Best Driver: Worst Driver: Best Rookie/New Driver: Best Team: Surprise 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: Bottas Worst Driver: K Mag, or Stroll Best Rookie/New Driver: ermm Best Team: Mercedes Surprise Team: erm, don't think there were any, Renault? Worst Team:STR Best Overtake: Alonso and his Honda power on Massa Most Surprising Result:Bottas winning on merit Least Surprising Result: Merc win Funniest moment: Excuse of the week: Anything Stroll came up with Special Mention: Hulkenberg, STR will be pissed. Alonso Best post from the race thread: Race Rating: 6/10
Best Driver: Bottas Worst Driver: Kimi, Stroll Best Rookie/New Driver: Best Team: Merc Surprise Team: Worst Team: TR Best Overtake: Grosjean on Stroll Most Surprising Result: Bottas win Least Surprising Result: Merc win Funniest moment: Kimi not being arsed to warm his tyres up on the parade lap Excuse of the week: Stewards for their usual ability to balls up a straight forward penalty. Special Mention: Renault, Alonso and Massa Best post from the race thread: Race Rating: 3.33/10 Saved by Lewis at least giving it a go.
Best Driver: Got to be Bottas. No one else did much to merit anything. Worst Driver: KMag. Is becoming dangerous and his blocking of Verstappen was ridiculous. Best Rookie/New Driver: Neither Hartley or Gasly impressed. Am surprised they have seats next year as TR have gone backwards badly since Kvyat and Sainz left. How long will they last in 2018 before being displaced? Best Team: Mercedes, but Force India get a shout for an overall decent season. Surprise Team: pfft, did any team do much? Had a real end of season feel about it. Worst Team: Renualt, if only for their failure to attach 4 wheels to a car properly. Best Overtake: Grosjean on Stroll/Massa, can't remember which one. Most Surprising Result: Bottas not bottling it Least Surprising Result: Kimi looking bored the entire way through. Funniest moment: DC and Brundle looking very awkward on the podium. Nice idea, but just didn't really gel working for different broadcasters and all that! Excuse of the week: Sainz retiring with a loose wheel. What's wrong with him, he had another three he could still have used. No commitment. Shameful Special Mention: Felipe. This time stay away, everyone hates really long goodbyes Best post from the race thread: Race Rating: 2/10. The lower order get the '2' just for giving some overtaking. The rest get '0' as they did sod all.
Best Driver: Bottas Worst Driver: KMAG Best Rookie/New Driver: Gasly Best Team: Mercedes Surprise Team: Renault, maybe they didnt turn down their engines Worst Team: STR competing with sauber Best Overtake: Grosjean and stroll was best duel Most Surprising Result: Honda 3 time in a row in the points Least Surprising Result: Hamilton cant win when title wrapped up. Funniest moment: Prosts nose Excuse of the week: Hulk claiming to be pushed off Special Mention: Renault getting 6th Best post from the race thread: Race Rating: 2/10 - worst race of the season not good track for a season ending when you would potentially want to see a title fight. Agree with Hamilton they need to change something
Update (replacing earlier incomplete post): Best Driver: Bottas. Great qualifying. Just as important though, was sustained concentration throughout the race, soaking up continual pressure from Hamilton who was never more than 2 seconds adrift until the last few laps when he accepted the reality: Bottas just wasn't making any mistakes. At this circuit, that's more than enough to stay ahead. Worst Driver: Hartley / Magnussen. Stroll not good. Räikkönen very poor after showing an unusual turn of speed during practice. Hartley was poor but perhaps my first reaction was harsh. He's a rookie and these cars are very complex, which provides a half-excuse of sorts. Magnussen though, seems to have an almost unique 'I'll do things my way' kind of approach. I say "almost unique" because he's beginning to remind me of Räikkönen who's always done things his way! Best Rookie/New Driver: Gasly. Best Team: Mercedes. Surprise Team: At the end of the season, surprises become ever more scarce. Worst Team: Toro Rosso. Renault were seriously let down by someone (or something) at the front left during Sainz's pit-stop; but Hulkenberg gave cause for celebration, bringing in the vital points for sixth place in the Constructors' Championship. Best Overtake: Lasting several laps, Grosjean v Stroll was an entertaining duel. Most Surprising Result: A loose wheel-nut is a surprise these days. Least Surprising Result: During practice but especially after qualifying, it was obvious Mercedes were not under threat. Come Sunday and barring something highly unusual, Mercedes 1-2 was a racing certainty. Funniest moment: Someone trying (unsuccessfully) to do a Murray Walker, determined to validate Prost's nose plaster. Excuse of the week: Hulkenberg's gamesmanship. Special Mention: This has to be for Felipé Massa. Best of luck in your next venture… Race Rating: 4.54/10. The venue is fantastic for creature comforts and hospitality but amongst the worst in terms of providing for a racing spectacle. There were some good scraps back in the pack but … designed by architects overly focussed on showing off the place, whatever may or may not happen on track is a side-show. This has been a serious weakness from the outset, in my opinion. Räikkönen summed things up at the opening race in 2009: "the first few turns are quite good, but the rest of it is ****". Spot on, Kimi…
