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: Vettel, didn't make any mistakes. Worst Driver: LeClerc, got away with pushing too hard and spinning through the last 2 turns, then did it again and didn't, should've won. LuckiestDriver: Hamilton, increasing his lead despite having a mare.. Unluckiest Driver:Albon, deserved the podium over Kvyat Best Rookie/New Driver: Albon, almost my DoD. Best Team:STR Surprise Team:STR, big points for them Worst Team: Alfa Romeo, threw away a clutch of points. Best Strategy: Racing Point, perfectly timed the 2nd to last SC pit. Worst Strategy: Best Overtake/Defence (Racecraft): Sainz, some how managed to avoid being hit by drivers and kept the car pointing in the right direction during the opening laps. Most Surprising: Kubica getting points before Russell. Least Surprising: Haas make contact Funniest moment: Excuse of the weekend: Le Clerc moaning about the run-off being too dangerous. I enjoyed them getting punished for mistakes, it made for a change. Special Mention: Max, good strategy meant he didn't get badly punished for his spin Race Rating: 8.975/10
Best Driver: Max Verstappen - Nobody had a perfect race. Max had the best combination of speed and relative lack of errors. Worst Driver: Lewis Hamilton - Although so many drivers made race ruining mistakes that it's harsh to single one out. LuckiestDriver: Lance Stroll - Nowhere until the switch to slicks saved him. Unluckiest Driver: Albon - Ran well all race, deserved to beat Kvyat to that podium. Best Rookie/New Driver: Albon Best Team: Toro Rosso - Great pace and amazing strategy. Both cars punched well above their weight all day. Surprise Team: Toro Rosso Worst Team: Alfa Romeo - Got done for fiddling with the start procedures in the only race with decade where the first lap didn't matter at all. Best Strategy: Racing Point Worst Strategy: Haas Best Overtake/Defence (Racecraft): Kimi Raikkonen holding off Vettel for almost the entire race. Side note, it was nice to see the Alfas and the Toro Rosso's allowed to fight with the A-team. Most Surprising: Kvyat 3rd. Least Surprising: Errr... I was pretty consistently surprised. Funniest moment: Mercedes minute-long pitstop Excuse of the weekend: Probably all the moaning about the runoff. You'd have been fine inside the white lines guys... Special Mention: Danil Kvyat, Robert Kubica Race Rating: 10/10
That does say it all about modern drivers. They make mistakes and expect to get away with them now. The thought of them spinning and ending the race there and then in a gravel trap is an alien concept, but one that should be brought back.
In fairness, and putting it into context, CLC said “this is not an excuse, it was my mistake”. I suspect he was rather more concerned about being hit by Hamilton’s car slithering across that piece of track.
Best Driver: Vettel. He didnt spin?! Worst Driver: Rainmaster LuckiestDriver: Kubica to get a point Unluckiest Driver: both Alfa drivers Best Rookie/New Driver: Albon Best Team: Red Bull Surprise Team: Toro Rosso Worst Team: Mercedes Best Strategy: stroll and kvyat Worst Strategy: Alfa for start Best Overtake/Defence (Racecraft): Raikkonen nearly getting overtaken by vettel then overtaking KMag Most Surprising: The podium Least Surprising: Hulk throwing away a potential podium Funniest moment: channel 4 mocking Hamiltons pitstop saying it was like a pitstop from the 50s which is what they were dressed as Excuse of the weekend: Hamiltons illness. Couldn't have been that bad. Special Mention: there are too many Race Rating: 9/10
Best Driver: Kvyatt. Don't think he had a spin. Vettel also worthy of mention too for his run from last to 2nd. Worst Driver: Leclerc & Hulk. Harsh, but both threw away opportunities for a maiden win and podium, so they get it as probably biggest disappointment for them as well. LuckiestDriver: Kubica for getting a point. Lots of 'lucky'or well-timed strategies around that got good points for people normally further down the grid. Unluckiest Driver: Giovannazzi, losing a points finish for something he didn't do. Best Rookie/New Driver: Albon Best Team: Toro Rosso. Great strategy and pit work to get both cars into the top 6 Surprise Team: Toro Rosso, as above, but you don't expect them to be there. Worst Team: Alfa Romeo for basically getting their drivers all but disqualified from a double points finish Best Strategy: Racing Point/Torro Rosso. Worst Strategy: Mercedes. Seemed all at sea today Best Overtake/Defence (Racecraft): Raikkonen for defending against Vettel and then nailing the Haas straight afterwards. Most Surprising: Hamilton crashing twice Least Surprising: Haas team 'mates' colliding again. Funniest moment: Mercedes panic stop Excuse of the weekend: The run off being too slippery in the wet. STAY OFF IT THEN! Special Mention: Danil Kvyat, Robert Kubica Race Rating: 10/10. Unpredictable until the end. Who was going to be next to crash!?
Best Driver: Kvyatt. Can't remember an error Worst Driver: Gasly? Had no pace throughout the race. LuckiestDriver: Kubica, or possibly Hamilton for somehow extending his championship lead despite crashing, a penalty, and a 50 second pit stop. Unluckiest Driver: Ricciardo? Think he'd have been right up there if the car was reliable. Best Rookie/New Driver: Albon Best Team: Toro Rosso. Surprise Team: Toro Rosso Worst Team: Alfa Romeo Best Strategy: Racing Point/Torro Rosso. Worst Strategy: Mercedes repeatedly botched tyre calls. Best Overtake/Defence (Racecraft): Albon on Gasly through the Sachscurve looked very good, but wasn't highlighted because so much was going on. Most Surprising: Hamilton crashing twice Least Surprising: Renault engines unreliable, again Funniest moment: Mercedes' pit stop needed Yackety Sax. Excuse of the weekend: Has to be those blaming the run-off. Special Mention: Stroll was heavily involved in the strategy call that he did well out of. Race Rating: 10/10. Chaotic until the end.
Some well-considered responses here, as was the case for previous awards (Silverstone). Great to see that this forum continues to have high quality members who look more deeply than so many others. I'll contribute properly within 24 hours, or so. Thanks to all.
Best Driver: I think Kvyatt deserves this. Lots of other above average performances. Vettel and Stroll must be contenders and several drivers performed well, only to lose out through no fault of their own. Worst Driver: By his standards, Hamilton had a dreadful race. Bottas and Leclerc were also below par. But Gasly seems sub-standard too often and gets my vote, due - not for the first time - to very poor racecraft. Where's the fight in this guy? He just doesn't seem the competitive type. Odd… Luckiest Driver: Hamilton was very lucky to extend his championship lead. Unluckiest Driver: Lots lose out when the weather throws up but I agree with ASChris: Giovinazzi. Best Rookie/New Driver: An easy choice: Albon. Best Team: Toro Rosso. Some great calls and two very good driver performances. Surprise Team: Toro Rosso. Worst Team: I despise cheats, so this has to go to the team who consciously and deliberately went out of bounds: Alfa Romeo. Best Strategy: Toro Rosso and Racing Point, just about equally. Worst Strategy: Mercedes were all at sea. 'Eye off the ball' comes to mind, almost as if the whole team were afflicted with Hamiltonitis, including Bottas who once again missed an open goal. Best Overtake/Defence (Racecraft): I agree with DHC that Albon v Gasly was good but it does not get my vote. Since Gasly arrived on the scene, his defending has been the worst of any driver on the grid, making him one of the easiest drivers to overtake despite being in probably the most responsive (to driver input) car. It's difficult to argue in favour of him being in a top team. Back to the point though, I'm going to plump for Räikkönen for turning dogged defence against Vettel into a successful attack on Magnussen. Most Surprising: Despite knowing Hamilton was relatively 'unfit for duty', I was surprised he had such a poor showing. Of course, racing in the wet requires absolute focus and instinctive reading of grip levels, and is why he usually excels. I think this illustrates two essentials in top-line sport: 1/ the importance of a clear head - which becomes magnified in tricky conditions. 2/ the differences between those at the top are usually tiny, so that established pecking orders can be up-ended more than one might expect… Least Surprising: Several predictable things worth listing: Haas collision; no guts Gasly; never-never man Hulkenberg; Bottas blowing a great chance to threaten what is looking ever more like a sixth championship for Hamilton. Funniest moment: The farce at Mercedes when Hamilton came in at short notice. Excuse of the weekend: Mine! For Hamilton (above)! Special Mention: Stroll. A very good performance from the most easily resented/derided/ridiculed guy since his time in F1. But you know what? - he was born into these circumstances. In a way, I feel a bit sorry for him. Yes, he's never going to be a world champion but it's not entirely his fault he's been such an easy target. And perhaps it's time to acknowledge the determined effort he's been putting in, especially more recently since being coached by Montoya. Race Rating: 9.52 /10
I agree on Stroll, nowhere near as bad as he's made out to be, if could sort out his qualy pace I don;t think he would get so much grief, his race pace isn't that bad. He seems to have cut-out the silly mistakes he was making at the start of his F1 career and, unlike Hulkenburg, he can see out a result which, considering the grief he gets, suggests a pretty strong mentality. A lot better than Ericsson imo and will probably make a decent no.2 in a few years.
Apologies, been a busy week for me. Best Driver: Max Verstappen Worst Driver: Lewis Hamilton LuckiestDriver: Lance Stroll Unluckiest Driver: Albon Best Rookie/New Driver: Albon Best Team: Toro Rosso Both cars did well. Surprise Team: Williams, or maybe Racing Point. Worst Team: Alfa Romeo for the obvious naughties. Best Strategy: Racing Point and slicks Worst Strategy: timing of slicks for most teams but otherwise Clutch settings of Alfa. Best Overtake/Defence (Racecraft): Kimi Raikkonen vs Vettel Most Surprising: Kubica, 1 point but also Kvyat podium. Least Surprising: . Funniest moment: All the cars that hit the drag strip with no control whatsoever Excuse of the weekend: Sorry! (although more of an apology) Special Mention: Danil Kvyat, Robert Kubica Race Rating: 9.5/10
