Vote for your 2013 British GP driver of the weekend

2013 British Grand Prix

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

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

British Grand Prix driver-by-driver

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – Said Hamilton’s pole position lap was “phenomenal” and “wasn’t in reach” for the Red Bull. He extended his unbeaten run against Webber in qualifying, though by the smallest margin so far, and took third on the grid. Having passed Rosberg at the start he assumed the lead after Hamilton’s early puncture. He responded to early pressure from Rosberg after the first Safety Car and had a steady three second lead when his gearbox failed on lap 41.

Mark Webber – Having got off the line well in Monaco and Canada, Webber made a dreadful getaway at Silverstone. Contact with Grosjean at the first corner broke his wing and he fell to 14th, but gained three spots before pitting. He passed Perez and Grosjean during his second stint and Red Bull took advantage of the final Safety Car deployment to put him on a fresh set of tyres for the final blast. He wasted no time passing Ricciardo, Sutil and Raikkonen and closed on leader Rosberg, finishing within a second of the Mercedes having set fastest lap on the final tour.

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – After qualifying on the fifth row Alonso said Ferrari hadn’t improved their car quickly enough and suggested Pirelli’s tyre choices were favouring their rivals. He narrowly avoided a puncture as his tyre began to disintegrate as he pitted on lap ten. And he was relieved to escape injury when Perez’s tyre exploded in front of him with six laps to go. Although pitting shortly before the second Safety Car came out was a setback that cost him several places, it also gave him the advantage of fresh tyres at the end of the race, which he used to pass a string of rivals and claim the last podium place.

Felipe Massa – Massa racked up his fourth crash in three race weekends during second practice, and an engine problem on Saturday morning cost him more running time. Come qualifying, he was unable to make it into Q3. It looked like things were finally going his way when a superb start propelled him to sixth from eleventh. But his left-rear tyre failed on lap ten, causing a spin which left him last for 11 laps. The Safety Cars helped him come back into contention – particularly the last one, during which he put on a new set of tyres and subsequently climbed to sixth.

McLaren

Jenson Button – Both McLaren drivers failed to reach Q3 again. Button elected to start on the hard tyres but quickly suffered front and rear graining and was passed by Perez and Webber. He was a sitting duck on worn tyres at the final restart, losing three places in one lap and finishing out of the points.

Sergio Perez – Perez was the first driver to experience a left-rear tyre failure during final practice. Tyre warm-up was a problem for him during qualifying, and getting called into the weighbridge didn’t help matters. He ran a different strategy to his team mate which seemed to be working better. But after the final restart he suffered his second puncture of the weekend and the team chose to retire his car.

Lotus

Kimi Raikkonen – Raikkonen was the only Lotus driver to run the team’s new Drag Reduction Device, but he was out-qualified by his team mate for the first time this year. He got ahead of Ricciardo at the start but was jumped by Alonso at the first round of pit stops despite Lotus producing one of their better efforts. He also lost out to his team mate, though the team quickly ordered Grosjean to move aside. But they weren’t alert to the possibility of bringing Raikkonen in during the final Safety Car. Defenceless on worn tyres, he fell from second to fifth.

Romain Grosjean – Grosjean picked up front wing damage early in the race and after being told to let Raikkonen past began to experience problems with his tyres. He was passed by Ricciardo and Webber at Brooklands on consecutive laps. He did take on fresh tyres for the final restart but his front wing eventually failed and Lotus retired his car.

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – Couldn’t match Hamilton in qualifying and was beaten off the line by Vettel. Hamilton’s puncture promoted him to second and Rosberg almost suffered one as well. While chasing Vettel during the second stint he felt a problem with his left-rear tyre was developing. Vettel’s retirement served to both hand Rosberg the lead and give him the chance to make a pit stop without losing his newly-won advantage. He had enough in hand to keep Webber at bay and escaped a penalty for going to quickly under yellow flags – the stewards gave him a reprimand.

Lewis Hamilton – Wasn’t happy with his car’s balance in practice but a superb lap in qualifying secured his second pole position of the year. Vettel was just beginning to edge into his two second lead when Hamilton’s left-rear tyre exploded, robbing us of an intriguing battle. It dropped him to last, but he quickly gained ground due to the Safety Car. He ran a long middle stint on hards and changed tyres for the last time five laps before the last Safety Car period. He dispensed with Di Resta and Grosjean before the final charge to the flag during which he took four more cars, ending up passing Raikkonen for fourth.

Sauber

Nico Hulkenberg – Felt 15th on the grid was “more or less the best we could do”. A slow puncture forced an early second pit stop on lap 25, which put him on a three-stop strategy. The final Safety Car reduced the disadvantage of this and allowed him to finish tenth for Sauber’s first point since China. It might have been two had he not run wide at the restart, losing a place to Di Resta.

Esteban Gutierrez – Was knocked out in Q1 for the fifth time in eight races: “It seems I am losing a lot of time at the exit of the corners,” he said, “and this is tricky, because that is usually when I try to push and get things right.” In the race he also had a tyre failure which destroyed his front wing. A pit stop to replace it left him back among the tail-enders.

Force India

Paul di Resta – Having failed to progress beyond Q1 in the last two races, Di Resta was “over the moon” to equal the best qualifying performance of his career by taking fifth place. Then came the news he’d been thrown out of qualifying for being underweight. From 22nd on the grid he passed the Caterham, Marussia and Williams drivers early on, and gained a series of places after his first pit stop to hold 11th after the first Safety Car period. His progress slowed from then on, though he battled gamely with Hamilton, and eventually took two points for ninth.

Adrian Sutil – Ran in a podium position during the middle part of the race, resisting pressure from Alonso. Running a two-stop strategy the team left him out for three laps after Alonso’s second stop, dropping Sutil behind the Ferrari as well as Raikkonen. They also declined to bring him in during the final Safety Car which brought him back up to third but he was passed four times in the subsequent run to the chequered flag.

Williams

Pastor Maldonado – Blamed Hulkenberg’s off at the final restart for losing him two places and with it the chance of scoring the first points of the year for Williams.

Valtteri Bottas – After his Canada heroics he was unable to drag the FW35 into Q2 at Silverstone. Struggled with his set-up.

Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne – Vergne was disappointed to miss the top ten shoot-out in qualifying: “I made a mistake on my quick lap in Q2 and that’s the plain fact and I’m very upset about it, as it lost me the chance to get into Q3 which was definitely possible.” His tyre explosion on lap 14 caused damage to the rear of his car which ultimately forced the team to retire him.

Daniel Ricciardo – Admitted he was surprised to qualify as high as sixth, which became a career-best fifth after Di Resta’s penalty. He held seventh for much of the race, passing Grosjean on the way. But he was among the drivers who did not make a late pit stop under the Safety Car and suffered for it, slipping from fourth to eighth at the end of the race.

Caterham

Charles Pic – Conclusively won the ‘battle at the back’, out-qualifying his team mate and the Marussias and leading them home. Was ahead of Bottas at the final Safety Car period but couldn’t keep the Williams behind.

Giedo van der Garde – As he was carrying a grid penalty from Canada the team only gave him a perfunctory tun in qualifying to save tyres. He spent much of the race battling Chilton, and lost. ” I did pass him with a couple of laps left, but it was very tight on track and I had to give the place back which is obviously a shame,” he said.

Marussia

Jules Bianchi – Reprimanded for failing to stop at the weighbridge during qualifying. He fell behind Chilton at the start but immediately repassed him and went after Pic, but never quite had the pace to get on terms with the Caterham.

Max Chilton – “A day that I will never forget,” said Chilton after his home race. Kept Van der Garde behind at the end despite having tyres that were eight laps older.

Qualifying and race results summary

DriverStartedGap to team mateLaps leading team matePittedFinishedGap to team mate
Sebastian Vettel3rd-0.009s40/412
Mark Webber4th+0.009s1/4132nd
Fernando Alonso9th-0.392s43/5233rd-7.449s
Felipe Massa11th+0.392s9/5246th+7.449s
Jenson Button10th-0.433s5/46213thDidn’t finish on same laps
Sergio Perez13th+0.433s41/46220thDidn’t finish on same laps
Kimi Raikkonen8th+0.007s48/5125thNot on same lap
Romain Grosjean7th-0.007s3/51319thNot on same lap
Nico Rosberg2nd+0.452s45/5231st-7.756s
Lewis Hamilton1st-0.452s7/5224th+7.756s
Nico Hulkenberg14th-0.498s48/52310th-6.576s
Esteban Gutierrez17th+0.498s4/52414th+6.576s
Paul di Resta22nd-0.172s0/5239th+1.608s
Adrian Sutil6th+0.172s52/5227th-1.608s
Pastor Maldonado15th-0.152s51/52211th-3.959s
Valtteri Bottas16th+0.152s1/52212th+3.959s
Jean-Eric Vergne12th+0.603s2/352
Daniel Ricciardo5th-0.603s33/3528th
Charles Pic18th-1.615s52/52215th-36.146s
Giedo van der Garde21st+1.615s0/52318th+36.146s
Jules Bianchi19th-1.75s50/52216th-31.563s
Max Chilton20th+1.75s2/52217th+31.563s

Review the race data

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 2013 British Grand Prix weekend?

  • Max Chilton (0%)
  • Jules Bianchi (0%)
  • Giedo van der Garde (0%)
  • Charles Pic (0%)
  • Daniel Ricciardo (4%)
  • Jean-Eric Vergne (0%)
  • Valtteri Bottas (0%)
  • Pastor Maldonado (0%)
  • Adrian Sutil (1%)
  • Paul di Resta (2%)
  • Esteban Gutierrez (0%)
  • Nico Hulkenberg (0%)
  • Lewis Hamilton (52%)
  • Nico Rosberg (2%)
  • Romain Grosjean (0%)
  • Kimi Raikkonen (1%)
  • Sergio Perez (0%)
  • Jenson Button (0%)
  • Felipe Massa (3%)
  • Fernando Alonso (10%)
  • Mark Webber (18%)
  • Sebastian Vettel (4%)

Total Voters: 694

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2013 British Grand Prix

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Images © Daimler/Hoch Zwei, McLaren/Hoch Zwei, Force India, Red Bull/Getty

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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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176 comments on “Vote for your 2013 British GP driver of the weekend”

  1. Wow- Rosberg only gets 4% of the vote- even Seb never got that low when he wins… but how only 4% of people saw Seb as DOTW yet 12% voted Webber… I must’ve seen the wrong race

    1. @91jb12, you do realize you are the first to comment, and therefore not many people have voted yet?

      1. Ryan (@ryanisjones)
        1st July 2013, 17:56

        Yep. Rosberg now sits at 1%. lol

        1. Lucas Wilson (@full-throttle-f1)
          2nd July 2013, 9:24

          Who Voted Max Chilton! lol

    2. Well, considering he had been outclassed by his team mate this weekend, lost his starting position due to bad start, inherited a place when his team mate got a puncture and couldn’t close down the new leader and then inherited the lead once the leader’s car failed, I would say he wasn’t really DOTW material this weekend.

      1. Agree totally

        1. Disagree. I never understand why people feel that car failures and punctures have nothing to do with the way drivers drive. Yes he had a bad start but for me the punctures may have been caused by the aggressive driving and overheating the tires.
          Of course it may be just bad luck but just by looking at the list of drivers who have had problems, there may be something more into it.
          You need to be “up there” to have possibility to gain.

          1. The list of drivers including Perez who is known for being extremely gentle on his tyres you mean? The tyre failures weren’t luck, but a flaw in the tyres.

          2. Come on, Perrelli have got the tyre constuction wrong they change the method after Malaysia since then tyres have failed at every race. its pot luck who get the bad batch. see how many fail next week in Germany.

    3. @91jb12 I’ve seen several people post on these almost immediately after they’ve gone up complaining that they don’t like the results of the poll when hardly anyone’s had a chance to vote yet. The results of the poll are always published later, better off waiting until then.

      1. @keithcollantine I remember that some years ago (up to and including 2009 if I remember correctly) these polls displayed the actual number of votes every driver was getting, instead of percentages. In my opinion displaying the number of votes along with percentages is a little better, and would clear up these misunderstandings… It’s very easy to look at the relative ammount of votes and jump to some conclusion. :-)

        1. @guilherme The total number of voters is clearly shown at the bottom of the poll. That and the fact this was the first comment posted means there’s no excuse for jumping to premature conclusions.

          1. @keithcollantine Though to be fair, he has a point, given that as it stands now, Rosberg has 2% and Webber has 18%

  2. But I’d say Hamilton was the DOTW- closely followed by Vettel, Ricciardo and Alonso

    1. @91jb12
      My thoughts exactly.

    2. I don’t think Alonso was all that spectacular: he was there or thereabouts but I reckon Di Resta or Webber put in better performances all-round.

    3. Emphatically NOT Vettel. When he was under pressure from Nico, he blew the gearbox, not the tyres. You can’t say it was bad luck or Pirelli’s fault. Nobody else to blame for his DNF. But the worst part is, after he lost power he was still in control of the car for quite a while, and instead of getting it out of the way he parked it in the most dangerous possible way for the other drivers, forcing a SC. In my opinion that deserved quite a serious penalty, like a race ban.

      1. he blew the gearbox

        What makes you think Vettel did anything to cause the failure?

        he parked it in the most dangerous possible way for the other drivers, forcing a SC

        He didn’t have a choice of where his gearbox failed so he had little choice of where to stop.

        1. He kept driving the car for several hundred meters after he lost power until the car came to a stop, as everyone could see; it is nonsense to pretend that he couldn’t have got it out of the way.
          And mechanical failures are not a matter of luck, they happen for a reason. You can blame the pilot and/or the team, nobody else. Tyres are different because they are not made by the team.

          1. they are not made by the team.

            meaning made or chosen, of course teams do not manufacture every part of the car but they order components of their choice according to exacting specifications. Except of course tyres, where they have no choice.

    4. Yeah almost voted Hamiton but favoured Ricciardo instead, purely because him & Vergne are so closely matched and Ricciardo managed an average 6 tenth gap the whole weekend, the largest of the “equal” drivers.
      Plus, in the race he defended well from Grosjean & Alonso (who only managed to get him in the pits and then later on fresh tyres), and kept pace with the quicker cars on a weekend that he really needed to stand up and be noticed.

      Hamilton’s quali lap was pure perfection though but I figured he’d have the vast majority of the vote after being robbed of a likely victory.

  3. Ι always vote for the winner and this was no exception. But, Webber’s comeback was fantastic, as was Hamilton’s. Vettel was cruising before he retired and Alonso proved himself in the last laps. But as I said, Rosberg

    1. How ?!

      Rosberg was massively beat by Hamilton in qualifying and was dropping back in the race from both Hamilton and Vettel. He was lucky that they both had problems and that’s the only reason he won. He did have a solid drive and I do like Nico but he was outclassed by two drivers this weekend.

    2. @dimitris-1395 Why do you always vote for the winner?

      1. He managed to finish in front of all the others…

        1. *facepalm*

          1. Nathan (@il-ferrarista)
            1st July 2013, 16:30

            +10

        2. Yeah, by virtue of the two drivers in front of him having major issues. And had the race been even one lap longer, the smart money says Webber would have taken Rosberg. Plus, it’s driver of the weekend, not just driver of the race. Hamilton’s pole lap was almost half a second quicker than Rosberg’s

        3. i laughed so much. it’s a bloody good reason

        4. Trenthamfolk (@)
          1st July 2013, 21:28

          Lol +1

        5. Yes that is indisputable, BUT, it was by default was it not…???

  4. Maak Wobbler
    1st July 2013, 15:12

    “It’s gonna happen, mate.”

  5. Lewis no question.

    1. Voted Hamilton withour questionning myself aswell. But, Webber had big balls overtaking Raikkonen.

    2. It very much seems Hamilton has his form back. Unfortunately, he also seems to have his luck back.

  6. Hamilton. Pole Position and he was probably going to win until his tyre failure. After the tyre failure he managed to fight his way back up through the field to 4th.

    1. managed to fight his way back up through the field to 4th.

      But he was helped a lot by safety cars and retirements. Which, I’ve been told in other contexts, negates what he did.

      1. Traverse (@)
        1st July 2013, 17:57

        You can’t be serious? Hamilton was clearly DOTW.

        1. If Vettel gets assistance of 2 safety cars (Abu-Dhabi 2012), that’s help.
          If Hamilton makes a comeback largely assisted by 2 safety cars, that’s not help! It’s the greatest of comebacks!

          ??????

          1. Big difference being the fact that Hamilton had got pole position and led easily until the puncture. He also didn’t make a couple of big mistakes that he was very lucky to get away with on his way through the field.

          2. @jleigh hardly two “big mistakes” – he misjudged Senna’s turn-in slightly and wasn’t properly paying attention on the other occasion (he still avoided it though).

            I wouldn’t call front wing damage a “big mistake” as it didn’t subsequently lead to his retirement or anything of the sort. It was a couple of errors.

          3. @vettel1 ok, take away the word “big” and my point still stands

      2. @jonsan As was Canada 2011, when Button came from last place to win it, but no-one ever mentions the 3 or 4 SCs and the red flag…

        SCs are part and parcel of the race, sure they helped, but that’s motor racing

        1. Traverse (@)
          2nd July 2013, 11:08

          Nor the fact that Button ended Alonso race with a rash move.

  7. Between HAM and WEB but HAM had bigger comeback then Web did also the qualy lap was masterpiece, HAMILTON :-D

    1. I don’t see how people are saying Webber. He was out qualified on Saturday and made a bad start to the race. He did recover well yes, but it was his fault he was out qualified and his fault he was 15th at the start of the race.

      1. He was outqalified by 0.009s! You make it sound like he was humiliated in qualifying.

        Besides, the reason for the bad start is often mechanical and in this case it was compounded by Grosjean ramming him. Yet still he came back with his damaged car. If the ridiculous safety car period hadn’t lasted that long (to push a car away takes 10 minutes?), Webber would have won the race.

        1. @patrickl The “ridiculous” in that sentence should be refering to the fact that the safety car was deployed at all. It shound’t be needed to have full course caution to push a car that is already well off the racing line.

          Yesterday’s end to the race had NASCAR written all over it.

        2. That still makes Vettel the better driver by 0.09 of a second.

          You mention the safety car being out too long. Don’t you understandtthat without this he would have been nowhere ?

          He was slower in qualifying and made a bad start.

          I don’t really like Vettel but he drove much better than Webber this weekend. Facts don’t lie.

          1. @f190 he did but Webber was much closer than he has been. I never vote a losing teammate as driver of the weekend unless the circumstances are exceptional (like with Di Resta for example) but I’d say he’s worthy of a top 3 this weekend possibly.

            However, agreed that he wasn’t better than Vettel because as you said the facts don’t lie: he was out-qualified and out-raced.

  8. Has to be Hamilton. Brilliant in quality and the first seven laps, and then an amazing charge through the field after the tyre exploded. Not quite sure how anyone can vote for Webber or Alonso. Yes, they both made a charge through the field too, but Webber wouldn’t have had to if he’d started a bit better, and Alonso wouldn’t have had to if he’d qualified a bit better.

    Hamilton wins it by a country mile.

  9. Has to be Lewis due to qualifying and that comeback in the race. Massa, Rosberg, Alonso, Räikkönen, Ricciardo and Webber were my other candidates, but everyone did (or did not) do something that drops them down the order (crashes, poor starts, “nothing special” etc.).

  10. it has to be hamilton. And Now mercedes have the dominant machine. A lot of races left, so the sky is the limit.

  11. Interesting to see how the vote goes since Vettel, Hamilton and Massa performed better than the drivers on the podium, who were massively helped by their team mates’ bad luck.

    1. @hotbottoms +2
      I think Massa would’ve beaten Alonso had it not been for the failure but I can semi-understand that one as he was outqualified.

      Vettel I don’t understand as however you look at it Mark was still slower than Vettel all weekend in the same car, so by definition he can’t have been “better” (unless there are exceptional circumstances, which wasn’t the case here to any great extent).

      Hamilton deservedly gets the chunk of the votes as he was on top of Rosberg in every aspect of his game. He deserves the driver of the weekend hands down and was definitely robbed by these awful tyres.

      Really though I think this is just incredibly telling that people ignore the impartiality that is supposed to happen when voting.

  12. Lewis has over 50% of the vote so far and rightly so. Absolutely storming pole lap, and an immensely impressive recovery from some rotten luck. Given his pace, if he hadn’t suffered the tyre letting go he would have easily picked up the win, even if Vettel hadn’t retired.

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      1st July 2013, 17:32

      If think about it, it’s actually surprising that he only has 54% after such an impressive showing in qualifying, race start and escaping DRS and then staging as impressive a comeback as Alonso. Too bad, Sutil slowed Lewis down because this race would have been a lot more interesting with Lewis fighting with Alonso for podium and Webber fighting with Rosberg for the win. This race just needed those 2 extra laps….

      1. I’m with ya, I picked HAM for DOTW also. However, I think it would have been hard to pass ALO as HAM had older tyres and floor damage. He also took longer relative to ALO to clear RAI and others so it’s questionable whether we would have been able to pass him.

        1. Also Sutil slowed Alonso a lot too

  13. I voted for Hamilton. A fantastic qualifying lap, and he had a great race as well, initially edging away from Vettel and Rosberg, later fighting his way through the field. It would have been a perfect drive for him if he had managed to get by DiResta in the second stint, which would have moved him onto the podium I believe, but at that point he had the oldest tyres of anyone on track.

    Great weekends for Webber and Ricciardo also. Webber’s qualifying statistics may be quite damning, but less than a hundredth of Vettel was still a good effort, and in the race he was fast and combative. Not sure what happened at the start, though. It looked like his initial getaway was alright, but then he seemed to go into anti-stall in third gear or something.

    Finally, it was a great race for Felipe Massa, in which he finally put in a race performance equal to that of Fernando’s. On the one hand, it’s good to see him finally perform again, on the other hand I am hoping Ferrari sign a promising youngster next season (e.g., Hulkenberg, Bianchi), so if Massa now starts doing just enough to get his contract renewed yet again, that will be a bit boring.

  14. Has to be Lewis, with Vettel close second.

    Alonso and Webber get the usual simplistic “look at them race, they’re awesome!” votes, disregarding that the only reason they had to race and overtake, was beacuse they underperformed. Unfortunately, some people believe the skills of a Grand Prix driver is measured by entertainability, not by actualy skills to drive their ass off.

    1. @mnmracer +1! Voted for Lewis as well, Vettel was a close second. Ricciardo and Massa also impressed me.

      And I also don’t understand the default votes for Webber. He had a massively quick car underneath him (overtaking with a broken front wing), had a terrible start even by his standards and only figured in the race at all because of other’s misfortunes.

    2. delighted you realized this mnmracer- I realized a lot in 2011 that a pole-win isn’t actually a sign of a good performance!
      But fair play to them taking the risk and making the last laps exciting- had they all been on the same tyres, it would’ve resembled the god awful GP3 Race 2 where there was no chance to pass

      1. @91jb12 I disagree: on most occasions a pole to flag victory is very much the sign of a good performance as obviously no-one bettered you!

    3. @mnmracer – Completely true. It’s a pleasant surprise that Hamilton is clearly going to win the vote.

    4. Alonso and Webber get the usual simplistic “look at them race, they’re awesome!” votes, disregarding that the only reason they had to race and overtake, was beacuse they underperformed.

      I actually thought before qualifying that Webber was driving pretty well, seeing him at work in the cockpit in and the fact that he was only out-qualified annoyingly by nine thousandths and the recovery drive he performed, taking into account his usual poor starts. He was certainly one I wanted to be on the top-step should it not be Hamilton, who got my vote.

  15. Aditya (@adityafakhri)
    1st July 2013, 15:29

    I think Paul di Resta was overlooked. The grumpy Scot had interesting battle with Lewis. And given Mercedes speed and double DRS zone, the fact that he was able to keep up in front of Lewis is quite good performance. My vote goes to him.

    1. Aditya (@adityafakhri)
      1st July 2013, 15:32

      I mean in some point in the race, despite that Lewis finally passed him.

    2. Good point. He should definitely make the F1fanatic podium (especially after his qualifying), but I fear that he won’t. Perhaps if we named our top 3 drivers in this poll there would be a chance, although that would complicate things logistically of course.

      I also think that’s why Button is the favourite driver on this site. He’s fits the ‘second-favourite driver’ tag I think, a bit like Swansea City (for example!)

    3. I did vote for Hamilton because his qualifying and race were so strong. In the race before and after the tire explosion.

      @adityafakhri – I do agree with you about Di Resta being overlooked. I gave him an honorable mention in my post about Hamilton. Starting 22nd and finishing 9th was very impressive and just what he needed after his team let him down. Good job and very mature drive. If he did any team bashing after the weight debacle, I never heard it reported. Far as I can tell, he let his driving do the talking.

      Massa also impressed me. He started 11th and finished 6th even with an exploding tire.

      Sometimes I wish we could vote for a 1, 2, 3 DOTW. That would likely complicate things though.

  16. I went for Hamilton. He had good pace and I suspect he could have beaten Vettel over a full distance had technical problems not intervened. He would almost certainly have beaten Rosberg without the tyre failure, and it was a fantastic recovery drive in any case.

  17. Hamilton for me. As good as Vettel was, this wasn’t a great weekend by his own standards (seems strange to say that about someone who qualified third and led most of the race). Hamilton was surprisingly quick in qualifying and given how well Mercedes were doing on tyre life, I think it’s fair to say Hamilton could’ve won without the puncture, and even without Vettel’s gearbox failure.

    I can’t see a reason to vote for Rosberg because, let’s face it, he was tremendously lucky. He was lucky enough to be in 2nd place after HAM’s blowout, but then to inherit the win after another leader dropped out is very very fortunate. On top of that, he got a free pitstop, and then the final safety car was one lap too long for Webber to catch up with him. I know that people in F1 say “you make your own luck”, but still it was all very convenient for him.

    I’d like to give Ricciardo an honourable mention. Probably one of his best weekends yet, a points finish never looked in doubt for him.

    1. Agreed. Ricciardo should definitely be up there. 1.HAM, 2.RIC, 3.DIR for me.

  18. Hamilton.

    If he didn’t have a tyre explode during the race, he would’ve won by a significant margin. His recovery from that was impressive, and showed just how much pace he had.

    While Rosberg drove very well, he had a lot of good fortune by having both drivers in front of him drop out. With those two still in the race, he would’ve come home third. He also had some good timing with the safety car deployment.

    Similarly, Webber was mighty during the race, but his start was typically terrible. It’s hard to argue that he performed better than other drivers who were mistake free all weekend.

  19. I was quite impressed by Alonso’s sheer speed at some times, especially in the first and in the last few laps, but his poor grid position and his lack of consistency are not good sings for his title campaign.
    Hamilton was good trough the weekend and his pole lap was amazing. Also, he was well in control of the race and he still managed to get a decent result, despite his tire failure.
    But the one I choose, for this weekend, is Rosberg. He was consistent trough the weekend, he was fast in qualifying and fairly good in the race. His victory was more a result of consistency, rather than excellence, but I think he finally starts to unleash his true potential. I would like him to prove what he can really do and be a leader, challenge for victory, as he was about to do before Vettel retired.
    I also have to give some credit to Webber, di Resta and Sutil.

  20. This is simply between between Hamilton, Webber and Massa.
    Vettel, Alonso and Nico should NOT even get a look in

    – It can’t be Webber because he was outqualified by his teammate, fluffed his start, which put him in a position to get nudged by Grojean, but eventually did have a stunning comeback drive.

    It can’t be Nico because he was comprehensively beaten by his teammate in qualy, lost a position at the start, fell back from both leaders, and simply inherited a win due to circumsstances he had nothing to with.

    – It can’t be Massa because though he made a stunning start, and an ok comeback, he was also outqualified by his teammate.

    – It can’t be Alonso, because he qualified low, and inherited a podium due to Lotus having a brain fade moment.

    It can’t be Vettel, though he qualified as well as he could, beat is teamate, DNF due to mechanical faliure, he was still being beaten before he retired.

    Which leaves Lewis Hamilton. Qualified with a mega 4 tenths over the next competitor, who incidentally had the same car, started well, drove a good and measured pace before his tyre faliure, went to the back of the grid, made a lot of overtakes, most of which were not easy, and fought his way back to 4th position, albeit helpd by multiple safety car sessions; as was everybody else. In fact, if Merc had been as inspired as RBR and Ferrari, they should have stacked Lewis along with Nico at the 2nd safety car period to also give him a change of tyres. I believe he would certainly have taken Alonso and Webber in the final stages of the race.

    A long winded explanation for a great drive.

    1. @kbdavies

      he was still being beaten before he retired

      Who was Vettel being beaten by when he retired with a gearbox failure while leading?

      1. Apologies, i forgot Lewis had retired!

  21. Hamilton for sure. Superb Q3 lap and beaten Vettel’s 2010 lap record. Got robbed the win when his tyres failed and damaged his car, but he held composure and clawed 4th from Kimi in the end. Did some awesome overtakes and I saw that very aggressive Hamilton again. Supreme drive!

    Great drive from Massa as well considering he was dead last in lap 10 to 6th in the end!

  22. For me it was a choice between Hamilton and Di Resta.
    Di Resta probably brought the weight disaster upon himself by not eating another plate of pasta before getting in the car, but he redeemed himself in my eyes by not murdering the entire Force India team out of sheer exasperation.
    But this was probably one of Hamilton’s best weekend performances so far. His qualifying lap was outstanding and his composure and determination in dragging himself up through the field post-tyre-pop was terrific entertainment.
    There’s something else he did, too. Right at the start of Q1, he walked up to a gap in the pit wall fence, stuck his head through and waved at the stand opposite. Of course he was playing the crowd, but he recognised that the fans were there to be entertained and wanted to see drivers, driving fast.
    I voted Hamilton.

  23. Hamilton has always been harder than anyone else on his tyres, so you could argue that the tyre failure was partly a result of his driving style. Massa is similarly hard on his tyres and had an early blow out (like in Bahrain).

    Driver of the day Vettel imo. Would have likely caught Hamilton. Vettel must be the unluckiest driver on the grid to have had so many mechanical problems in the last four seasons while leading a race.

    Not sure how Kimi got votes when his teammate was told to move over for him.

    1. Sorry but you are just wrong.

    2. Perez must be doubly hard on his tyres then due to his two failures. You know, the driver who was famously kind on his tyres at Sauber!

      1. Traverse (@)
        1st July 2013, 18:04

        +1!

      2. @john-h yes! all this aggressive style theory is nonsense

    3. Disagree there . Hamilton wins that too .. Pretty unlucky last year 2 times from the lead . Vettel is the “luckiest” by far for not having too many DNFs . Just look at his consecutive races without a DNF data . Of course, his consistency comes from his driving for sure and partly the Red Bull .

    4. Vettel is the “luckiest” by far for not having too many DNFs

      @hamilfan I don’t agree with either you or anon: Vettel isn’t the most unlucky driver on the grid clearly as he has won the last three championships but as @91jb12 has pointed out here 6 of his 7 retirements since 2010 have come from the lead of a race (5 due to mechanical failure of some kind and 1 from a collision).

      So he’s lost a fair chunk of points from mechanically-induced retirements since 2010. I wouldn’t call him the “luckiest” driver in that respect at all but nor would I call him the unluckiest!

  24. This one has to be a landslide. Hamilton gave a brilliant performance of speed, agression and control.

    And yet again he unwittingly untertains us like no other driver manages to do so regularly. (allthough I guess he probably would have rather done a Vettel and won this one… Next time maybe).

  25. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
    1st July 2013, 15:58

    It’s got to be Alonso. The high speed balance of the Ferrari was awful, and around Silverstone, that’s a major penalty. OK, he benefited for tyre failures and other retirements in the race, but once again his sheer brilliance managed to drag a result out of a car that simply wasn’t up to it. During the race he is the best man on the grid, and the race is when they hand the points out. I think the poor Ferrari balance derived from limited Friday setup time, and is therefore a bit of a one off. For me, Fernando looks good for the win at the Nurburgring.

    1. Did you watch the race ?

      1. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
        1st July 2013, 18:15

        @f190 – I sure hope so. I hope I didn’t pay good money to sit on the starting line of some elaborate dress rehearsal.

        1. Except that his race wasn’t too impressive. Sure he had a great result, but I rate his race the same as Rosberg’s, in the right place at the right time. Puncture just before pitting?Great timing. Kimi not pitting during the saftey car? Even Better. Good drive to keep his championship hopes alive? Yes, but driver of the weekend, not a chance.

          1. @rybo +1
            @william-brierty – Massa finished 6th in the car “that simply wasn’t up to it” despite a puncture while running ahead of Alonso as well.

          2. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
            2nd July 2013, 10:01

            @rybo – Rubbish. Alonso drove an awesome race. Rosberg was the one that lucked into a result, but Fernando scraped the barrel of that car’s performance and produced a really rather perfect drive. His pace was poor, and yet through the use of his magic wand, he ends up on the podium. Remember when Alonso started to fall back from Sutil and into Raikkonen’s clutches? Remember when Sutil had just one poor lap, gave Alonso one chance? Did he waste it? No. When Alonso needs to pass a car, he just gets on with it. Both Ferrari drivers comprehensively outperformed perhaps the most poorly setup car on the grid. Hamilton, Rosberg, Vettel and Webber had the performance, Raikkonen, di Resta and Ricciardo also seemed to have better cars, so I don’t exactly think they need to be congratulated for being faster. OK, Hamilton drove brilliantly, but it’s not as if he needs a pat on the back every time he outperforms Rosberg; he does have more talent at his disposal, he should be ahead.

            @david-a – After Massa’s tyre failure he, like Hamilton, was out of phase in terms of tyre wear, so at all times during the race, Massa had the younger tyres. It was therefore rather easy to come through the field, and the final safety car really helped both Hamilton and Massa. I will concede however that Massa’s start was awesome, and Alonso’s was rather poor for his standards. Excluding that though, Alonso’s race was unbelievable. What is the formula by which we normally measure greatness in F1? Drivers that outperform their cars. Is that not a description of Alonso’s race?

          3. @william-brierty

            “The most poorly setup car on the grid”? That’s a massive exaggeration. As is the simplistic assumption that everyone who was near or ahead of him had “better” cars.

            What is the formula by which we normally measure greatness in F1? Drivers that outperform their cars. Is that not a description of Alonso’s race?

            No. He finished on the podium after Hamilton and Massa’s punctures, Raikkonen not pitting, plus Vettel’s gearbox failure. It was a good drive, but it is not any form of miracle that he could reach the podium.

          4. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
            3rd July 2013, 8:52

            @david-a – What a short-sighted response. You say I exaggerated the poor pace of Ferrari, would you like to develop that point? It would have saved me from having to explain to you that Ferrari, in a bid to improve their qualifying and knowing that their pace would be strong in the race regardless, they put a lot of front end of the car hoping to create a “pointy” and responsive car for qualifying. It actually had the effect of making the car unstable at high speed, hence the poor showing from Ferrari throughout the weekend. Had Friday been dry, Ferrari would’ve reversed that decision early on. And you say that I automatically think that anyone ahead or near Alonso had “better” cars, but has Sutil suddenly become a better driver than Alonso? Has di Resta? Ricciardo? No, because every time you went onboard with any of them they had a stable balance, whereas when you went onboard with a Ferrari it looked like Alonso and Massa were fighting an octopus in the cockpit. Do you not find it odd that even in balanced and “conventionally” setup cars, Sutil and Ricciardo didn’t end up on the podium whilst Alonso did? Two drivers that to all intents and purposes had equal chances of a podium as Alonso, in “better cars”, failed to deliver the kind of result that Alonso could. OK, the result was not miraculous within the context of that afternoon, but the style of Alonso’s drive, the intensity, vehemence and determination easily rendered him my driver of the weekend.

          5. @william-brierty
            You say that the changes led to a poor showing throughout the weekend, when if anything, their race pace was similar to other weekends.

            And you say that I automatically think that anyone ahead or near Alonso had “better” cars, but has Sutil suddenly become a better driver than Alonso? Has di Resta? Ricciardo?

            No, but Alonso does not necessarily perform at his highest level every weekend, such that he waves a “magic wand”. And while you’re asking that, is Massa suddenly great enough to finish where he did, despite the issues he had, or doesn’t his performance, in conjunction with Alonso’s suggest they had a car quite easily capable of actually beating Force Indias and Toro Rossos?

          6. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
            3rd July 2013, 16:46

            @david-a – So what you’re saying is that Ferrari’s race pace was as good as any other weekend even though Alonso started falling back from the Force India of Sutil in clean air, and also came under pressure for Ricciardo. Is that similar to other weekends? Did Alonso drive so badly that he came under pressure from Ricciardo on sheer driver merit? No, that’s delusional. Alonso sometimes struggles in qualifying. End of. Other than that his occasional woes in qualifying, Alonso drives during the race reach a level of intensity simply beyond the reach of many drivers. Regarding Massa, he was greatly aided by the final safety car and his tyre failure put him out of sync with other drivers, like Hamilton, meaning that he had the fresher tyres…as I have already explained. As you well know, Massa would scarcely have finished in the points had there not been such an extensive showing from the safety car; the massively influential nature of which is demonstrated by the way both Hamilton and Massa had most of the lap to return to the pitlane, and yet finished well in the points. Unless you have a more intelligent rebuckle to dispense with, I believe that is game, set and match to myself.

          7. @william-brierty

            Did Alonso drive so badly that he came under pressure from Ricciardo on sheer driver merit?

            I didn’t say Alonso drove “badly”, rather that he didn’t necessarily outperform his car this weekend as you’re claiming.

            Alonso drives during the race reach a level of intensity simply beyond the reach of many drivers.[…]As you well know, Massa would scarcely have finished in the points had there not been such an extensive showing from the safety car; the massively influential nature of which is demonstrated by the way both Hamilton and Massa had most of the lap to return to the pitlane, and yet finished well in the points.

            Alonso started 9th, finished 3rd. While his teammate and Hamilton may have been helped out slightly by the first safety car bunching up the field/putting them out of sync with the rest on tyres, that help only came because they suffered misfortune in the first place. They were otherwise ahead of Alonso. Regarding Massa, I’d consider it likely that Alonso would have eventually beaten him. But still, Alonso was behind and making no progress initially.

            So, where was this “intensity” from Alonso this weekend that was so special? Was it those laps where he was stuck behind Sutil? Was it supposed to be the sprint at the end that got him from 8th to the podium, when Alonso was on fresh tyres, just like Massa, but unlike Lewis, Kimi, Sutil, Button and Ricciardo?

            Alonso did a good damage limitation job- that’s a great quality, and will do him well in his quest for a third title, but that was largely it. This individual performance just wasn’t that great.

          8. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
            4th July 2013, 10:35

            @david-a – Where was this “intensity” from Alonso? Those laps where he overtook both Lotuses in quick succession before overtaking Ricciardo all within a matter of corners. The way in which he glided past those that hadn’t pitted in the concluding laps. The way in which he immediately overtook Sutil after he had one poor lap. Oh, no of course, he got “stuck behind Sutil” even though Sutil was actually pulling away at one point, and looked to even the most casual onlooker to have a better car. And the way in which you claim that Alonso made “no progress initially” is a) not true and b) compounds the fact that Ferrari simply didn’t have the performance and were to all intents and purposes behind the Force Indias and Toro Rossos. Alonso was a net 4th place before he pitted in the later stages, and only fell to 8th after pitting. Don’t pretend that you don’t know that Alonso did most of the hard work in the first stint. I simply don’t know how you can’t see the sprinkle of brilliance in Alonso’s drive; a brilliance that was even apparent to a bewildered spectator (me), who had no idea what was going on in the race. OK, his qualifying performance was mediocre, but he put the car on a representation spot on the grid before comprehensively outperforming the car in the race. Whether that makes him the driver of the weekend, that is a debate for another day, but the sheer merit of Alonso’s Sunday drive cannot be denied by even the most stubborn and subjective onlooker.

          9. @william-brierty

            Those laps where he overtook both Lotuses in quick succession before overtaking Ricciardo all within a matter of corners.

            The Lotuses? Fair enough. But he didn’t pass Ricciardo immediately after- it was Vergne, who hadn’t pitted.

            The way in which he glided past those that hadn’t pitted in the concluding laps.

            That’s a pretty weak argument. We know how influential fresh Pirelli tyres are. As pointed out, Massa made similar progress in the final laps on similarly fresh tyres from the position he was in. Webber carved his way up in the closing laps on fresh tyres.

            The way in which he immediately overtook Sutil after he had one poor lap.

            Which poor lap was this? I see that Alonso got past Sutil on lap 30, before pitting at the end of the lap. But wait, Raikkonen got past Alonso and Sutil on lap 29, before he pitted. Ricciardo got past Sutil on lap 32, before he pitted as well. That’s either a lot of poor laps by Sutil (and one by Alonso), or it’s the pit entry allowing drivers to miss a portion of the track.

            Oh, no of course, he got “stuck behind Sutil” even though Sutil was actually pulling away at one point, and looked to even the most casual onlooker to have a better car.

            Casual onlookers would also have seen the other Ferrari up the road, closing and attempting to pass Sutil’s Force India.

            Alonso was a net 4th place before he pitted in the later stages, and only fell to 8th after pitting. Don’t pretend that you don’t know that Alonso did most of the hard work in the first stint.

            According to the lap charts, Alonso was 8th in the opening stages. In the first stint, he gained 2 positions because of Massa/Hamilton’s punctures. After the first tyre stop, he passed Raikkonen (Grosjean as well, who only got ahead due to an early stop and undercut). The other position was Ricciardo, who on lap 11 had a pitstop almost five seconds slower than Alonso’s on lap 10. He remained 4th throughout the next stint until losing a place to Webber (not Alonso’s fault, unsafe release cost him time), then gained a place again due to Vettel’s gearbox failure.

            I simply don’t know how you can’t see the sprinkle of brilliance in Alonso’s drive; a brilliance that was even apparent to a bewildered spectator (me), who had no idea what was going on in the race. OK, his qualifying performance was mediocre, but he put the car on a representation spot on the grid before comprehensively outperforming the car in the race.

            Well, I would hope that now you’re aware of more facts regarding the race, that you can see how it wasn’t that brilliant, especially by Alonso’s high standards. It was a good damage limitation result, rather than a true case of outperforming the car.

  26. Lewis was on another level!

    He’s back……

  27. It has to be Hamilton. Pole by almost a half of a second, taking off from the field at the start, and then a recovery from dead last to a very strong points scoring position. Had he not had his tire issues, I have no doubt that he would have won by a comfortable margin.

  28. yuya (@john-locke)
    1st July 2013, 16:16

    I picked up Alonso.
    Webber had bad start again and contacted with Grosjean again.
    I also was impressed by Hamilton, but Alonso survived 3 serious situation (1 he avoided contact with -WEB-GRO at start. 2 Ferrari crew misjudged to release Alonso and he avoided contact with Grosjean in pit lane. 3 he avoided contact with Perez when his left tire burst.) and Alonso showed us a lot of cleaver overtakes…

  29. This weekend, Lewis should get the crown… unbelievable drive !!

  30. Hamilton.
    Half a second quicker than the second place on saturday, was leading convincingly on sunday until his tyre gave up. Probably would have won the race. On the last restart he was in 9th place and with OLD tyres came up to 4th and with a few more laps would probably pass Alonso. Great race by him.
    But he is one unlucky driver.

  31. Daniel Ricciardo. He was on it all weekend, had a superb qualifying and although he had a quiet race compared to nearly all those around him, he persevered and came home a solid 8th. I can’t fault him for being beaten by more experienced drivers in superior machinery. He still managed to put up a fight to the likes of Alonso, Raikkonen and Hamilton even if his defence against them was short lived.

  32. Chiz (@a-flying-toilet)
    1st July 2013, 16:50

    How can it not be Alonso? 5th AT BEST car (possibly 6th) and salvaged a podium.

    1. Then why not Massa? Was fifth and ahead of Alonso before the puncures and his spun and finished 6th from 22nd.

    2. @a-flying-toilet that’s rather extolling of you: with the troubles key players had hit coupled with the safety car periods bunching the field up I’m not at all surprised he finished where he did. It was really nothing more than a decent performance: he didn’t set the world alight as usual in qualifying and put in a good but far from godly performance in during the race.

      Hamilton at least was better.

      1. And if @vettel1 says Hamilton was better he had to be doing something good. :p

  33. I voted for Massa. I couldn’t decide. Vettel, Webber, Alonso, Massa, Hamilton, Rosberg all on the same level for me.

  34. Hamilton.

    Honorable mention to Di Resta, Ricciardo and Massa.

    1. yes perfect

  35. i voted sutil, he had a brilliant race!

  36. I agree that Nico was lucky but how come neither Alonso or Webber as Hamilton is leading this board. FUNNY

  37. I had to vote for Hamilton; he won the pole, and was on course to win the race before his tire let go. His recovery was absolutely fantastic. Honorable mention to Felipe Massa on account of his amazing start and equally impressive drive from the back.

  38. Has to be Alonso. He was constantly overtaking cars. Lewis was good as well, but Alonso I feel did a better job on the day, especially considering he kept losing out to the Lotus’s during the pitstops, forcing him to re-overtake them each time.

  39. No doubt, Lewis was the driver of the weekend; but I simply cannot understand the aversion for Vettel.

    If he wins from pole, then it is expected from him and if he comes thru the field, then why did he qualify so low in the first place !!!

  40. Normally, Hamilton. I still think though that he and Mercedes in general benefited from the illegal test, so I did not vote for him.

    Vettel was very good, too. No mistakes really, should have won after Hamilton’s retirement. But he didn’t really pull away from Rosberg as he would normally do, so for his standards, not quite DOTW, just runner-up.

    So my vote goes to Ricciardo. Excellent qualifying, very good race. Felt that he was outdriving his car. Could have ended up one or two positions higher.

    Other mentions:
    Massa – what a start! Would love to see an onboard.
    Sutil – hung in there quite long, but slightly too aggressive defending once (against a Toro Rosso I think)

    Alonso, Webber – lucky with the retirements and safety cars really. I don’t understand why Alonso felt so disadvantaged by the second safety car.

    Kimi – disappointed. Especially his reaction when he was blaming his team’s strategy, and that it was not his fault for not stopping. Technically correct, but look how Vettel and to some extent Alonso speak about their teams – it is always “we”. I don’t think such behaviour will make Red Bull welcome him with open arms, he doesn’t seem much of a team player.

  41. Hamilton drove brilliantly all weekend and was DotW. But does Alonso just get credit no matter how averagely he races, he did not have a bad race yesterday, but Rosberg qualified second and won the race, how did he have a worse weekend?

    1. Fan factor

  42. Lewis Hamilton, no doubt. Sensational Q3 lap, good start and able to keep the tyres alive and maintain a 2-second gap to Vettel – until the tyre failed obviously. But after that, he made an incredible comeback (overtaking 3 cars on 1 lap at some point), finishing an unbelievable fourth.

    Shout out for a few drivers: Di Resta, Sutil and Ricciardo all did amazing jobs on Saturday. Then on Sunday, Ricciardo and Sutil were able to ‘relatively’ keep up with the rest of the frontrunners, but unfortunately neither of them managed to really improve on their starting position. Di Resta in that respect did a very good job, but was helped by the safety cars a lot imo.

    No idea why Webber at this moment has more votes than Vettel to be honest: he was marginally outqualified, managed to ruin his start again and finished second mostly due to rivals dropping out – he would have finished fourth, behind the Mercedes cars and “Michael”.

    1. I think Webber had problems with the car at the start.

      1. @f1mre Haven’t read that anywhere yet; do you have a source?

  43. I can’t remember if I did this another time: Lewis

  44. 1. HAM 2. VET 3.DIR/RIC

  45. To me, it was clearly Lewis this weekend. He broke the track record with that stunning qualifying lap and was strong enough to have won the race had Pirelli not blown up in his face.
    I think Alonso, Massa, and Webber drove well too, but I have to give this one to Lewis. I like Nico, but this one fell in his lap, he didn’t earn it.

  46. My vote goes to Alonso, he qualified 10th (started 9th bc of penalty) with a considerably slower car than the top qualifiers and was able to overtake a lot of those same cars and finish on the podium. I’m a bit shocked at all the love for Lewis because he clearly had a superior car this weekend. He was 1/2 in the practices, gained pole position in qualifying, and was leading the race comfortably before his tire blew. Of course he was going to climb through the ranks and compete after his puncture, he had one of the fastest cars of the weekend. For a slower car (Alonso) to gain seven places from start to finish and finish 3rd is a more impressive drive, in my opinion.

    1. It was interesting to see how the Alonso’s “slow” car was flying past the cars he was overtaking and how the Massa’s “slow” Ferrari gained so many places at the start.

  47. Okay , my choice is also Lewis because of the qualy but more importantly maintaining the gap to vettel at the start (That is the difficult part ).

    Other great drives in order were Alonso ( fantastic overtakes and caution ) , Riccardo ( this guy need to challenge Vettel soon ) and Massa ( lightning start and aggression )

  48. Hamilton. If not for him, people would still be saying Red Bull/Vettel combination is the fastest on both 1 lap and over a race.

  49. HAM, WEB, MAS in that order.

    I don’t know why ALO is getting so many votes.

  50. I do not understand why Nico Rosberg does not get more votes in these popularity contests. I think Webber did great and I have always been a fan of his…. When things happen on the track or in the pits giving an edge to other drivers it is sometimes said, so and so won due to bad luck for so and so and than again sometimes it is said that so and so won because he was lucky …. this is really based on popularity of the drivers/teams involved and nothing else but slanted opinion. Again I say, when F1 is more about tyres/tires and rules the less it is about racing…. I will keep watching as I have been a fan since day 1 and through the F5000 days but the ‘politico’ guys with there rules are killing my enthusiasm. Thanks, Ray

    1. @racernorriski If these were “popularity contests” then Jenson Button would win every time.

  51. Voted for Massa, brilliant recovery drive as it seemed as he not only had a slower car than Hamilton but also more damages.

  52. After looking over the voting results again, I wonder how many of those that voted for Vettel, Alonzo, and Hamilton ever vote for anyone else?????

  53. I went for PdR. Continually proving his worth and another fantastic qualifying. I think his first podium will come this year, and if it doesn’t it won’t be because of his mistakes!

  54. I think those who deserve are Hamilton, Ricciardo and Bianchi. Bianchi was incredibly quick compared to his team mate during the weekend, 1.757s faster in qualifying, and whilst Bianchi was 36.0s behind the leader at the checkered flag, Chilton was a further 31.6s behind, almost double the gap.
    Ricciardo was brilliant as well, great in qualifying and in the race, a very solid and quick drive.
    Hamilton was astonishing as 452 thousandths faster than his team mate are a big amount, and Rosberg can’t be compared to Chilton, so Hamilton and Bianchi both did incredibly well. Hamilton also held onto the lead and ran away to a safe margin before his tyre explosion, and from then on was also incredible as he recovered to 4th.
    I picked Hamilton out of the three.

    1. @fixy great shout-out for Bianchi – he’s definitely an unsung hero this weekend now I look at it!

      1. @vettel1 perhaps it’s not a coincidence that he took his first and only GP2 win at Silverstone – he might have a soft spot for the track!

  55. Lewis Hamilton, because of his overtaking moves, and his superb pace in SECTORS 2 AND 3. His comeback through the field, was nice. If the puncture wasn’t there, I think we would have seen “INVERTED USA 2012”. This time Lewis ahead… Even with the damage floor, he still fought up to fourth and nearly chased Alonso down… Second, Di Resta, similar to Lewis’ performance last year in Barcelona, last and finished in the points… Third, Mark Webber… HOW DID I EXPECT HIM TO BE UP IN THE PODIUM??? AFTER COLISSION IN THE FIRSST LAP AND DAMAGE??? Last British gp for him.

  56. I would have gone for Di Resta but it was a great recovery by Hamilton. Just looked absolutely on it all weekend!

    Also, why has Alonso got more votes than Massa? Massa was ahead in the race by some margin when his tyre blew…

  57. I voted for BUT he had no grip issues at all, Alonso always start back and end up in podium is getting boring, Rosberg always does better than Ham but Ham has more fans, Vet is to good for the rest hope PER gets the Redbull seat Mclaren sucks.

  58. I voted HAM, but almost went for MAS. This weekend, in spite of being outqualified by ALO, he did quite well.

  59. sorry i cant vote for anyone from mercedes for the rest of the season..so its webber and alonso this time

  60. Jules Bianchi! He’s doing in the Marussia what Alonso did in the Minardi and no one seems to be noticing. Chilton was more familiar with the circuit and Bianchi outqualified him, set a fastest lap that was more than 1s faster than Chilton when they were on the same strategy and they were nose to tail at the last safety car and he finished 31s ahead. I can’t remember the last time a team-mate was schooled like this and someone needs to show this kid some love.

  61. @keithcollantine there must be a problem with the form, there was no option to vote for Pirelli, they featured all weekend long, and boy didn’t they deliver on Sunday? I’ve never seen so much action from this 1 performer. And did you see how many overtakes they managed to make in 1 race! Just look at the points, they lead the Drivers and Constructors Championship by quite some margin, their nearest rival is no where to be seen… Completely dominating performance… The media are all over Pirelli, and its all anyone in the paddock ever talks about now. Pirelli is what F1 is all about at the moment, so how could they not be the Driver of the Weekend?

    1. LOL .. I empathize with your rant

  62. I feel particularly sorry for Di Resta. I heard from a mate in the team that it technically wasn’t the car that was underweight, but actually Paul, because he lost more weight in the cockpit than expected (I’m told he lost 1.5kg in weight between the start and end of qualy)

    That said, I can’t argue that Hamilton ha anything other than a fantastic performance all weekend, so my vote goes to him.

  63. Hamilton on the basis that he did nothing wrong all weekend.

  64. Its hard to pick a driver tbh, Hamilton drove a great race but wasnt good enough for DOTD in my opinion seeing as he gained massively under the safety car towards the tail-end of the race. Still it was hard to think about him losing that race had he not been so unlucky with the tyre blowout. Webber and Alonso raced well too but then again both gained from the safety car!

    1. ALL cars on the track gained massively frm the saftey car – apart from the leader.

  65. Lol, look at these ratings! :)
    Not that much wrong with acknowledging Hamilton’s efforts, but it’s actually the rest of them that are way to weird. :)

  66. Great racing by Nico Rosberg, Mark Webber, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa. Kimi was also pretty good but the team let him down again, I am still wondering if it would have been possible for him to just pit if he thought it was the thing to do, without waiting for the call.

    Mark did a great recovery (pretty close to a win) from a horrific start, it’s funny that he always botches the start when he’s side by side with Seb Vettel, but lacking further proof I’ll assume it is MW’s fault. So, he was not the DOTW AFAIAC.

    Fernando and Felipe neither, due to their abysmal performance on Saturday. Extra points for Felipe for his great start and for his recovery drive after a tyre blowup, clearly no fault of his. BTW, it amazes me how the usual loathers can say that Alonso was incredibly lucky by pitting just before the second SC. It was still before the SC and he paid the price losing 5 positions (3rd to 8th) that he had to recover afterwards, while those who pitted with the SC first lap like Nico Rosberg got it for free. Alonso was lucky pitting for the first time just before his tyre failed and surviving Sergio’s tyre blowout, but not at all with the SC.

    I’m happy that Nico won, but he was not the best on Saturday, and would surely have been only third in the race without the Lewis’ and Seb’s mishaps (and Mark would also have passed him in just one more lap). So, pretty good Nico but not quite the best IMAO, even if he won.

    So I’m giving it to Lewis. An awesome qualifyng lap, and well on his way to victory when his tyre exploded (one could think it was poetic justice after the secret tyre testing, but then it should have happened also to Nico), afterwards a great recovery drive. He could hardly have done any better. Honorable mention also to Paul di Resta, great qualifying and a points finish from the back of the grid.

    And Seb Vettel? Decent (but not the best) quali performance, and seemed poised to win for most of the race. But then he blew it. Not the tyres, mind you, but the drive train or whatever. Therefore, not Pirelli or anybody else to blame. A 100% deserved DNF for SV/RBR. So there.

    BTW it was unsportsmanlike and dangerous to other drivers to leave the damaged RBR in the track when he had ample opportunity to get it out of the way. So in my opinion he should have been given a serious penalty.

    1. @copersucar Given the point on the track at which the failure occurred and the speed with which the car stopped I don’t see how Vettel had any choice.

      None of his rivals seem to think he did it on purpose – even Ferrari who, as you rightly point out – has cause to feel the timing of the second Safety Car was unfortunate for Alonso.

      Nor would stewards would have let that go if they had any reason to believe Vettel had deliberately stopped his car in a dangerous place.

  67. Alonso. Didn’t have a good car, but he constantly attacked, attacked, attacked, and made the most fortune provided him with, which is almost like a win, 15 points over Vettel’s 0.

  68. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    2nd July 2013, 3:29

    Hamilton

  69. Normally when there is clear favorite to win DOTW I use that as an opportunity to vote for one of the drivers who will get overlooked. But while there were some stellar performances, this week I think Hamilton was really heads and shoulders above everyone else – a brilliant pole lap, and he had a mega start and looked to be on pace for a lights to flag win. Even though he was helped by 2 SCs, he had a lot of composure to come back and had some brilliant overtaking moves along the way.

    Hamilton’s not my favorite driver, but he certainly was the DOTW.

  70. Hamilton for DOTW….. But I dont think that F138 had much more to offer to both ALonso and Massa. ( I am talking abt Ferrari coz I am a big Alonso fan ). The car looked handful if not awful on that track and it had balance issue. Atleast 4 teams were faster than F138 namely RB, MERC, STR and FI but Alonso did make the difference on the race day..

  71. Fikri Harish (@)
    2nd July 2013, 8:55

    Voted for Hamilton.
    Like Alonso in Valencia last year, he showed what the phrase Home Advantage actually means.
    Credit to Webber as well though, never missed a podium at Silverstone since 2009. He must’ve really liked this circuit. If his radio message was any indication, his terrible start wasn’t completely his fault.

    And Alonso so don’t deserve 11% of the votes. His ****-poor qualifying (even by his standards) made completely sure of that.

  72. It’s never been so difficult because there were a lot of drivers with outstanding performances. Vettel, Webber, Rosberg, Hamilton, Sutil, Di Resta, Massa, Ricciardo… But I chose Hamilton because Qualifying and Race combined he impressed me the most. Nailed it in qualifying, kept Vettel at distance before his puncture and even when he was last, he never gave up fought his way impressively back to fourth and almost got third from Alonso.

  73. wanted to say Webber, but had to say HAM. The pole lap was outstanding, and he would have romped away had it not been for the blowout. heart says webber just for the RAI overtake!

  74. Melchior (@)
    2nd July 2013, 9:56

    I voted for Webber.Yeah…I’m biased……But he did have a bloody good race with a lot of good overtakes and could have won if it weren’t for the length of that last safety car period.
    There were quite a few other good drives notably by Hamilton and Ricciardo….Not sure what happened to Ricciardo in the end though dropping back to where he ended up finishing.

    Isn’t i strange how Webber almost always seems to have a bad start whenever he is alongside Vettel?
    looking at the overhead of the start,Webber got off the line okay but then got swamped.

  75. Why is Mark ahead of Sebastian in the poll?

    1. …Because more people voted for Mark

  76. Alonso, that car had no right to be on the podium this weekend, they never got the balance right, yet somehow Alonso used all of his racecraft and strategic cunning to maximize his points.

  77. For me it was either Hamilton, Massa, or Di Resta. Di Resta and Hamilton both being top-notch in qualifying, and then overcoming significant set-backs. I Would love to have voted for Massa, but his qualifying performance was really lack luster, although he did bring his A-game for the race it seemed. I’m not surprised if Lewis wins the vote, but I put mine for Di Resta today. I think that was a valiant charge from the back after being handed that grid penalty.

  78. I voted for Hamilton, his qualifying performance was impressive and he put in a great drive back up to fourth with a car which wasn’t 100% after his tyre exploded. I think that without his tyre problems, even if Vettel didn’t have any reliability issues, he won have won his home Grand Prix.

    The safety car periods bunched the field up which meant quite a few drivers were able to put in good recovery drives such as Webber, Hamilton, Massa and Di Resta.

    I also felt Ricciardo had an great weekend, which was good timing what with vacancy at Red bull opening up for next year.

  79. TheMouseIsHere
    6th July 2013, 8:24

    Hamilton….He went to killing mode in the last 10 laps

  80. Charles Pic, he had a grid penalty that put him to last on the grid, then he got a puncture that compromised his tyre strategy however he still finished ahead of van der Garde and Chilton.

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