Best Driver: Worst Driver: LuckiestDriver: Unluckiest Driver: Best Rookie/New Driver: Best Team: Surprise Team: Worst Team: Best Strategy: Worst Strategy: Best Overtake/Defence (Racecraft): Most Surprising: Least Surprising: Funniest moment: Excuse of the weekend: Special Mention: Race Rating: ?/10
Best Driver: LeClerc, stuck one back on Verstappen Worst Driver: Vettel. Off the pace in Quali and when lucked into a podium he threw it away. LuckiestDriver: Sainz and Hamiltom both got a break with the SC Unluckiest Driver: Norris, why was he pitted from a decent position? Best Rookie/New Driver: shall we rename this the Norria award? Best Team: Mercedes. Let their drivers race and were quickest Surprise Team: McLaren still showing decent pace. Worst Team: Ferrari. Poor potato and questionable strategy for LeXlerc again. Best Strategy: Worst Strategy: Best Overtake/Defence (Racecraft): LeClerc on Verstappen for defence, maybe Bottas for retaking Hamilton at Copse for the overtake? Most Surprising: Bottas showed some balls Least Surprising: Vettel choking Funniest moment: Vettel making it out to be Max's fault initially, Excuse of the weekend: Rich Energy and Haas debacle. What was that all about? Special Mention: Sainz, not DoD but very good race. Race Rating: 10/10 that was a great race.
Best Driver: Leclerc. He has learned a bit from Verstappen who was equally as good in this race. Worst Driver: Grosjean LuckiestDriver: Jamilton Unluckiest Driver: Bottas Best Rookie/New Driver: I think Albon was better than Norris here Best Team: the 2019 champions Surprise Team: Toro Rosso Worst Team: Haas Best Strategy: the 2019 champions Worst Strategy: Ferrari Best Overtake/Defence (Racecraft): Verstappen on Vettel, Leclerc on Gasly both brilliant Most Surprising: Least Surprising: Seb Bottel bottling it Funniest moment: the whole Haas rich energy thing has been hilarious Excuse of the weekend: Vettel blaming Verstappen Special Mention: Ricciardo has come on song at Renault. Shame the Renault engine is far behind. Race Rating: 7/10 I was entertained
I'll fill this out later when I have digested it a bit more... But Max and Charlie we're immense. Brilliant racing from both! Could Max finally be maturing?
Best Driver: Leclerc but it pains me to say Verstappen drove well too.. Worst Driver: Grosjean (by far). Luckiest Driver: Hamilton. I was interested to see how close he remained behind Bottas, lap after lap. None of this dropping back to a 2 second gap. Unluckiest Driver: Bottas, he did extremely well to keep Lewis behind him even when Lewis had DRS lap after lap. Best Rookie/New Driver: Albon Best Team: Boringly, Merc Surprise Team RBR, again pains me but they were on point throughout. Worst Team: Haas, horrid weekend all round. Best Strategy: One stopping (thks to mediums at start) and Lewis remaining within DRS of Bottas. Seems to disprove the strategy of many to race and drop back after 5 to 6 laps. Much prefer to see a driver not give up. Liberty for keeping Silverstone on the calendar. Worst Strategy: No noticeable candidate for this, except maybe a contractual clause that prevents sacking a driver. One of the rookies would love Vettels drive and Ferrari could spend 29m on the cornering capability of their car while paying someone like Lando 1m. With the young guns coming through I think the driver remuneration will be less rewarding unless you are a sure fire cert to out perform. Best Overtake/Defence (Racecraft): Several but I punched the air when Leclerc took back position after the pit stop. Most Surprising: I am struggling with what represents an unsafe release, I think there is a accident waiting to happen with a pit crew member getting run over. We saw this at Monaco and now here. Good on LeClerc again for not taking avoiding action. Least Surprising: Seb car crash and Lewis surfing Funniest moment:I didn't laugh but was entertained. Both Horner and Binotto managing to avoid criticising Vettel. Excuse of the weekend: Vettel blaming Verstappen Special Mention: Ricciardo, and Silverstone where playing a long game was not the only strategy that worked. Race Rating: 9.5/10 (only ruined by the Merc dominance).
Interested to know the rationale for Hamilton as luckiest driver, considering you've noted that he went against the norm by not dropping too far back, which ultimately put him in a position to win when Bottas couldn't seem to undercut him on the fresh mediums? More skill than luck, no?
Best Driver: I guess Hamilton for keeping ahead of Bottas when he had slower tyres on (then doing fastest lap). Worst Driver: Vettel, amateur mistake going into the back of Verstappen. Could definitely learn from the racecraft LeClerc showed. Luckiest Driver: Hamilton, having said that though he definitely seized the opportunity and put in a stellar performance after the safety car. Unluckiest Driver: Bottas. Hamilton looked every inch the multiple world champion that he is but that guy needs to catch a break at some point. Best Rookie/New Driver: Albon, but shout out to Lando for taking Danny Ric at the start and keeping him behind until the safety car. Best Team: Mercedes Surprise Team: Torro Rosso Worst Team: Haas Best Strategy: Hamilton's clearly Worst Strategy: Grosjean pushing his team-mate off the track on the first alp so you both get damage and retire Best Overtake/Defence (Racecraft): The LeClerc/Verstappen had to be the best on track battle. Most Surprising: The whole Haas/Rich Energy carry on. Least Surprising: Vettel bottling it. Funniest moment: Danny Ric every time you saw him over the weekend, the highlight being when he tapped Sainz in the balls whilst Carlos was being interviewed. Excuse of the weekend: I was amazed that Martin Brundle thought that Vettel going into the back of Verstappen "might be a racing incident". Special Mention: Sainz for another good race into the points. Race Rating: 9/10
Overall an excellent weekend for me, sat in the cockpit of a functioning Spitfire on saturday at Duxford, incredible, and on sunday, Hammy won his record breaking 6th British GP win, and last but not least whilst having dinner accompanied by Er Indoors and a bottle of red at our favorite local pub, England won the Cricket,
Yes, I wonder whether he would have got the undercut, but also was Mercedes plan always to put him on the hard tyres? Would seem strange otherwise to split their strategies.
Definitely benefited, but I think he was almost certainly in the winning position at the point anyway. Sorry, was genuinely interested in your rationale. Will post my awards soon, brilliant race. I'm still mulling it over, but will probably put Vettel as the luckiest driver for getting essentially no penalty for that fairly awful mistake...
Personally I believe Hammy had it all figured out, start second, overtake your teamate, one stop, then off into the distance, except for the safety car, then he had a massive advantage and could then not really loose, then on last lap, I'll make em all look second rate, I'll smash the lap record. Job done.
Best Driver: Charlie Worst Driver: Grosjean or Vettel LuckiestDriver: Hamilton Unluckiest Driver: Albon Best Rookie/New Driver:Albon, sham ethe SC screwed him. Britain has three good prospects in F1, Gasly gotta start bringing in the points or he'll get Kvyatted. Best Team: Mercedes, as usual Surprise Team: Worst Team: Haas are making me suspect things are happening for it's sitcom ratings. Best Strategy: LH, wait for the SC. Worst Strategy: Best Overtake/Defence (Racecraft):Hamilton V Bottas in the opening laps was both aggressive and respectful on either side, so my fave, though I think CLC & Max are going to provide a few fireworks in the years to come. Most Surprising: Least Surprising: Grosjean or Vettel Funniest moment: Excuse of the weekend: Special Mention:Lando & Bottas, unlucky SC timing cost them, along with Albon. Race Rating: 8/10 SC ruined what could've bee a battle at the front, buut the battles for the placings more than made up for it.
Hmmm maybe. But if there was no SC and Hamilton stopped pretty much on the same lap he had a tyre that could last until the end and a pit stop in hand over Bottas so I'm not sure the result would have been much different. What won the race was Hamilton's ability to get so many laps out of those hard tyres and to maintain the pace. The fastest lap at the end was just a demonstration of how much he had left in those tyres.
Best Driver: Leclerc. A great drive despite once again being the minor consideration at Ferrari. When will the team see sense? Superb racecraft and much better than Vettel throughout the weekend. Worst Driver: Vettel would have taken this honour but for Grosjean. Worse than amateurish in the pit lane and another poor performance overall, culminating in a clash with his team-mate. This could be his final season in F1. He's quicker than Stroll but less consistent and less predictable – and brings far less cash! LuckiestDriver: Many benefitted from the Safety Car which of course, reduced the pressure on Hamilton, but I firmly believe he was well-set to win in any case as he was brilliant on the hard tyre and had always intended only one stop. Kvyatt's result was improved more than Hamilton's. Kubica kept his nose clean whilst others tripped over each other. Unluckiest Driver: Albon. Poor strategy was always likely to leave him vulnerable, but was largely out of his hands. The Safety Car rubbed salt into the weakness. On a personal level, he drove well and should bear no blame for not scoring points. Bottas was also very unlucky with the Safety Car which deprived him of his two-stopping plan to catch Hamilton towards the end. That said, I don't think he was really in with a shout against Hamilton's metronomically measured, remorseless pace. Best Rookie/New Driver: Albon. I'll also give a shout for Russel who achieved his best result so far. Best Team: Mercedes. No contest. Surprise Team: Williams did better than I expected. Worst Team: Haas. A very poor showing from both drivers. Magnussen was slower than Grosjean for most of the weekend and wasn't totally blameless in their disastrous 'racing incident'. Best Strategy: Hamilton. Worst Strategy: Hmm. A tricky one. The SC complicates this. Therefore I'm going to choose Ferrari (once again) for treating their best driver as an afterthought. I said right at the beginning of the season they were backing the wrong driver. The stubbornness of sticking to such a predetermined 'Plan A' is rigid in the extreme, and only excused by the total lack of 'Plan B'… Ferrari's lack of flexibility has always been its achilles heal and is as evident as ever. Best Overtake/Defence (Racecraft): Some scintillating action. Many of these battles, in isolation would have been easy choices at other events. Bottas v Hamilton was a great battle with BOT needing to sprint away early in order to give his two-stop plan a chance against HAM's long game; whilst Hamilton knew that if he could make Bottas punch himself out early on, he (personally) would have enough time in the hard tyres to prevail later on. Unfortunately, the SC got in the way of proof. Although Vettel's on-track actions suggest he finds it hard to accept any other driver can out-race him, Verstappen has the better racecraft – and always had his measure. However, Leclerc v Verstappen has to be the pick of the bunch. What a battle! A modern-day classic. Most Surprising: No interference from race stewards. Red Bull's release of Verstappen was borderline-dangerous, never mind 'unsafe'. But I have to say, I'm glad they let it go! Least Surprising: Vettel unable to accept his own reality. And Grosjean's random unpredictability is becoming predictable. Funniest moment: Vettel's Schumacher ram-raid immediately followed by his claim to be the innocent victim. Much like his hero, his head tends to overheat in battle and what comes out of his mouth usually proves the point. (To be fair, he did later apologise and accept full responsibility for his lack of judgement). Excuse of the weekend: Vettel in the heat of the moment, as above. Special Mention: Silverstone. The best circuit for real racing in F1 currently in existence, bar none. Race Rating: 9.52/10. The Safety Car interfered with what was otherwise a real classic. Unfortunately, Giovinazzi's car was beached too prominently for its recovery to be safe under a (preferable) VSC.