Start, Bahrain International Circuit, 2019

Vote for your 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend

2019 Bahrain Grand Prix

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Which Formula One driver made the most of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend?

It’s time to give your verdict on which driver did the best with the equipment at their disposal over the last five days.

Review how each driver got on below and vote for who impressed you the most at Bahrain International Circuit.

Driver performance summary

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Vote for your driver of the weekend

Which driver do you think did the best job throughout the race weekend?

Who got the most out of their car in qualifying and the race? Who put their team mate in the shade?

Cast your vote below and explain why you chose the driver you picked in the comments.

Who was the best driver of the 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix weekend?

  • No opinion (0%)
  • Robert Kubica (0%)
  • George Russell (0%)
  • Alexander Albon (0%)
  • Daniil Kvyat (0%)
  • Antonio Giovinazzi (0%)
  • Kimi Raikkonen (2%)
  • Lance Stroll (0%)
  • Sergio Perez (0%)
  • Lando Norris (4%)
  • Carlos Sainz Jnr (1%)
  • Kevin Magnussen (0%)
  • Romain Grosjean (0%)
  • Nico Hulkenberg (5%)
  • Daniel Ricciardo (0%)
  • Pierre Gasly (0%)
  • Max Verstappen (1%)
  • Charles Leclerc (83%)
  • Sebastian Vettel (0%)
  • Valtteri Bottas (0%)
  • Lewis Hamilton (4%)

Total Voters: 364

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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48 comments on “Vote for your 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend”

  1. Leclerc for Sat and Sun (didn’t follow FP all that much).

  2. Honorable mentions to Hamilton and Verstappen.

    1. Sure, an F1 race doesn’t feel like an F1 race until Vers crashes into someone.

      1. @alonshow

        You’re talking about the contact with Sainz? I’m not a fan of Verstappen’s antics, but that didn’t seem too bad. He got away with it, like always. It was an aggressive dive bomb, but Sainz left him no room .

        He got everything he could have from the Red Bull, and beat his teammate handily.

        1. @slotopen: In this case it’s hard to tell who was to blame, but the thing is that it’s always the same story with Vers. Even Rosberg said it after the race: “The lesson to learn here is: Don’t try to overtake Verstappen”.

  3. Excellent performances by Leclerc and Hulkenberg.

    1. Hulkenberg had a good race until the DNF but was outqualified so I wouldn’t say he had an excellent performance

  4. I think it’s gonna easily go to Leclerc. First pole position, beating his 4-time world champion teammate by 3 tenths of a second. Got a bit clumsy at the start dropping momentarily to third but maintained his resolve and got the lead back in a couple of laps. Didn’t put a foot wrong until he was robbed of his first win because of a problem out of his control. Looking forward to his next outings.

    I think that Norris also deserves some praise, putting his McLaren as best of the rest like Alonso would have done, as well as Raikkonen, who’s gotten a bunch of points for the 2nd GP in a row in that Sauber.

    1. @toiago

      Regarding Norris…
      You’re looking at results rather than the events of the race.
      Surely the “best of the rest” accolade would have gone to Hulkenberg had it not been for the race-ending issue…

      There doesn’t seem to be any suggestion of Norris catching Nico in a fair race in the last 10 laps.

      1. True, but he was there to pick up the points. Isn’t that precisely what is appreciated of great drivers like Hamilton and Alonso? That they’re always in the position to pounce when others falter?

  5. Voted Kimi, as I can’t see how he could have done anything better. Leclerc’s gonna win this poll though and he’s certainly not a bad choice either.

    1. @huhhii No bias here ;)

      1. @mashiat Not at all… Completely out-paced his team-mate throughout the weekend, made some great passes, didn’t make any silly mistakes unlike his team-mate or Ricciardo or Stroll etc. What more could you ask for? Leclerc was also a good candidate as was Hamilton but somehow my vote goes to Kimi, dunno why ;)

        1. @huhhii Raikkonen should have finished 6th, given he started the race several positions ahead of Norris. Not saying he had a bad race at all, but I think DOTW is just pushing it.

          1. @mashiat Judging by the pace Norris and Sainz have showed in winter testing, Australia and Bahrain I think McLaren is quite a bit quicker car than Sauber at the moment. I think being just half a second behind Norris in the end is pretty good and qualifying in P9 and finishing the race in P7 with 6th or 7th fastest car is good enough for DOTW.

  6. Leclerc

    Sure he had a superior car this weekend but he woord the floor with Vettel

    Als Hulk was very good, too bad his Renault let him down 2 days in a row

    Also Lewis and Max got most out if their cars

    Bottas back to his usual self

  7. It is good to focus on positive, but it may be good to have a anti-driver of the weekend, just so we can vote for Verstappen and Grosjean: another weekend and another incident.

    1. GtisBetter (@)
      31st March 2019, 20:48

      There is no reason to hold a negatieve driver competition. And that crash was all Sainz. He didn’t leave any room and he knew Verstappen was there. If he had just been patient and left him room, he most likely would have gotten him in the next corner and scored points. Sainz just never learns, cause he is still making the same mistakes after all these years.

  8. Vettel, obviously.

    Possibly sarcastic.

    1. He wins spin of the weekend but that’s no news either.

  9. Prarag Chopra
    31st March 2019, 21:25

    Hulkenberg drove like a champion. 17 to 11 in first lap was stellar. He just blew away Ricciardo. Stellar performance by the Hulk only to end with a very familiar bad luck. Excellent race for Leclerc as well, unfortunately not ending in a victory for him though.

    1. +1
      I always expected HUL to be a tough match for RIC, but today I got impressed. He just outclassed him.

    2. Agreed, I felt gutted for him when his car failed. On par with Leclerc who was also on another level. Would be a great driver pairing in a red car…

    3. I have an opinion
      1st April 2019, 1:10

      I would say the two-stop strategy blew away the one-stop (see KMag, for example). Ricciardo may have been a victim of his own good driving for the first 10 – 15 laps. He made it up to sixth with on-track overtaking. While others were getting rid of their first set of softs, he was hanging on and briefly lead the race. This probably persuaded Renault to split the strategies.

  10. DOTW clearly LEC.
    DOTD, for me, is HUL.

  11. Two heroes, I think. Leclerc and Hulkenberg.
    Charles destroyed his so-hyped teammate; so did Hulk, beating the entire midfield at the same time.

  12. Hamilton for beating a clearly faster car (Vettel’s Ferrari) by putting enough pressure on him and with a beautiful overtake around T4.

    1. X2. Hamilton. To finish first, first you must finish.

  13. There can be only one for this weekend: Leclerc.

  14. I don’t get why Lewis is so low in the rankings.
    He had a great race, well-managed and kept himself in the hunt while his teammate faded away. You have to be there to take advantage of the opportunities given to you which he certainly did today and in an evidently outpaced Mercedes. Leclerc was pushing his luck too much and got blinded by the possibility of a win but you have to keep a clear head and to finish first, you must finish first. He needs to mature a bit more.
    I believe great drives come from great drivers when they are on a backfoot but still manage to get ahead. Lewis Hamilton today proved yet again he is a legendary driver and a class of his own.

    1. He is so low because you can only give one vote. He drove stellar but there was one guy better than him.

    2. Did you seriously just lay the blame on Leclerc for his engine’s incompetence?

  15. Quick mention for Albon. Only his second race and brings home 9th place. Pretty impressive.

  16. Leclerc, Hamilton, Verstappen, Norris and Hulkenberg are my stars of the weekend, but you can’t choose anybody but Charles Leclerc for driver of the weekend!

    Dishonourable mention goes to Vettel.

  17. Leclerc and he will win that one by a mile and rightly so.

    But Hamilton though, what a relentless racer. A bad week end is being second.

    1. Yes, Hamilton’s win was opportunistic, but one has to give him (and Bottas) credit for being in the right place at the right time. Nevertheless, I gave my vote to Leclerc.

  18. Probably the 1% who voted for Sainz. Great pace, unlucky in the race.

  19. Hulkenberg – on it in free practice, knocked out in Q1 due to electronics issue, fought back to 6th in the race on merit, then dnf due to another electronics issue. Solid, impressive driving for no reward, much like a lot of his F1 career. So far has comfortably been outperforming Ricciardo. Hopefully his luck will change soon.

    Leclerc was obviously great too but seeing as he’s over 80% of the vote so far, I feel the Hulk deserves the wild card.

  20. There were actually quite a few standout drivers for me. Leclerc, Hamilton, hulkenberg and Norris. Had to give it to the Leclerc though.. Other than a poor start he was flawless all weekend. His fight back from 3rd to 1st within 4 laps was outstanding. His quali was outstanding as well.

  21. Leclerc suppose to win, but then he was sabotaged not the fault of his own. As a Ham-Vet fan, Vettel keeps making mistakes especially with Hamilton this race like a repeat of 2018 all over again then got slammed by Rosberg during post-race

  22. I voted Max. The dominant leader of F 1.5 championship.

  23. Well, this was one of the easiest votes so far, Leclerc gets mine. Kudos to Verstappen, Hülkenberg and Norris. And perhaps Russell and Kubica both drove a hell of a race as well, but nobody can notice that.

    1. Oh and also kudos to Hamilton.

  24. Leclerc easily both the DOTW as well as the DOTD regardless of the outcome of the race with honorable mentions to Hulkenberg and Norris.

  25. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    1st April 2019, 13:03

    Seeing Renault’s engine failures cost Red Bull another podium was probably the greatest irony of this race. Horner must have been wondering how it’s possible for Renault to still haunt them after switching to Honda engines.

    Gutted for Leclerc and Hulk – superb races but I feel worse for Hulk – he is not driving a Ferrari so he can’t win the next race. Leclerc can.

  26. isaac (@invincibleisaac)
    1st April 2019, 15:01

    Has to be Leclerc for me. He did a great job in qualifying and controlled the majority of the race. The only mistake he did was a bad start where he dropped to 3rd, but he made up for that by brilliantly snatching 1st in only a handful of laps.

    Honorable mentions to Hamilton Verstappen and Norris who both drove very well, and it seemed as if everyone was driving with a point to prove.

  27. Leclerc had the fastest car possibly by keeping it in qually mode, potentially also going to run out of gas and blowing it up anyway. Only 3 engines this season allowed so he’s going to be on the back foot for a while….. My vote is LH who was on it all day long. Red Bull already missing DR for car setup- MV isn’t that guy.

  28. My driver of the weekend was Leclerc.

    The Ferraris showed the kind of pace that had made them pre-season favourites with a lot of people, but when it came to qualifying it was Leclerc who was the quicker throughout taking his first pole.

    The start of the race was where he made his only mistake with a poor getaway dropping him two places, but he did not let his head drop and quickly fought his way back to the front, ignoring team orders to stay behind Vettel on the way, and the speed and control he had from then looked like he was certain to go on take a comfortable victory, but engine problems cruelly denied him a maiden Grand Prix, the only consolation was that the late safety car meant he still managed to get his first podium.

    Other drivers who I thought deserved a mention are.

    Hamilton, he made another poor start for the second race in a row but he was able to fight back and was in position to inherit the win when Leclerc had his problems.

    Norris backed up his good debut with another good showing and earned his first points in F1

    Hulkenberg, from practice it looked like he was on course for a good weekend, but he went out in Q1 in qualifying, although it turned out he had reliability problems so he cannot be blamed for his early qualifying exit. He made an impressive recovery in the race and was on course for a good finish until he encountered more reliability problems and had to retire.

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