Vote for 2014 Singapore GP Driver of the Weekend

2014 Singapore Grand Prix

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Which F1 driver was the best performer during the Singapore Grand Prix weekend?

Review how each driver got on below and vote for who impressed you the most during the last race weekend.

Singapore Grand Prix driver-by-driver

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – Having lost most of the second practice session on Saturday due to a power unit problem, Vettel took fourth in qualifying but said he believed his car was quick enough for pole position. Passed Ricciardo at the start, but when Alonso got within range during the second stint the team elected to switch him onto the harder tyres. This paid off when the Safety Car came out, moving Vettel back up to second. He then coped with a 35-lap long stint on the softs to secure his best result of the season.

Daniel Ricciardo – Out-qualified Vettel but made a sluggish start and was passed by his team mate and Alonso, though the latter went off the track to do it. Slowed by an intermittent fault early in the race, he wasn’t able to get ahead of Alonso until the Ferrari driver was dropped behind him when the Safety Car came out.

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – There was almost nothing to choose between Rosberg and Hamilton during practice and qualifying, so for those hoping for a close race it was particularly galling to see him being pushed off the grid. Managed a few laps with an ailing car but couldn’t get his car going after his first pit stop, despite urging his team to try everything they could think of.

Lewis Hamilton – Pipped Rosberg to pole and was largely untroubled after his team mate retired. But the Safety Car left him needing to pull out a significant gap over his closest pursuers, which he didn’t quite achieve, although he was easily able to pass Vettel once he’d rejoined the track and take a vital win.

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – Having looked good in practice fifth on the grid was almost a disappointment, though there was much encouragement to be had from the reduced gap to Mercedes. He cut turn one at the start to pass both Red Bulls, and was fortunate the stewards were content with him only letting one of them past. He used an aggressive strategy to get ahead of Vettel, but fell back behind both of them because of the Safety Car. Without that it would have been fascinating to see if he could have kept them behind in the final stint.

Kimi Raikkonen – Said he was “very happy” with his car’s balance after qualifying, although a problem relating to his car’s software forced him to scrap his final run in Q3. Having overtaken Massa at the start he was disappointed to drop behind the Williams at the second round of pit stops, then lost out to the other one under the Safety Car. He later regained the place from Bottas but not before Vergne and Perez also passed him.

Lotus

Romain GrosjeanFumed at the shortcomings of his Renault engine after qualifying 16th. He was up to 13th when the Safety Car came in but lost two places at the restart, and with it a chance of scoring points. “I tried to attack too hard on the restart. I wanted to give it everything and with cold soft tyres after a slow safety car period, it was just too much once at the corner.”

Pastor Maldonado – After a crash in practice he was eliminated in Q1, but his race went race better – Grosjean’s mistake allowed him to finish in front of his team mate.

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McLaren

Jenson Button – Missed out on a place in Q3 by a slim margin, but made a great start and moved up four places. McLaren felt his two-stop strategy would allow him to attack the Williams drivers, but after the Safety Car period his car failed and wrecked his hopes of a strong points score.

Kevin Magnussen – Beat Button again in qualifying, but dropped behind him after a scruffy first lap. Despite intolerable hear in his car’s cockpit he came home in tenth for a point.

Force India

Nico Hulkenberg – Reasserted himself over Perez in qualifying, though neither of the Force Indias made it into the top ten. Unlike his team mate he did not pit for fresher tyres in the final stint, and so Perez came by him while Hulkenberg claimed ninth.

Sergio Perez – Was having a quiet race until he tangled with Sutil, which happened to work out very well for him. He regained the lap he had lost during the resulting Safety Car period, and as he had fallen towards the back of the queue Force India could afford to gamble on switching him to super-soft tyres late in the race. He put them to good use, rising to seventh at the flag.

Sauber

Adrian Sutil – Wasn’t able to use full power in qualifying and was knocked out in Q1. In the race he tangled with Perez, picked up a penalty for exceeding track limits, and then retired.

Esteban Gutierrez – Continued to bemoan the Sauber’s lamentable reliability after failures ended both drivers’ races. “At the moment it is almost impossible to achieve good results,” he said.

Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne – Just six-hundredths off Kvyat’s pace in qualifying – which made the difference in the contest to reach Q3. His team mate made way for him early in the race, but it was in the closing stages when Vergne really came to life, switching to super-softs and passing the likes of Hulkenberg, Raikkonen and Bottas. He picked up two five-second penalties along the way, but built up enough of a gap over his pursuers that he was able to keep his sixth-place finish.

Daniil Kvyat – Had the one problem no driver wants in Singapore – his drinks bag failed before the start and the team were unable to fix it. Was told to let Vergne past early in the race, and thereafter suffered in the punishing heat with no water. “I’m dying here” he told his team with 16 laps to go – but he made it to the end.

Williams


Felipe Massa – Out-qualified Bottas and despite falling behind Raikkonen at the start an early second pit stop got him ahead of the Ferrari. He then ran the longest stint of any driver at the end of the race – 38 laps – to take fifth place.

Valtteri Bottas – Couldn’t make his tyres last as well as Massa at the end of the race, although did have a deteriorating steering problem. His tyres finally gave up on the final lap and dropped him from seventh place out of the points.

Marussia

Jules Bianchi – Was a second ahead of his team mate and the Caterhams in qualifying, and just four-tenths off Maldonado. But a brake problem blunted his run at the end of the race and left him unable to pass Ericsson.

Max Chilton – It’s rare that a Marussia driver can legitimately claim to have been held up by a Mercedes but Chilton was in the opening laps in Singapore. More misfortune came his way in the form of a puncture, and he ended the race a distant 44 seconds behind his team mate.

Caterham

Kamui Kobayashi – Beat Ericsson in qualifying as usual but an electrical problem on the formation lap meant he didn’t even get to start the race.

Marcus Ericsson – Described his race as “one of the best of my season so far” after staying on the harder tyres at the end of the race and holding off Bianchi.

Qualifying and race results summary

DriverStartedGap to team mateLaps leading team matePittedFinishedGap to team mate
Sebastian Vettel4th+0.048s57/6022nd-0.739s
Daniel Ricciardo3rd-0.048s3/6023rd+0.739s
Lewis Hamilton1st-0.007s13/1331st
Nico Rosberg2nd+0.007s0/130
Fernando Alonso5th-0.263s60/6034th-45.252s
Kimi Raikkonen7th+0.263s0/6038th+45.252s
Romain Grosjean16th-1.201s34/60313th+1.114s
Pastor Maldonado18th+1.201s26/60412th-1.114s
Jenson Button11th+0.243s52/522
Kevin Magnussen9th-0.243s0/52310th
Nico Hulkenberg13th-0.267s52/6039th+2.623s
Sergio Perez15th+0.267s8/6047th-2.623s
Adrian Sutil17th+0.354s2/173
Esteban Gutierrez14th-0.354s15/171
Jean-Eric Vergne12th+0.063s53/6036th-15.207s
Daniil Kvyat10th-0.063s7/60314th+15.207s
Felipe Massa6th-0.187s56/6025th-22.904s
Valtteri Bottas8th+0.187s4/60211th+22.904s
Jules Bianchi19th-1.033s59/59316thNot on same lap
Max Chilton21st+1.033s0/59317thNot on same lap
Kamui Kobayashi20th-1.882s0/00
Marcus Ericsson22nd+1.882s0/0215th

Review the race data

Vote for your driver of the weekend

Which driver do you think did the best job this weekend?

Cast your vote below and explain your choice in the comments.

Who was the best driver of the 2014 Singapore Grand Prix weekend?

  • Marcus Ericsson (1%)
  • Kamui Kobayashi (0%)
  • Max Chilton (0%)
  • Jules Bianchi (0%)
  • Valtteri Bottas (0%)
  • Felipe Massa (7%)
  • Daniil Kvyat (0%)
  • Jean-Eric Vergne (27%)
  • Adrian Sutil (0%)
  • Esteban Gutierrez (0%)
  • Nico Hulkenberg (0%)
  • Sergio Perez (6%)
  • Kevin Magnussen (0%)
  • Jenson Button (1%)
  • Pastor Maldonado (0%)
  • Romain Grosjean (0%)
  • Kimi Raikkonen (0%)
  • Fernando Alonso (5%)
  • Lewis Hamilton (38%)
  • Nico Rosberg (0%)
  • Daniel Ricciardo (1%)
  • Sebastian Vettel (12%)

Total Voters: 628

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2014 Singapore Grand Prix

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Images © Singapore GP/Sutton, Williams/LAT

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Keith Collantine
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110 comments on “Vote for 2014 Singapore GP Driver of the Weekend”

  1. Sergio Perez

    1. +1. Without him this race would be extremely dull ;) Having so much problems during the race and yet get up to 7th was very impressive. Would go for Vergne if not him but his overtaking moves were very clumsy.

    2. Of the race: Perez, superb and clean overtaking moves to GUT-BIA-KVY-ERI-GRO-MAL-MAG-HUL-RAI-BOT
      Of the weekend: Hamilton, he did what he had to make with that amazing car. Pole-Win-Fastest lap-Championship lead

    3. Sergio, how? He’s exciting but now that FI fixed Hulk’s car, Nico was quicker as usual, that said in the end one was much more fortunate than the other. It’s Lewis and the surprise is JEV.

    4. Started 15th, ran over his front wing and still finished 7th. Very impressive.

      1. But he did run over his front wing @stigsemperfi, which isn’t very impressive.

        1. @vettel1, I know but that wasn’t really his fault. I was just highlighting the fact that he finished 7th despite the fact he had to make an unscheduled pit stop.

  2. Vergene followed by Vettel.

  3. This was a really tough one.
    Lewis Hamilton?
    Fernando Alonso?
    JEV?
    Sergio Perez?
    Felipe Massa?

    In the end, I narrowed it down to Hamilton and Massa. JEV and Perez were out qualified by teammates, and for me Alonso didn’t quite do enough in the last stint considering he had fresher tyres and seemingly better pace than the RBs.

    I couldn’t split these two so in all honesty, I just went for Hamilton purely because I’m a fan of his, and have never been very keen on Felipe. I try not to let my feelings for drivers influence my DOTW votes, but when I can’t split drivers through any other means, it became necessary!

    1. I was the opposite. I am a Hamilton fan but the fact that he lost the only car in his ‘weight class’ makes it hard to give DOTW to him. He had a bit of overdue luck to not be piloting the ailing Mercedes and a bit of bad luck with the safety car.

      I voted for Jean-Éric Vergne. What he did with the Toro Rosso was amazing. The overtakes were precise and well timed and the drive was stellar. He made a few mistakes but it goes to show that if you’re willing to take risks, you can reap the rewards.

      1. ‘he lost the only car in his weight class’
        Care to explain?

        1. Sure. Rosberg.

        2. He means only car to challenge him. They always discredit Hamilton. After qually all we heard from KPcart see this proves Ferrari and RBull have better chassis. They sure had a good chassis in the race lol Merc had plenty in hand.

          It does make me laugh seeing a Renault engine p2 in Constructors and a Ferrari p3/p4. Merc have just as good a chassis i don’t think anyone can dispute it. Put it this way if Alo was in a dominant car the engine stuff would not matter

  4. Vergne.

    Credit also to Hamilton, Vettel, Perez and Maldonado.

    1. Sorry but earning himself 2x 5sec stop go penalties rules him out, the stellar drive at the end only makes up for them, does not put him above those who drove good clean races. + it’s for Driver of the Weekend, Deff. Ham

  5. Formula Indonesia (@)
    22nd September 2014, 15:58

    Felipe Massa. How on earth a Williams that hard on tyres (remember Bahrain) could maintain a decent pace and not falling out to the end. Williams is not very quick so 7th was maximum, and it goes 6th after Rosberg problems,and finishing ahead of Ferrari was an achievement. He also had a decent Qualy while Lewis even though he get the Pole but he did made mistakes. Actually I had some drivers like JEV and Alonso, but Massa was very impressive

    1. Formula Indonesia (@)
      22nd September 2014, 16:08

      Oh, and mention to Vettel who out-raced Dan with broken monkey seat

      1. Dan had issues with is PU, though.

    2. I tend to agree, Massa drove “like a grandmother” and made it work, tyre management gone mad. But unable to pick an obvious faultless winner, I actually went with RIC, started p3 finished p3 with a PU problem, excellent damage limitation. When was the last time RIC was not on the podium?

    3. @f1indofans – yes, there were a few stand-out drives but Massa’s car control in the latter part of the race was outstanding. I couldn’t believe that he finished at all on those tyres. Also impressed by Vettel, Vergne and Perez.
      Hamilton’s final overtake was really exciting, too. I really enjoyed that win.

  6. Perez amazing last couple of laps (not mention coming from a lap down in 15th to be in 7th), but overtaking your team mate going into the tunnel under the Bay Grandstand, with two laps to go – superb move

  7. Hamilton did what was expected even with the SC it was never really that hard. He drove some great laps but those were already in the Mercedes I believe.

    Was going to vote for Vettel as he had good pre-SC pace and kept his tyres alive. Changed my and and voted for Vergne. He deserves this DOTW.

  8. I’m going for Massa. Was faster than his teammate all weekend and got the tyres to the end, unlike his teammate…

  9. Voted for Vettel: qualified close to his team mate even though he missed FP2. He made a good start, but he lost out to Alonso during the first pit stops. He was lucky that Ferrari decided to pit Alonso during the SC, but it meant that he had to nurse his tyres until the end, again despite not doing a long-run in FP2. He’s probably going to get overlooked in the poll, but ah well.

    The reason I’m not voting for Vergne: up until the SC situation, he was having a good race, but not an outstanding race. During the SC situation, he found himself on the perfect strategy and he was able to make it work, finishing 6th. But Perez, who was in 17th during the SC phase, finishing 7th on the same strategy really downplays Vergne’s performance. And of course, Vergne made a dodgy pass which gave him a 5-second penalty.

    And I’m not voting for Perez either, because he would have finished way behind Hulkenberg without an SC and he had to bail out of his 2-stop strategy because he couldn’t make the tyres last. So yeah, props to both Vergne and Perez, but they were extremely lucky.

    1. @andae23 He also had a broken monkey seat according to Scarbs, so that makes his drive look even more impressive! Vettel was a close second for me ;)

      1. @craig-o Ah right, forgot to mention it! :P

  10. Grand Chelem … And it is Lewis Hamilton for me as the Driver of the Weekend.

    1. Vettel and Ricciardo each led a single lap, so no Grand Chelem for Lewis

    2. No, he did not.

  11. It has to be Lewis

    1. Yep, it has to be the driver of the fastest car.

      Unbelievable.

      1. Because it’s impossible for the guy in the fastest car to also be the best driver?

        1. So we should just vote for the race-winner each weekend? No thanks, I like my DOTW to do something special.

          I could name at least half a dozen drivers who impressed me more in Singapore than Hamilton. Even Ericson did something special by beating the Marussias. Hamilton won a race that he should have. Whoop-de-do.

          1. You could name at least half a dozen before Lewis? Ok, list them then.
            Would of thought Lewis was at least in the top 3

  12. It has to be Hamilton. Pulled off a clutch qualifying performance and then kept his cool despite a differing tire strategy, a safety car period, and knowing for nearly a full race that a win meant taking the Championship lead back. Well Done.

  13. To be honest I don’t see how Hamilton has got so many votes. He has easily the best car, and had no real competition.

    That said, none of the drivers out there impressed me whatsoever.

    1. I don’t think it should be overlooked quite how impressive his post SC stint was. Pulling 1.6 seconds a lap on tyres that were a good 7 laps older than any other option tyres had gone. The car wasn’t responsible for all of that!

      1. Singapure 2013. Vettel needed a gap for a pitstop so he started driving laps about 2s faster than the rest. The result was that everyone started to look for proofs that Red Bull is cheating by analyzing the engine sound and tire marks and what not. Can’t remember if Vettel won the DOTW but for most people it was the car.
        I wonder if in 4 years time everyone will think the same about Hamilton as they were for Vettel

        1. Can’t remember if Vettel won the DOTW

          He did. And he got higher percentage of the votes than Hamilton is getting now. 54% VET vs 39% HAM.

  14. Massa. Beat Bottas on merit in qualifying and beat in on merit in the race, the only driver within the top 10 in both to do so. Also done a mega stint on the harder tyre, which his team mate failed to do. Excellent drive, that Monza podium seems to have done a world of good for him.

    1. beat in on merit

      beat him on merit

    2. Honourable mentions: Vettel, Ericsson, Vergne, Perez (the latter two for their overtaking)

    3. Totally agree!

    4. I went with Massa also. A very impressive drive.

    5. @craig-o, yes but I just couldn’t vote for a driver who “drove like a grandmother” even though it was the smart thing to do.

  15. Felipe Massa: Out-qualified Valtteri Bottas and finished the race 23 seconds and six places in front of him, while “driving like a grandmother” and managing 38 laps old soft tyres.

    A performance worthy of a Monza podium.

    1. I voted for Massa as well.

    2. Yep me too! Was close between him and Lewis though.

  16. I chose Vergne. Nobody really impressed me for most of the weekend. In the race though, Vergne pulled off some great overtaking moves and despite having penalties, managed to put an STR on it’s best result in a long time.

    Honourable mentions to Perez, Hamilton, Massa and Vettel.

  17. Hamilton easy. Maybe Vergne if he would have made Q3 but he didn’t. And Perez got really lucky to have safety car to bring him back into play otherwise would have been off the radar. Vettel didn’t out qualify his teammate either.

  18. it is too hard to vote with a 2 tier f1. the Mercedes powered Mercedes car is ahead by too far to make this a fair call – i mean judgind by qualifying, rosberg and Hamilton were not of form this week, yet in the race the car was still exponentially too fast for the competition.
    I hope Renault and Ferrari are allowed to close the gap to next year (stupid engine homologation). in previous years with relative equal power, the best car and best drivers would rise to the fore…. now we have Hamilton and rosberg blahhhh!

    1. Oh no my friend don’t back track after qually you said engine has not matterd here, Ferrari and RBull have the best chassis you said?. It sure looked like that lol…, look at Mclaren and Williams for proof how good the Merc is.

  19. Hamilton, of course. Perfect.. Also good work by Perez, Massa, Vergne, Vettel.

  20. None really.
    Surprised to see Vettel and Massa have so many votes, though.
    Daniel was as impressive as his teammate and its no big thing to outqualify your teammate 38 laps on softs was impressive. But he had oractically no compeition there.
    Alonsos start was good but he failed to overtake..
    JEV a.d Perez were pretty lucky, IMHO.
    Hamilton did all he needed to do, but it was satisfactory, he was on the tyre 2 seconds a lap quicker and with Vettel not pushing to maintain his tyres.
    Maylander for me.

  21. Massa has been able to manage the tyres in long stints well this year, had some very long ‘grandma’ stints in Canada and Monaco too. Definitely a good shout as driver of the weekend, 5th is an excellent result for the team in Singapore, and Massa was able to execute his strategy (not just long stint but undercut of Kimi at first stop) to perfection. One of his best weekends of the year.

  22. Struggle to see how Perez could get it, again out qualified by Hulkenberg, triggered safety that ultimately helped his strategy. Hamilton was great, but he had no real competition, Rosberg would have given him a hard time, qualifying shows this. Vergne, Vetttel ans Massa were all outstanding.

    1. I know. Hulkenberg would have beat him. That is my problem Sergio. He looks like a top driver because him being off the pace allows stratergies that occasionally make him look amazing. If he was put in a top car, he would struggle to keep up.

    2. Hulk’s performance is good, but only that. It has been very difficult to see Nico make a GP, in fact he has never been able to make a podium, from that point of view, nothing has to argue against Perez.

      1. I mean, a brilliant GP. Sorry.

        1. I agree that Hulkenberg’s lack of podium is disappointing, but it’s also true that most of Perez’s podiums and big results have come from converse strategies, while Hulkenberg’s have generally been on normal strategies (and we must not forget that with a little bit less youthful wildness Hulkenberg could already he a race winner 2 years ago!) Perez is also outstanding with the the tyres, and while that is in itself a great talent, Checo’s blatant lack of single lap pace compared to Kobayashi and particularly Hulkenberg is what worries me most about him. Of course he looked like a hero coming from the back on supersoft tyres, while everyone around him was on 30 lap old primes!

  23. Easily Hamilton. Pulled a hat-trick (almost a grand chelem) and proved himself to be (as usual) a stellar driver after the SC, I don’t see Rosberg capable to do that really. He had what you call a “perfect weekend”, I can’t see how would anyone vote for someone else really.

  24. Hamilton at 39%. :D :D :D

  25. Had to go for Hamilton. Pole, Fastest Lap and Win. What more needs to be said? Well, OK – I know he was cruising and had no pressure, but when he was under pressure after the Safety Car he delivered some very impressive lap times and didn’t make a mistake. So basically I’m going for the guy who was consistent and fast ALL weekend.

    Alonso didn’t deliver after the Safety Car. Vergne and Perez, whilst impressive in the closing laps, both made mistakes during the weekend (quali and race respectively).

  26. Vergne for me.

    Just saying but I find it pretty strange that Hamilton gets such a large proportion of the votes when he dominates, but whenever Rosberg or Vettel dominated, they were nowhere to be seen among the top picks…

    1. @dryyoshi I guess he just has a lot of fans?

    2. Formula Indonesia (@)
      23rd September 2014, 9:25

      @zippyone I think he compared Lewis Singapore win to Nico Australia win

  27. Vergne did have an excellent race but I’m sorry I don’t see how I can vote someone who received two stop-go penalties as DOTW. Hamilton comfortably gets my vote this weekend; hat-tricks, even in the Merc this season, aren’t just a walk in the park!

  28. i voted for ham …spectacular quali laps after tat sc.

  29. Gave it to Sebastian Vettel. Good drive by JEV too, hopefully not a case of too little too late for him though.

  30. Michael Brown (@)
    22nd September 2014, 20:49

    Vettel. Lost out in practice but still managed to beat his teammate in the race.

  31. I don’t think there was a single racer I should vote for. So I will vote for Marcus Ericsson.

  32. vettel beatin his team mate is not a big achievement. he is a quadraple champion.may be he shud achieve more than that.

    1. Go and lose whole of practice P2 before you think it is easy.

  33. It’s no secret I’m a supporter of Jean-Eric Vergne and think he hugely deserves a seat next season, but that’s not the reason I’ve voted for him.

    He was constantly quick throughout practice and only six hundredths off of Kvyat in Qualifying, which could have been through a small error, slight issue or maybe he was held up (probably the former but hey, nobody’s perfect).

    His race was then immense, and the final stint was judged to perfection. The timing and judgement of each pass were on par with the World Champions in the field, and to pull around nine seconds on seventh place in one and a half laps (admittedly for most of these it was Bottas who was driving on well… nearly the rims!) is no mean feat.

    Good job JEV, and if no-one see’s our potential after that, I’m afraid I’m not sure there’s much more you can do.

  34. Narrowly Alonso on Vettel. Hamilton, Vergne and Massa were also good, in a decreasing way, but the other two really impressed given their machine. Alonso, for the car he had, deserves my vote.

  35. I think Sebastian Vettel deserves this.

  36. Well done Hamilton. It was a very good weekend and sunday drive, but not an exceptional one. Which is a bit harsh because he would be stupid to risk it all, when ‘very good’ is good enough for 25pts.

    Perez – amazing going from almost 17th to 7th in 15 laps.

    But my points go to JEV – he might have made up less places than Perez in those 15 laps, but his overtaking was more spectacular, with an average car, and clearing the 5sec on top of that is what tipped the scale for me.

  37. I voted for Massa. He was really on it this weekend, and don’t forget that he actually held provisional pole position before the final runs in Q3, I’d say that was almost the biggest achievment of the weekend. Not important you might think, but remember Barrichello’s failure in 2009 spoiling everyone’s last runs, you can’t afford not to perform your maximum at all times, and nobody managed to beat Massa in the first round.

  38. Love Ham but can’t vote for him every time so I give the nod to JEV. Lovely entertainment at the end cancelling out his penalty. :P

  39. I wish Massa got it and im a huge Hamilton fan he was awsome but give it to Massa, look what Botas was like. I can understand Ham getting it though his lap was superb, it was a small margin but he made mistakes and his car did not look very well setup.

  40. Lewis.

    Flawless drive. Just look at his lap chart. Sure, the least you would expect from the best F1 driver in the world in the best car.

    Imagine going up against that? Rosberg going have to dig very very deep.

  41. Vergne. The only driver that did anything exciting in the worst race of the season! I cannot believe Hamilton is that far in front of the voting when he had no challengers for the entire race! He deserved the other driver of the race results – but not this one.

    1. That he had no challengers is exactly the reason I voted for him. He was peerless.

  42. I don’t think Hamilton deserves this one. I think some people are applauding his qualifying because it was notable for being so extremely close with Rosberg. But just because everyone made a big deal out of it, it doesn’t mean he did a great job. He barely beat Nico in qualifying so I can’t find his pole to be that impressive.

    He was merely cruising for the first half of the race because Rosberg retired. That safety car did produce a scare, albeit it was temporary. In reality, because their car is so much faster than the rest, there was pretty much no chance he would have lost that win even if he slotted back in 5th or 6th after his pitstop. Everyone’s tyres were going off and he had fresh tyres.

    I want to vote for Vergne and Massa. Vergne made some stupid mistakes but he nevertheless scored an extremely strong result. Massa drove excellently all weekend. He beat his teammate in qualifying and drove an extremely mature race.

    1. Mature ? yes, mature enough to be a grandmother. But you are right, driving a slow race was the sensible thing to do with these cruddy Pirellis.

  43. Three drivers did good in my book: Vettel, Massa, and Hamilton.

    I picked the one who claimed pole over his teammate and claimed victory in spite of a massive strategic blunder. Vettel did great though, as did Felipe. I don’t think either could have done better.

  44. Massa

    Hamilton drove very well, but had it gifted to him with Rosberg out and didn’t lead every lap.

    Vergne had a great race, but was out qualified and was driving with nothing to lose.

    And that leaves Massa. Out qualified his team mate and a Ferrari. Had an anonymous race but never really had a chance of challenging those in front and did exactly what he needed to to stay ahead.

  45. Was impressed by Hamilton, Massa and Vettel so far as whole races were concerned, and Vergne and Perez near the end.

    But went with Alonso. Had the beating of the Red Bulls if the SC hadn’t turned up when it did.

  46. Well let’s see, JEV; very entertaining but 2 penalties from a very liberal stewards panel, ALO; much better, but that 1st. corner stunt should not have been allowed, LEW; well I’m glad he won and regained his rightful lead in the WDC but it was all to easy for DOTW, MAS; very clever well caculated drive but I just can’t bring myself to vote for “driving like a grandmother”, VET; big improvement, point and squirt circuits are his forte, RIC; in the end I gave him my vote for a podium finish right behind his 4WDC teammate despite having power problems and being held up by Alonsos cynical 1st. corner stunt which gifted VET a substantial lead.

  47. Voted for Vergne. Saw the advantage of switching late to fresher rubber and capitalized big time. Had enough pace even to render a 5-second time penalty fruitless. Not gonna lie though, Hamilton set some absolutely stunning times on dead tyres to build up that pit stop gap!

  48. Nothing special from anyone last weekend, so it must be Ricciardo. Same performance as his teammate while his car had way more problems.

  49. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    23rd September 2014, 8:37

    Verge was driver of the race, but Hamilton was driver of the weekend.

  50. Formula Indonesia (@)
    23rd September 2014, 9:09

    Hamilton was great, but its not representative because we don’t see Rosberg performance, like Australia 2014 in reverse

    1. Spa comes to mind: with no HAM in the field, ROS could do no better than second.

      1. Formula Indonesia (@)
        23rd September 2014, 12:21

        yeah, Rosberg had inability to overtake car. but he had front wing damage so comparing it with Melbourne victory is the best way (also with safety car)

  51. For me the driver of the race was JEV, especially his speed and overtaking skills in the last few laps of the race were exceptional. Honourable mentions have to go to Massa for his speed on them old tires, somehow holding them off the edge of the cliff till the end of the race which can’t have been easy at all. Vettel for being back to form, quick all race and held on to the tires just enough to come home in his best position of the year at perhaps his second strongest circuit behind Suzuka and Marcus Ericsson. Yes he was at the back for the whole race, but he held on to be the top dog of the backmarkers and although it wasn’t seen what Kamui could do, from being in a tough position after Qualifying, he held off a charge from the Marrusia so kudos to him.

    My vote however for his weekend performance went to Lewis Hamilton. Pulled off a pole position which almost looked lost at the beginning of the lap and although he wasn’t totally at his best in the car on Friday and Saturday, managed to pull one out of the bag when it really matters (albeit by only 0.007 of a second). Although a stroke of luck that Rosberg never started, he kept a cool head and built a steady lead to the safety car and controlled the race even when it looked almost impossible for him to push on older soft (option) compound tires. Yes it was helped by the fact that the pack behind him were saving tires but his performance during that stint after the safety car came in was exceptional. This was topped off when he passed Vettel and won the race comfortably after switching to the new tires which performance was clear to see as soon as Turn 4 on the new tires on his outlap when he started to pull away almost instantly. This performance was topped off with the fastest lap and although he didn’t quite manage a Grand Chelum, it was a great performance all weekend by Lewis and therefore got my vote. Massa was a close second to me as he outqualified Bottas and held on with them old tires for so long till the end of the race coming home as the best of the rest behind Hamilton, Red Bulls and Alonso.

  52. tgu (@thegrapeunwashed)
    23rd September 2014, 10:47

    I can’t say there’s an obvious winner this weekend. I wouldn’t pick JEV, because of his two penalties (albeit the one versus Maldonado didn’t seem deserved).

    The two most consistent drivers on Saturday and Sunday were Hamilton and Ricciardo, in particular Ricciardo thought his qualifying lap was about the maximum he could achieve – in contrast to most drivers, who made obvious mistakes on their final laps. Ricciardo wasn’t spectacular in the race, but he had engine issues which makes his performance unquantifiable.

    Hamilton made a small mistake in sector 1 of his qualifying lap but clawed it all back and more in the following two sectors. He wasn’t really challenged by another car during the race, but following the safety car he needed to sprint hard to make the strategy work. It was a very solid performance all weekend, so I think he edges it.

    1. His engine issue recovered, but Vettel had a broken Monkey Seat whole race (Reduces downforce)

  53. Hamilton?? Really? In a superior car he drove an easy race other than a bit of scare at the end which was nothing since he had fresher tires and fast car. Perez for me surely. As others have said without him race would’ve been dull

  54. The only drivers that hit above their weight and out drove their available machines by making multiple impossible overtakes and constantly on the limit on a tight circuit, while not scrubbing their tires, should be recognized Perez and Vergne.

    I expect MERCEDEZ to be in pole and win with a car that goes 1-3 second faster than the rest, every race ! is as boring as REDBULL last year, realize that just about any driver in the grid coul do that with that car, that’s why HAM / ROS are neck to neck, thought HAM was better, but ROS beating by far in Qualy.

  55. It has to be Vettel or Vergne.

    Vergne – For so many on track overtakes on a circuit which was almost impossible to.

    Vettel – Having missed almost whole of FP2, but kept everything together to finish 2nd with lower downforce (Broken Monkey Seat – Confirmed by ScarbsF1). People may argue that Ricciardo had PU problems, but the problem went away eventually. The broken Monkey Seat remains broken.

  56. I went with Checo Pérez becouse he was able to overcome his bad qualification and dull race start. The FI is not having a great performance, so this result came true just becouse of his talent.

  57. Sergio Pérez because overcame the incident with Sutil and advanced to P7

  58. Vergne, for me, followed by Massa and Vettel. Now, that being said, Hamilton was spotless, really.

  59. I picked massa because he pretty much maximised what he could so it’s a very solid qualifying and race in a car that’s unsuited to this track. it’s hard to argue against hamilton though the car advantage doesn’t help his cause.

  60. This talk about Hamilton being on the best car so he should not be the driver of the weekend or driver of the day is nonsense. Does anyone realise that in Singapore the other cars were very much close to Mercedes in Free practice and also all the qualifying sessions? Do you realise that the top 10 cars weren’t separated by much? The performance difference wasn’t much really or Hamilton would have had more than 20 seconds lead by the time he changed the first set of tyres. I think you are forgetting that the guy did about 27 laps on the supersoft tyres and several qualifying styled laps to ensure he wouldn’t have too much overtaking when he came in for his final stop. So even though there wasnt that much of a performance difference he still pulled out almost 26 seconds in the few laps after the safety car..think about it..the supersofts already had several laps by the time the safety car came so Hamilton had to deal with all those corners and still put in the fast laps without killing off the tyres completely, yet his fuel conservation was way better than everyone else. With all that said who can deny him Driver Of The Day or Weekend? Some people said he made a mistake in Q3..yes, but he was still faster than everyone else.. And tell me someone that didn’t make a mistake in Q3?

    1. Formula Indonesia (@)
      24th September 2014, 9:17

      the only reason is Rosberg don’t race, still a fantastic race but will be perfect if he had to fend off Rosberg

  61. Maybe because I didn’t enjoy the Grand Prix as much as recent races but I found it hard to choose a driver of the weekend, not because I thought several drivers stood out but because I thought no one really stood out.

    Yes Hamilton got the pole and had to put some great laps in after the safety car to secure the win but without Rosberg I felt it was Hamilton’s race to loose, which I thought Mercedes almost managed to do with their tyre strategy.

    Vettel managed to finish ahead of Ricciardo for only the second time this year, but then again he is a four time world champion and if it hadn’t been for his struggles so far this season his performance this race would have been just what I expected the same as it was with Hamilton, there was nothing to criticise either for but also there was also nothing for me to say wow.

    Vergne overtook plenty of cars late on which obviously tends catch peoples attention but he was on much quicker tyres at the time.

    In the end I voted for Massa.

    I missed it at the time during the BBC highlights show but after reading up on the driver reports I think he put in a great performance managing to finish fifth despite doing the longest stint at the end of the race and he beat his teammate in qualifying and we all know how good Bottas has been this season.

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