Vote for your 2015 Austrian GP Driver of the Weekend

2015 Austrian Grand Prix

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

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

Austrian Grand Prix driver-by-driver

Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton – Half a second off the pace on Friday and didn’t seem to be much closer to his team mate as the track dried in qualifying. Then it all seemed to click when it mattered: suddenly Hamilton found his missing chunk of time in the middle sector and claimed pole position, despite spinning at the beginning of his final lap. However his start was tardy – Hamilton later said he wasn’t satisfied with recent changes Mercedes have made to their clutch – and he spent much of the race chasing Rosberg. Then made life more difficult for himself by straying across the pit lane exit line and collecting a five-second time penalty, so had to accept second.

Nico Rosberg – Before he spun at the last corner of his final flying lap in Q3 Rosberg had found the missing time to his team mate and had a good chance of taking pole position. However he made an excellent start, took the lead from Hamilton and had got a hold on first place when the Safety Car came out. Thereafter his run to victory looked reasonably straightforward, though a graining tyre gave cause for concern in the closing stages.

Red Bull

Daniel Ricciardo – It was always going to be a tough home race for Red Bull and it got tougher when Ricciardo had to take his fifth engine of the year and the subsequent ten-place grid penalty. Had a new chassis after his problems in Canada but lost brake temperature in qualifying and didn’t make the cut for the top ten for the first time since joining Red Bull. Ran a huge, 50-lap stint on the softs so he could attack at the end on super-softs after taking his pit stop penalty. This worked out well: he was able to take Nasr for the final point but ran out of time to demote Perez.

Daniil Kvyat – Got into Q3 but also had to take a ten-place grid penalty, leaving him 15th on the grid. Collided with Perez at the start and had to replace his front wing, but other bodywork damage made the car “very tough” to drive, and he finished 12th.

Williams

Felipe Massa – Having brought a raft of updates for the FW37 Williams played their cards close to their chest as usual on Friday, when Massa had a near-miss with Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene in the pit lane. Out-qualified Bottas thanks in part to the yellow flags, taking fourth on the grid. He ran in that position in the race until Vettel’s slow pit stop handed him his first podium finish of the year.

Valtteri Bottas – Was pleased with the performance of his updated car and especially its performance on long runs on Friday. But had to settle for sixth on the grid as he was unable to use DRS at the end of his final lap because of the yellow flags brought out by Hamilton’s spin. Passed by Verstappen at the start, he got by the Toro Rosso driver in the race and then passed Hulkenberg too, only for the Force India driver to jump back ahead via the pits. Finally passed Hulkenberg again for an eventual fifth, as a braking trouble hampered further progress.

Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel – Quickest on Friday by little more than a hundredth of a second, but twice had to stop with transmission-related problems. Fastest again on Saturday morning, but didn’t have the one-lap pace to split the Mercedes, although he would have been quicker had he also not been unable to use DRS. Didn’t have the pace to attack Mercedes at the start of the race on super-softs, but was quicker on softs in the second half of the race. However by then a slow right-rear tyre change had dropped him to fourth behind Massa, where he finished.

Kimi Raikkonen – Wasn’t able to do a long run on the super-soft tyres on Friday after locking up and damaging them. Dropped out in Q1, blaming the team for not getting him out in time to do three flying laps, though his team mate didn’t need that many to get the job done. Crashed out on the first lap of the race, taking Alonso with him, and couldn’t explain why afterwards. Not his best weekend.

McLaren

Fernando Alonso – Both McLaren drivers accumulated comical 25-place grid penalties. But Alonso, running the team’s new aerodynamic kit including a heavily revised and shortened nose, got into Q2. The upshot of that was he only had to take a drive-through penalty in the race as he could only serve a small portion of his grid penalty. He started well enough that he was up with Raikkonen turn two – unfortunately the Ferrari driver then dropped it into the barriers, taking Alonso with him.

Jenson Button – Eliminated in Q1 having been one of the first drivers across the line after the chequered flag came out on a drying track. That meant his 25-place penalty became a stop-and-go penalty for the race. Button was all in favour of getting his mandatory pit stop out of the way behind the Safety Car, meaning he could run to the end of the race after taking his penalty. But we’ll never know how that would have worked out, as his car developed a problem and his team elected to stop rather than risk losing another power unit.

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Force India

Nico Hulkenberg – Reacclimatised to F1 after his Le Mans triumph, and with a new engine behind him went sixth-fastest on Friday. He improved by one place on Saturday to take fifth on the grid, while Perez went out in Q1. In the race he was passed by Bottas, jumped back ahead with a quick pit stop, but ultimately lost out to the Williams. However sixth place was Force India’s best result of the year so far, and helped them pass Lotus in the constructors’ championship.

Sergio Perez – Stuck behind Alonso in Q1, with Raikkonen close behind, and failed to make the cut on the drying track. However he started well, despite being on the harder tyres, and nabbed a place off Grosjean at the restart. After switching to super-softs for the second stint, he was able to pass Kvyat and Nasr for ninth place.

Toro Rosso

Max Verstappen – On his first F1 race weekend at a track where he has raced before Verstappen got into Q3, qualified seventh, and picked up another place at the start. After that it was a question of how many Mercedes-powered cars could he keep behind. Bottas got him early on, and by the time Maldonado was on his tail Verstappen was having trouble with his tyres, so he had to settle for eighth.

Carlos Sainz Jnr – Was a few tenths off Verstappen’s pace when the track was greasy on Friday, and a similar margin off in qualifying, where he set his car up with rain in mind. It didn’t arrive, but a quick start moved him up to ninth. Made a smart call on his own to stay out of the pits when he was told to, as Nasr in front had gone in, but when Sainz came in his pit stop was slow. A pit lane speeding penalty and an electrical problem finished off his chances.

Lotus

Romain Grosjean – Having enjoyed the luxury of getting to drive his car in first practice for a couple of races Grosjean was relegated to spectator status again this weekend and will continue to do so until Singapore while Lotus give more seat time to Jolyon Palmer. When he did get in the car he was hampered by reliability niggles, and having reached Q3 was unable to set a time. Got hung out wide by Sainz at turn three after the restart, which allowed Perez through, and shortly afterwards he ran wide at turn eight. A good points finish was still on, however, until his gearbox failed.

Pastor Maldonado – Demonstrated Lotus’s potential with the fourth-fastest time on Friday, ahead of Hamilton, but blamed traffic for failing to accompany his team mate into Q3. He seemed to be distracted by Ericsson’s jump start and lost two places on the first lap, but recovered to finish seventh. On his way he jumped past Perez in the pits, and held on to some increasingly lurid slides as he found a way past Verstappen.

Sauber

Marcus Ericsson – Failed to make the cut in Q2, where Nasr beat him by over seven tenths of a second. Jumped the start, collecting a penalty, and was further hampered by intermittent power cut-outs on his car.

Felipe Nasr – Fifth-quickest in first practice and was satisfied to reach Q3, although he was another driver who was hampered by the yellow flags Mercedes caused. Might have been able to hang on for the final point had his brakes not overheated – a problem which delayed him in Canada as well.

Manor

Will Stevens – Spun in qualifying and was over a second slower than his team mate, though he said traffic was to blame. His race was over quickly after debris damaged his radiator on the first lap.

Roberto Merhi – Technical trouble limited his running on Friday but despite that and not having run the super-soft tyre he comfortably beat his team mate – and was faster through sector one than Raikkonen’s Ferrari! Unsurprisingly he was the last driver running at the flag, though 14th is Manor’s best result so far.

Qualifying and race results summary

DriverStartedGap to team mate (Q)Laps leading team matePittedFinishedGap to team mate (R)
Lewis Hamilton1st-0.2s3/7112nd+8.8s
Nico Rosberg2nd+0.2s68/7111st-8.8s
Daniel Ricciardo18th+0.295s69/70110th-27.347s
Daniil Kvyat15th-0.295s1/70212th+27.347s
Felipe Massa4th-0.127s71/7113rd-36.031s
Valtteri Bottas6th+0.127s0/7115th+36.031s
Sebastian Vettel3rd-1.683s0/014th
Kimi Raikkonen14th+1.683s0/00
Fernando Alonso19th-0.124s0/00
Jenson Button20th+0.124s0/01
Nico Hulkenberg5th-1.203s58/7016thNot on same lap
Sergio Perez13th+1.203s12/7019thNot on same lap
Max Verstappen7th-0.834s35/3518th
Carlos Sainz Jnr12th+0.834s0/351
Romain Grosjean9th-0.454s22/351
Pastor Maldonado10th+0.454s13/3517th
Marcus Ericsson11th+0.774s0/69213thNot on same lap
Felipe Nasr8th-0.774s69/69111thNot on same lap
Will Stevens17th+1.297s0/10
Roberto Merhi16th-1.297s1/1114th

Review the race data

Driver of the Weekend: My choice

Several drivers go into the ‘strong race, weak qualifying’ column, including race winner Rosberg, Maldonado (who had a decent run in Canada too) and Ricciardo.

Verstappen had the Toro Rosso up in places it didn’t deserve to be early on, though I wonder if he could have held on to seventh at the end. Massa had a very solid weekend, but it’s hard to point to an aspect of it which stands out as being especially good, particularly as Bottas had a compromised race. The same is true of Vettel to an extent, though he showed some excellent pace in practice despite bearing the brunt of Ferrari’s technical troubles.

So my Driver of the Weekend is Hulkenberg. He was great in qualifying, leaving his team mate well behind, and had an error-free run in the race where he only lost one place to an obviously quicker car. All of which says to me he left little on the table. Who says an F1 driver can’t do Le Mans without compromising their grand prix performance?



Vote for your Driver of the Weekend

Which driver do you think did the best job this weekend?

Cast your vote below and explain your choice in the comments.

Who was the best driver of the 2015 Austrian Grand Prix weekend?

  • Roberto Merhi (1%)
  • Will Stevens (0%)
  • Felipe Nasr (0%)
  • Marcus Ericsson (0%)
  • Pastor Maldonado (7%)
  • Romain Grosjean (0%)
  • Carlos Sainz Jnr (0%)
  • Max Verstappen (5%)
  • Sergio Perez (1%)
  • Nico Hulkenberg (35%)
  • Jenson Button (0%)
  • Fernando Alonso (0%)
  • Kimi Raikkonen (1%)
  • Sebastian Vettel (3%)
  • Valtteri Bottas (2%)
  • Felipe Massa (17%)
  • Daniil Kvyat (0%)
  • Daniel Ricciardo (1%)
  • Nico Rosberg (28%)
  • Lewis Hamilton (0%)

Total Voters: 538

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

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81 comments on “Vote for your 2015 Austrian GP Driver of the Weekend”

  1. Vettel for his attitude with the team :)

    1. I voted for someone else, but it was very interesting. He said that he didn’t blame pit crew, moreover he said the guy did a good job managing the situation and properly fitting the tyre. Unlike Raikkonen’s case in Australia I guess. Or his wheel in Bahrain practice, that caused a crash and he could have been punished. Good attitude. Not to mention they keep costing him the podium for some time now…

      1. Well, he gets to lap his former team in every other race. He will be happy as long as it continues this season I guess :)

        He lost podium in Bahrain due to his mistakes and Canada was a reliability issue with the car. Austria is one place where the team spoiled his chance of a podium.

        So he has not got much to be frustrated about in Ferrari.

  2. Fifth in qualifying and sixth in a race is not where a Force India belongs. Easily Nico Hulkenberg this week.

    1. I think as well. He drove very well and didn’t surrender easily to a faster Williams.

  3. Must be Kimi!

    Not only drove the wheels off that Ferrari, but off McLaren, too!

    1. Good one….I have no idea if/where KR will be driving in 2016, but, after this disastrous weekend, I doubt hugely he will be driving a Ferrari….When Arrivabene says this race hasn’t changed his chances of staying with the team next year, it is because a decision has been done and he is out.

    2. You are joking, but some people actually voted for him. He has 1% at the moment!

    3. Kimi is such a thoughtful guy; he pretended to lose the rear with wheel spin in 5th gear in order to spare his good friend Fernando the misery of this race.

  4. James (@jamesjames123abc)
    22nd June 2015, 16:29

    My vote goes to Max Verstappen. To qualify 7th and finish 8th in a Renault-powered car on a power track is a superb effort. Hulkenberg gets a special mention too for his efforts.

    1. ToroRosso(Kvyat) was very quick here as well (much faster than Vettel) and was gong to be 7th or 8th before his retirement. I think STR were just faster than RBR here.

    2. Max’s performance in the wet during practice really makes me look forward to a rainy race.

  5. Simon (@weeniebeenie)
    22nd June 2015, 16:30

    Can’t say any one drive hugely stood out this weekend. Both Merc’s made errors, Vettel was only ever going to be a distant third at best. Might go for Massa, solid qualifying, dominated Bottas and held off under pressure from Vettel for a while.

  6. Driver of the Weekend: Nico. There, that should cover it. :)

    Have to give it to Rosberg because he won the race. He seems to be working hard to best his demons, actually passed Lewis on track this time and held on to it. This weekend should help his confidence further.

    However Hulk was impressive, made picking between them tough. Looking forward to what he brings to the rest of the season.

    1. Juan Pablo Heidfeld (@juan-pablo-heidfeld-1)
      22nd June 2015, 18:26

      As it’s DotW I have to give it to Hulk, Rosberg made a key error in quali

    2. Nico Rosberg have had a fantastic race, but given his mistake in qualifying and given that he was not able to beat his teammate in qualifying although Lewis had his own mistake, Rosberg should clearly not be the DOTW.
      There are other drivers who aced their weekend with little if any significant mistakes and who had a fantastic result given their car’s pace. The clear choice is very hard between Nico Hulkenberg and Felipe Massa. I went for Massa for having a straight forward weekend, beating his teammate and capitalizing on Ferrari’s pit error and clinching the final podium position, although Hulkenberg equally deserves DOTW, but I cannot choose both.
      This is why it makes me wonder why quarter of the votes went for Rosberg (till now).

    3. @juan-pablo-heidfeld-1 @hzh00 I think this idea that the DOTW has to be the one closest to perfection or the least mistakes is misguided. Very little of high stakes endeavour is error-free, especially when the margins for error are so thin. The best performers are those that, when they make mistakes, know how to recover and succeed in spite of their error. Rosberg showed that he could recover from a huge psychological disappointment in impressive fashion by delivering an aggressive, cool-under-fire performance under high pressure. He is under no illusion that to just remain in the fight for the WDC against a talented, aggressive teammate with increased confidence following a second World Championship, he MUST deliver on the circuits that are more to his liking. This mounts the pressure on him when he makes a mistake at such circuits. The fact that he performed to perfection under these circumstances, doing exactly what he needed to do without the unforced errors he made repeatedly last year, not least putting in perfect laps knowing Lewis would be pushing hard, is significant for him. Yes, he made a mistake in quali. But what he did Sunday, under arguably more pressure than any other driver on the grid, taking back the position fair and square on track where it is hardest, and then holding off a determined pursuing defending Champion in an equal car, showed me mental mettle I was afraid he didn’t have.

      1. @slowhands
        You have said it clearly:
        “What he did Sunday”.
        This is my point; you should be voting for driver of the weekend and not for driver of SUNDAY, especially that Rosberg’s mistake was his own fault. He had an amazing Sunday, but to say he should be DOTW, I don’t think so because other drivers showed us amazing performances over the weekend with no mistakes, hence these drivers should be the ones chosen, and simply not Rosberg based only on his performance on Sunday, which was highlighted by Hamilton’s relatively poorer performance on the race day.

    4. You cannot give the DOTW vote to a driver who loss the momentum in the key Q3 lap. He was breaking Hamilton’s time, and lost the pole due to an avoidable mistake.

      The same to Nico.

      So, obviously, DOTW: The Hulk

    5. I going with Hulkenberg, I think he punch well above the FI weight on the weekend.

      Must say though, Rosberg done well, its the first race this year when Rosberg seemed to have the edge.

  7. I’m sticking with Hulkenberg, Le Mans winner did a great job finishing 6th and a great race after his WEC debut win could be a driver of the weekend.

  8. I voted for Max Verstappen. Was a though choice between him and Hulkenberg.
    The reason I chose Max was because he qualified the car where it didn’t belong, a lot of places in front of Sainz, in fact his whole qualy was very impressive, constantly at or near the top of the wet Q1. In the race he had a great start, held off Bottas for a few laps. Keeping his pace high and fending of Maldonado lap after lap. And that with a Renault engine!

  9. ColdFly F1 (@)
    22nd June 2015, 16:33

    No stand-out but many candidates:
    Rosberg; good win and finally beating his teammate; but primarily due to to the quail slip up not DOTW for me.
    Hamilton; not this time!
    Massa; solid drive, but not special enough for DOTW.
    Vettel; also solid, but nothing special. Had he overtaken Massa then he’d be DOTW for me.
    Bottas; I’d rather give it to DRS than to Bottas this week.
    Hulkenberg; Yes why not. 6th in a FI and the only way to reward him for Le Mans last weekend ;)
    Maldonado; loved the way he controlled his car after he lost it on various occasions. Impressed with the guy over the past few weeks, but he is only beating his own reputation not DOTW yet.
    Verstappen; might have lost 1 position but performed extremely well over the whole weekend and being clearly the fastest Renault racer in the junior team is special. Also (IMO) I liked the way he defended against Maldonado in a slower car and against both the Mercedes engine and double DRS. He’ll get my vote this week (sorry NH).

    1. Well reasoned @coldfly, I went with Hulk, but max was close second.

  10. A lot of choices, Rosberg, Hulkenberg and Verstappen enjoyed strong weekends.

    Massa, strong performance all weekend. His first lap in Q3 would have been enough to out qualify Bottas anyway, like Bottas who finished 3rd in the DOTD for Canada, had a strong pace and made the most of Ferrari’s poor pit-stop.

    Decided to go for Hulkenberg though, 5th in qualifying was outstanding. Managed to keep Bottas at bay for a good percentage of the race.

  11. Nico. Nico Rosberg. Overtook Hamilton at the start and pretty much dictated the race from then on.

    A good opportunistic win and winning from 2nd on the grid would give a lot of confidence for the rest of the season as well.

    Good drives from Hulkenberg and Maldonado as well.

    1. And what about Nico’s Saturday? It’s driver of the weekend, not just RACE…

      1. He qualified behind his team mate. I am not going to let one mistake over the weekend change my view of what was a masterful drive from him. @fernanzazpi

        1. Point 1: The Mercedes pair can only qualify 1-2, other option you can call it a disaster.

          Point 2: So, quallyfing is a key factor for the weekend. And, if each Mercedes driver has just one potential antagonist, in order to get the DOTW mention you HAVE TO beat your team mate. Remember we are talking about the whole weekend, not just the race

          Point 3: Both Nico and Lewis left the track in the final attempt, the best one, trying t beat the pole time. Nevertheless, Lewis managed to keep it (Mercedes team is way ahead of his rivals).

          Point 4: Altough Nico performed a great race, and a great first corner overtake, then defending this move, the SC took a key role avoding more fight.

          So, for me, if you are a Mercedes driver and want to get the DOTW, you HAVE to be the poleman, and win the race, flawless victory (Fatality??? :P ), and even set the fastest lap, just because you have a car more than 1.5 sec/lap faster than any other.

  12. Both Mercedes are out of the running for my DOTW, because Rosberg messed up in qualifying and Hamilton was off the pace in the race. For me, Hulkenberg was DOTW. He brilliantly qualified 5th, and finished 6th in a car that is rubbish and outperformed his teammate by quite a margin. Honourable mentions to Massa, Vettel, Verstappen and Maldonado.

  13. I thought there were many impressive drives this weekend. I would have selected Rosberg but for the mistake in qualifying and losing out to his team mate for pole position. A flawless race nonetheless. Verstappen, Maldonado and Massa with solid drives but Hulkenberg was something else. Miles ahead of Perez all weekend; perhaps still on a high for Le Mans!

    My vote goes to him, but I could pick a top 5, I’d go for: Hulkenberg, Massa, Maldonado, Verstappen, Rosberg.

  14. Nico Hulkenberg.
    Everyone knows what he’s done a week ago, winning Le Mans 24H, just that.
    Week in, week out, the man delivers. This time in a car who doesn’t really deserve 5th in qually and 6th in the race.

  15. Why do I fell Nico gained huge popularity cause of Le Mans?

    1. @samhainhell Don’t think so. Personally I’ve never watched Le Mans, never will, don’t care at all. However NH performance this weekend was outstanding irrespective of circumstances whether you’re a fan of endurance or couldn’t care less about it like I do.

      5th in qualy in 6th in the race is over-performance clearly. Perez wasn’t in the vicinity. No other driver had such a perfect weekend overall

      1. Alternatively … it might be that, inspired by his le Mans win, Hulkenburg is finally managing to realise the capability the car’s had all the time.

        I have to agree with @samainhell: losing a place from your grid position is not really an indication of an outstanding drive.

        1. @charleski That place he lost to Bottas in a far superior Williams after a tough fight. Losing just 1 place from qualifying in a car that didn’t deserve to be anywhere near there in the first place is a very clear indication of an outstanding drive. And look at the gap to his team-mate.
          Finally realize the potential of the car? The car that is essentially 2014 car with some updates? On potential the car is behind not only Williams(by a country mile) but Lotus as well.
          Yet somehow qualifying 5th and finishing 6th is not a grand achievement. Very weird logic indeed

          1. Nico Hulkenberg was regularly slotting into 5th or 6th place in the first half of last season. I don’t remember such a big fuss being made back then. In comparison, the performance of the Force India drivers so far this year has been a bit miserable, and it’s good to see them get back to par.

            It was a solid drive, but the only weird logic here is celebrating losing a place from your quali position.

          2. @charleski Precisely because last year, especially the first half of the season, FI was at its most competitive form in history that was less celebrated(though still noted)

            Since FI are the only team in F1 apart from Manor to race what is essentially last year’s car(though at least its with the current engine) their performance this season has been weak. Time that you could come with a last year car and be competitive in F1 ended 30 years ago. As the saying goes “if you’re not moving forward in F1 you go backwards”

            To qualify 5th and finish 6th in a car good enough to be in the vicinity of these positions is one thing. But to do so in a useless car that has no business to be there is quite another. To qualify in front of and fight with Bottas in a car that’s incapable of times nowhere near Williams’ is true star driver quality. But some won’t recognize it as such even if it stares them in the face

  16. Massa – a good drive and great to see him on the podium again, otherwise I’d go for Maldonado for great car control and not crashing – seriously

  17. Massa for me. Flawless Friday and Saturday sessions (Arrrivabene, like a toddler, needs to learn to look to both sides before crossing a street…). Solid pace in the race, one more time did the most of his tires, and in the end managed to control a faster Vettel behind him (and I remember that when Bottas did the same he was hailed as the best thing since the invention of chocolate icecream).
    Nico also is a very solid candidate: problem-free weekend, had one opportunity to pass in the race and took it. Solid pace all weekend.
    Hulk? Well, his Force India has a Mercedes engine, so his 6th place is not precisely a miracle. He came to this race after an epic win in La Sarthe, but I can’t see how a driver who qualifies 5th and ends 6th can be DOTW, to be honest…. Maldonado, who started 10th and ended 7th, was much more impressive in my opinion…

    1. agreed

  18. Hulkenberg clearly this time. The only 10/10 in the field for me

  19. went with nico hulkenberg. it’s hard to see a reason not to vote for him. beat his team mate, qualified and finished as higher than possible with his machinery. one of the easiest votes i ever had to give.

    1. A machine can’t give 100%, so its practically impossible to perform higher than his machinery would allow him to. If he could, then by that logic alonso should have been performing better.

  20. I did go for Maldonado – at least he’s great value in the entertainment stakes. I wonder if Kimi could have held those lurid slides…

    1. Likewise, Maldonado.

      He really made it very exciting to watch, and was fighting clean.

    2. This time I went for Maldonado, I never been Maldonado fan, kind of dislike him.
      He could have crashed few occasion, but he managed it well.

    3. Pastor for sure, a very entertaining drive.

      You almost wonder if he was trolling the fans: ‘You want to see me crash? Too bad!’

  21. Got to me Nico….just need to decide which one.

    I went for Rosberg, it’s not often he (or anyone for that matter) gets the better of Hamilton and though he made a mistake in qualifying so did lots of drivers – it was a clear sign of just how tricky it is to get it right on this track and he only missed out on pole because Hamilton managed to get it right for just one lap all weekend.

    Hulkenberg also did really well, as did Verstappen. I suspect if the rain had arrived it could well have been one of these guys who got my DOTW as they both seem superior to Rosberg in damp conditions.

  22. Hulkenberg for me, managed the best qualification result for Force India this season with 5th, and only lost a place to a clearly superior car (Bottas). His teammate was nowhere near him all weekend. If we add that he won Le Mans just a week ago, I think he deserves this one!

  23. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
    22nd June 2015, 18:44

    Massa for me!

  24. Didn’t vote this week as none of the drivers deserved DOTW title. Perhaps as somebody has already suggested there ought to a ‘None of the above’ button as not voting is not the same thing as voting for no-one.

  25. I seriously considered voting for Rosberg, but ultimately went with the other Nico, Hulkenberg.

    He was perfect in qualifying (unlike Rosberg) and indeed you could argue that his effort to put the Force India fifth on the grid was the qualy lap of the year.

    He made Bottas, in the faster Williams, work hard for fifth place and to cross the line in sixth was as much as you could ask for in the VJM08.

    A brilliant weekend to follow his rookie Le Mans victory. If his recent efforts don’t convince a top line team to give him a seat soon, it’s hard to imagine what would.

  26. Pastor Maldonado
    Because it is his second Back to back points finishes of his F1 Career. He has started to show his worth in an F1 seat and proves the theory that he could be a champion if he had a more competitive car.

    1. The cars are clearly too easy to drive if Maldonado starts finishing races.

  27. Nico Hulkenberg. Good wekkend for him.
    Also Maldonado did a good job.

  28. Maldonado. Second time in his career he scored points in two consecutive races. Has been pushing that Lotus to its limit to get ahead of that STR. Managed somehow to save his car from total carnage on not one but two occasions. More often than not he seemed to be the only guy pushing (to) hard!

    Vettel surely otherwise. Was easy going for third, Massa never a threat. After the bad stop he came back but overtaking that straight line monster is just not happening.

    Third goes to Rosberg, properly beaten his double champion teammate from second on the grid.

  29. Massa. Great drive.

  30. I voted Roberto Merhi. In Q1 had better sector 1 time than Kimi’s Ferrari. That was impressive.
    And his race was as good as the Manor let him.

  31. I think Verstappen deserves this.

  32. Can I cast a vote for the entertainer of the weekend?

    Maldonado, almost binning it into the wall TWICE !

  33. Hulkenberg! His qualifying lap was one of the best, if not the best laps of anyone this year. Great result in the race as well.

  34. Difficult to choose between Nico R and Filipe M., but in the end I chose Nico R. for a plethora of reasons. Seb V has long been a team player adn fully realizes that he is going no where without a great car and pit crew. Lewis, I never understood why Michael S and now Lewis thinks it is in their best interest to try and cut off / move towards the P2 side on a race start…. when you move sideways / lateral you are NOT moving forward. Blaming the clutch is just juvenile Lewis, if he had moved forward he may of had the P1 on race start. Thanks, Norris

    1. you obviously didnt see how Ham angled the car the other week to cut Rosb off,

      all drivers have done the same when on pole, some even to the point they drive the opposition off the track,
      just look at how close Massa was cut off by Vettel,
      Vettel new Massa would have passed him if he hadn’t slam dunked Massa…
      but no, Vettels move was never mentioned by anyone, only Hams slow start..
      come on give the guy a break, he took the lose on the chin and even removed his cap to knowledge Rosberg did a better job.

    2. @racernorriski Just use Pythagoras’ theorem: Hamilton moved say 200 meters forward and 5 meters sideways. This line is only 6 cm more than just moving 200 meters forward. So no, it would not have made a difference.

      1. He also moved back to the left to take the racing line for the first corner, so you can double that. A blocking maneuvre is a gamble – it pays off if it hampers your opponent, but if it fails it costs you in terms of position for the corner. This time it failed.

  35. petebaldwin (@)
    22nd June 2015, 23:44

    Rosberg for me. He made Lewis look very average this weekend.

  36. Maldonado. Two great saves plus a nice 7th place finish.

  37. Nico Hulkenberg – He did a really good qualifying and then did a great job to stay in the fight for 5th and then 6th. No mistakes at all (did he even lock a wheel

    The rest of the front runners were as you were. Merc 1-2 again, yawn. VET and MAS basically maintained positions (solid) when you remove pit errors.

  38. Hulkenberg. 5th in qualifying, 6th in race. Great performance. Verstappen close second. Vettel and Massa did a good job, more like they did the same good job.

  39. I must praise the F1F community. At the time of writing 415, votes were cast and Raikkonen and Hamilton are sitting on 0% of the votes. While I don’t want to be bashing these drivers, as they are both very good drivers and they’ll come back strong in the near future; I think its a testiment to the community to concede that not even the most one eyed fans could find it in their heart of hearts to vote for them. Thumbs up for the community and chin up for Hamilton / Kimi fans, your day will come, and for Hamilton fans, I’m sure the next race will be a stronger driver come back at Rosberg.

    1. @dragoll

      Agreed. Class shown on here……..:)

  40. My top 3 of the weekend were Rosberg, Hulkenberg and Maldonado (I know, who’d have thought it, although I don’t seem I’m not alone which is great!)

    3rd: Rosberg. Why only 3rd after what was pretty much a flawless race? Simply because of his qualifying, and because whilst it was a flawless race, it also wasn’t super impressive (it’s always hard to say this, but when in comparison to the other two, he did less in the race so there was less to be impressed by. If he’d won by over 10 seconds, or on the flip side had had to fight off Hamilton all race, or no one else in the race impressed, he’d be winning it). Whilst in the end it really didn’t make a difference to his race, it very well could have, and after having the measure of his team mate all weekend, it was pretty much expected he’d get the pole, but a combination of him not getting a good lap in early enough, and then making a mistake on his final run meant that he lost out on pole. After that though, his race pace was pretty great.

    2nd (and I will say 2nd and 1st were really difficult to decide between… I had to change it a few times): Maldonado. Other than a not great qualifying, Maldonado had a fantastic race. Showed great pace, showed some phenomenal car control (his catch of the car just before passing Verstappen was ridiculous) and showed some great race craft too, all things Maldonado possesses as we have seen before, but all far too occasionally unfortunately. Oh how I’d love to see this Maldonado from now on. Hopefully his qualifying game can pick up as well, and both drivers can start giving Lotus some great results.

    1st: Hulkenberg. Finally, Hulkenberg back in great form, showing both great defensive race craft and also just great pace in general. The star of qualifying, splitting the two Williams, which is quite clearly a faster car, and then in the race, holding off Bottas for what seemed like forever, and on top of that was so much faster than pretty much everyone else in similarly paced machinery. Not to mention he utterly destroyed Perez this weekend.

    Like I said, choosing between the top 2 was incredibly difficult. Also, a couple of shutouts, to both Verstappen and Massa, who were probably the best of the rest. Nasr also actually, who did a good job as well I think.

  41. I went for Hulkenberg.

    I am surprised many went for Rosberg when an “off” in qualifying meant he could have easily lost a race he’d looked like winning all weekend.

  42. Willem Cecchi (@)
    23rd June 2015, 14:34

    Rosberg gets DOTW for the pit entry alone. Dedication!

  43. I go for Vandoorne as DOTW does not specify the kind of motorsport. It was the most stellar drive, almost a double win, this guy is just incredible!

  44. Rosberg had that slip-up in qualifying, Vettel was faultless but in the end couldn’t catch Felipe, Massa himself was perfect, Hulkenberg too but I think it looked better than it was as he was too frequently below his standards this year. I picked Felipe. Is that two weekends in a row now? Must have been decades since he drove so well consistently!

  45. My driver of the weekend is Hulkenberg. He followed up his Le Mans victory last weekend with another impressive outing this weekend when back in an F1 car.

    Second would be Verstappen, as with Hulkenberg I felt he performed well during both qualifying and the race, and continues to impress in his rookie season.

    Third would be Massa who put in a good performance to get his first podium of the year, managing to keep Vettel behind him during the race after Vettel’s slow pit stop dropped him back.

    Although I would always expect the winner of the Grand Prix to get a significant percentage of the votes in a driver of the weekend poll I am surprised with the level of praise Rosberg is getting.

    He outperformed Hamilton this weekend but I don’t think Rsoberg was that great this weekend. Reading some comments some people seem to be saying if Rosberg beats Hamilton it must mean he has automatically put in a great drive but I think both Mercedes drivers were below their best this weekend.

    Both Rosberg and Hamilton made big mistakes in qualifying and if it wasn’t for the performance advantage Mercedes has they would have started further down the grid and neither of them may have been in a position to win the race.

    Also some are saying he finally overtook Hamilton on track, but what he did was make a better start than Hamilton, yes technically he did overtake Hamilton on track but there is a world of difference between making a better start and getting to the first corner first and winning an on track duel during a race, which is something that Rosberg did not manage against Hamilton last season that people pointed out.

  46. In my opinnion, there were the best drivers of the Austrian Grand Prix:
    1.Roberto Merhi:The Spanish driver, although the engine problem in his car, he overperformed his teammate Stevens by 1.297s and, when the track was wet, he made better times Than Sergio Pérez (F.India, 5th best car), Marcus Ericsson (Sauber, 8th best car), Will Stevens (his teammate), Pastor Maldonado (Lotus, 4th best car) and Kimi Raikonnen (2nd best car), and in some moments, he was also ahead of Romain Grosejan.In race, without the engine problem, I Think he would finish ahead Marcus Ericsson.
    My rating:10
    1.Nico Hulkenberg:The German driver also did an impressive performance, qualifying 5th with a car that normally qualifies (in this circuit) 9th-11th (With similar pace as Toro Rosso). In race, he finished 6th.
    My rating :10

  47. My opinnion of the top of drivers of the Austrian grand Prix (from the worst to the best driver):
    20.Raikonnen:This weekend was absolutely terrible. He failed in Q1 in 18th place (and in the wet track he did worst times than Stevens) and crashed into Alonso.
    My rating:0
    19.Stevens:It’s difficult to rate him, but, although the 1s penalty of Merhi, he finished 1.3s behind him on wet track.
    My rating:2
    18.Bottas:Another terrible weekend for him, like Monaco. He finished 6th, having similar pace to Ferrari’s car, at the start he was overtook by Verstappen and finished 36.031s behind Massa
    My rating:3
    17.Ericsson:In qualifying, he performed well. But in race, he did a terrible performance. Finishing so much time behind Nasr, and he would be overperfomed by Merhi without the Spaniard car problem.
    My rating:3
    16.Pérez:In qualifying, he was completely dissapeared, finishing 11 places behind him. At the race, he did a normal (not good but not bad) performance.
    My rating:4
    15.Grosejan:He was completely dissapeared, qualifying 10th and he had worst pace than Maldonado.
    My rating:4
    14.Maldonado:He was also dissapeared, but not so much as Grosejan
    My rating:5
    13.Kvyat:He was brilliant in qualifying, but at race he was completely dissapeared finishing 26s behind Ricciardo.
    My rating:5
    12.Button:He was a normal weekend, he did not do his best performance but not the worst.
    My rating:6
    11.Nasr:In qualifying he was amazing, but in the race he was OK.
    My rating:7
    10.Ricciardo:In qualifying he was OK, but he was amazing in the race, finishing 26s ahead of Kvyat.
    My rating:7
    09.Sainz.Jr:He was dissapeared at Q2, but he had good pace at the race.
    My rating:7
    08.Hamilton:He got the pole position, but at race he couldn’t finish above Rosberg, also he spun on Q3.
    07.Massa:He finished 36s ahead of Bottas, but the Williamd had similar pace to Ferrari and he couldn’t overperform Vettel in qualifying.
    My rating:7
    06.Rosberg:He was dissapeared in qualifying, also ge spun on Q3 but in the race was amazing.
    My rating:7
    05.Vettel:Without the pit stop problem, he would finish ahead of Hamilton
    My rating:8
    04.Alonso:He did an impressive performance in Q, finishing 15th in a circuit perjudicial for the Mclaren-Honda.
    My rating:8
    03.Verstappen:He also did an impressive peformance, but Hulkenberg had better pace, having Toro Rosso and F.India similar pace.
    My rating:8
    02.Merhi:He spun in Q1, but he finsihed 1.3s ahead of Stevens in Qualifying (2.3s without his engine problems) and without this engine problems, he would finish above Ericsson or maybe he would finish ahead of Kvyat.
    My rating:9
    01.Hulkenberg:The car had pace for 9th-11th place but he qualified 5th and finished 6th.
    My rating:10

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