Vote for your United States GP driver of the weekend

2013 United States Grand Prix

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

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

United States Grand Prix driver-by-driver

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – Webber’s early runs in Q3 were so strong it briefly seemed a serious possibility Vettel was about to be denied pole for the third time in four races. The final sectors made the difference: Webber’s was scruffy, Vettel’s flawless, and he took his eighth pole position of the season. He easily held off Webber and Grosjean at the start and therafter only had his tyres to worry about. This was not entirely straightforward – he pitted earlier than some of his pursuers after wearing his first set out quickly – but after easing his pace in the closing stages he took his 12th win of the season.

Mark WebberThe sector times from qualifying said it all – Webber had pole position in his hands but let it slipped away. The start was a predictable affair – both Grosjean and Hamilton demoted him. He was able to pass the Mercedes later on, but by the end of the race he was gaining too little from the DRS effect to do the same to Grosjean.

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – Race engineer Andrea Stella praised Alonso’s effort in getting the car as high as sixth on the grid after the team ended practice outside the top ten. Starting from the dirty side of the grid he was unable to keep Perez behind but he jumped the McLaren at the pit stops. He passed Hulkenberg in the final stint but was unable to catch Hamilton as his tyres began to fade. Hulkenberg re-passed him as the final lap began but Alonso used all his savvy to reclaim fifth.

Felipe Massa – Massa was one of several drivers to be perplexed by his car’s handling in the changing conditions of qualifying. Had Maldonado and Sutil not had their problems with traffic he likely would have gone out in Q1. Matters did not improve in the race where he was forced to make a second pit stop and finished out of the points.

McLaren

Jenson Button – Baffled by the “weird” qualifying conditions and found himself in the middle of the grid again, demoted a further three places by a needless penalty after passing a car under red flags during practice. An excellent pass on Ricciardo recovered a single point.

Sergio Perez – Faced a tough weekend after McLaren confirmed he will lose his place at the team next year. Nonetheless qualified a strong seventh, bringing his score against Button level at 9-9. Passing Alonso at the start was a bonus, though as his team admitted it was always going to be unlikely they could keep the Ferrari behind. Sure enough Alonso jumped him, leaving the McLaren driver seventh.

Lotus

Heikki Kovalainen – Got the call to replace Raikkonen three days before practice began. He qualified eighth which was on par with his predecessor’s average qualifying position. But a cautious start cost him four places, and a front wing problem and KERS glitch consigned him to finishing well out of the points.

Romain Grosjean – Made it through Q1 without having to use the softer medium tyres – a “nice surprise”, he said – and despite having grappled with his car’s set-up at times qualified ‘best of the rest’ behind the Red Bulls. An excellent start split the two RB9s and an error-free race allowed him to stay there, claiming his fourth podium finish in five races.

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – Baffled by how the changing temperatures affected the tyres in qualifying and produced his worst performance of the year – 14th before being promoted two places due to penalties. Passes on Kovalainen and Di Resta helped undo some of the damage in the race, where he finished ninth.

Lewis Hamilton – Heading into the weekend Mercedes revealed they had discovered damage on Hamilton’s chassis which they believed contributed to his problems in previous races. He took fifth on the grid: “I had a good balance but we just couldn’t get the tyres to work,” he said. Passed Webber at the start but had to let the Red Bull driver go in the first stint as he looked after his tyres. But his caution paid off at the end of the race where he had enough in hand to keep Alonso at bay.

Sauber

Nico Hulkenberg – Was concerned by the change in his car’s handling as qualifying began but after a few set-up tweaks he put the Sauber on row two for the second time this year. Slipped back to fifth at the start but ran convincingly among the front-runners, only losing out to Alonso in the final stint. Had a chance to pass him on the final lap and arguably should have made it stick.

Esteban Gutierrez – Should have started tenth on the grid but was relegated to 20th by a penalty for dangerous driving during qualifying. Damage forced a pit stop behind the Safety Car and a two-stop strategy was unlikely to lift him back into the points. Had put a fair move on Vergne for 12th on the last lap when the Toro Rosso driver caused contact between them, dropping Gutierrez behind Massa.

Force India

Paul di Resta – “This is a track that does not particularly suit my driving style,” said Di Resta after qualifying 12th, missing the cut for Q3 by less than a tenth of a second. Was forced to make a second pit stop in the race and was the last driver on the lead lap when the chequered flag fell.

Adrian Sutil – Sutil’s car problem during qualifying was originally suspected to be a puncture turned out to be a broken brake disc. It left him 16th on the grid. Laid the blame for his lap one exit at Maldonado’s feet, but both deserved a share of the blame for managing to tangle on such a wide straight.

Williams

Pastor Maldonado – Was quick not only to blame his team for his qualifying problems but also to suggest there was a sinister motive behind it, as they are parting ways after the next race. Traffic was a particular problem for him during the session, with both Chilton and Gutierrez holding him up. After a a very early pit stop he ran a huge 47-lap stint to the end, unsurprisingly losing a couple of places in the latter stages.

Valtteri Bottas – Maldonado’s frustrations stemmed in part from the gap to his team mate – it was a surprising one-and-a-half seconds in Q1. Bottas held the upper hand throughout practice as well, but made mistakes on his best lap in Q3 and lined up ninth. He took a place off Kovalainen at the start and, remarkably, held the resulting eighth place until the end for his first F1 points.

Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne – Found a huge lap time improvement when he put the mediums on in Q1, but not in Q2. Still penalties helped him to 14th on the grid. The only driver to start on hard tyres, he switched the “Plan C” during the race to go to the end on a one-stop. Had his team mate in sight on the last lap but made a mistake while under attack by Gutierrez and hit the Sauber, which earned him a penalty.

Daniel Ricciardo – Was generally on the fringes of the top ten he didn’t make it into Q3, though the margins were very slight, and lost the final points place to Button two laps from home.

Caterham

Charles Pic – A gearbox change penalty left him last on the grid. He kept pace with Giedo van der Garde but a drive-through penalty for holding up Hamilton dropped him out of contention.

Giedo van der Garde – Was very pleased with the overnight changes to his car on Friday and was quickest of the tail-enders during qualifying. But Bianchi passed him at the start and although he felt he could go quicker Van der Garde was unable to pass. “Obviously for us we need a bit of a crazy race to be in with a chance of reclaiming tenth in the championship, so now it goes down to the wire in Brazil,” he said.

Marussia

Jules Bianchi – Gonzalez drove in first practice, meaning he had to begin his familiarisation on a new track with high-fuel running. He was unhappy with the car’s balance and the team made several changes. However he managed to get ahead of both Caterhams at the start and held them off until the end.

Max Chilton – A brake disc failure limited his running on Friday. During qualifying he held up Sutil and Maldonado, earning a five-place grid penalty for the race. That left him well out of contention, though his race pace suggested he wouldn’t have been in the running anyway.

Qualifying and race results summary

DriverStartedGap to team mateLaps leading team matePittedFinishedGap to team mate
Sebastian Vettel1st-0.103s55/5611st-8.396s
Mark Webber2nd+0.103s1/5613rd+8.396s
Fernando Alonso6th-1.224s56/5615th-57.322s
Felipe Massa13th+1.224s0/56212th+57.322s
Jenson Button15th+0.177s0/56110th+30.586s
Sergio Perez7th-0.177s56/5617th-30.586s
Heikki Kovalainen8th+0.56s0/56214th+88.779s
Romain Grosjean3rd-0.56s56/5612nd-88.779s
Nico Rosberg12th+0.51s0/5619th+31.783s
Lewis Hamilton5th-0.51s56/5614th-31.783s
Nico Hulkenberg4th-0.738s56/5616th-61.307s
Esteban Gutierrez20th+0.738s0/56213th+61.307s
Paul di Resta11th-0.356s0/0215th
Adrian Sutil16th+0.356s0/00
Pastor Maldonado17th+1.53s0/55117thNot on same lap
Valtteri Bottas9th-1.53s55/5518thNot on same lap
Jean-Eric Vergne14th+0.565s5/56116th+23.57s
Daniel Ricciardo10th-0.565s51/56111th-23.57s
Charles Pic22nd+0.105s0/55120th+30.255s
Giedo van der Garde18th-0.105s55/55119th-30.255s
Jules Bianchi19th-0.873s54/54118thNot on same lap
Max Chilton21st+0.873s0/54121stNot on same lap

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 United States Grand Prix weekend?

  • Max Chilton (0%)
  • Jules Bianchi (1%)
  • Giedo van der Garde (0%)
  • Charles Pic (0%)
  • Daniel Ricciardo (0%)
  • Jean-Eric Vergne (0%)
  • Valtteri Bottas (41%)
  • Pastor Maldonado (0%)
  • Adrian Sutil (0%)
  • Paul di Resta (0%)
  • Esteban Gutierrez (0%)
  • Nico Hulkenberg (2%)
  • Lewis Hamilton (2%)
  • Nico Rosberg (0%)
  • Romain Grosjean (27%)
  • Heikki Kovalainen (0%)
  • Sergio Perez (1%)
  • Jenson Button (0%)
  • Felipe Massa (0%)
  • Fernando Alonso (5%)
  • Mark Webber (0%)
  • Sebastian Vettel (19%)

Total Voters: 617

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2013 United States Grand Prix

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Images © Red Bull/Getty, Ferrari/Ercole Colombo, Lotus/LAT, Sauber, Williams/LAT

Author information

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

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120 comments on “Vote for your United States GP driver of the weekend”

  1. He’s scored his first points in his Formula One career; driver of the weekend has to go to Valtteri Bottas. Congrats Bottas

    1. Bottas was on fire! Love to see the young talent light it up…

    2. He was really impressive! With Massa next year it will be really interesting.

    3. And really ****** Maldonado off.

    4. No love for Heikki though, who beat a record aswell. Bottas managed to escape not scoring for Williams and Heikki managed not to score points for the longest stint ever.

      1. Reports: its Maldonado and Heikki at lotus next year.

    5. Hope Bottas wins this vote! And hopefully Williams will get its car sorted out for 2014!

    6. I voted for Bottas. Vettel and Grosjean put in masterful drives, each maximising the machinery available to them. But that’s no less than what we’ve come to expect from Vettel, and Grosjean has been in mean form for quite a few races now, while Bottas’ performance was much more of a surprise.

      He was consistently fast across the whole weekend, grabbing the fastest time in Q1 and reaching a highly respectable 9th in Q3. Then he defied my own expectations by actually moving forwards, rather than backwards, during the race, with a great pass on Gutiérrez the highlight. He thoroughly deserved his first points.

      I’m not jumping on the “future world champion” bandwagon just yet, as I’ve seen and heard some others doing, but he’s clearly got more potential than the Wililams car has allowed him to show in his debut season. And from a nationalistic perspective, it’s great to see yet another young Finn turning heads in the sport. This country just keeps pumping them out.

      (Though the less said about Kovalainen’s race, the better!)

      1. “I’m not jumping on the “future world champion” bandwagon just ye”

        Well you dont have to…the only future world champion for the foreseable future is Vettel…hahaha

        1. Hopefully this could be Schumi versus Mika round 2 :)

  2. Grosjean for me. Maximised the potential of the car and resisted the pressure from Webber in a faster Red Bull behind him to finish a well-deserved second. Vettel had another great weekend, but his qualifying was uncharacteristically wobbly, leaving him on pole more by luck than judgement, thanks to Webber being unable to capitalise on Vettel’s mistakes.

    1. His final sector was quite brilliant though, that definitely wasn’t by virtue of luck.

      1. He final sector was nothing special, only 1 tenth faster than Webbers first attempt through there. Assuming Webber should have gained a bit through there had he hooked it up properly on his second go, Vettel would have been no further ahead of Webber through S3 than Webber was ahead of him through S1 and S2.

        1. could, would, should blablabla. It is what it is.

      2. @vettel1 The final sector was good the first was bad as it had been the whole weekend, whilst the middle was okay Vettel wasn’t as superlative as he usually is. On the other side Webber made an atrocious last sector, I wouldn’t call it luck but certainly it wasn’t Sebastian most impressive qualy lap.

        1. I wouldn’t argue that at all @peartree, but he did a good final sector: that wasn’t luck was all I was stating.

      3. No doubt Vettel knew exactly what he had to do in sector 3 to beat Webber, whereas Webber had to try for an unbeatable time, good tactics by Vettel.

    2. Grosjean as well, have been great all week end and holding beter than I thought between the redbull, was really expecting a 1-2 then a gap. But he got into the detached trio while it was quite close behind them.
      The choice was quite difficult to Bottas, just losing a bit in Q3 (probably what made the difference in my vote), but still flawless performance and probably overtake of the year. Definitly nominated !

      The others quite a long way back, no-one else stood up as much as those 2.

      1. zak misiuda (@)
        18th November 2013, 17:11

        +1 Bottas Q3 lap was what stopped me from voting for him but Grosjean was flawless all weekend, the only man who can take it to the RB’s at the minute.

    3. @vettel1 – But Vettel’s final sector wasn’t “quite brilliant”. It was only a tenth faster than Webber who made two separate mistakes in the final sector. I will admit though that Vettel’s true advantage was rather masked by what I assume was a not wholly successful heat cycle on his out-lap leaving him with under-heated rears and therefore turn-in instability in the heavy breaking zones of the first two sectors, in which he missed several apexes. Without the warm-up issues, Vettel could’ve easily have been on pole by three tenths.

  3. Alonso and Grosean.

  4. I’m gonna go with… Alonso.

    With pain on his neck, constant headaches, not a good preparation, and a Ferrari that hardly performed at a competent level, he did brilliantly, doing great in qualy, starting off carefully on the dirty side and gaining during the race, passing Perez and Hulk, and holding off the later to the flag. And all that while a healthy, happy Massa was struggling to get into the top ten.

    Special mentions to Bottas (great weekend for him !), Grosjean (another strong showing, the only one fighting the bulls in the 2nd half of the season it seems) and Perez (considering the weekend he had, he completely showed Button the way)… and of course, Vettel.

    1. i chose Grosjean over him because he was the only driver able to keep up with the red bulls. But Alonso definitely did do an amazing race. Ballistic driving to keep Hulkenberg behind.

    2. @fer-no65 Fernando was Fernando, that’s usually incredible. Vettel was almost as good as Vettel and Webber was Webber. I won’t say that Alonso hasn’t done 100% of what that car is but a guy lower in the field did few mistakes and with some support he is humble enough to rise to the top and again its Valtteri Bottas, 1.5 sec faster than Pastor and scored 4 times more points than Pastor as ever scored and in normal conditions, Bottas made some mistakes but he raced brilliantly.

    3. I voted Alonso too. He may be many things but he’s definitely not a whinger. Did well for what would’ve been a hard weekend.

  5. Valterri Bottas comfortably for me: brilliant qualifying effort (although he didn’t do too well in Q3 if I’m being critical) and a fabulous effort in the race to quintuple William’s point tally with 8th (which puts into perspective what an abysmal season Williams have been having, again).

    1. On Bottas, had he repeated his Q2 effort he would have been 7th instead of 9th.

    2. I think his Q3 lap was partly because the track conditions changed for better. Williams’ car seems to handle best when there is only little grip available on the track surface. Obviously the lap wasn’t perfect but according to himself he only lost a couple of tenths anyway which made little difference.

      Bottas gets my vote: a phenomenal, mature drive. The first weekend really that he’s had a chance for top-10 finish and he grabbed it in a very impressive way by what was probably close to a perfect weekend. Had a chance to show his wheel-to-wheel skills as well with that great move on Gutierrez in T2.

      Great weekends for Grosjean, Webber and Vettel as well, all having more or less flawless weekends. I think Kovalainen did well too considering the situation he had to cope with. He would have probably finished somewhere between 7th and 9th if it wasn’t for the mysterious glitch in his front wing (and the extra pit-stop due to that).

    3. Bottas really out did his car today, I think. To bring that Williams home in 8th was an amazing job. Another big thing was qualifying 9th, not small feat either.

  6. There are quite a few . Grosjean, Hulkenberg, Bottas, Perez. All 4 got more out of the car then you could expect. Hamilton drove a solid drive in a difficult car, Alonso did the same, but both of those have an expectation to meet.

    So, not sure who to vote for.

    Bad weekend for Maldonado (including being silly and blaming his team for sabotage). So, voting for a worst driver of the weekend i know who to go for :)

    1. And i forgot to mention Vettel. It’s boring the way he does it, but it does show how good he is. And as long as he give the FIA the virtual finger by doing donuts he gets props from me.

      PS Sebastian, next time do the donuts where there is more people :)

  7. Bottas without a doubt. Hooked up all weekend except for the errors in Q3. Stunning performance from and Williams(except moany Maldonado)

  8. Oh you’ve got to be kidding? At my time of voting Vettel is on 7%.

    A flawless performance ALL weekend – he should be on 100% – just like his performance.

    How on earth does anybody see it different? What, because he’s done it before (and before, and before etc.)?

    1. People have a right to an opinion you know!

    2. Would be quite unfair wouldn’t it? Would mean that we can only vote for one person every race. Bottas and Grosjean both put their car in positions above the cars actual place on the grid. If you cannot see that as a better performance for a driver himself maybe F1 is nothing for you.

    3. Vettel’s merely performing to everyone’s expectations of him and his car. Yes it’s very impressive, but it’s what people expect of him. Grosjean meanwhile has been on an absolute flier lately and I don’t think a single person expected Bottas to score 4 points this weekend. Exceeding expectations is more impressive than matching expectations

      1. I agree entirely, Bottas exceeded expectations by a long way, my driver of the weekend

      2. The problem with Sebastian is that it is hard for him to exceed expectations if everyone expects him to do a Grand Chelem every weekend. Can’t get better than perfect. Having said that, I voted for Bottas. His qualifying and race were the most surprising result of the weekend. Grosjean’s 2nd place was good but not all that surprising given his past results lately.

        1. And even if Vettel does Grand Chelam, people find its boring…and some other reason..But not his performance throughout the weekend. One thing is it is not easy to be that consistent than showing performance once or twice.

          1. Indeed. That would be driver of the season though, and only Keith decides that :)

    4. Why do you take it so seriously? The vote is a bit of fun, and a nice place to discuss all the driverS of the weekend.

  9. Mine would be Bottas. It was nice to see a “Flying Finn” up front even with Raikkonen being out, especially with the wheel to wheel action with GUT through 2,3,4.

  10. Grosjean had a wonderful race. But he finished fourth in Abu Dhabi and third three times before that in India, Japan and Korea. Thus a person worth of many votes.

    But in all honesty one man tipped him to my vote. Bottas not only scoring 80% of Williams it’s points for 2013 now but beating his more experienced teammate in a fashion maybe unseen for a rookie. there was no reason Williams would’ve been better in Austin than any other track yet Bottas was in a the groove and brought the Williams home in a position that was not his place.

    1. Bottas gets my vote too – throughout qualifying he made me think “where did that come from?” then had a very solid race, on the back of the Alonso group rather than holding up the midfield train, a ballsy pass on Gutierrez and, even better, he did his team-mate’s head in.

  11. Absolutely Valtteri Bottas, wonderfull drive and a super overtake on Gutiérrez made him the star of this race. Great Qualifying too.

    Kudos to Hülkenberg, Grosjean and Vettel.

    1. Agreed @force-maikel: they were the four stand-outs, with Alonso being pretty good too (besides at the start and mid-race).

  12. Grosjean, as he again managed to look like the only driver capable of bringing the fight to the Red Bulls. Resisted Webber’s pressure and all in all, had, once again, the perfect race. He is on a good streak and I for one am very happy for him. Not three months ago we were a few having a long discussion here on why Lotus should keep Grosjean. 5 races later, I believe he answers the critics pretty well. Hope he gets a competitive car next year.

    1. Grosjean has been driving really well, I was one of those that thought Lotus should have sacked him last year, i was wrong, but this time my vote goes to Bottas.

  13. Such a tough one! But I’m giving it to Hulkenberg for a flawless weekend.

    1. Bottas was amazing in the race though, but I did feel he could have done better in quali, major shouts to Alonso, Grosjean, Vettel, Hamilton and Kovalainen too.

  14. Bottas a close second but for me it has to be Grosjean, only driver to put a dent in the Red Bulls all weekend. Behind the pair of them in qualifying but then manages to beat one of then during the race? that’s as good as a win in my book. Flawless drive resisting constant pressure from Webber.

    Vettel/Red Bull might be making the rest of the paddock look silly, but in my opinion Grosjean is beginning to make the likes of Alonso and Hamilton look silly. His improvement in the second half of this year has been astounding; second highest points scorer over the past five races behind Vettel.

    1. I agree GRO is a better driver now, but do you really think all these podiums lately are down only/mostly due to his improvement(s) as a driver ?!?! I highly doubt that. Your comment that he makes ALO and HAM look silly is obviously exagerated and subjetive. These 2 are top drivers without doubt, and I still think GRO is not that good yet. You can have a top car “performing” bad when you put in it a newbie, but there’s no chance for ALO and HAM to have a great car at their dispossal, but somehow they don’t know how to make it work at full potential. So, in my opinion, Lotus now is a better car than Ferrari (for sure) and (even) Mercedes.

      1. I think the Lotus has been the better car all season. All things considered, the second best car on the grid behind the RB9. There have been races here and there where the F138 or the W04 was stronger, but I think if you average it out over the whole season the Lotus edges ahead of the Mercedes and the Ferrari for all-round performance.

        In the first 10 races Grosjean scored 49 points. In the 8 since the summer break he’s scored 83. You can’t argue with that for progress. He’s had some top quality moments recently. Getting the best of both Red Bulls off the line at suzuka and leading for half the race, going from 17th to 3rd in India, and resisting pressure from Webber pretty much the whole race last weekend. The Grosjean of 2012 or even the first half of 2013 wouldn’t be able to do any of this, regardless of the car.

        I still think Alonso and Hamilton are better drivers, that goes without saying. Only an idiot would think otherwise. I was just saying that, better car or not, Gosjean has matured into a top quality driver. The only one to consistently show the Red Bulls anything over the past four or five races. Given a few more years, who knows…..

  15. As I tend to vote for the race winner (who always is the driver of the weekend in some way of looking into it) unless there are specific circumstances (e.g. inherited win, or won due to safety car appearing at the right moment) or real standout performances further back while the winner did not drive cleanly, I will vote again for Vettel. Bottas was close to beating him for my vote this time, but had a poor Q3 whereas Vettel was almost flawless, so he didn’t quite pip him. Grosjean easily third in my DOTW rating.

  16. With Bottas and Grosjean getting the votes they deserve, it’s gotta be Vettel.
    Another tactical vote @keithcollantine

  17. I voted for Vettel for obvious reasons!

    Grosjean is quickly becoming, if not my driver of the season, then my driver of the last six months (bar Vettel!). He’s been the only driver in the last 5/6 to come close to the Red Bull cars and is consistently keeping his car on the track. Well done Lotus for standing by him while we were all begging for him to be shown the door.

    Honourable mentions to Bottas, Hamilton and Hulkenberg for very solid, points-scoring drives.

  18. I’ve voted for Grosjean for managing to achieve what in all fairness he should have been achieving for longer than he has. Clearly hes developed in to a better race driver over this year.

    I was tempted to vote for Bottas and if he’d not lost his nerve in Q3 then I think it would have been a much easier choice – bit harsh maybe – but a couple of glimpses of what he can do shows that he can be capable of this level of driving regularly, lets just hope hes got the car under him next year to show what he can really deliver!

  19. Would have definitely voted for Hulkenberg had he successfully defended 5th position after overtaking Alonso on the last lap. For me it’s a tie between Grosjean, Vettel, Hulk and Bottas.

  20. Let’s give credit where it’s due: Vettel, Grosjean, Hulkenberg and Bottas had excellent weekends. The nicest surprise was the Williams driver, but I think bad timing in Q3 cost him a better starting position. And, luckily for him and happily for me, he had little to deal with on race day, though he was brilliant. Hulkenberg was awesome yet again but Gutierrez wasn’t far behind showing he didn’t outperform the car by as much as he has done previously this year. Vettel was untouchable but this time, for some reason, Grosjean kept under 10 seconds from him for the entire race and even ahead of another Red Bull, after a brilliant qualifying. Who more than him deserves this vote? If it were possible to pick a top three, I’d put Bottas and Hulkenberg in 2nd and 3rd respectively, not far behind.

  21. Vettel for me, but nice to see Grosjean performing so well, a potential champion material. But then who, can defeat Vettel.

  22. Tough to pick. Vettel, Grosjean and Bottas did exceptionally well this weekend. In the end I gave my vote to Grosjean, for that excellent qualifying and for keeping Webber behind for the entire race.

    1. @andae23 I also voted for Grosjean, that was a truly mature drive and the guy did absolutely everything he had to – qualified “the best of the rest”, passed the weakest of both Bulls at the start and then withstood the pressure until the end of the race. 10/10.

  23. I hesitated for quite some time between Romain and Valtteri.

    Vallteri has achieved an unexpected performance with his Williams, being able to fight and beat a McLaren, a Force India and a Mercedes. He made no mistakes, managed to defend his position welle, made an awesome overtake in turn 1, and he extracted the full potential of his Williams which has welle improved this week-end. The constrast with his teammate is great, because Pastor did a lot of mistakes (and was quite unlucky).

    On the other hand, Romain also has achieved an unexpected performance. He has managed to beat a Red Bull fair and square. 0.8s behind in qualifying behind a driver who could/should have been on pole, he managed to pass him at the start and to defend against him lap after lap. Something thought to be impossible (beating an invicible Red Bull on the track) was made possible by Romain Grosjean.

    Eventually, I think Romain’s drive was more of a beauty, and I think he deserves to be driver of the week-end!

  24. Bottas, the only driver who I felt exceeded his machinery. Of course Vettel couldn’t do much more either but I’ve voted for him the past few races so I’ll give my vote to someone else for a change.

  25. Went with Seb. 100% perfect weekend.

    Great to see RoGro doing so well!

  26. I thought Perez did a cracking job all weekend, especially under the psychologial burden of being sacked for a kid with no F1 experience. It must be quite a trip be out there driving your heart out when the people on the wall think you are so bad they should just start over with a green rookie, even though you have proven to be just as good as the WDC in the next car. If I only saw this race I would say it’s Button who needs to go down the plank, followed by a queue of people from the design team.

  27. It is very close between Bottas and Grosjean but he made a slight error in Q3 compared to an error free Grosjean . So Grosjean for me .
    But Fantastic job by Bottas ! What a phenomenal drive indeed .

  28. Bottas for me, he was able to take an underpeforming Williams car (who let’s face it have been a backmarker team for the last four seasons or so) and maintain a top ten position throughout for some well deserved points. A full nine places ahead of the more experienced Maldonado too, very well done.

    Second place – Grosjean. He’s been brilliant since Korea, five consecutive top 4 finishes with four of those on the podium, well deserved.

    A very close Third – Hulkenberg. He proved today that he’s the best driver out there who has not yet got a confirmed seat for next year, comfortably running in the top ten throughout and challenging Alonso for P5 at one stage (although to be fair, Alonso was far from full race fitness). It’ll be a shame if Maldonado gets a drive ahead of the Hulk purely because of the financial situation.

    An honourable mention needs to go to Perez though, he proved yesterday that he is a capable driver, even in a poor car. It’s a real shame McLaren aren’t keeping him. I’d rather see the Checo/Magnussen pairing next year than another drab underachieving season from Jenson Button.

  29. It has to be Fernando Alonso for me. Despite being in great pain he managed to wrestle the Ferrari to a respectable 5th.

    1. Jelle van der Meer
      18th November 2013, 18:18

      Alonso did not have a bad weekend but to call him DotW is really wrong and purely driven by being a fan of Alonso.
      For sure Bottas or Grossjean delivered a much better job during the weekend in relevance to their car performance than Alonso. Ignoring car performance only choice could be Vettel considering he has a near perfect score (missing 2 laps lead due to pitstops) and achieving something that no-one has ever achieved in formula 1.

      1. Come on, you will post this below every thumbs up for Alonso? It’s ridiculous

      2. I voted for Alonso because, having suffered a back injury myself, I can only imagine the strength of mind it must have taken to perform at the level he did. That is why I voted for him and to call my choice wrong is just plain dim.

  30. Valtteri Bottas. Beat his far more experienced teammate throughout the weekend, qualified well, gained a place in the race and raced strongly for the entire race including some great wheel to wheel racing with Gutierrez. This is so gratifying to see since he was the talent driver signed by Williams at the last minute as opposed to the pay driver he has outclassed this season.

    Yes, Vettel did his usual great race and Grosjean drove a superb race. But, Bottas drove strong and achieved things he was not supposed to be able to achieve in practice, qualifying and the race. That to me is, the Driver Of The Weekend.

  31. Bottas for me. Finally got a chance to show what he can do and did it.

    Extra brownie points because it was probably a ghastly weekend in the Williams garage with the Maldonado crap, and he gave them something huge to smile about.

  32. I’ve gone for Grosjean ahead of Vettel and Bottas. He did extremely well to keep a Red Bull behind him for the whole race after a good start, and his qualifying performance was excellent again. It’s quite astonishing that now we expect him to be in the top 3 in both sessions.

    Special mentions to Hamilton, Alonso, Hulkenberg and Perez (has anyone else noticed how good his starts have been this season?) as well.

  33. Bottas by miles in this one.

  34. I think Guttierez is awful. He has been nowhere all season, while his team-mate has had fourths. Today was just the icing on the cake really. Disgraceful.

    1. He is here to make other drivers look good.

  35. Torn between Grojean and Bottas. Very tempted to go for Bottas for his wonderful pass on Gutierrez, and for maintaining position in a car that has often went backwards.

    Decided to go for Romain for a) maintaining his good form over the last, few races and b) refusing to buckle under pressure from Webber.

    Romain’s performance last season led many people to write him off. Yes, he committed a few blunders, but there was always that hint of speed. The speed only needed to be tempered with a modicum of restraint. Looks like he might have managed to combine his (undeniable) raw speed with the necessary savvy. Shortly after his ban, Romain seemed hesitant (unsurprisingly). The starts he has made recently suggest Romain has overcome an important psychological block. He could have remained out of trouble yet sacrificed that edge. Instead, Romain seems to have found a way to stay out of trouble, without being too nervous. Not only has he found a way of staying out of trouble, Romain has found a way to channel his speed into a couple of excellent starts, and even overtakes such as the one on Massa that resulted in a penalty.

    And please, dear gods of F1, don’t allow Maldonado to take the vacant seat at Lotus. I can’t articulate this properly – I have a gut feeling pairing a nice guy like Romain, with someone as unpleasant as Maldonado, would be bad chemistry.

    1. I wonder what Grosjean is paying his psychologist? Obviously he/she is doing a pretty damn good job!

      1. I wonder what Grosjean is paying his psychologist? Obviously he/she is doing a pretty damn good job!

        Worth every penny (or cent, euro, conch shell or whatever)!

        I’m looking forward to seeing how Romain performs next year. If the advantage of the Red Bull car is lessened, and Lotus build a good car, we could be in for a good season.

  36. Vettel of course. Also Grosjean, Bottas and Perez did a very good work in the weekend.

  37. Valtteri Bottas. he was up there all weekend in a car that cannot remotely be close in performance to the ones he was fighting with. there’s a very special talent in him. what made it even better was that he did it on the same weekend that maldonado burnt all his bridges.

  38. Is there anyone who doesn’t feel Webber is driving absolutely horrible. I mean, you’d fluke into a win or two over 18 races, when you consider that your teammate won 12 already! He should have honestly retired last year, because you could see that he was completely undedicated this year. If he’s first and Vettel is second on the grid, Vettel gets him. If he is second and Vettel first, he finishes behind him again. He’s not worthy of that seat and in my opinion is the main reason why so many people still doubt Vettel. He just can’t put up a fight at all. If one is able to win 8 races in a row, how can the other one be so incompetent, that he doesn’t even finish second in half of those races. He has only two 2nd places and two 3rd places in a period where Vettel won 8 races in a row.

  39. Massa was thrashed by Alonso, and given the performance that Bottas extracted from that Williams, I predict next year will be about the same or even worse. At least he will be giving some good feedback regarding car setup that could benefit the team as a whole, but sadly I’m not expecting anything brilliant on track.

    1. Looking at Maldonado vs Bottas, I’d imagine, it’s Bottas who will have to be on his toes as Filippe can be as fast as the fastest driver sometimes, while Bottas turned out to be just another quick driver. Otherwise he would been wiping floor with Maldonado all season, unless Maldonado is very good himself – which I think he is.

  40. Bottas – brilliant all through practice and qualifying, could have done a slightly better q3 lap. Then held on to the back of the Alonso/Perez train through the first phase and held off Rosberg towards the end. What was really impressive is how he held it together when Rosberg was catching him at a second a lap – he had a delta to stick to and stuck to it. Instead of wrecking his tires trying to pull out a gap, making it easy for Rosberg to pass in the final laps. Very mature drive, plus that move on Gutierrez was super-brave!!

  41. Grosjean or Bottas.

  42. Interesting how, in your reviews, Keith, you make a good point about everybody other than Chilton. Let me correct that for you.

    Errmm… Oh, there are none.

  43. Extremely close between Grosjean and Bottas. Bottas was more shocking and executed one of the most exciting overtakes of the season (against a rather dirty defender, no less), but Grosjean again provided the only real challenge to Red Bull’s supremacy and flawlessly resisted a much quicker car all race.
    … By the slimmest of margins, I’m going with Grosjean. Bottas deserves massive credit for his drive, and it was made all the sweeter by Maldonado’s sub-Chilton driving.

  44. that’s a tough one – Bottas, Grosjean and Vettel were really good. Perez and Hülkenberg were also pretty good.

  45. I’m going for Raikkonen, stunning qualifying lap, nobody saw it coming!

    1. Jelle van der Meer (@)
      18th November 2013, 19:46

      +1

  46. I should have checked the results, I could have voted for Chilton, as he hasn’t had the opportunity to do so yet!

    Went with Vettel. As boring as the race.

    1. Well I voted Chilton as he’s still the prettiest twink on the grid.
      Whadda you mean it’s not a beauty contest?

      1. @TimothyKatz GCOTD (=Gayest Comment Of The Day)! That’s the main reason why I want to see Alex Yoong replace Jules Bianchi at Marussia, that would surely make for the hottest driver line-up ever :D

  47. Tough decision this race as there were a lot of great performances. Grosjean, Vettel & Bottas the real stand outs for me.
    I’ve gone with Grosjean as he didn’t put a foot wrong all weekend and got the maximum out of the car, including holding off a RedBull!

  48. Vettel was untouchable. Grosjean outstanding (where did all the nay-sayers go?). Bottas did a good job too. Its got to be Vettel, but Grosjean is a close second.

  49. And I hate to say I told you so, but Kovalainen was rubbish, just like I said he would be…

  50. Romain G. exceeded expectations and continues to be the only real threat to the very dominate Red Bull line up of best cars and driver team in decades. Hoping that Heiki K. would do well after a surprisingly good qualifying. but not to be. Would like to see Massa win in Brazil, actually I am always hoping Massa will win somewhere but …………….. RnR

  51. I voted for Vettel simply because he was supreme all weekend.

  52. I almost always vote for Vettel when he wins, because i know that his achievements are not valued highly and i want to support his second places at least :). So i voted for him again, but must say that i am incredibly happy for Bottas and that he is going to win. Great guy, i really enjoyed his progress this season and i think he will become better driver than Pastor soon, if he isn’t already.

    And Hulk is about to become the next Vettel – incredible drive once again, but one that we expect from him, so no credits there ;) I hope he beats Di Resta in the standings, he needs only 1 point for the second place in the midfield championship :) 1st goes to Button.

  53. Grosjean : finished just 6 seconds off “run-away Bride” Vettle , in a car of 0.8 seconds per lap ( i.e 0.8 x 56 =44.8 -supposed to be secs over the entire race) off the pace of Red bull and Finished ahead of Mark . Soaked the pressure from Mark , and delivered it .
    And Bottas was brilliant too . But , Always knew he is something special , specially Compared to that Maldanado ..
    Stars like Like Lewis , Fernando , Vettle , Kimi , Nico , have Enough Fans in F1 . I am now Officially a Grosjean Fan ..

  54. good drive from Bottas, he showed what he can do with a sort of quick car, but shame for Maldanado. I think he’s a bit jelly of Bottas and wants to have the limelight back, but otherwise, I congratulate Bottas on his first points in F1

  55. the guy beats a 60year old record and no love?

  56. Vettel did, well, a Vettel. 5 seconds into the race there was no doubt he would win *yawn*

    About the mortals on the track, Grossjean did a great job but lately we are growing accustomed to it. Same for the solid drives by Hamilton and Alonso (2 great non-DRS overtakes and a solid defense fron the Hulk on dying tyres, but couldn’t get Hamilton and lost buckets of time in the Hulk-Perez train) Bottas was the surprise of the day, but could have qualified better. Again, my DOTW is… none, would have voted Alonso if he had managed 4th, the podium was out of reach for him.

    1. I must say I’m confused that you decide not to vote on anybody, there were three guys who did a amazing job in the race who equally deserves the vote in my opinion (Vettel, Grosjean and Bottas)… But it is your reasoning that is confusing.
      First on the “Vettel did a Vettel”, well what he did was a almost 100% perfect weekend, why wouldn’t one vote on him?
      Then you say we are getting too accustomed to Grosjean doing a great job and therefore you can’t vote on him while at the same time mentioning Bottas being the surprise of the day and can’t vote on him because he could have qualified better, hell that argument suits all drivers but one.
      But the last thing that you are stating is that you didn’t vote just because Alonso didn’t do a good enough job, blows my mind.
      I still respect your opinion on not voting if no one impresses you, but your reasoning is indeed confusing.

      1. +1 I’m as confused as you are.

      2. he could have qualified better, hell that argument suits all drivers but one.

        You mean there is only a pole so everyone except the poleman could have qualified better? Well, in a way, but that’s not the way I see it. Grosjean was 3rd and he couldn’t have qualified better, there was no way he could beat the Red Bulls. And Hulk couldn’t have done better also. On the other hand, Hamilton, Alonso and Bottas could have qualified somewhat better (but not for pole, certainly). Nothing new for Alonso, but a bit disappointing for Ham, who is usually great at qualy, and for Bottas, who had otherwise a superb weekend.

    2. Correct me if I’m wrong, but based on what you wrote, you’d vote Alonso as DOTW if he just finished 4th instead of 5th even if he only qualified 6th, instead of say, Grosjean, who qualified 3rd and finished 2nd, which clearly was a better performance for the entire weekend?

      1. Looks like some people confuse “reasoning” with “rambling thoughts” ^_^ .
        Maybe I should have voted Grossjean, or Bottas, but I was too bored by the race to vote anyone. Definitely not Vettel, I think he spent the race playing Solitaire in the onboard laptop or writing letters home, only seemed to awake at the end to do the flap and collect another win.
        I won’t deny that Grossjean, did a better job than Alonso, at least he maximized his chances, he could never have won. But qualifing 3rd and finishing 2nd isn’t all there is to it. There is no way (in normal circunstances) that Alonso could have done a podium with that Ferrari, but with a slightly better Q3 he could have qualified fifth, overtake Hulk on the start and avoid the slow train. If some guy does a perfect race I can still vote for him even if he is 4th, can’t I? (well he didn’t, so neither did I).
        I was so bored I even considered voting Button for the overtake on Massa, that was a good one, may be the best. And AFAICR I’ve never voted Button.

  57. It was close call between Grosjen and Bottas. Grosjean got my vote in the end. He’s proved massively this season and has scored a lot of points for Lotus and even out performed Kimi. Can see him getting his first race win in 2014.

  58. Grosjean for me, did the maximum in qualifying and race, separating the Red Bull’s on merit. I must give a mention for Bottas though, he definitely exceeded expectations in the race and now has four times as many points as Maldonado.

  59. GRO here, but for the qualy error I would have picked BOT, who was certainly the DOTR. I’d been expecting the Williams to fade early like some of Hulk’s drives.

    As for Vettel, it’s just hard to nominate him because he sets the bar so high for himself.

  60. It’s gotta be Grosjean! Splitting the Red Bulls.

  61. A tough choice this time as there were a few drivers who I thought had a good weekend.

    Vettel once again put in a top performance.

    Grosjean kept up his recent good form and managed to split the Red Bulls.

    Hulkenberg had another good weekend, hopefully he can get a good drive for next season and doesn’t miss out because he doesn’t bring any sponsorship.

    Bottas impressed in qualifying and followed it up with achieving his best finish and first points in F1.

    I decided to vote for Bottas in the end. The other drivers have all been on a good run of form lately so their performances didn’t stand out and get my attention as much as Bottas did, and when you think what the Williams has been like this season it makes it look even better.

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