Best Driver: Worst Driver: Best Rookie: Best Team: Worst Team: Best Overtake: Most Surprising Result: Least Surprising Result: Funniest moment: Excuse of the week: Special Mention: Best post from the race thread: Race Rating: ?/10
Best Driver: Verstappen. Pressure to perform, answered the critics in full Worst Driver: Hamilton & Rosberg jointly. Boys, boys, boys, come on. Really? Best Rookie: Palmer beat Mag, none of them really shone this weekend. Best Team: Red Bull. Worst Team: Ferrari. Harsh, but the win was there and they missed it. Best Overtake: Verstappen around Vettel. Race winning move. Most Surprising Result: Max winning Least Surprising Result: Miggins shoving it down everyone necks about it......... Funniest moment: Hamilton travelling across the gravel with his head in his hands before the car had stopped. Excuse of the week: Special Mention: Best post from the race thread: Race Rating: 7/10. Slow burner after lap one, but looked good in the second half.
Best Driver: Max. Worst Driver: Lewis and Nico Best Rookie: - Best Team: Ferrari Worst Team: Mershite Best Overtake: Nico on Lewis Most Surprising Result: Max win Least Surprising Result: Manor, Renault and Sauber were ****. Funniest moment: Lewis head in hands and Nico looking very mad immediately after the crash. Comical driving. Excuse of the week: "We let our drivers race freely" Should be. "We let our drivers race into each other". Special Mention: Carlos Sainz and Button. Best post from the race thread: The crash meme. Race Rating: 8/10
Best Driver:Verstappen Worst Driver: Hamilton, (Rosberg got the start right.) Best Rookie: Best Team: RedBull, Worst Team: Mercedes Best Overtake: Rosberg around the outside Most Surprising Result: There was an actual race for first that went to the end. Least Surprising Result: ASC crying over Hamilton Funniest moment: The fire Marshall letting the extinguisher off in his own face Excuse of the week: Massa being held up by traffic in the pit-lane Special Mention: Sainz Best post from the race thread: The one where I rammed Vertsappen winning down everyones throat (except there isn't one) Race Rating: 7/10 A race to the end
The track is no good for F1. They need to sort out the final corner. With a straight that long, how can DRS not assist an overtake at the front of the pack? Too much time lost by the following driver coming out of the chicane and then losing downforce as they accelerate around the final corner which puts them at least 7/10th's behind.
Best Driver: Max. Worst Driver: Kyvat Best Rookie: - Palmer? Best Team: Redbull Worst Team: McLaren Best Overtake: Nico on Lewis, Vettle on Sainz Most Surprising Result: Max win Least Surprising Result: McLaren's superior chassis not showing. Funniest moment: Lewis head in hands and Nico looking very mad immediately after the crash. Comical driving. Excuse of the week: "We let our drivers race freely" Should be. "We let our drivers race into each other". Special Mention: Carlos Sainz and Button. Best post from the race thread: The crash meme. Race Rating: 6.5/10
If they took the chicane out the problem would be solved. Kimi would be going much faster, more momentum, less wheel spin as he would already be up to speed and he would have had Max before the pit exit. Sure that's Ferraris problem sorting their setup out but it takes away from what could have been.
it was also the same for Vet/Ric battle. Only once did Ric have a sniff and even then it was a desperate ping pong lunge. see no reason why the cannot go back to the old configuration, or if they are worried about speed being carried through the final corner, make the corner before the chicane tighter, but at least allow a following car to have a bit of a run through the final corner.
Sorry I'm a bit late with this… Best Driver: Verstappen. No contest. It was a stand-out drive and an historic occasion right up there with almost anything comparable from the past. Regardless of how he got to the front, he barely put a foot wrong – as a teenager! Worst Driver: Hamilton. Whilst not blaming him for the collision* – which I saw as a racing incident due to the closing speed and logical reactions of both drivers – it has to be one of the Mercedes drivers. But 'worst' is singular. And there can be no doubt Rosberg made the better start whilst Hamilton's left him unable to defend into Turn 1. Best Rookie: Palmer. Best Team: Red Bull. Worst Team: Mercedes. Best Overtake: Verstappen on Vettel. Also noteworthy was Magnussen on Ericsson. Most Surprising Result: Mercedes' collision. This is nothing less than a 100% failure; the worst possible outcome of the exceptional efforts of a vast number of people. Least Surprising Result: Verstappen outperforming Kvyat in their respectively swapped seats. Funniest moment: Vettel's radio reaction in leiu of Ricciardo's courageous – or outrageous! depending on one's point of view – attempt to overtake which I understand, Vettel has now admitted he would have tried himself, had the situation been reversed. Excuse of the week: Can't think of one. Special Mention: Ricciardo. From his personal perspective, it was his race. He did nothing wrong and was very quick throughout. Red Bull's strategy with him was bizarre and I know it was not his call to change to a three-stopper. Best post from the race thread: AG's lego. Race Rating: 8.95/10 * I've read elsewhere that some people think Hamilton put up his hand in acceptance of blame. My understanding is different; that his apologies were an acknowledgement of his involvement – and sincere regret of – in an incident which should not have occurred. This is quite different to saying he believes it was his entirely 'fault' but an an acknowledgement of his part in the incident. Based on the circumstances at the time, he did the instinctive thing at exactly the same time Rosberg made the instinctive defence. A split second either way, the incident would not have occurred and most likely Mercedes would have bagged maximum points, again. But it just so happened that both drivers did their thing at just the wrong instant, according to the other perspective. Hence my view of it as a 'racing incident' (how I despise the term!): it's difficult to see one driver as significantly more to blame than the other.
I note also that some have compared the Renault and Mercedes' incidents, and the fact that despite both being investigated, only Renault's Magnussen was penalised. In my opinion, the only similarity is that both incidents were 'in-house', involving only team mates. I should add that despite very much liking KMag, I think he was clearly in the wrong on this occasion. As I understand it, he admitted his error as the most likely cause of the altercation*. It was, to my mind, a quite different incident; one driver was clearly more at fault and one driver clearly doing exactly what might be reasonably expected. Of course, no-one wants or welcomes a penalty but so far as I'm aware, he has accepted it with integrity and good-grace. Full marks. Integrity can compensate for temerity, it's just that most people find it difficult to acknowledge or embrace both at once. *Shoot me if I'm wrong and I will try to summon the courage to apologise, although I declare here and now that I may fail