Best Driver: Worst Driver: Luckiest Driver: Unluckiest 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 in race thread: Race Rating: ?/10
Best Driver: Riccardo Worst Driver: verstappen Luckiest Driver: hmmmm.. Ricciardo i guess for getting a slice of luck to exploit. Safety car timing was utterly perfect for red bull even lap posution. Unluckiest Driver: raikkonen, team just treated him like dirt Best Rookie/New Driver: huh... gasly maybe Best Team: bed bull for proactive approach Surprise Team: Mercedes. Nowhere. Worst Team: Ferrari. Terrible. Best Overtake: ricciardo on bottas Most Surprising Result: verstappen admiting he was in wrong Least Surprising Result: verstappen hitting people Funniest moment: not much i saw. Excuse of the week: Special Mention: alonso as imo that car is not up to where he got it. Best post in race thread: Race Rating: 7/10 solid 7. Until safety car it was dull as dull can be.
Best Driver: Hulk Worst Driver: Max Luckiest Driver: Ricc - but well deserved Unluckiest Driver: Both Ferrari drivers Best Rookie/New Driver: None of note Best Team: RB for strategy and overall pace. Surprise Team: Ferrari’s outright speed Worst Team: Ferrari for strategy and Williams for being a GP2 team Best Overtake: Ricc on Bottas Most Surprising Result: Ricc win Least Surprising Result: Max taking one of the championship leaders out Funniest moment: Anything Ricc said Excuse of the week: Anything Max said Special Mention: Bottas for outperforming Hamilton and Kimi for salvaging a podium Best post in race thread: Race Rating: 7.62/10
Best Driver: Exceptional weekend from Ricciardo Worst Driver: Verstappen Luckiest Driver: Verstappen - completely at fault for his accident, yet somehow comes away with far more points than Vettel Unluckiest Driver: I'm not sure if I can call Raikkonen unlucky because being screwed over by Ferrari seems to be part of his job description. Perhaps Vettel? Best Rookie/New Driver: N/A All beaten by team-mates, except Gasly who took his out. To be fair to him though, there were team orders for him to be let through, so that ones on Hartley too. Best Team: Red Bull were exceptional all weekend Surprise Team: Very strong weekend for Renault, wasn't expecting them to be the clear 4th team. Worst Team: Toro Rosso - nowhere all weekend Best Overtake: Ricciardo squeeking past Bottas Most Surprising Result: Ricciardo's win! Least Surprising Result: A Verstappen crash Funniest moment: Verstappen's "See you f*cking later son" radio message after passing Hamilton was exceptionally funny with hindsight. Excuse of the week: Special Mention: Hulk, Alonso Best post in race thread: Race Rating: 9/10
Best Driver: Ricciardo. Got a sniff of an opportunity for a win and took it with both hands. Great job Worst Driver: Gasly. Poor by young Pierre to drive into his team mate and then try and blame Hartley for it. Luckiest Driver: Verstappen for colliding with Vettel and to only drop one place with the penalty. Unluckiest Driver: Raikkonen for having his race ruined by Ferrari Best Rookie/New Driver: Not applicable. Best Team: Red Bull for taking the split decision to pit late. Surprise Team: Mercedes for not showing the pace they had on Friday to walk away with this one. Worst Team: Toro Rosso. Poor day for them after last week finished with the only retirement of the GP for Hartley Best Overtake: Easily Danny Ric on Bottas. Most Surprising Result: Hulkenburg & Alonso finishing above Vettel Least Surprising Result: Verstappen crashing again. Funniest moment: Haas: "Ok Kevin lapped cars may now overtake" KMag: "Yeah but there are no lapped cars behind me" Haas: "Ok, good point". Excuse of the week: N/A Special Mention: Hulkenburg for a strong position. Also to Alonso for overtaking Vettel. Best post in race thread: Race Rating: 8.5/10
Best Driver:Bottas, out-qualified and out-raced his team-mate, timing of the SC cost him a win Worst Driver: Gasly Luckiest Driver: Ricciardo (though deserved) Unluckiest Driver:Bottas or Vettel Best Rookie/New Driver:Sirotkin finished and didn't hit anyone, so him I guess Best Team: RBR, SC master-stroke Surprise Team: RBR Worst Team: Toro Rosso Best Overtake: Probably Danny on Bottas, though it could've gone horribly wrong. Most Surprising Resultanny Ric Least Surprising Result:Max's over exuberance Funniest moment: Excuse of the week: Special Mention: Danny Ric, Hulk, Alonso Best post in race thread: Race Rating: 7/10, SC ruined what could've been an interesting finale', though did result in a popular win
Thanks ASC. Putting this up nice and early makes a difference, I think, because more people are likely to be around and memories are still fresh – so thanks for beating me to it. I'm not usually able to do it for several hours later. Best Driver: Bottas / Ricciardo. Neither did anything wrong. The difference between them was largely the result of circumstance, otherwise known as 'luck'. Worst Driver: I'm going to give this to Gasly. His shunt was not a lot different to Verstappen's but he committed the cardinal sin: it was his team mate. Luckiest Driver: In a sense, Ricciardo. But I don't think many begrudge him after such a run of bad luck. I think it's worth mentioning a larger than normal proportion of the paddock were pleased for the winner this weekend. Unluckiest Driver: Hartley / Vettel – although, as above, one might view the latter's result with a sense of karma. That said, his positioning prior to being clouted by Verstappen was not perfect for defence because it offered a sniff of a chance to the (apparently) inexperienced. Also worth mention here were both Mercedes drivers – especially Bottas who looked set for victory. Best Rookie/New Driver: Sirotkin. Not a stand-out drive but at least as solid as anyone else who might qualify here. Best Team: Not the slightest doubt: Red Bull. Opportunistic as ever, they saw the opportunity Mercedes should also have seized – which might also be said of Ferrari except Vettel was too far past the pit entry and Räikkönen was the predictable sacrificial lamb deliberately left out as a spoiler. (Normal Ferrari tactics; the team is only concerned with one of its drivers winning the WDC and attempt to snuff out points for whomever they perceive the single biggest season-long threat. The same might be said of other teams from time to time but Ferrari do it consistently and they do it strategically from before day one (often in the form of driver contracts). Surprise Team: Renault. Worst Team: Toro Rosso. Best Overtake: Ricciardo on Bottas was audacious but I fully believe Ricciardo knew for certain that he'd been seen due to his position immediately before he made the lunge, and this allowed him to trust Bottas despite it being SOooo close! (It's worth contrasting this with Verstappen who committed his hopeful move from Vettel's blind-spot. Vettel also tends to be less predictable when it comes to wheel to wheel racing – which Verstappen should already have mentally logged). Most Surprising Result: Vettel's finishing position. Even before the event began on Friday, I'd expected him to win this race. Least Surprising Result: Alonso finishing higher than his grid slot. Funniest moment: Probably Magnussen's radio conversation. (Thanks for reminding me, PegLeg). Excuse of the week: Probably Little Jack Horner. Special Mention: Hulkenberg. A great drive, much of which was missed due to action elsewhere. He made some good overtakes too! Race Rating: 8.81/10
Best Driver: Ricciardo Worst Driver: Gasly, What a fall. Luckiest Driver: Ricciardo, just about qualifying then getting the perfect safety car fit window. his teammate ahead also clearing Vettel and himself out the way. Unluckiest Driver: Vettel/Raikkonen. Maybe the world calibrating the luck balance Best Rookie/New Driver: Sirotkin, only in qualifying Best Team: Red Bull Surprise Team: Force India Worst Team: Williams Best Overtake: Ricciardo on Hamilton/Bottas Most Surprising Result: Honda maybe not better than mclaren. Least Surprising Result: Bottas consistancy Funniest moment: KMAG radio correction Excuse of the week: Hamilton blaming his team for not reacting. Special Mention: Hulk and Alonso bot having good races as usual. Best post in race thread: MIB Race Rating: 8/10
