovefest doesn’t get as ridiculous as the hatefest that preceded it.

    28. This poll could be interesting. After that race, I have to think a bit about who was actually good and who was just lucky. I think the DotW candidates are probably Hamilton, Verstappen, Massa, Stroll, Perez, Alonso, and Magnussen. Honestly it’s hard to judge amongst all the carnage but I’m inclined to say Verstappen, he’s been consistently brilliant this season but really has had the worst luck. He almost certainly would’ve won the race after Hamilton and Vettel’s woes if he hadn’t suffered yet another car failure.

      1. Perez, not sure about his teammate tangle @keithedin; Verstappen wasn’t in the race long enough to include him. Alfonso just kept running,etc. That’s why I went w guy in top 3 who didn’t make a mistake whole weekend.

        1. @bosyber I think Perez was fairly blameless in that collision, Ocon just squeezed him against the wall so I didn’t count it against him. Alonso did more than just keep running, he did some good racing too. The channel 4 commonetators missed it but he actually overtook Bottas while they were both following someone (Ocon I think), which I found pretty hilarious.

          You might be right about Verstappen, there might be some sympathy bias in my vote. But between here and Canada he’s probably covered enough distance to justify one DoTW vote ;)

    29. how on earth do people vote for Ricciardo ? didn’t you watch on friday and saturday?

      Had to be Lance Stroll, topped Massa all weekend.

    30. Andre Furtado
      25th June 2017, 23:29

      All top 3 did was stay out of trouble. What a sad day when that makes you driver of the day.

      1. Bottas crashed into Raikkonen and suffered a puncture and had to work his way up from last, while Ricciardo fell back to 17th after getting debris in his radiator. Hardly staying out of trouble. Not sure why stroll is getting all the votes though, as he got easily overtaken by Ricciardo and Bottas and all the fast cars ahead of him dropped away. Did he even pass anyone?

        1. Andre Furtado
          26th June 2017, 3:42

          I think he passed masssa when massa hit engine trouble. But that counts right ?

    31. As a Canadian, I’m really hoping Stroll is a guy I can cheer for. I never liked Villeneuve very much, his Williams was pretty dominant in ’97… Then there’s the nonsense that is constantly coming out of his mouth, lol. I wasn’t so sure about Stroll after the first races, but he’s looking better and better. Outperforming Massa a couple times isn’t necessarily that impressive though. If Massa has a bad weekend, he’s not very quick.. Not sure that’s the case, but I guess maybe I just don’t want to get my hopes up too much, lol. Also, he seems like a decent, level headed kid so far. Haven’t heard him making a lot of excuses for his mistakes, that’s always a deal breaker for me. I HATE when drivers don’t cop to their mistakes, and constantly make excuses.

      1. Also, he seems like a decent, level headed kid so far. Haven’t heard him making a lot of excuses for his mistakes, that’s always a deal breaker for me.

        Exactly, i enjoy his interviews more than his driving (the opposite of VER).

    32. I’m going to go for Stroll. My first thought was that in a race where almost everyone else lost there head, I never would’ve imagined that Stroll would be one of the few to make it to the end undamaged. But that would be unfair to say it was a just a good performance by his standards; it was a great performance by anyone’s standards. Don’t think we could’ve asked for anymore from him.

      The jury’s still out for me on whether he is a decent talent, but fair play to him, his performances so far compared to this weekend have been night and day. Those first points have done wonders for his confidence. I’ll gladly take back everything I’ve said about him if he keeps this up.

    33. Alonso’s performance would be more impressive if it wasn’t for the fact that he’s been running in the points for much of the season so far. The only difference this time is that the car didn’t have a terminal problem.

    34. Michael Brown (@)
      26th June 2017, 0:14

      Wow, it’s not even close between Stroll and the rest.

    35. I went with the driver of the weekend rather than a result lottery choice. Dominant qualifying, nailed every restart, and mugged of a result by a headrest. Hamilton was the best driver regardless of the final race result.

      1. Yeah, I went Hamilton, as he drove the best race and did a brilliant qualy lap. He also showed a lot of maturity with the Vettel incident and to losing the race over a headrest. Otherwise it would have been a dominant win.

      2. Agree that it’s tough to get ‘mugged’ of a result by headrest, but I feel more sorry for the guy who got ‘held up at gunpoint’ of yet another result due to terminal car failure.

        1. It’s becoming a bad joke with his reliability this year. Ricciardo is having an incredibly lucky season.

    36. Just out of interest.
      Ricciardo more votes than Verstappen; did people vote who only watched the finish?
      And who voted for Mr Road Rage?

    37. Voted for Stroll. Got a podium no matter how. Maybe all the things they are saying to boost his confidence is finally paying off. I’ll be honest, I didn’t think he would even score a point this season let alone a podium. But a consecutive points finish with a podium in a crazy race, is worthy of DOTW especially when he finally beat his team-mate in qualifying.

      Didn’t see the race, so I don’t really know how he got to there but he finished there and that’s what matter especially for a rookie.

    38. Stroll ,obviously. What I can’t understand is how anyone could vote for Hamilton .
      It was no coincidence or accident that Hamilton break- checked Vettel. He did so knowing that it was a win-win situation for himself. Either Vettel’s car would be damaged ( which happened ) or Vettel would lose his cool ( which he did ) .
      One is reminded of how Hamilton acted in 2007 breaking a deal with Alonso and McLaren in which the drivers were to alternate favored positions in qualifying . This started a team breakdown hurting both Alonso and McLaren. That was neither a coincidence nor was it happen stance but, rather a plan in which a driver and a team were in effect sacrificed .
      We saw today another similar Hamilton tactic: that is trying to advance his own position by using his teammate to the detriment of the teammate and the team.
      With several laps to go and seeing that he could not catch Vettel Hamilton suggested to the team that it have Bottas slow down and cause Vettel to run into dirty air thus giving Hamilton a chance to catch him.
      Similar to how Hamilton tried to Back Rosberg into the Ferrari in the last race last year.
      In each instance Hamilton cared nothing about his teammate or his team . He only cared about himself .
      I used to admire Hamilton but, I see now that he is selfish to the nth degree and while he has great results he has no character and perhaps his results are a result of driving for a great team (which he obviously does not appreciate) and his willingness and skill at using others ( and by others I mean his teammate and his team ).He only cared about himself.
      To vote for him as driver of the week end is unreasonable ,ignores the many better performances and disregards what has become clear to me : that is that while he may win races he does so because of the car he drives more than his own skill and he knows it.
      Case in point: today even while driving a better and faster car he could not catch Vettel even given plenty of time . Did he try harder or another way ? No ,he asked Mercedes to sacrifice Bottas by asking Bottas to slow down and potentially be past by Vettel. Why ? because it helped Hamilton and it is now clear to me that Lewis Hamilton ONLY worries about Lewis Hamilton !
      Today Bottas could have been past by Vettel if Mercedes did as Hamilton asked but, Hamilton did not concern himself about the potential loss to Bottas or Mercedes ,he just focused on the potential gain for himself.
      The same was true in last years last race. hamilton did not care if backing Rosberg into the Ferraris caused the team to loss points. if successful it would have brought another title to Hamilton and that was all that mattered to Hamilton ,even if it meant disregarding a direct order from his race director ( and that disrespect did cause Patti Lowe to leave Mercedes ,an outcome Hamilton had to know would happen). He only cares about himself .
      As an aside this is what made Hamilton’s remark about being concerned that a more severe penalty was needed for Vettel so that young drivers would not think it was OK to wheel tap another car such total non-sense and so hypocritical.
      I can’t believe that the thought of setting the tone for the young EVER crossed Hamilton’s mind. He wanted a more serious penalty because he is worried that even though he has a better car he might lose the driver’s title to Vettel, nothing more.
      Remember -Lewis Hamilton only cares about Lewis Hamilton .

      1. Oh boy, normally I don’t reply to this kind of comment, but I got nothing better to do atm, so here we go.

        First, the stewards already declare Hamilton didn’t do any brake check and they already reviewing the telemetry data, which I’m sure you don’t even had any access to see it. It’s up to you to keep being delusional and making some conspiracy theory but that doesn’t change the fact that Hamilton didn’t do anything wrong on the SC restarts here.

        Second, why Hamilton would want to take such a risk? He leading the race comfortably and have 7 point gain on Vettel for championship in hand. Why risk crashing and retiring both of them which get him +0 point or even if not retiring them, a puncture or something that require extra stop will certainly cost him more than he could gain. Here some perspective: to get more than +7 gain on Vettel, he should finish at least 6th while Vettel doesn’t get any points. Any puncture he got on that SC restart means almost guaranteed put him into last place because SC bunched up the field.

        Third, Hamilton asked Merc to tell Bottas to help him if Bottas can’t get any more positions. The team tell him Bottas still have a chance to get more position and that’s the end of the case. No more requests or demand from Hamilton to sacrifice Bottas (and Mercedes) race for him. Asking for a favor from your teammate is fine, demanding is not. Hamilton is certainly not demanding anything.

        Fourth, Hamilton form is superior to Bottas since Q1 until the end of the race. His qualy lap is untouchable and his race pace also better. Why he can’t pass Vettel? Because Ferrari pace is also good. Even if Mercedes is few tenth quicker, doesn’t mean they can breeze thru Ferrari easily. Put Vettel in Merc and Hamilton in Ferrari and I doubt Vettel will be able to pass too.

        Since he the most dominant driver this weekend, it’s logical to vote him as DOTW. You’re welcome to pick another driver but please support your driver choice on why he deserved it, not lambasting other driver you hate.

        The rest of your rant is history that already debated countless time over so I wont touch that.

    39. I thought of voting for Hamilton, who I think did a stellar job on Saturday, and made no mistakes in a race where a lot of others did. But, let’s give it to another who did that, and got himself a podium and was close to hanging on to second, after out qualifying his teammate.

      That is, Stroll. Amply rewarded his teams confidence in him, and shows that Canada wasn’t just a fluke by saving their race.

      Seeing HAM behind RIC makes me hope others do go for Hamilton though, as Ricciardo had that q3 shunt.

    40. Stroll I do get, he’s a rookie who finally seems to have found his stride. But on ric, ham, I agree

    41. Vettel, nobody else comes close.

    42. tgu (@thegrapeunwashed)
      26th June 2017, 10:07

      I understand why people are voting for Stroll: his first podium after a shaky start in the sport – and a solid weekend – but this race was a lottery, none of the podium were exceptional.

      Hamilton’s pole lap was a voyage into the unknown, in which he demolished the competition – they all fell by the wayside: Bottas 0.434, Vettel 1.2, Verstappen 5th place. In the race he way flawless and deserved the win under very trying conditions: repeated SCs and a red flag, each one obliterating his lead; and keeping a cool head after being the victim of a road rage incident in which the offender was let off the hook. Despite all this, Hamilton was on course to win comprehensively, but for the really unusual headrest problem, something completely out of his hands.

      This was another emphatic performance from Hamilton, and all the more remarkable given the struggle Mercedes had to find a set-up to get the tyres working.

    43. I think it was Hamilton hands down. Put in a masterclass in qualifying to take pole. He got away cleanly and was controlling the race, and would have won it easily if it wasn’t for that ridiculous headrest issue.

      I think Stroll and Alonso also did a solid job this weekend, but Lewis was flawless.

      1. @todfod, yep. So “flawless” that he didn’t even come close on overtaking his rival and then begged the team to help him pull another one of his dirty tricks. Alright then.

    44. Has to be Vettel for getting ahead of Hamilton despite a ridiculously late penalty

    45. A consistent MAG getting the maximum out of the Haas racer – wonder what he could have done in the Williams….

    46. Fukobayashi (@)
      26th June 2017, 11:03

      Ricciardo deserves this the least. Slower than his teammate all weekend, inherited a win when Max’s car failed him yet again and because of Hamilton’s stupid headrest.

      Hamilton was as peerless as Canada.

      1. If you ignore the silly behaviour behind the pace car

      2. and the criticism of Charlie Whiting

    47. and the idle threats after the race

    48. Bottas, being lapped and coming back to snatch 2nd at the very end. One of the best races I’ve seen in a long time.

    49. Stroll did a really good job this weekend. I really feel for Massa though. Could have won that race if it wasn’t for the mechanical issue. Or at least a podium.
      In the end it was Lewis for me. Massacred the opposition on Saturday. The only reason he’s not walking away with the win is because some one head mechanic didn’t lock his headrest in place properly after the red flag.

    50. Massa. Very very fast in the race and would have been on for the win, and ahead of Stroll. Let down by a technical failure.

    51. I have to admit I get a but annoyed when I read some people’s opinions on Stroll in this race, credit given when credits due. People say he should have been P7, P9 or whatever but the point is, Ocon and Perez clashed, Vettel got a deserved penalty, Hulk smacked the wall, Verstappen and Massa’s car failed and Hamilton was forced to pit for the head rest. At the end of the day, after endless criticism including from me, the lad kept his nose clean and raced well, not getting caught up in clashes is luck yes but also careful driving, give the lad a break, his podium was deserved.

      As for Hamilton, he was legally driving slowly, and carried the same speed through the corner, the acceleration onto Ham was all on Vettel, the wheel banging was a deliberate clash, Grosjean got a race ban for being careless in 2012 and Vettel effectively didn’t lose out at all for deliberately driving into another driver. In my eyes he deserved to be black flagged. Even if Hamilton did brake test him, what Vettel did was inexcusable, I’d think the same if it was the other way around too.

    52. Stroll is a strong candidate but I’ll still vote for Hamilton. He lost the race because of the headrest alone, something completely beyond his control. Without that he was in for a very dominant win among all the chaos.

    53. Hard one. I’ll go with Lance Stroll, simply because its an awesome result he needed very baddly.

      Jolyon could use one of these aswell…

      Lance had an awesome weekend infact. End result was lucky, but he was in position to get lucky, so good on him.

    54. My driver of the weekend was Lance Stroll, scoring his first points last time out in Canada seemed to really boost his confidence as this weekend he managed to outqualify his much more experienced teammate for the first time.

      He didn’t seem to make the best of starts, but he stayed out of trouble with all that happened throughout the race and found himself in second after all the problems other drivers encountered, unfortunately Bottas passed him on the line but a third place finish was still a great achievement for Stroll.

      Stroll has come in for a lot of criticism, so hopefully this will silence his detractors. I haven’t got involved in any of the debates about Stroll but, as is the case on the internet, I think some people have gone overboard in their attacks on him.

      After practice I thought it would be another weekend like Russia and Monaco where Hamilton just never got comfortable, but he turned it around in qualifying putting in another stunning pole lap. He was controlling the race and set to take another routine win until the problem with his headrest.

      Even if Hamilton hadn’t had any car problems and had won the race I wouldn’t have voted for him as driver of the weekend as it was a case of a top driver in a quick car doing what is expected of them.

      Although Ricciardo won the race I never considered him for driver of the weekend. His teammate was quicker than him all weekend but yet again Verstappen had to retire from a good position with car problems.

      Ricciardo also crashed in qualifying and although he was forced into an early stop to clear a brake duct from debris dropped him down the field, the circumstances of the race with the safety cars brought him back to the front, then issues for others, such as Hamilton’s car problems and Vettel’s penalty, handed him the victory.

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