Vote for your 2017 Chinese Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend

2017 Chinese Grand Prix

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Which Formula One driver made the most of the Chinese Grand Prix weekend?

It’s time to give your verdict on which driver did the best with the equipment at their disposal over the last three days.

Review how each driver got on below and vote for who impressed you the most at Shanghai International Circuit.

Driver performance summary

DriverStartedGap to team mate (Q)Laps leading team matePittedFinishedGap to team mate (R)
Lewis Hamilton1st-0.187s56/5621st-48.808s
Valtteri Bottas3rd+0.187s0/5626th+48.808s
Daniel Ricciardo5th-1.392s15/5624th+0.843s
Max Verstappen16th+1.392s41/5623rd-0.843s
Sebastian Vettel2nd-0.276s35/5622nd-41.826s
Kimi Raikkonen4th+0.276s21/5625th+41.826s
Sergio Perez8th-0.839s52/5539th-6.578s
Esteban Ocon17th+0.839s3/55210th+6.578s
Felipe Massa6th-0.713s0/0314th
Lance Stroll10th+0.713s0/00
Fernando Alonso13th-0.524s17/171
Stoffel Vandoorne15th+0.524s0/171
Carlos Sainz Jnr11th+0.116s16/1817th
Daniil Kvyat9th-0.116s2/181
Romain Grosjean19th+0.281s0/55311th+33.453s
Kevin Magnussen12th-0.281s55/5528th-33.453s
Nico Hulkenberg7th-0.826s48/55212th-2.049s
Jolyon Palmer20th+0.826s7/55113th+2.049s
Marcus Ericsson14th-0.071s3/3115th
Antonio Giovinazzi18th+0.071s0/31

    Vote for your driver of the weekend

    Which driver do you think did the best job throughout the race weekend?

    Who got the most out of their car in qualifying and the race? Who put their team mate in the shade?

    Cast your vote below and explain why you chose the driver you picked in the comments.

    Vote for the best driver of the 2017 Chinese Grand Prix weekend

    • Pascal Wehrlein (0%)
    • Marcus Ericsson (0%)
    • Jolyon Palmer (0%)
    • Nico Hulkenberg (0%)
    • Kevin Magnussen (3%)
    • Romain Grosjean (0%)
    • Daniil Kvyat (0%)
    • Carlos Sainz Jnr (7%)
    • Stoffel Vandoorne (0%)
    • Fernando Alonso (8%)
    • Lance Stroll (0%)
    • Felipe Massa (0%)
    • Esteban Ocon (1%)
    • Sergio Perez (1%)
    • Kimi Raikkonen (0%)
    • Sebastian Vettel (21%)
    • Max Verstappen (38%)
    • Daniel Ricciardo (0%)
    • Valtteri Bottas (0%)
    • Lewis Hamilton (20%)

    Total Voters: 595

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    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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    163 comments on “Vote for your 2017 Chinese Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend”

    1. Sainz for me, also great were the haas boys, Alonso until his car gave in, and Lewis for incredible managing skills, how he pulls the laps out of the hat whenever needed is just insane

      1. Sainz? You mean the dude from Spain who got outQ’d by his teammate and due to a huge gamble today made it into the top 7? ok…

        1. Yeah he took a risk and it payed of, he drove well and only drivers in far better cars passed him. at times Especially in the beginning stages he even matched the pace of the Ferrari/redbull pack, and I never saw him lap other cars before, so yeah I think he deserves it

          1. Sainz was very brave at the start, kept it together (although at the start only barely) and then finished in a well deserved 7th place.

            However, he was outqualified by Kvyat for the 4th time in 5 races.

          2. Jelle van der Meer (@)
            9th April 2017, 13:49

            The guy that ran wide turn 1, spinned again later and hit the barrier trying to turned around, that guy is driver of the day. His gamble didn’t work at all, he only recovered due to early virtual SC followed by real SC.

            1. Jelle van der Meer (@)
              9th April 2017, 13:50

              And the guy that was outqualified on level playing field

        2. Ferrari, Seb fan
          9th April 2017, 18:20

          There are no points for quali

          1. Tell that to the man who got pole and led every lap.

          2. It’s a bit weird this has to be explained all the time, but this is driver of the weekend. Not driver of the day, or driver of the race. So while I agree that points are awarded on Sundays, and for that matter I think driver of the day is more telling, when electing driver of the weekend by definition Saturday’s performance is to be taken into account.

      2. why are people so enamoured with Sainz and his childish gamble? He would have probably finished in 7th anyway if he started on Inters. The SS gamble didn’t pay off at all, he was plum last after 1 corner and only the VSC and SC helped. The fact that he didn’t have to pit when all the others did was not a huge advantage under the SC. Look at Alonso, he started 13th (2 places behind Sainz) on inters and after the SC went in he was 6th ahead of Sainz.

        Sainz is a bit overrated in my opinion, he was outqualified by Kviat which most of us don’t regard very highly, and almost made a mess of this race by hitting the barriers in the first lap. He eventually got it to 7th, but the car is pretty good in race pace, probably the 4th fastest car in the pack right now.

      3. Nasr did best in Brazil with the worst car on the grid and overtaking 4 cars on the first lap (Alonso among them). It was a good race for Sainz, but nothing special.

      4. @rike What? Why Sainz?
        Hamilton for me, I didn’t like the race, no lead changes and for a mixed condition race not at the level of say Brazil last year and other Chinese Gp’s, but qualifying was great and Ham was faultless all weekend, nevertheless by at this stage Max’s going to win, despite making mistakes including a big one and at times being slow.

    2. For once the ‘official’ one got it right. At one point I thought he’d thrown it away, but Verstappen was astonishing. Seventeenth to third with a car that’s far from the best is really special. The overtakes on Kimi, Ricciardo and Bottas were all excellent and daring.
      Quite disappointed by his whining on the radio towards the end though, but doesn’t take away from the performance.
      Special mentions to Hamilton, Vettel, Magnussen and Sainz, who might have been DotW but I feel he got lucky to hit the barriers and continue.

      1. yep, let’s hope VER will not keep on going “”vetteling””.

    3. Daniel or Kimi for me. But due to the fact that Kimi is somehow driving a Ferrari I got to go with him

      1. I guess your joking?

        1. With his oversteer/understeer problems and the fact he was beaten by both Red Bulls. An astonishing result. Driver of the day, IMHO.

          1. So then what about Grosjean, had misfortune yesterday, was hit by ocon, still almost got into the points from the back AceAce – not my choice, but seems at least as (well, more) valid, have to agree with @rike

            1. I was being sarcastic.

            2. Happy to hear it AceAce, but in my defense, that’s hard to know for sure nowadays.

      2. Once Daniel put more wing at his final pitstop and Max was suffering from understeer both RB finished in the same place, so I think it’s not that much of a joke. Hamilton is clearly the driver of the weekend which doesn’t take away from Max’s inters and early slicks performance.

    4. Vettel was great had the best overtakes. Max made loads up at the start and was good after that but Vettel got past him on track. Hamilton got pole fastest lap and the win, got the maximu, has to be Hamilton for me. I am a Ferrari fan and no fan of Hamiltin but I have warmed to him since he left McLaren and he was the best today for me.

      1. I agree with everything, apart from your last sentence.

    5. Max totally deserved both the Driver of the Day and the podium, appreciable performance by Carlos. Although I find it bemusing and funny that in the live chat, all the critics are solely judging Verstappen by his overtake on Ricciardo.

      ._.

      1. Well that’s team orders, happens again and again,at that point he was faster so its legit, only real criticism in this race was his on mistake against vettel

        1. I’m sorry but what team orders? Verstappen overtook Ricciardo in anger, Ricciardo didn’t do too much to thwart him, not that he could have, but it was hardly a team order move.

          1. Friederike takes every opportunity to downplay Max.

          2. Well obviously noone knows if it were actually team orders, but even Keith said it looked team orderish if I remember correctly… At least Daniel gave no resistance whatsoever, which is odd for a racing driver, and you fail to see that my comment stated that exactly that is no critism in my opinion, the only real criticism to make over ver is the mistake he did himself, so a nearly perfect race, how is that downplaying?

            1. Tribalism aside, there’s an easy way to determine if it was a team order. If it was, Red Bull would have asked them to switch again at the end because the position was Daniel’s. They’ve always done that. Hockenheim for instance. So the fact they didn’t shows that it wasn’t a position Ricciardo gave up for the team.

            2. I don’t necessarily think so, because if they allowed max by than because Daniel was actually a lot slower which he was, Daniel in the end wasn’t that much faster, it was an actual fight for position and not sacrificing one to achieve a better result for the other, you know what I mean?

            3. Jelle van der Meer (@)
              9th April 2017, 13:58

              Yes it is obvious that Friederike has little love for Max, her comments here and during race point make that obvious.

              It clearly were not teamorders just another brilliant overtake by Max. Ricardio didn’t move out of the way, he kept his normal racing line as he didn’t expect Max was close enough. Max outbraked him perfectly without locking his tires, he only ran a bit wide. Daniel lost just over 1 second in that sector, if it really were teamorders he would have moved to the side 30 seconds later on the long straight losing far less time.

            4. Well Friederike, you have to watch out for having critics on Max. Next time only positive feedback to keep the Max fanboys happy. Max made de mistake by purpose to be closer to Vettel.

            5. If no one knows, why would you state it as a fact to begin with, people have to learn to differentiate between their opinion and facts

        2. hahahahaha teamorders…hahahahahaha Friederike, that was a proper pass from someone who is far more talented then his teammate

          1. OK, if you say so, I’m not going to start pointless cat fights here, my comment t in the first place wasn’t meant as criticism, so I won’t join the cat fight, just because you want to get me wrong

            1. Christian Horner himself said in a post race interview that there were no team orders. Not at the beginning when Max overtook Ricciardo and not at the end when the two were fighting for 3rd.

            2. @jeffreyj than I’m really disappointed in the lack of fight in Ric, as for the end fight for p3 I would have very disappointed if they gave team orders, that was a proper fight, by to drivers at similar pace, that would have been really unfair, in the first situation I would have understood team orders, because Ric was far too slow

            3. @jeffreyj

              There are many indications that it wasnt a teamorder but the teamboss saying it wasnt one is the least trustworthy ;)

              A lot of times drivers let others pass if they aint directly racing each other. Both Verstappen and Ricciardo would lose alot of time fighting each other at the start of the race, teamorders or not.

              If it was a fight for the podium at the end of the race Ricciardo wouldnt have let him go so easily.

            4. @rike if Ric was too slow at the time, then there’s all the more possibility of verstappen overtaking him properly and not under team orders. Perhaps you forget why overtakes happen in the first place?

            5. Friederieke, why dont you just keep your mouth closed? It’s a win win!

      2. I gave my vote to Max. I too thought his performance was excellent. I was most surprised to see him go from 16th place to something like 7th in the space of 1 lap, which gave him a good foundation to build a podium finishing performance on.

    6. Voted for LH. Also great performances from Verstappen, Vettel, Sainz, KMag, Perez and Alonso

    7. Vettel for me, he was stuck behind Kimi who had problems, for several laps. Then he decided it was time to take action and overtook Kimi in a propre way and made an incredible move on Ricciardo afterwards. However, I do feel ferrari/vettel made a mistake with that first stop. I think he could have been fighting for 1st if he had stopped with that safety car just like Hamilton did.

      Anyway, Verstappen was equally Driver of the weekend. He’s so young and to do that with these new cars which are much more physical is really superb.

      1. Well it was a risky call, noone could have known there would be a real safety car period just afterwards

        1. Yeah…Bad luck for Ferrari, oh well, plenty of races to go!

    8. MAX, VET, SAI, MAG….those did it well !

      HAM was outstanding…..

    9. Adam (@rocketpanda)
      9th April 2017, 12:23

      Voted Vettel. Along with Verstappen/Hamilton, looked in a different race. Overtake on Ricciardo was great.

      Verstappen’s charge was impressive, Magnussen’s fights were great.

    10. For me it’s between Hamilton and Verstappen. Both put in excellent performances. Overall I would go for Lewis. A class above the rest of the field.

      Honourable mentions to Sainz, Alonso and Magnussen.

      1. nelson piquet
        9th April 2017, 13:21

        that vettel kid was also pretty decent, unfortunately he’s not british right?

        1. Hang on – Sainz, Alonso, Magnussen and Verstappen are BRITISH?!?

          eyeroll

        2. Hang on – Sainz, Alonso, Magnussen and Verstappen are BRITISH?!? I had no clue!

          eyeroll

        3. I don’t know why Uzair voted the way he did, or rather what he claims he did, but he appears to have chosen others as more entitled to the F1 Fanatic Driver of the Weekend title than Vettel, which he is entitled to do.
          Hamilton started on Pole, led all the way, and finished first, doesn’t that mean his performance was better than Vettel who started second, wasn’t in second place the entire race, but managed to rescue a second place finish?
          Lots of drivers did “pretty decent”, if you want to vote for pretty decent that is entirely up to you, you can use your 1 vote any way you like.

          1. @drycrust So why the big song and dance about it? Are you hoping that people run their voting choice by you, for future races. Just checking it’s with you, before committing?

            Thanks for the service. Some people are just naturally selfless. Amazing.

            1. @psynrg My thanks for alerting me to the fact people might use what I wrote as a guide to how they should vote. It wasn’t my intention that what I wrote would be read in that way, I was trying to defend the original posters comment and choice in the face of seemed an overly nationalistic criticism.
              I trust F1 Fanatic readers to be swayed in how they voted by what they saw on TV or online, like I did, and that if they did read the comments posted here before they voted then I would hope they would read a range of comments about a range of drivers before voting, or see comments that would give them a better appreciation of reasons to vote for who they were thinking of voting for. I certainly wouldn’t want someone to read my comment in isolation and then make their decision.
              As an aside, my recollection was this morning Hamilton was at 20% and Vettel was at 21%, and now Hamilton is at 19% and Vettel is still at 21%, so it seems that if my comment did influence anyone it was the exact opposite of what some construe as the intention of it.
              Again, it wasn’t my intention to lobby for Hamilton, I didn’t vote for him myself, it was simply I felt there was an necessary angle to a particular critical comment to the original posters comment. If the criticism had been written differently then I would probably have ignored it.

    11. Look at the gaps between Hamilton&Vettel and Bottas&Raikkonen. YIKES!

      1. Atleast Bottas spun. Kimi didn’t even spin out and he still was 41 sec slower than his teammate.

        1. Ferrari left Kimi out for about 7 laps too long when it became apparent the softs wouldn’t go to the end.

          With Kimi finishing within a second off the RIC/VER fight for 3rd place, I think it’s fair to say that Kimi would have finished on the podium if Ferrari hadn’t messed up his strategy.

    12. For once, the 3 drivers that finished on the podium were also the best 3 drivers of the weekend. Cold have voted for any of them, but ended up with Verstappen for his first few laps.

      1. @diceman How about Alonso? Although it’s hard to judge Hamilton and Vettel since they were quite lonely at the front most of the time, to me they just drove a regular race, no mistakes, 8 out of 10. Alonso drove like an animal again and it was hugely impressive to see him in P6/7 all the time while this track is probably one of the worst for the Honda engine (except Baku and Monza), especially when you take into account his teammates performance.

        1. Couldn’t agree more with you. This Alonso is probably the best Alonso we have met during all these years.

          1. Every race Alonso beat previous Alonso’s best drive.

      2. The 3 on the podium and Alonso are the top drivers for sure, they’re in another league.

    13. Ocon is getting better which is very exciting. Magnussen’s done a good job in this race. Did Palmer finish behind Hulkenberg despite Nico’s penalty? Hmm.

    14. Max for me. To finish in 3rd place with a RedBull who is about 1.3 seconds slower over 1 lap……starting from 16th place and made the difference in the damp conditions, where exceptional drivers can, driving circles around Bottas, Kimi and his teammate.

      Max..just wow…what a talent we have for the coming years to come

      1. I voted Max too although it is sololy based on his sunday performance.

        It’s called ‘Driver of the Weekend’ so in hindsight I should have gone for Hamilton who did an epic job in both qualy ánd the race, whereas Verstappen (i.e. RBR) had car troubles on saturday.

        1. You can’t blame Verstappen for the Saturday result, though. He didn’t crash or make a mistake, his car broke down.

    15. Would have gone for Max, but that whining disqualified him totally… Went for Hammy in the end, perfectly controlled race.

      1. @losd So you went for the only driver who didn’t have to show anything except his standard pace? Right…

        1. @addvariety That’s usually what happens when you are the fastest and out in front from pole. Having to battle for position doesn’t mean you drove better than someone who didn’t. Hamilton was the best this weekend, Vettel was the best last race. People voting for Verstappen only do so because of the drama he brought to the race.

          1. @the-last-pope True about about being the fastest and out in front from pole. However, that also makes it much easier. To me, someone who started from pole and lead the race front to back almost never deserves DotW. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying they didn’t drive good or maybe even great, but it’s an easier job. The exception is when you’re holding off someone for a long time. Therefore I think Lewis did a mega job in Australia up to his pit stop, since Vettel clearly was faster but Hamilton made no mistakes and never made it closer than necessary.

            It’s always a matter of personal taste of course, but yes, positive drama gains you ‘points’ towards a DotW. Driver of the Weekend (or Day in FIA’s book) is someone who stood out from the crowd, like making a couple of spectacular moves (either overtaking or defending) or achieving a performance that’s normally not possible with that car. So yes, this time it was Verstappen and Alonso in that case, because although both Lewis and Seb drove great as well, their performance was “as to be expected” from them. Red Bull is over 1 second off the pace in both qualifying and race pace, so they shouldn’t be on the podium. Granted, the damp track put them in this position, but ultimately it was Verstappen who managed to gain so many places in the first lap and then hold onto it to the end. The only blemish was his front left locking up when defending against Vettel, although later on showed (and confirmed in interviews) that both Red Bulls suffered from heavy understeer and therefore had no front tyres left near the end of the stint, which is why Ricciardo locked up when trying a move on Max in the last lap.

      2. He has every right to whine IMO, totally understand your point. But, I still find him a more reasonable ‘whiner’ than Vettel. At least he doesn’t whine when fighting for position :P

        1. @pratyushp276

          doesn’t whine when fighting for position? He was fighting for position with Ricciardo. And whining. Even Brundle finally said he should just get on with it and “you don’t see Ricciardo whining, and he’s right behind Max.” RIC had more more dirty air to deal with than Max.

          I’ve heard Vettel complain about back markers, but I’ve also heard Hamilton complain about back markers too. It’s all much ado about nothing.

          A larger conversation could be had over driver’s complaining versus whining. All driver’s complain at various times. They may hope that Charlie might do something. Often times it’s just a way of relieving some of the stresses they are under.

          Ultimately, the funniest thing is, we act as if these little mini dramas impact the drivers in the same way it impacts us, the fans. It doesn’t. They don’t look behind them. They don’t hold onto and obsess over the soap opera quality of the narratives we hear on forums or with the broadcasters. You can hear it in the questions asked in the bull pen with the drivers what pot the media wants to stir. Or here on the forum. But the drivers really can’t be bothered
          .

    16. Lewis Hamilton for me, that quali run was a belter of a lap. Brilliant drive in race, and a Grand chelem.

    17. Grand chelem deserves a DOTW. Nice performances by VER (blue flags!) and Sainz for getting up there.

    18. Voted for Max. Gained some 9 positions I think in the first lap, and did an allround exciting race.

      1. +1
        Every overtake in turn 6 was a beauty. Late braking with no lock-up, just a pleasure to see.

        1. I thought he did lock up or was that the Vettel/Ricciardo fight?

          1. Yes Vettel locked up a bit overtaking Ric. Don’t remember if Max did the same tbh

            1. @johnmilk It was max locking up at the end of the back straight that gave Vettel his position, which is a shame because think it would have been great to see Vettel attacking and Max defending in the ways Vettel complained so loudly about last year, could have been a great part of the race. Not to be though.

            2. @woodyd91 that was on the back straight. At turn 6 Vettel locked while overtaking Ric, which I think is what the comments before mine were referring to.

              But yes, shame we didn’t saw a bit more of that battle. Either way Max would have stopped soon

            3. @woodyd91 @johnmilk Yes Joao is right, I was referring to the overtakes at T6 not T13.

              But yeah it was a shame indeed that Verstappen locked up in T13 in the Vettel fight. It robbed us from what could have been an epic battle. At the time I thought that it would maybe allow Sebastian to catch up with Hamilton but that wasn’t to be either unfortunately.

    19. Driver of the weekend is Vettel and no one is even close. Vettel’s overtakes were simply amazing, pure class.

      1. You know Vettel finished 2nd not 1st right? Qualifying 2nd and finishing 2nd isn’t as good a weekend as qualifying 1st and finishing 1st. Hamilton was better than Vettel this weekend.

    20. For me it was between Max and Fernando. Ultimately chose Max since he was again the master of the rain/damp circumstances. Setting continuous fastest laps together with Hamilton in the first half of the race and from P16 to P9 after the first lap, mega job. Fernando was unfortunate to retire with yet another engine issue, drove fantastic as well, but slightly less impressive than Verstappen. The end of the race, the battle with Ricciardo and the tension you could hear on the radio about Grosjean being in front.

      It’s a matter of opinion, but I cannot understand why so many people voted for Hamilton and Vettel. Sure, they drove great, but both of them showed nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary. Granted, both didn’t make any mistakes and since Lewis was in front the whole race, there wasn’t much he could show. But there also wasn’t much he needed to do, except keeping the pace in there. But I understand if you’re a huge fan of either one. ;-)

      1. but I cannot understand why so many people voted for Hamilton and Vettel

        I can’t understand why so many people voted for Max. He made a massive mistake and threw away second place. If Vettel or Hamilton had done that you know these comments would be full of people calling them on it.

        Hamilton and Vettel were pretty flawless, Verstappen not so much.

        1. In the end though he didn’t throw away second. Vettel finished 20 seconds ahead. The four or five seconds Verstappen lost due to his mistake wou

          1. Would have made no difference. But I completely understand thinking the mistake disqualified him from winning DotW

            1. You can’t know that for sure though because:

              1) if he hadn’t wrecked front tyre locking up his performance over the rest of the race would be higher
              2) if he had held Vettel up, which is not unreasonable given his defending ability, Vettel would have been putting more strain into his tyres, damaging his performance over the rest of the race.

              Regardless we’re on the same page re: voting

        2. Jelle van der Meer (@)
          9th April 2017, 14:08

          The winner is not always the DotW, relative car performance has to be taken into account. Hamilton didn’t make a mistake but he never was really pushed, didn’t need to do anything special except drive the best engine with 2nd best chassis. Vettel did better making some good overtakes and in 2nd half being quicker than Hamilton but Vettel started 2nd & finished 2nd in best chassis and 2nd best engine.

          Max started 16th after engine problems in Q1, on first lap he had 7 genuin overtakes, after first round of pitstops he ran 4th overtaking Raikonnen and Ricardio with clean overtakes. He made 1 mistake that cost him 4-5 seconds but considering his 30+ second gap behind Hamilton/Vettel while driving the car to maximum avoiding being overtaken by Ricardio with DRS, clearly shows he outperformed the car and his teammate.

          For me there is only 1 winner in relative view and that is Max.

          1. For me there is only 1 winner in relative view and that is Max.

            Hmmm

            van der Meer

            Yeah totally not biased then ;)

          2. It is driver of the WEEKEND. Vettel and Bottas pushed Hamilton to the limit on Saturday.

            1. @the-last-pope Bottas didnt push anyone this weekend.

            2. @rethla You’re joking right? Bottas was only 0.187 off pole position. He made one big mistake that ruined his race, but he was actually very quick on the track. Without that mistake he would have been fighting Vettel for 2nd. Bottas makes one mistake and recovers with many overtakes and gets no votes, Verstappen makes one mistake with many (risky) overtakes and wins the whole vote????

              I think this vote should be renamed most entertaining driver of the weekend, because that is obviously what the majority are voting for.

            3. The point of the poll is for the one WE feel raced well, not the best driver ever. Everyone has a different opinion and will vote for the driver they feel drove well. There is no way anyone can make the other change their opinion or try to. There is no point questioning the votes given for a driver, people simply prefer their, er, choice. It seems like everyone here is mistaking DotW for Best Driver No Questions Asked.

            4. @the-last-pope

              Amongst other things Verstappen overtook bottas in an inferior car. Bottas aint even top 10 this weekend.

            5. @rethla Max had brand new super soft tyres. Bottas was on well worn soft tyres. At that time Verstappen’ s car had far superior grip in the corners and on acceleration and braking.

    21. I went for Max, tough saturday, great recovery and again great speed in changing consitions. But the top 3 did an amazing race today. Max’s and Seb’s overtakes were amazing, after all the people saying that it was impossible to overtake this guys showed some great racecraft.

      Oh you can’t overtake? Here hold my beer. That is the attitude they all should have.

      Ham’s grand chelem can’t go by unnoticed

      Great weekend for the FI guys as well and K-Mag showed the potential pace of the Haas, they have reasons for optimism, I feel they could be the best of the rest.

      Disappointing race from Hulk. And Palmer? Was he there?

    22. Many good drives:

      Lewis rose to the occasion and managed to beat the Prancing Horse. Impressive weekend from him.
      Verstappen recovered a lousy qualifying with a great drive to the podium.
      Carlos Sainz ended up best of the rest. Good job.
      Magnussen surprised me in his Haas.
      Vettel still did a great job in his Ferrari too, once again showing who is the better driver in the team.
      Alonso obviously keeps doing more than his McLaren is capable of.

    23. Is Giovinazzi so forgotten since the mass hype from last race so he doesnt even deserve a place in the voting? :)

      1. @rethla Pascal Wehrlein for DOTW?

        1. Well he didn’t put a foot wrong all weekend.

    24. Max for me. His qualy was compromised by technical issues. Starting from the back and finishing on the podium doing some great overtaking and great defending against RIC. He had a moment while trying to hold Vettel behind him but his tyres were already gone by then.

    25. LH for me – he made it look easy because he has flawless driving skills – he was a match for anyone that came close. MV cut through the field like a warm knife through butter until he came to LH. LH then just upped it a notch and and MV momentum was stalled. However MV followed by SV and DR in that order were very close in getting my vote. It’s only a matter of time before MV becomes World Champion

      1. He had some luck that VET pitted under VSC and he did under regular SC.

        That made it a lot easier for him

    26. Hamilton made it look very easy… That’s the mark of greatness (and day pole lap…)

    27. Its between Alonso , Vettel and Max. Alonso drove like an animal but i need to read that from the press. Max starts wining about blue flag and was not in DRS range. I go for Vettel because he really drove superb and gave us a great show.

    28. Neil (@neilosjames)
      9th April 2017, 15:52

      Voted for Alonso, because I was torn between a few drivers and everyone else who I thought was excellent at least got some reward for their efforts. He couldn’t have done anything more with what he had over the course of the whole weekend.

      Honourable mentions for Hamilton, Vettel and Verstappen – like Alonso, I think all three took the absolute maximum out of their cars. Magnussen had a good crack too, I thought.

    29. Taking the whole weekend into account, I had to go with Hamilton. Verstappen definitely had a more compelling race, but I thought his whining about Grosjean at the end was totally unwarranted.

    30. What is wrong with the TV coverage this year? They managed to miss 2 major overtakes plus the camera shots on the corners are so tight you can’t see whats happening! There are allot of occasions when you are trying to watch 2 sets of cars battling at the same time and all we get to see is a meaningless close up of one car. It’s absolutely infuriating!!! Why were they showing a rear facing shot from vettel when he was battling ricciardo??? total incompetance.

    31. Verstappen looked good but, fortunately we were able to hear what he sounded like . IMHO. We heard him almost crying like a small child pleading that somehow the team shoud get “Charlie” to make Grosjean move over because the wash from Grosjean was bothering Verstappen.
      Grosjean was well over a second ahead and was in no way blocking Verstappen , he simply was cracking under the pressure of dealing with Ricciardo being on his gearbox.
      The team radio broadcasts are great. last year we heard Vettel’s complaints and curses and now we hear that Verstappen for all his talent is still a child so…no he does not get my vote nor any respect.
      My vote goes to Vettel. He had to deal with being stuck behind Raikonnen for a number of laps and having the team say nothing to Raikonnen as to moving over.The fact that Vettel stayed there and did not complain showed that he is a class act with a lot of respect for the team and its other driver.Staying theer hurt his chances and he knew that but held his position anyway.
      The most telling point for my vote for Vettel was his pass of Ricciardo. It was great and not DRS assisted. He made a great move,banged wheels when he had to and then pulled away. It was the high point of the race .
      I know Lewis drove well and won but, in that car there are at least several other drivers who would have done the same.
      In some way its a shame that Mercedes is so good because we can’t really judge Hamilton . He looks great but, then again Phil Jackson looked great when he had Michael or Kobe, how does he look now ?
      Anyway for me ,it was Vettel with the best performance of the race .

      1. The ‘in that car’ argument loses its weight when that car no longer locks out the front row or has a race pace advantage.

    32. Fairly straighforward – Verstappen for me.
      He won my votes when I saw the replay of the first lap.
      He confirmed my vote with the superb overtake on RIC.

      It seemed on the podium that Hamilton ‘verbally’ voted for him as well. Must be good to hear those comments from a WDC ;)

    33. I think Sainz Jr. is quite underrated in general, and he usually seems to deliver in the damp or wet, as he did here – sure, narrowly outqualified by Kvyat (well done) and lost at the start -but that was part of the gamble, and he expected that, after which he got up to sixth after the SC and hung on to seventh.

      Vettel had a very good weekend too, not sure he could have done better really. That last is true for Hamilton too – did the job on Saturday and was in control from there on in; he even got the fastest lap.

      I see Verstappen is in pole position here as he was in the F1.com vote – I can see that, based on the numbers, and his 1st lap was great, 1st half also very good, but I’m not sure it is that much better than what others did.

      Honorable mentions for Ocon and Perez, though they had to get their elbows out apparently, both hitting others, but also doing some passing to get points. Alonso probably did a very good job too, have to agree it would be great to see what he could do in a car that can finish a race, let alone fight for podiums.

      Thinking about it, only Ericsson, Palmer and to some extent Massa dissapointed; while Stroll and Kvyat did good on Saturday but weren’t able to show much Today and Vandoorne didn’t get to do much at all period. Giovanazzi has some learning to do, but that isn’t really a surprise, and I think he has shown enough potential in the car to have a good future. Still, Sauber will probably look forward to getting Wehrlein into the car soon.

      1. Oh, I still would like to see what happened to/with Hulkenberg – such a great qualifying, and again things went wrong for him in the race – he pitted too early under that VSC, and then made it worse by overtaking under that and then under the SC again?! Still got up to 12th, but those 15 penalty seconds are something he could have missed. May be too eager after good qualifying.

        1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
          9th April 2017, 18:37

          @bosyber Yeah, I’ve no idea how Hulkenberg went from P6 to P18 – Vettel lost just a few spots after pitting…

          Did he spin or was this just bad luck? If it’s the latter, he’s so unlucky.

          1. Just read in the F1fanatic radio talk article that he did indeed spin @freelittlebirds, but it was also that he pitted to early (even before the VSC) – maybe due to that spin, so lost to quite a few guys from that.

      2. @bosyber Palmer and Ericsson dissapointing, can you elaborate? Their cars is just too slow. What else could they have done?

        What about Bottas and Hulkenberg. Their performance was really bad.

        Smashing 2 days in a row is not a learning curve…it’s just really bad. You don’t get so many opportunities to show yourself as a F1 driver. Giovinazzi is done in F1.

        1. Well @orchide, I did cover Hulkenberg – he had quite a mixed performance. Didn’t mention either Kimi or Bottas as they weren’t great, but after Saturday I didn’t expect them to be. You might be right that Ericsson was just suffering from a slow car, could even be playing into trouble Gio had with keeping car on track; Palmer though wasn’t – he could just have been unlucky again. Still, from others I did see some good things in the race, did you see them from those two? At best they are with VAN – not able to show much this weekend.

          1. @bosyber Gio lost his car in the wet area under the bridge, think it was a driver mistake.
            Bottas did a terrible race. Spinning during sc, how many places did he drop? Think he went down to 12th or something.
            Agree on Palmer, he should have been ahead of his teammate with all the penalties etc.

            Regarding Ericsson, not much to do when all other cars are so much faster. On top of that a stupid strategy not to change tyres. Think he did 40 laps on softs.

      3. Verstappen – closely followed by KMag (beating teammate with 33sec and great overtaking on Ocon and Perez in first try to take 8th), Vettel (great overtake on Ricciardo outside DRS zone) and Hamilton (what a racer)!

    34. @keithcollantine

      Maybe it might be a nice idea to have the possibility to vote for any additional number of drivers for “Honourable mentions”. That should be only optionally, and then sum up those “honourable mentions” points over the season(s). That way you could see who impressed consistently but maybe still missed out on being the DOTW quite often…

      1. Additional advantages would be:
        – Like last race in Australia, some people voted strategically for Giovanazzi instead of their true DOTW due to the reason that he might never get the chance again. That incentive would be reduced if you could give him an “honourable mentions” point
        – People tend to be less biased (I am guilty as well!!) with giving “honourable mentions” to drivers who they might not like as much or even hate..

    35. While Max was deserving, Sebastian and Fernando too, it’s impossible not to give it to Lewis. Flawless.

    36. LH easy, he did everything right and won most.

    37. John Toad (@)
      9th April 2017, 18:20

      Sigh, this is supposed to be ‘Driver of the Weekend’ not ‘Driver of the Race’.
      On those terms Max doesn’t get to win.
      He drove a brilliant race, apart from throwing away second place with a lock-up, and is one of my candidates for ‘Driver of the Race’, but he doesn’t make my list for ‘Driver of the Weekend’.

      1. By that premise any driver who suffers mechanical or other problems in quali can never be driver of the weekend? So not even Kimi at Suzuka 2005? Mad.

        1. Yeah but when another driver gets pole, fastest lap, and wins the race making zero mistakes? The perfect weekend should get you DOTW.

    38. Ferrari, Seb fan
      9th April 2017, 18:36

      I’m sure max will be DOTW.
      Vettel pulled off some spectacular moves (same as verstappen)
      Hamilton did what rosberg did last year, keep at the front do what he needed to do
      Sainz had a bad start but 7th was a great result
      Magnesson did well with his 8th place, beat both fi on the way
      Alonso drove on the limit, dueling with a torro rosso isn’t bad when some people predict your team is going to come last in the constructors.

    39. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      9th April 2017, 19:18

      This is just my opinion but I think it is rather strange that over a 3rd of us have voted for Verstappen as driver of the “weekend”. Fair enough, his race was outstanding, I can fully understand him being driver of the day although Vettel actually impressed me a bit more but Verstappen still did an incredible job. (I didn’t like his moaning about Grosjean though!)

      But he wasn’t able to show us what he could do in qualifying. So we simply don’t know what he would have done. I don’t think it would be totally fair to say he’s the driver of the weekend when we haven’t been able to see what he was capable of in any of the qualifying sessions. Not that this is his fault in any way.

      With Vettel, we saw his very strong performance in practice, qualifying and the race which to me makes me go for Vettel.

      I agree with the votes on the Planet F1 forum more than here which often isn’t the case. 30% have voted for Vettel so far while only 14% for Verstappen so far. I don’t have anything against Verstappen but I’ve always had this view that if we haven’t been able to see what drivers are capable of over qualifying and the race, I find it hard to vote for them. Similar to all the Alonso votes. Yes, from what we have seen, he was impressive, but he was quite a way off finishing the race and we don’t know what could have happened if he didn’t retire.

      1. I agree with you some part of what you’re saying. It’s DOTW and we haven’t seen him qualify. But qualifying doesn’t weigh as much as a race in my view. Going from P16 to P3, beating faster cars, crushing his team mate in early part of the race, gives Verstappen a lot of points in my view that could outbalance the fact of him not being able to be competitive in qualifying. Which by no means, had been his fault. Had he crashed in qualifying, causing him to start at the back, for sure I would have agreed he could not be voted DOTW, but this is a different case. We are rating the drivers, not the combination of drivers and their cars. We should try to look beyond the car performance imo, and judge the driver on the value he added to the car during the race.

        In my opinion there were four drivers that could be voted DOTW: Hamilton, Verstappen, Vettel and Alonso. I voted Alonso because his qualifying lap yesterday was superb. Absolutely on the limit, as was Hamilton’s pole lap. Then his perfect start, going from P13 to P6, was magnificent, as it is obvious it’s not the position where his car belongs. I think he got the absolute maximum out of the car. No mistakes from his part at all. That the car failed, is a shame, but not his fault. We don’t devalue a striker in football either, when he scores a hattrick, gets injured before the end, and see the team lose. It’s why I don’t think it’s unfair either to vote for Verstappen. He as a driver, delivered fully.

      2. You could see it different, Verstappen wasted very little time being stuck behind Ricciardo while Vettel got stuck for many many laps behind Raikkonen.

        Sometimes you’re stuck, but Verstappen almost never seems stuck, especially in the rain he’s unstoppable no matter the track conditions he will overtake.

        For Vettel to be DOTW he neede to get passed his slower team mate much faster then he did, great move on Ric btw!

    40. @keithcollantine Not that it matters as no one will vote for him but you but down Pascal Wehrlein on the list instead of Antonia Giovinazzi.

    41. LH for producing the pole and setting himself for the race. Hoonourable mentions; Ver outstanding start, alo the animal and gro for his pass on massa

    42. People seem to forget Verstappen´s big lockup which made it quite easy for Vettel to pass him.

      My decision was between Vettel and Hamilton and I have ended up voting for Vettel because circumstances made it harder for him on raceday but he was capable to maximize his result.

      1. Did none of who voted verstappen notice riciardo was all over verstappen at the end, and was clearly faster?? You cant look past LH in my opinion.

        1. And he held him off, didn’t he ?

      2. Well, those who didn’t forget about the lockup completely forgot about his otherwise flawless race where he overtook, like, 12 cars and performed superbly with Riccardo pressuring him in the last 8 laps.

        1. Well, VES was clearly slower than RIC at the end of race. Held him off just after another lock up 2 laps from home. His teammate wad faster than him.
          Sorry but i cant see how he outperformed LH for driver of the day.

    43. Carlos Sainz Jr. Also good weekend by Hamilton, Vettel, Ricciardo, Perez, Magnussen.

    44. Vettel for me, hands down.
      Good qualifying, keeping Bottas out of the front row by 1/1000 of a second could’ve been crucial in a dry race, like it was in Melbourne.
      He lost his shot at the victory with an ill-timed pit stop under the VSC, a gamble that made perfect sense at that time, but then the Safety Car came out and awarded Hamilton, Räikkönen, and the Red Bulls with an even ‘freeer’ pit stop. That was nothing but bad luck for him, the pendulum could just as well have swung in his favour.
      The duel with his Ferrari team mate was crucial for my assessment of his race: He managed to re-establish the old running order with an aggressive but clean, DRS-free, overtake, and used the remaining less than 40 laps to create a downright humiliating gap of more than 40 seconds between the two Maranello cars – on virtually identical strategies.
      His overtake on Ricciardo around the outside of turn 6, against the Aussie’s aggressive defence, is a strong candidate for the finest manoeuvre of the race (Grosjean’s overtake on Massa around the outside of turn 1 was incredible as well, but tyre degradation played a major part in that situation).

      Flawless job all weekend, encountered quite a few difficulties but made his way back up the order, out-paced his team mate like no other driver today. I don’t think there’s a way he could’ve made a better job.

    45. Decent race today has to be Hamilton as he was flawless through quali and race.

      On another note for gods sake bring back static camera shots… seriously lacking a sense of speed with the tv coverage these days

    46. That opening lap of Verstappen’s is going to be something dragged out of the archive footage for decades to come when people are discussing greatest drivers of all time. Verstappen alone is responsible for 3 of the 7/10 I rated this race.

      Hamilton made it look too easy, almost doing himself out of the deserved credit for the masterclass he put on this weekend though. While the field behind him were tripping over each other, he drove in a class of his own. It’s easy to look at it as a cruise to victory just because he held everyone else at arm’s length but if his drive had been that unremarkable he would have had company up at the front. Verstappen’s drive was incredible, but he arguably left 2nd place on the table. Hamilton gets my vote because there was nothing he could have done better.

    47. Hamilton. Grand chelem, that speaks for itself.
      But it will be Verstappen, even with him feeling the pressure when Vettel came after him…

    48. Best driver in China was Vettel all day for me.

      Lewis had a well managed drive as he and the team got the strategy and tire calls right, but Vettel overcame a few setbacks, made no mistakes and pulled off some great moves to get to the second step.
      Max did well from 17th with a fantastic start, but it wasn’t a drive without error… and that cost him my vote.

    49. Very close between Hamilton, Vettel and Verstappen. I went for Hamilton in the end, dominant performance.

    50. “which driver did the best with the equipment at their disposal over the last three days?” Lewis. not even close

    51. Difficult weekend to choose:
      HAM: Monster qualifying lap. Did well at start. Managed the inters well. Preserved engine when required, unleashed when required. Grand Chelem!
      VET: Very good qualifying lap, he may have got a few hundredths more, but was always going to be P2. Good start, got unlucky with the SC. Put a brave move on teammate and even more amazing move on Daniel. Put a whole lot of pressure on Hamilton later as well. So much so, that although it took him roughly half the race to reach P2, he had put 30 seconds between him and P3 by the end of the race!
      VER: No fault of his in qualifying. Killer killer first lap. Right up there with Fernando’s opening lap in Hungary 2006. Excellent move on his teammate. Small mistake with Vettel, not sure if it cost him any position as VET was too quick. Lost pace towards the end and was slower than his teammate on similar tyres.

      Overall, I think HAM deserves this. VER could have avoided those mistakes, VET could have cleared his teammate faster. HAM couldn’t have done anything more.

    52. I went for Vettel as his overtakes were outstanding and I think that without the real Safety Car, he would have won the race.

      Hamilton job well done as well, and awesome first lap by Verstappen.

    53. Hasseroderman (@)
      10th April 2017, 10:53

      VER for being on ‘mediocre’ equipment and making the podium

    54. Vettel.

      Strong pace and master moves on Raikkonen, Ricciardo and Verstappen.

    55. Mercedes is a class of its own. Ferrari is just behind in performance. Lewis is the best driver in the best car, end of story. The rest of the field fight for what they are worth. In that view Max performed ashtonishing again. Driver of the day.

    56. Hamilton not only because he scored a Grand Slam (pole, win, best lap, led every laps), but also because he was the only driver to go and meet the fans during the cancelled FP2 session. He interacted with the attendance and threw them signed caps. Hats…eh Caps off!

    57. The winner’s a no-brainer. I also think VET’s recovery should see him clear of HAM in this vote as the latter only needed to “sit tight” once it was clear VET couldn’t catch him.

    58. petebaldwin (@)
      10th April 2017, 15:38

      Seb and Carlos had great races but it rained so there is 1 clear winner.

    59. Lewis gets driver of the day. Winning early in the season is a must and now the season has really started.

    60. The gap to teammate for Lewis and Seb insane. Lewis to Valtteri, Sebastian to Kimi both are on equal cars respectively. They are definitely in the league of their own.

    61. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
      10th April 2017, 17:57

      Max Verstappen because he’s still at the same level as he was last year.

    62. My vote to Lewis Hamilton, He has done the best.

      1. There was a time when Lewis would get his fare share of DOTW votes. That time is long gone on this forum. I have said this before – I don’t know what he would do to win DOTW, it doesn’t happen any more.

    63. Lewis Hamilton. Easily.
      Third grand slam – pole position, fastest lap, leading every lap, victory.
      Hamilton’s fifth win in China from 11 attempts.
      Hamilton only the second driver ever to have to five wins on three or more circuits.
      This was his 32nd fastest lap.
      So Lewis Hamilton was easily the driver of the weekend for me.

    64. There were a few contenders for driver of the weekend in my opinion.

      Hamilton
      Before Q3 it seemed that Ferrari were the quickest but Hamilton put in an impressive lap to secure another pole position. In the race Hamilton had a trouble free start and with the way the early stops and safety cars worked out he was never troubled on his way to victory as the driver who would have been his main rival, Vettel, for was out of position.

      For most of the race Hamilton seemed to be managing his pace, firstly when he was trying to get through race on a one-stop and also when he changed to a two-stop after the other leading drivers did so, just keeping a healthy gap to second until he took the chequered flag.

      Vettel
      Up until Q3 I thought Vettel was definitely going to get pole but in the end he just managed to beat Bottas for second. In the race Vettel didn’t do anything wrong but got unlucky with the timing of the safety cars so was never in a position where he could challenge for the win as he had to fight his way back up to second.

      Verstappen
      Verstappen suffered car problems in qualifying so his early exit in Q1 wasn’t his fault. With a wet start to the race, I was probably in the majority of fans who expected something big from Verstappen starting so far down the grid and he did not disappoint, making up nine places on the opening lap.

      The only blot on his performance was when he locked up and lost a place when under pressure from Vettel.

      Sainz
      Sainz was the only driver to gamble on starting with slick tyres nevertheless it worked out. However he did have a spin later under the safety car. The thing that would stop me choosing him as my driver of the weekend would be that he was beaten in qualifying by his team mate.

      Alonso
      Alonso again seemed to defy expectations by holding on to a points scoring position for so long until again his car broke down.

      In the end it was close but I decided to vote for Verstappen.

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