Rate the race: 2016 United States Grand Prix

2016 United States Grand Prix

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What did you think of today’s race? Share your verdict on the United States Grand Prix.

Since 2008, F1 Fanatic has held polls on every F1 race to find out which fans thought of each round of the season.

Join in the latest poll and give your verdict on the race: 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest. Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

What were the best and worst moments of the race? What was the main thing you’ll remember about it? Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2016 United States Grand Prix out of ten

  • 10 (2%)
  • 9 (3%)
  • 8 (12%)
  • 7 (27%)
  • 6 (26%)
  • 5 (16%)
  • 4 (6%)
  • 3 (4%)
  • 2 (1%)
  • 1 (3%)

Total Voters: 431

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1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

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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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164 comments on “Rate the race: 2016 United States Grand Prix”

  1. Yihaaa – Fernandooo

    1. If Max did this, we would talk about his moves for the next week.

      1. It would be banned next week, you mean.

        1. Chewy chewy Max when will he learn to manage his tyres 2nd rate drive.

      2. Haha. Very true. I was hoping for an epic Max-Kimi battle but it didn’t transpire. One lives in hope.

      3. @paeschli You mean if Rosberg does it, it gets penalised the same second like in Malaysia?

      4. It was Alonso’s fault and he should get a time penalty. But let’s not get carried away by comparing his error with VES antics. After all, he didn’t put Maasa’s life in danger! Just hard racing gone a bit awry.
        And to his defence, Maasa wasn’t making many attempts to pass Sainz and it went on for several laps. Alonso KNEW he could get Sainz but not if he waited for Maasa.
        Quite frankly. I don’t think Alonso gives a crap if he is penalized – today was no doubt and most fun he has had since joining hapless Mchonda.

      5. but he did overtake a few :) But i voted for Alonso in the end. An 7 for me i think with rain this circuit is much better!

    2. Would that be the same Fernando who drove another car off the track after it already turned in, then claimed he was alongside it when he wasn’t? And the same Fernando who had been driving 2-3 car widths outside the track limits, lap after lap after lap, to allow him to catch up in the first place?

      Fernandooo needs a penalty that puts him back where he was before his idiotic behavior.

      1. +1

        We need gravel and grass and lots of it.

      2. @gweilo8888 he was alongside while massa slowed down due to the mised corner of sainz. A bit of a clumsy move for the three. Also you probably noticed that there was not a single driver that cared about track limits all race long? Clumsy moves certainly but I dont know if its worth a penalty.

        1. Yes, but there was no other driver whose standard racing line took him multiple car widths beyond the track boundary. And no, go back and watch the replay (the overhead, specifically). Massa turned in before Alonso was even slightly alongside him, and Fernando just steam-rollered him out of the way.

          1. Same thing happend to Ericsson but he didnt crash into Kvyat.

          2. Bit naughty by FA but what a drive if he gets a penalty or not…love to see him and Ric in the same team at some point

          3. If Verstappen can get away with his dangerous manouvers multiple times, I don’t see why Alonso can’t get away with wheel to wheel hard racing manuevers! He dispatched Sainz with ease and was 2.2 sec ahead of him at the finish! Speaks a lot about quality difference between Alonso and Massa!

      3. Agreed.

      4. +1 Remember: he is “Crashgate” Alonso.

      5. @gweilo8888 If you look at the on-board from Massa you can see Alonso, so he turns away momentarily, then turns back into him. That was after Massa had left space and Alonso was committed alongside.

        I’d personally put it down to racing, but if there does has to be blame I would put it firmly with Massa (not that I feel it was actually anybody’s ‘fault’ as such)

      6. You really don’t know the rules if you say that. If a driver is able to put his front axle alongside with the rear axle of the car he is overtaking, its is already considered that both cars are side by side. Fernando takes the corner in a diferent way and Felipe doesn’t expect it, but that can hardly be Fernando’s fault. On the track limits matter: Passing track limits isn’t sistematically an infraction. In current F1, only in some corners, previously specified by Charlie Whiting, its is ilegal to go offtrack.

      7. I agree that the track limits should have been enforced. But they weren’t at all, for nobody. Therefore the “idiotic” thing would have been not to take advantage of it.

      8. Alonso was alongside him, and every driver had been going off track for the entire race, some more so than him.

    3. Sviatoslav (@)
      23rd October 2016, 22:15

      Although I am Fernando’s fan, I still think the stewards must give him a penalty.
      But that fight was entertaining, I was happy to see Alonso drive fast again.

  2. 1/10. Rubbish.

    1. And that one point is entirely due to Sainz’s great drive. COTA needs some gravel and grass for next year.

        1. “Word” is indeed a word.

      1. @ultimateuzair Fantastic drive indeed, a shame for the last laps. He’ll be my DOTW!

      2. Slick paint 3M outside the lines.

    2. How does your ranking system work if you place this race equal to the American GP in 2005?

      1. The 2005 USGP was a -5/10. It was that bad.

    3. Button is clearly just going through the motions..why wouldnt Macca try and do a deal and get young Vand in a mac for the last 3 races just to get him some experience for 2017 ??couldnt be any worst than Mutton.

  3. 7. Some nice battles along the field. Too bad 2-3 battle was ruined by Verstappen.

    1. So, everything is Verstappen’s fault now?

      1. Parking the car like he did will be banned next race.

      2. …in this case…yes.

      3. Given that he drove halfway around the track when it was clear his race was already over, then chose to stop outside the barrier when he could’ve pulled through the gap, yes. The safety car which cost his teammate second place was 100% entirely and unquestionably his fault. Also, his behavior which had him crossing the racing line at barely above running pace was exceptionally dangerous. Once it is clear your car has failed, you get off the track entirely at the first available safe opportunity, which he did not do.

        1. The team asked him to continue. He then suggested to stop cause it hurted the engine. Team agreed to stop.

          Red bull knew where he would stop so it is Red bull that wasn’t paying attention when vsc kicked in.

          1. He stopped by a track opening (as shown by the crane going back through).. What the team and Max failed to realise that neutral gear would not engage…

            Just a racing incident, no fault to lie with Max or RBR, just bad luck for Ricciardo…

            Great drive by Sainz…

          2. Agree Ruben though a quick thinking Ric would of stopped without the team asking

          3. Agree @nosehair and a ‘quick thinking’ Ves has stopped without the team asking

      4. Lot of fault with Max today in getting his pit stop wrong and chewin up his tyres again..though he will be Awesome when he learns to drive using his brains instead of his testes.

        1. One to forget for sure. He got his rear smacked pretty hard at the briefing and in the press so that probably had him off his game.

  4. Yes (@come-on-kubica)
    23rd October 2016, 21:38

    That was dull.

    1. Deadly dull. Seventeen hours to drive here, just to see Ferrari demonstrate how to screw up a wheel nut.

      1. @paul-a If only they had managed to screw it, Raikkonen would have been OK…

        1. My legendary sense of humour is obviously too dry. Please add water, rinse, repeat…

          1. @paul-a I know, I was joking too :-)

  5. I give it a 9. Could hardly be better. I was entertained, first few laps were epic and then there were fun moments in the end.

    1. @jureo How? How in hell was this a 9? I could even understand a 7 though I voted it a 6, but a 9? There was no fight for the lead, the positions for the podium were locked as soon as Verstappen was out of it. The Ferraris had no fight going on. First fight was the Sainz/Massa duel and it was obvious either Massa or Alonso was going to get through as Sainz had super old tyres,…

      1. @xtwl I would agree that it wasn’t a 9 but I genuinely have never got the argument that if not much happens for the top 3-4 positions then the race is dull.
        There are 22 cars out there racing not just 3-4 & if your only paying attention to, Only interested in watching & only cars about the top 3-4 then your not really watching the race.

        i couldn’t care less if nothing happens at the front as i’m a racing fan & like to see good racing regardless of what place its for. if the top 3-4 nothing happens so what, watch the next best fight & if you can’t do that then perhaps this sport isn’t for you because if your only interested in the top places you simply are not watching the race.

        1. Yes, that counts for most of us, …

          The fact nothing happened at the front was one of the possible arguments that this race didn’t deserve a nine. Others could be that the VSC ruined any strategy play, or that with Verstappen and Kimi out of the picture all was done and dusted at the front. Neither was there happening a lot in the back near the end of the race, and so on.

      2. @xtwl I know right? How da hell a 9?

        But it is really simple, I watched it, at no point I got bored, It was interesting, watching the cars go round corners, properly, coverage was “OK”… I just felt it was worth to watch and had a good time.

        If There would be a major fight up front It would have been a 10.

        For a dry race there hardly could be more action, with regulations as they are. Especially from start there were 4 cars fighting for the win on pace, then slowly Lewis earned it. Second place was in doubt until the virtual safety car…

        So there was some fighting for podiums, then there was racing further back.

        But it is just a subjective feeling, It felt good.

    2. Pfff hahaha no way a ‘9’. Have you not seen F1 at its best?

  6. 7/10 – Decent race, but I hate VSC’s, we would have had a great race if it wasn’t there

    1. spafrancorchamps
      23rd October 2016, 22:29

      We would soon have a Bianchi 2.0 if VSC wasn’t there.

    2. And a crash into marshalls or a digger? Its annoying but one of those things.

    3. @lolzerbob I too gave it 7/10, although admittedly missed the first 45 minutes because I wasn’t in a position to watch it. However I did catch a glimpse of the start and was able to follow on twitter and it seemed quite exciting.

      The remaining hour that I did see was good though. There were battles and a bit of chaos at times. Definitely one of the better races this year in my opinion.

    4. Should close the pits in vsc unless you have been called in before

      1. of course not!
        But making the pit a ‘slower zone’ as well by reducing speed to (say) 50k would do the trick.

        1. Either that (good idea XF1Fcontr), or make a 5s or 10s penalty applicable when pitting under the VSC.

  7. Dull as dishwater. Even the start wasn’t exciting. Absolutely nothing to recommend it.

    1. I use Fairy Liquid so my dishwater is crystal clear thank you very much. I’d say it was dull as umm…Jolyon Palmer.

      1. Palmer wants the team to HELP him get pass a car..he is sook and a prima donna who is very very lucky to be driving a F1 car , who does he think he is??? FFS

    2. imagine if Lewis had gotten the correct clutch settings/start setup most season long and he had reliability on par with this teammate. People would be calling for Bernie’s head. Lolz.

      I had fun telling people how the race would finish before the start and mocking the spectacle on a chat, but the race was dreadfully boring and terribly dull, but thats what you get when you worship stupidity and corruption.

  8. There was some interesting moves out there today. PER early on was quite feisty after being punted by KVY on L1. RIC was very much sniffing around for a 2nd place up until the VSC came out. VES with a weird pit stop which the team weren’t aware of.

  9. 7/10.

    Some great battles through the field, Some good racing & some good overtaking.

    1. +1. Better than average but not exceptional.

  10. Wow. This was quite boring. Didn’t expect that…
    Shame for Verstappen.
    Kudos for Alonso in the end. Massa can be missed.

  11. 8 Very good….Alonso is back…we have missed him……and how long before there is a change of team manager at Ferrari?? only Ross B can save them

    1. Don’t get carried away with yourself. Why do Ferrari need a new manager? Because a mechanic made a pit stop error? And how can only Ross B save them? It’s not like they’re fighting for 14th in another Mercedes dominated season. So like I said don’t get carried away with yourself.

      1. Well …AceAce…that’s obviously your opinion…which I respect….But today it was a wheel nut..and without itemising all the mistakes..strategy seems lacking leadership with many poor decisions…even Seb does not appear to be happy with the team….Maurizio is not appearing to lead the team…but I know that someone like Ross can…his record speaks volumes….even with Ferrari

        1. Blame Jock Clear and Co. don’t know why your pointing fingers solely at Maurizio…Ferrari’s strategy problems started with the arrival of Jock Clear which is strange for a guy like him to be making them blunders. As for Vettel? well maybe Ferrari need a new driver. How many points has Seb lost himself and Ferrari this year through his own madness? He even squeezed Hulk today. Kimi is mopping the floor with Seb so.as I said maybe Ferrari need a new driver and a new chief engineer.

          1. I am not a huge fan of jock clear but his track record of other teams is outstanding…but I wouldnt have thought a chief engineer would be responsible solely for strategy??
            Its possible that they may not be allowing him to do his own job
            Yes and Seb does not appear to be happy and Kimi is going better and better…so maybe a change of driver is needed…
            But sadly its the boss that carries the can…..a football team loses…they never sack the players

          2. Well Jock knows the tyre temperatures etc better than anybody else, besides I said Jock Clear and “Co” I didn’t solely point him out, but hes the go to guy when he it comes to how the tyres will operate and behave during the race and alot of Ferrari’s mistakes this year has either been pitting too early or pitting too late.

  12. 7/10 for the first half, 3/10 after Max retires (causing a completely unnecessary VSC).

  13. Typically poor. Circumstances made some US gp’s special, this one is not the case. The track has some great areas for racing but most areas do exactly the opposite.

  14. 5. VSC and then the retirement of VES and RAI ruined a possible 6.

  15. Utterly yawnworthy, as usual.

    1. For an indication of how boring this race was, note that in the host country NBC ditched almost the entire last hour of their scheduled coverage with barely any post-race wrapup at all, so they could instead show a NASCAR race which was already live (and remained so) on NBC Sports.

      Dishwater drivel like this race is not going to popularize F1 in the US market. When your own broadcasters feel they’re better off showing an alternate program on two of their channels simultaneously instead of letting anyone see what you have to offer, you have a major problem with your product.

  16. One race I had to watch on my local TV-channel with a lowsy commentator. Add to that not-so-brilliant race and the emtion isn’t too high…

  17. 7. Ferrari should do some restructuring, this race proved it all. That thing with Kimi is absolutely stupidity.

    1. Agreed. I think Arrivabene is out the door. Putting Kimi on the 3-stop strategy was stupidity – again! – and was the direct cause of him being out the race.

      1. That blame would lie more with Jock Clear he has been a disaster and I don’t know why.

      2. I used to believe that ferrari were fine, even though so many were believing like me now. However, today, I am starting to see why Alonso left and why Vettel contradicted his team in the past.

        1. Alonso left to take a hail Mary shot with McLaren hoping Honda came good with the engine. Best believe if Honda were in F1 in 2014 I highly doubt Fernando would have left Ferrari. He only really wanted to go to Mercedes and they said “Nah” He took a risk with McLaren and it didn’t work out, that’s life.

  18. 5. Lowest score I’ve given a race for a long time. Nothing exciting except for ALO’s (dodgy) pass.

  19. Pretty good if you ignore the Mercedes 1-2 as per usual. Great, old time driving from Alonso. Some hard fought battles in the lower orders. Another good showing from COTA.

  20. Very average race, some interesting moments but the C4 highlights will only be about 5 minutes long.

  21. It was alright wasn’t it? Seen plenty worse races.

  22. Bit dull. Threatened excitement but never quite made good on the promise.

    In fact most of the excitement was Ferrari and Red Bull trying to outdo each other with wacky pitstops and Palmer’s dummy spitting in the Renault.

    Kudos for Alonso, was fun to watch.

  23. Overall I enjoyed that. Saw some nice overtakes & there was a fair amount of close fights & racing going on with some interest on the strategy side.

    Gets a 7 from me.

  24. 5/10. Very average race, great drives by Sainz, Alonso and to some extent Perez. 2017 can’t come sooner..

    Weird retirements for Max and Kimi, especially Kimi, made me think ‘what?’.

    DOTW probably Lewis… good for him to win after a short drought. Since I missed all of practice and qualifying he just seemed to have just that much more than Nico did.

  25. Matt (@hamiltonfan1705)
    23rd October 2016, 21:47

    Far from boring but VSC took away a lot of the action at the end. They should ban pitting under vsc

  26. One hour and a half talking about tyre management and Mercedes finishing 1 & 2 again. Watching the laundry being dried by the sun is about as exciting. 3/10

  27. those saying it was dull with nothing happening were clearly watching a completely different race as i thought that was a pretty good race?

    i saw some good racing/passing from perez as he came back through the field, I saw some close racing between the renault’s & sainz/massa/alonso and the saubers were involved in a bit of close racing/overtaking with the Haas cars a few times through the race.

    the modern low attention span fans are too used to seeing 1000 boring drs passes and tyres that struggle to last 4 laps and have seemingly forgot what a real race looks like. maybe they should change the channel and watch nascrap instead?

    1. Agreed! I think they fixate on the leaders, or “their” driver, and rank the race according to that

  28. A solid and average 6/10. It had quite a few interesting battles, but overall it fell a bit short of the expectations.

  29. Literally fell asleep for a few minutes before Verstappens retirement. One of the dullest races all season.

    2/10

  30. a solid 7.

    had a fair bit close racing and some decent racing and overtaking.

    not sure what those claiming it was boring and all that were watching as it quite clearly was not!

  31. 4/10 – dull race. shame because atmosphere was great, crowd seemed up for it, hilarious podium interviews for once… F1 will need to provide a better show if it’s ever going to break America.

  32. By far the worst in the year.

  33. awful race, track limits are completely non-existent on this track

  34. i dread to think what those saying it was boring would have said about races from 10-20-30+ years ago because this race had way, way more close racing and overtaking compared to the races from those era’s.

    i personally would give it an 8 as i thought it was a real good race :)

  35. Bring back the safety car instead of the virtual. 5 out of 10 whenever a VSC comes out

    1. clearly an irritated ricciardo fan.

      the virtual safety car is fine and is way better than a normal sc coming out & disrupting the race for many more laps. vsc can come out & clear things away with minimal disruption.

    2. spafrancorchamps
      23rd October 2016, 22:32

      Just don’t allow pitstops during VSC.

  36. 6/10

    2 nice overtaking by Verstappen. In the double S overtaking Button just superb. Breaking perfect in the corner when overtaking Kimi. But then it was a little bit boring. Alonso spiced it up by overtaking massa and Sainz with commitment. Loved the enjoyment by the last overtaking.

    Hamilton very controlled and deserved the win.

  37. 4/10

    Race had two halves – first one was quite interesting where there was fight between Ric – Ros – Ves for the podium spots. The 2nd half came when Ves retired and VSC came, robbing us of a fight between Ric and Ros.

    Ferrari strategy – again dismal. Hamilton controlled the race well and Sainz drove a great race.

    1. Track limits were joke too…

  38. geoffgroom44 (@)
    23rd October 2016, 22:01

    Some interesting battles going on. Nice to see some others getting close to Merc. I’m an LH fan, so I’m quite happy (not least because he got a good start and the car kept going!). But I gotta admit, there was some fire from Alonso that lit up the race, even if some want to find fault his grit was something to admire. If some found it boring, maybe they should get into another sport that requires less intelligence from the drivers who manage this high tech scene.A fairly good race with some very interesting events.

  39. Unfortunately the VSC somewhat anihilated the strategy game that was on. Top positions were pretty much fixed afterwards. The closing stages were saved by a great drive from Sainz altough he was a bit too short on his soft stint to be able to hold fifth.

  40. By the way,the only reason the crowd was packed was because the Dallas Cowboys didn’t play this week ;) trust me, Texans love football before they love Jesus

  41. 6/10 for the race, 1/10 for Venus Williams.

    1. Hated how she blanked Brundle, she could have at least said she didn’t want to talk, she just looked away like he wasn’t there. That was disrespectful

      1. She probably didn’t know who he was or that it was live.

        1. I’ve just seen this video now and given how close they were to the start of the national anthem (only a few seconds) I’m not surprised she didn’t want to answer a question. And it looked to me as though she did respond to him at first but she wasn’t picked up by the microphone.

  42. The VSC ruined the race. There needs to be a change to the rules which closes the pits while under the VSC to avoid the 10+ sec gain made by those who pit.

    Fernado’s “Yeeehaw” a highlight with driver of the day to him or Sainz.

    1. Edit: Somebody needs to keep the celebs/guests awake in the Merc garage during the race! The guy at the back on the right asleep while the camera was on them all is quite embarrassing for them.

    2. @homerlovesbeer they used to close the pits under a normal safety car and it caused a lot more trouble than it solved so they opted to leave the pits open.

      pits should stay open under a vsc just as they do under a sc.

      nothing wrong with the vsc rules.

      1. They could give a ‘stop and go’ penalty for pitting under VSC to eliminate most of the gain.

    3. In GP2 they banned pitting under the VSC

      1. @lolzerbob Actually that’s not quite right: They can pit but it doesn’t count as their mandatory pit stop.

  43. What was Daniel Ricciardo saying about Nico on the team radio?

  44. The race had much potential in my view. During the race It looked like it was going to be a tight battle for 2nd and 3rd places. But Max’ and Kimi’s retirements ended all excitement at the front. The VSC basically solidified all strategies and gifted 2nd to Rosberg.

    Do we really need a virtual safety car whenever a car stops at the outside of a corner? In this case a yellow or double yellow would have sufficed.

    1. I remember many discussions on this message board not too long ago about how ridiculous it was that a mobile crane could be used without the safety car being deployed. Memories are short.

      1. Perhaps you are right. I didn’t even notice the crane btw.
        In terms of safety the VSC does its job. I think it’s a shame however when it has a noticeable impact on the outcome of a race. But that’s racing of course.

  45. Glad for Lewis, lucky for Rosberg, unlucky Daniel.
    Nice race for the Spaniards – Sainz and Alonso.
    A mess from Ferrari…
    Nice point for Grosjean and Haas home

    Boring race – the best cars have to start from behind, like Lewis has done a lot (unfortunately), to have more overtakes.
    Maybe some kind of grid invert like GP2… Anything.

    I hope next year the cars will allow to follow others close… It is the most important thing to make happen with the new rules…

    This is one of my favorite race tracks and the next one too.

    Vamos a México!!!

  46. Well I’ll give it a mark for happening, a mark because it’s bedtime here now and I should fall asleep fairly easily after that.
    A mark for Ferrari/Vettel demonstrating perfectly why we should never ever consider a bonus point for fastest lap.
    Other than that, my mind has gone blank, so I guess it’s a 3 from me.

  47. 10/10…. for this morning’s MotoGP race.

    1. Which wasn’t so great anyway. I disliked it when people cheered Marc’s accident.

      1. Rossi’s charge through the field, Cal matching Marc’s speed, nice battle for 7 to 11 including a surprisingly good Hayden… top race. Like F1, haters are everywhere, ignore them and enjoy the show!

  48. 5/10
    Worst race at CotA, last year set the bar too high.
    Track limits – what’s that?
    Weird Kimi retirement and Verstappen parking.
    Alonso’s aggression was nice, but I’d like to think those white lines are there for a reason.
    Good Haas scored, shame for Sauber.

  49. A fairly average race by Austin standards. I wouldn’t say I was bored but it’s not a race I’ll remember for long 5/10

  50. Not a great race. Sainz was the driver of today.

  51. I don’t understand why fans have to boo drivers that they don’t like. Surely makes for an unpleasant atmosphere not only for the drivers but other fans.

  52. 4 out of 10. I would have given a worse score only for Alonso entertaining us in the last few laps. Great driving by him

  53. Very 2016: bland, DRS-infested and generally disappointing.

    What’s worse is that I’m pessimistic about 2017.

  54. 5/10 being generous.

    With a good start by Lewis there was never going to be a battle for the lead but at least a battle for 2nd was expected. Well, Max and the VSC ruined it.

    Nico Rosberg started well but then I didn’t understand his move to the outside. If he was trying an outside pass on Lewis, it was way too optimistic. He conceded the inside to Ricciardo who got past. Had he kept the inside line, Ricciardo would have never passed him there. Not that it mattered much in the end, anyway.

    Great moves from Perez, great drive from Sainz, and very entertaining aggressive moves by Alonso. The track limits should have been enforced, but they weren’t at all so why not take advantage of it?

  55. Pretty good, I thought. The winner was never really in doubt from around Lap 8-9, but for most of the first half of the race there was genuine, proper uncertainty over who’d be 2-3-4-5. There were occasional decent battles, some really good drives… shame about the retirements and VSC, but otherwise I was more than happy to sit and watch it.

    I meant to give it an 8, but accidentally clicked 9.

  56. 5, it was very boring again.

  57. 6 for me. Fell flat after the loss or Verstappen and Raikkonen, like a sandwich that had lost a lot of its filling, and the loss of the RIC-ROS battle that was also bubbling up but was neutralised by the VSC. It had the intriguing build up without the climax.

    It pains me to give an average score at one of my favourite tracks (the best modern track in my opinion), but some of the DNFs just spoiled the overall event for me.

    Great that we had some great battles in the lower midfield, Alonso taking advantage of the great design of the end of the track, where you can take multiple racing lines to position for an overtake

    1. @alo_oficial P5! :D

  58. 3. Save for the Red Bull drivers and Massa’s failure to pass Sainz and the resultant Alonso, it was a dull race .

  59. I gave it a 7, but I was at the race to that added a little bit more. If I’d been watching on TV, I wouldn’t have rated it that high to be honest.

    It was fun to watch Sainz and Alonso.

  60. Spoiled somewhat by the VSC, and not for the first time this season. I’m not against it in general but they need to do something to stop it having such a huge impact on the race in what is almost always a negative way. Why not close the pits during a VSC period? Or impose a minimum stop time on anyone putting in that period? Or anything else?

    1. A slower pit lane speed limit during a SC/VSC perhaps is the answer.

  61. An OK race. A decent amount of battles for position on the track. Nowhere near as good as last year’s race, but I didn’t even expect it to be as good in the first place.

  62. 6/10 for some terrible racing, amateurish overtaking, but offset by an amazing drive from Sainz and that overtake from Verstappen on Button and the earlier battle with Vettel.

  63. I rated the race at an 8 mostly because of all the unexpected things that happened during the race. But here is my pick with current F1 broadcasting. When I started watching in 1998 points were awarded to the first 6 places, so most of the coverage was focused on those first 6 drivers. The broadcast had less to focus on but they made the coverage exciting by following cars around the track, with filming that conveyed the high speed the cars carry. Also many battles were fought in the pits esp during the refuelling era, so broadcast conveyed the excitement with frequent time splits etc. Footage from old days also looks exciting because of the sound. Nowadays the filming makes the cars look slow, they hardly follow drivers around the lap, and although more drivers are fighting for points, the battles seem less exciting.

    I think the sport can do much better to convey excitement and speed by improving the way they film and broadcast the race.

    1. Nowadays the filming makes the cars look slow, they hardly follow drivers around the lap, and although more drivers are fighting for points, the battles seem less exciting.

      I agree that the broadcasting of F1 is very poor, but the battles are less exciting because of DRS and the fuel and tyre restrictions, which are such that the drivers are hindered during most of the race.

  64. 5/10, some interesting stuff in the middle of the grid but a standard result in the end.

    I feel that the VSC was not necessary, a driver pulled off the circuit with a mechanical, they didn’t crash. Why make the whole circuit go yellow and prevent the drivers on the other side of the circuit from racing just because a car stopped essentially 2 miles away? A localised yellow flag would have been sufficient.

    1. @rob91 That brings us back to why the VSC was introduced, which was because of this:

      https://www.racefans.net/2014/12/03/fia-releases-bianchi-crash-report-findings/

  65. 6/10 race. But the final few laps with Massa, Alonso, and Sainz deserves another two points for excitement. I’m not saying Alonso overtook in an OK manner but I am saying that was great to watch. Therefore rating this 8/10 because when turning the telly off, I was happy I stayed up to watch this.

  66. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
    24th October 2016, 14:29

    5. Typical F1 race since the end of V8 engines.

  67. Snooze fest at its best. Gave it a solid 2. By far the worst race of the year.
    It would have been a generous 3 but this stupid and extremely annoying VSC rule deducted 1 point.

  68. Wish I could “Rate the Race” but really cannot. The amount of the race we shown in the US bordered on the non-exist ant. NBC’s broadcast of commercials was rarely interrupt with race coverage. The “commentators ” gave the bulk of their time to commercial lead ins and plugs for NASCAR or other NBC programming. Let’s not overlook the multiple times were were treated to shots os so called “celebrities” to impress us of how much F1 is impressed with itself. If the new owners of F1 wish to expand the market in the US they might stated by undertaking a critical study of the current television product before becoming wrapped up in utilizing new technologies. A poor product in a shiny new wrapper might initially attract attention but it won’t sell in the long run.

  69. I gave the race a 5.5, not great but not terrible either, just alright.

    It seemed a pretty straightforward race, after Hamilton managed to make a good start, only car or other problems were going to stop him winning, and even without Rosberg taking advantage of the VSC to make his final pit stop I think he would still have got past Ricciardo to finish second which is all he needs to do at this stage to win the title.

    There were a few moments to get excited about during the race notably Alonso’s battles late on.

    Although it didn’t affect my rating of the race I must say that when I watched the qualifying highlights show on Saturday I wasn’t as interested as I usually am for qualifying and my level of engagement was more like that for a practice session.

    Part of this was down to the fact that I think the title fight is now almost certainly resolved and part of it was down to the fact that I didn’t expect any shocks in qualifying and the main thing that is usually decided, which of the Mercedes drivers gets pole doesn’t matter as much as it used to, as their performance at the start has been the main factor in who wins the race not who is fastest on Saturday.

  70. The race – It was ok, nothing special, but it wasn’t terrible. 5/10

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