Vote for your 2017 Singapore Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend

2017 Singapore Grand Prix

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Which Formula One driver made the most of the Singapore 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 Singapore.

Driver performance summary

DriverStartedFinishedRace changeLap 1 changeHighest positionLowest positionGap to team mate*
Lewis Hamilton51+4+411-8.8
Valtteri Bottas63+3+1368.8
Daniel Ricciardo32+1+123
Max Verstappen2
Sebastian Vettel1
Kimi Raikkonen4
Sergio Perez125+7+848-19.436
Esteban Ocon1410+4+681319.436
Felipe Massa1711+6+310154.84
Lance Stroll188+10+5813-4.84
Fernando Alonso8-41217
Stoffel Vandoorne97+2+279
Carlos Sainz Jnr104+6+149
Daniil Kvyat13+21111
Romain Grosjean159+60915
Kevin Magnussen16+61015
Nico Hulkenberg7+4213
Jolyon Palmer116+5+537
Marcus Ericsson20+41216
Pascal Wehrlein1912+7+21217

    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.

    This poll has closed

    Lewis Hamilton was voted Driver of the Weekend for the Singapore Grand Prix with 37.8% of the vote.

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

    Author information

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

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    80 comments on “Vote for your 2017 Singapore Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend”

    1. Eh… I like SAI, PAL and HAM here.
      Voted PAL simply because it’s very unlikely that he’s in contention for DOTW at any point in the future.

      1. I guess it’s a bit of a ‘sympathy’ vote @mxmxd, but I went along – both HAM and SAI have plenty of votes to put them on top of the vote anyway. Palmer didn’t out-qualify Hulk here, but he went okay, had a good start and showed some good racing and kept his spot the whole rest of the race, so he did a good job today, and I hope he can indeed show a bit more if this, and his pace in Spa during the/his final 6 races.

        1. Is that the same Palmer who was both outqualified and outraced (until the mechanical failure) by his teammate?

      2. Those are the logical three I think. As Palmer was out qualified by Hulkenberg and Hamilton wasn’t really in with a shout of getting pole (despite driving a faultless race), I had to give Sainz the nod.

      3. Ric for sure he was faster than the Mercs on saturday and had to nurse a gb issue through out the race and still managed to beat the other Merc..

      4. Yep ! Palmer got my vote.

        Couldn’t agree more. OK….he won’t be around next season, but he
        drove brilliantly in the wet , though he faded towards the end of the race.
        It is a very great pity that F1 has lost the long list of competing teams
        it had in the old days. Palmer might now be planning his 2018 campaign
        with a team trying to grow….just as he is….

    2. I think sainz. Hamilton wasn’t on it in qualy and was lucky at the start. Riccardo wasn’t able to get past a slower car, bottas wasn’t special. Vettel, verstappen, raikkonen, and Alonso all performed great in qualy… Sainz was best of the rest.

      1. @colinchapman

        Wasn’t on it? Did we watch the same qualifying? Nearly 7 tenths up on his team mate and within a sniff of getting ahead of Raikkonen isn’t on it?

        The start had some luck involved, but his wet pace was all Hamilton.

        1. 7 tenths up on a guy who got passed by Palmer while having the better tyre for the conditions

          1. You can’t define a drivers talent level by a single moment, because there isn’t a driver on the grid who doesn’t have a moment like that you could make them look bad with.

            It’s a straw man argument.

            1. Yeah i know, i just thought that was a funny moment. I think its pretty clear that Bottas is probably the worst wet weather driver on the grid.

            2. Well that’s just false. Bottas has always been well regarded as a wet weather driver through both his junior career and early F1 career.

              I think people just like to hold back giving Hamilton credit. Look at his wet weather races and how every team mate he’s had compares against him. Even Alonso in Fuji 2007 wasn’t in the same league as Hamilton.

              Most people’s answer is that his teammates are just poor in the wet, but I think if we’re fair Hamilton is just on another level in the wet.

    3. Riciardo is a media darling whos been running his mouth about wining this weekend and saying he is as good as the top guys…..This weekend he was at the sharp end of things,got out qualified,bad start couldnt get close to Lewis even when he had fresh tires…Running some alt strategy with no pressure is one thing,fighting at the sharp end and maintaining the intensity is another

      1. Read this article,
        which is why he couldn’t put pressure on Hamilton.
        And in qualifying, being 0.02s off your team mate who’s generally better than you over 1 lap is hardly a disaster.

        1. from spin doctor Honner trying to save face…Lewis had the pace on him from the 1st stint to the last by the same proportion,every time Riciardo pushed Lewis push harder..there was no sudden drop off in pace from Daneil

      2. Ricciardofanatic.co.uk… Even though he kept 2nd along with a gearbox problem, he did not put it on pole and he even got outqualified by Max. Plus, he even lost the start to Lewis. Then, he can’t catch up even with fresher tyres. DOTW is not Driver of the race. Even in Canada people were still voting for him when Max outqualified him and was in 2nd before he retired.

        1. I am starting to get sick of this argument, I am a massive fan of ricciardo but I can admit that verstappen has him on pure talent alone but Ric is still very very quick. Why can’t we be happy watching two guys how are right at the front of f1 pushing each other? What would verstappen fans prefer? Ricciardo pushing verstappen to new heights or him being partnered with a pay driver that we wipes the floor with and learns nothing?

          I don’t think Dani is a quick as ver but his race craft and consistency is what ver needs to study….

          Just enjoy it, otherwise we could just get another Vettel/rai match up which is a clear number 1/2 situation

      3. Yet again Ricardo has gotten outstanding results, better than verstappen, who this weekend was the better driver but victim of others over-exuberance.

        I’ll bet verstappen hates that smile.

        1. I find it a bit much saying that this “Weekend”, Verstappen was the better driver. In virtually all the race, we didn’t get to see what Verstappen could have done. He was better in Q3 and the very start but the rest is unknown. If you include Friday as the weekend, then Ricciardo was quicker that day in both sessions.

      4. Ric is a more complete driver than max at this stage …Max still has a massive amount of banzai in him because of his age

    4. Sainz… Q3 and P4, can’t say fairer than that! Cool headed, but desicive where it counted… Great drive

    5. I voted for Sainz, but it wasn’t an easy choice between him, Palmer, and Hamilton. No one really stood out too clearly throughout the weekend.

    6. Carlos for me. reached Q3 with that Torro Rosso, then held on to quicker Perez for half a race to finish on a superb 4th place. Kudos to Lewis who was faultless and to Vandoorne who should have been 6th had it not been for a clumsy 10s pitstop.

    7. Hulkenberg for me, probably wont get many votes as he didn’t finish but he was pushing Bottas until he got his issue.

      Honourable mentions go to Hamilton, Sainz and the Red Bull drivers.

    8. Voted Hulkenberg. Best of the rest in quali, ahead of the McLaren’s who looked to be quicker this weekend. Then was on for at least a 4th place finish today, if not a podium, comfortably ahead of Sainz and Perez behind him before his car broke on him. Also I’m bias, but he does genuinely deserve recognition imo. Sainz would be my other choice.

      1. Voted for him for the same reasons. I really hope he gets a competitive drive at some point in his career.

        1. Same choice for me!

          I am really positive about Renault´s performance and he will get his podium soon enough.

    9. Hulkenberg without any doubt.
      Both spanish drivers did a superb job aswell.

    10. I think this is one of the clearest cut weekends yet. Sure plenty of drivers had a great race. But Hamilton destroyed Bottas in qualifying, 4th was just too far out of reach.

      He gave a great start and was looking to make up places even without the collisions taking place. And then in the wet, with the championship clearly on his race engineers mind Hamilton gave another demonstration of his wet weather skills without putting a foot wrong.

      Sainz, Hulk and Perez all deserve a mention. Alonso gave his usual ‘video game on easy mode’ start. But this was Hamilton’s weekend.

    11. Hamilton obviously, third quickest car by a long shot this weekend, outstanding qualifying lap, outstanding pace regularly 2 sec a lap better than Bottas

      1. Also forget to mention Sainz, Hulkenberg and Perez deserve a shoutout

    12. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
      17th September 2017, 19:01

      I’ll take Carlos Sainz as the driver of the weekend.

    13. Carlos Sainz, no doubt. And Fernando gets a special mention for the greatest start and pretty good quali. The votes are going to the luckiest anyway.

      1. There are so many people who say exactly that… how nice Alonso’s start was but I’m seeing the opposite. He was pretty much the only silly driver who didn’t see what was happening ahead of him and just drove straight into RAI/VER accident.
        You could see from his onboard that many cars were slowing down earlier than expected… only Alo didn’t.

        1. Alonso was the furthest on the outside, so he had no way to see what happened on the inside. If he’d been able to see he could have missed the corner on the outside and possibly avoided being collected but there was no way for him to know there were two out of control cars sliding his way before he turned in.

    14. Carlos Sainz, Nico Hulkenberg and Stoffel Vandoorne

    15. Went for Hulkenberg. He was winning the race for best of the rest before he had to retire. Good qualy, decent start and was clean with good pace in the race. Got ahead of Sainz even though Renault were slow to bring him in on the safety car.

      Hamilton, Sainz, and Alonso (up to first corner) were also very good.

    16. Sainz no doubts !! Do not make P1 in such difficult circuit, imediatly faster than DK in P2, reach Q3 with a TR and was super on rain and mixed conditions, like always. Even faster at certain point than VB.

    17. Lewis for me, he get the lead from the start. And Daniel with the faster car did nothing in the wet and in the dry..

      1. Ah Daniel had an Gearbox issue that i didn’t knew the time i posted my comment.

    18. Lewis Hamilton, did a stellar qualifying performance for a Merc in Singapore comparing to his teammate, had a good start and succeeded in fending off RIC attacks.

      1. Same. Hamilton was pushing the car to its limit and even more in Quali. 6 tenths on Bottas who has proved himself as quite a driver. In the race, he handled the start sensibly and stayed away from the carnage. And he was doing well in the lead, considering RB had a better car with Ricciardo and Verstappen showing that in Quali. Honourable Mentions- Sainz, Hulkenberg, Palmer.

    19. Was prepared to give Vettel after yesterday quali lap, but of course he has to destroy his own race. On the other hand, Hamilton managed to pull something out of his pocket and on his own league in the damp condition. So Hamilton is definitely my pick.

      Shout out to Ricciardo, Sainz, Perez, Vandoorne, and Stroll.

    20. Not the best driver of the whole weekend but the best driver today was Lewis. This generations Rainmeister showed what he could do in the wet. Would have been interesting what Verstappen could have done with Hamilton in the wet. Max also seems to excel in the wet.

    21. Hamilton inherited a win, how on earth is he driver of the weekend.

      1. He maximised qualifying in the third best car, completely outshone his team mate, made a great start (unlike Ricciardo and Vettel) and then was brilliant in the difficult conditions, never made a mistake and led every lap of a race Ferrari and Red Bull were expected to walk.

        Maybe you think someone did a better job than him this weekend, fair enough, but I don’t think people voting for him is unreasonable.

        1. What difficult conditions are you talking about?! Jeeeez… Maybe you should watch some wet/rain races from like 10-20 years… and more… and see how “difficult conditions” look like.

          1. I’m no Hamilton fan, but he was the leading a race in a track where nobody had ever raced in wet conditions. Sounds fair to call that “difficult conditions”

      2. Spot on! Poor on Friday, weak on Saturday, Lucky on Sunday

        1. Poor on Friday, weak on Saturday, Lucky on Sunday

          I don’t think I have ever seen so much wrongness compacted into so few words.

          How was he poor or weak on Friday and Saturday? How was he lucky on Sunday to get a better start than his rivals and outpace his teammate by up to a second per lap? How was it luck that he executed 3 safety car restarts perfectly and never put a wheel wrong in the first ever wet Singapore GP?

      3. Picked an empty road on the outside, got a fantastic start, avoided trouble, kept it off the walls in very dodgy conditions and won.

    22. I know many wpouldnt agree but imo by keeping at least in touch with the top 2 teams all weekend and driving a surpreme race im not sure who else other than hamilton the dotw can go to. perhaps this wknd there shouldnt be a dotw but for sure dotr has got to be hamilton. he was just supreme both in the wet and after all restarts. kinda harkens back to his first win in canada where his race was spoiled multiple times by the SC

    23. I’m sorry, I just don’t understand how people came to the conclusion that Hamilton should be DOTW! His FP sessions results weren’t great (expect for P3 in FP3), he bogged the qualifying and got the third row. Yes his start was great, but a good start and an easy win does not make a DOTW!

      1. His free practice results were 4th, 3rd, 3rd. No worse than the car deserves.

        Qualified 5th, again where the car deserved, nearly 7 tenths up on his team mate and within a sniff of beating Raikkonen.

        Made a great start and was zoning in on the drivers ahead before Vettel started wiping drivers out.

        He then in the wet had about a second a lap over his team mate, and Ricciardo couldn’t get near. Every safety car restart he immediately put a gap between him and Ricciardo.

        He didn’t put a foot wrong all weekend, extracted the maximum the car could achieve, and made his team mate look like a rookie.

        That is how people without a dislike of him or who can at least be impartial are voting for him.

        1. tgu (@thegrapeunwashed)
          18th September 2017, 15:52

          @philipgb

          Well said. His performance on Saturday was every bit as stellar as Sunday – 7/10ths ahead of Bottas on a dry track was a ridiculous margin. On Sunday he flattered the car thanks to the difficult conditions – driver skill made the difference once again.

          Other drivers had good weekends, but only Hamilton completely dominated his teammate.

          1. Maybe cause his teammate is “weak”?! Let’s be honest, BOT doesn’t really look like champ material. I fail to see that (even a little) spark all champs seems to have. Time (2018) will tell, but so far they look like another Schumacher/Barrichello pair. Barrichello was unbeatable too 2-3 times per season, BOT fits the profile more and more. Rosberg was stronger overall.

            1. @mg1982 How anyone can rip on Mercedes for hiring Bottas while Raikonnen gets extension after extension is beyond me.

    24. Hamilton was lucky today and did an embarrasing qualy so, by no means he deserves the DOTW title this week. Palmer was outperformed in qualy so he doesn’t deserves my vote too. Only Sainz and Hulk are the real heroes of the weekend. I have to choose Sainz because he also had a problem with his car at the beginning, almost retiring, but finally his skills brought his underperforming car ahead of better cars defending against Perez with better tires and engine. He deserves my vote more than any other driver.

      1. @okif1

        did an embarrasing qualy

        7-tenths ahead of his team-mate and in a car that was predominantly tipped to be the 3rd fastest on this track. You have a very interesting view of what constitutes embarrassment :’)

        1. @ninjenius

          You genuinely can’t please some people. When Mercedes arrive with the fastest package, Hamilton wins because his machinery is dominant. When Mercedes arrives with the 3rd fastest package and Hamilton only manages to beat his teammate by 7 tenths and win the race under wet conditions he’s just lucky.

          I don’t care how you feel about Hamilton at a personal level, if you’re critical of his driving this weekend I can only assume you know nothing about Formula 1 to understand why pole wasn’t possible, or you’re just such a jaded and biased fool you won’t let any facts get in the way of your opinion.

          1. @philipgb well said. The anti Hamilton brigade are particularly riled up because he literally did everything right in a car that wasn’t the quickest. I find all the illogical saltiness quite funny tbh.

      2. LH did a good quali for me, I agree 100% with the rest

    25. ALO for P8 in Q3 in a McHonda and the flying start.

    26. Gutted for Hulkenberg – that guy’s luck is just unbelievable. If he were about to win a race, it’s more likely that aliens would abduct him as he was about to cross the finish line:-)

      Well, Lewis was lucky but his pace and the gaps he built between the safety car were simply incredible. He literally had to keep Daniel within a few seconds to avoid a surprise SC and tyre change for Daniel… I’m beginning to wonder if Lewis has found an extra gear this season.

    27. It is completely beyond me how anyone could rate Hamilton so highly this weekend.

      Only one of his serious rivals lasted more than one corner, and then had a gearbox problem preventing him from challenging for the lead.

      Yes Hamilton is quick, very quick. But so many of his 60 victories have been achieved in a car that had no serious competition the statistics don’t have much meaning.

      As many Indycar drivers pointed out earlier this year, for most of the last 3 years he has only had to beat his teammate. He has managed that more often than not, but then so have many other drivers.

      Clearly Hamilton has fantastic talent. This is not a Hamilton hating post – but more a criticism of current F1 regulations that make the engine/car package so key that driver comparisons are often meaningless.

      So driver of the day – anyone that has beaten their teammate this weekend deserves my vote.

      1. You can’t say “Hamilton only won so many races because he has a good car” and say it’s not a hater post lol. Seriously how many drivers have won anywhere near that amount of races with terrible cars? That’s right..None.

        I don’t get how so many people can say “oh but he has the best car” and in the same sentence big up drivers like Schumacher and Vettel, who also gained their tally of race wins from having a superior car and also being in teams with a clear number one driver system with uncompetitive teammates.

        Hamilton and Alonso are the only actual drivers of maybe even the last 20+ years we have actually seen have a real battle with a really competitive world champion level teammate, in the same machinery and in their prime.

        If you don’t like a driver for personality whatever, but it’s totally moronic seeing the amount of people that say drivers like Hamilton Alonso etc are overrated but big up drivers that have never truely shown their grit against anyone still at that level of competitiveness in a car that has the potential to win the championship. Before 2007 the last time that had happened in F1 if we’re being realistic was the Senna and Prost Mclaren period. I just don’t get the F1 fan base the two current drivers that we’ve actually seen prove how good they are, are also the two drivers people moan about the most.

      2. Smh…you had one job: vote your DOTW. Yet your discourse meanders about illogically like a headless chicken.

        First, you go a-begging down the bottom of history’s barrel for ammunition bolstering your bias against the winner, completely ignoring statistics from the weekend itself. Then you make a poor gaslighting attempt to convince us your target is not Hamilton but the FIA. And finally, you completely behead your premise by failing to come up with an actual vote for DOTD, never mind DOTW which was required of you.

        You, Depailler , are patently pathetic. A combination of unbelievable serendipity and peerless navigation in the wet paid off for the deserving Hamilton. Shame on you for failing to see that.

      3. It is completely beyond me how anyone could rate Hamilton so highly this weekend.

        So driver of the day – anyone that has beaten their teammate this weekend deserves my vote.

        So Hamilton then?

        1. Martin ��👏🏽�🏽�🏽

      4. @Depailler It amazes me how many fans whine and complain about Lewis driving a fast car in a car race.

      5. Only one of his serious rivals lasted more than one corner, and then had a gearbox problem preventing him from challenging for the lead.

        Except Daniel himself has said the gearbox gremlin was a non issue and that he wasn’t happy with the general setup.

        Try again diddums.

    28. Can anybody tell me if Lewis Hamilton might be eventually raised from MBE to OBE or even CBE?
      Will I will see it in my lifetime? Will QE do it or will it be let to her successor?
      Will there be a Sir Lewis as there is Sir Jacky and other Sirs with lesser accomplishments?

    29. Ricciardo did great, is a shame Hamilton never has a chance to show he can win even if not on faster car

    30. Only Sainz.

    31. Lewis – Decimated his teammate in qualifying, kept his chin up, navigated through cars crashing at the beginning (note the way he stayed well left of Vettel after turn 2 as he could see the car spewing fluids, no unnecessary risks when he dropped it all by himself) and had his lead wiped out 3 times by the safety car but overcame it each time, even when on significantly older tyres when DR got his free stop.

      Sainz – Vindicated Renault’s faith in the best possible way.

      K-Mag – Had his elbows out all the way til his retirement and was a joy to watch. That pass on Ocon was inch perfect and heartstoppingly close.

    32. If there is any truth in the Ricciardo I would assume they’ll be taking a gearbox penalty next race? Bottas started to put in some fast laps toward the end of the race, looking like he was applying pressure. Maybe Mercedes got wind of this apparent gearbox issue, so try and make it fail.

      However, Ricciardo responded with his lap times.

      So, gearbox? Or just an excuse for not being able to come close to Hamilton in these conditions (as usual it has to be said…)

      1. Well like a load of people have been pointing out this sounds like another case of Christian Horner coming up with excuses as to why Red Bull flopped in another GP they had the potential to win. Ricciardo made absolutely no mention to anyone that questioned him of having a gearbox issue until after Christian Horner came out saying “Daniel was losing so and so time per lap due to a gearbox issue”, and then suddenly started mentioning it.
        I just think that would be something you would bring up when being questioned by multiple different media outlets about your pace if the issue was really there..Also I don’t think he would be setting purple times if he was really nursing an issue.

        But atleast he was honest when he did mention it saying that whatever it was made no difference, a lot more honest and sincere than Horner.

    33. While writing my comment for driver of the weekend I have changed my mind a few times and have picked all three drivers on my shortlist, Hamilton, Sainz and Hulkenberg, at some point.

      I have already voted for all three as driver of the weekend already this season and my final decision of Sainz for this weekend was partly influenced by the fact I have voted for the other two drivers more recently this year.

      At the start of the weekend it was announced that Sainz would be joining Renault next year, I think he has impressed during his time in F1, although there were a few moments this year when things weren’t going to plan, there was no space for him to be promoted to Red Bull so the move to the works Renault team is probably the best he could hope for at the moment.

      In Singapore Sainz qualified in the top ten and performed well in the wet conditions in the race to achieve his best result in F1 of fourth.

      The running on Friday and Saturday in the dry confirmed what many predicted before this weekend that Mercedes would not the fastest, indeed it turned out that they only had the third quickest car around Singapore behind Ferrari and Red Bull.

      However the rain that arrived on Sunday just before the start of the race enabled Hamilton to overcome the deficit the Mercedes car had at this circuit to take a superb victory. He twice built up a lead only to see it wiped out when the safety car came out, but he handled all three safety car restarts without a problem and it never looked like Ricciardo troubled him.

      Hamilton again put in a great wet weather performance, with Vettel, Raikkonen and Verstappen retiring on the first lap we don’t know how they would have been dealt with the conditions, given recent form in the wet you would have thought Verstappen would have been the most likely to be able to challenge Hamilton.

      Since the summer break Hamilton has been in top form winning all three races.

      Hulkenberg deserves a mention, a good performance all weekend, he was in a podium position until making his first stop behind the safety car when his team didn’t react quick enough bringing him in, but ultimately reliability problems ended his race and meant he now has the unwanted record of most race starts without a podium finish in F1.

      Without car trouble Hulkenberg would have finished at least fourth and probably would have been my choice for driver of the weekend.

    34. Sainz, even Perez did trash team mate

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