Driver of the Weekend: 2016 FORMULA 1 MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX

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Polls

Who was your driver of the 2016 Malaysian GP weekend? This takes into account the whole weekend, not just the race. Please use the comments section below to tell us why you voted the way you did.

36 responses to “Driver of the Weekend: 2016 FORMULA 1 MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX”

  1. Alonso for me. A really good job by him this weekend. Notable mentions to Lewis Hamilton* and also Danny Ric, both of whom also delivered exceptional weekends too.

    *Lewis car went pop, but that wasn’t his fault ergo he like Ricciardo take joint second to the frankly outstanding Alonso.

    Quite why people think Max deserves to be up there I’m not sure. He was out qualified by his team mate and even after Red Bull yet again gifting him the superior strategy he still couldn’t beat Ricciardo.

    • It seems this is a Max Fan Site – for me it was Daniel for his excellent defense and then to pull away after the virtual.

      • This ain’t no Max fan site. It would seem that TJ13 is on a list of websites that Dutch (Belgian?) fans hit en mass to vote for their guy regardless of the result.

        It was much the same with Lewis a couple of years back. His fans grew out of it eventually and moved on.

        Same phenomenon. Same eventual outcome, I hope.

    • Max started 3rd, Ric 4th. Max was not outqualified.
      And I wonder why he had to come in when he was on hard during the VSC.
      Rosberg did a good job after his spin. Alonso too, It’s between them for me. Max did not manage to pass Danny. Danny got a gifted win after the blowup and did nothing special.

    • Uhh MV qualified 3rd 😉 drove just as strong a race as DR. MV was unlucky with Vettel at the start and unlucky with virtual safetycar and fought back strong.

      Driver of the day for me is Alonso

  2. Driver of the Race: Ricciardo and Hamilton.
    Ricciardo had a robust fight with Verstappen during laps 39-40 (I think). Given that either Mercedes, or God, didn’t want Hamilton to win the race, the outcome of the RBR fight proved to be a critical moment in Ricciardo’s win. Also, an equal second for Hamilton. His driving was superb all weekend. Engines blow.

    Honourable mention: Rosberg.
    Solid drive from Rosberg to come back to a near-podium position prior to Lewis’ “someone-something-Mercedes-God” defining moment. Respectable damage mitigation after being punted by Vettel. In the end, Rosberg inherited a podium position as a result of “someone-something-Mercedes-God.”

    DMotR (Dick Move of the Race): Vettel at the start.

    DHofW (Dick Head of the Weekend): Hamilton.
    All quotes (the ones that address/accuse Mercedes directly AND the follow-up ones also accusing Mercedes by logical implication) of Hamilton’s meltdown are online. Google them if you like. No words needed.

    Then the disingenuous PR clean-up, insulting our intelligence and so on, is also online. Google that too… it’s funny. Anyway, not entirely sure God cares if he/she/it exists. But hey, you can’t tell a narrcisitic personality that, perhaps, thinking God directly cares about their PU is a little… erm… self-involved and deluded.

    Rate the Race: 9
    Provided me a lot of entertainment – mainly post-race. My expectations of F1 have fallen so low now that this race rates a solid 9.

    World Drivers’ Championship:
    Rosberg’s less than one round worth of points ahead of Hamilton and there are five races to go. Anything is possible at this stage – unless, of course, you’re enveloped by the “Mercedes sabotaging Hamilton as a result of wanting a German to be the WDC” availability cascade.

    Cheers,

    @WTF_F1

    • “Reckless” Rosberg punted “Kamikaze” Vettel my friend … would have been great to see Seb fighting MB and RBR. But hey … sh!t happens 🙂

  3. Actually, Seb’s incident was interesting, having looked at the replay now. There’s no doubt that Seb just butchered it, but…

    I thought Max was a part of it. He would have seen red in his RHS mirror but still moved pretty late toward an early apex. Max then seemed to lose the rear a bit which angled him into Seb and there was contact.

    The kicker for me was that after the race, in the podium green room, Max said that he had to go full lock to avoid Seb in the first corner – I truly laughed out loud at that, yelled “BS!” at the TV and scared the sh!t out of my dog.

    Max only went to full opposite lock AFTER he squeezed Seb and oversteered into him. Comedy gold.

    • Dammit. The first line of my comment went missing.

      I voted for Seb ‘cos he had the guts and the game plan to tip that first domino, which precipitated an interesting race.

    • Unbelievable… Whatever Max did, Vettel was always going to slide into Rosberg. They (VET/VES) did not touch at all.

      • Yh, OK. Maybe no actual contact but the idea that Max was entirely innocent bystander is pretty funny.

        Dog was OK. A big walk after the race settled his nerves.

        • In my opinion the three of them have some culpability. Rosberg (and I like him) invited an inside move. The first turn is no place to try a crossover move. He was beaten to the turn, and should have tucked in behind Hamilton to consolidate second place.

          • I can’t agree with you there. Rosberg was the only victim here. Look at the helicopterview of the start and you can see that both Vettel and Verstappen braked a vast amount later compared to Hamilton and Rosberg .
            You can’t blame Rosberg for not eticipating two donkeys behind him that are playing ‘dare’ with the brakepoint and overshooting.
            There was no way that Vettel or Verstappen could make a clean 180 degree radius turn after that race to the first corner.
            There is some good onboard footage of Vettel, if you look at it, look at Hamilton. Vettel basicly needed to follow Hamilton’s line to get round the corner cleanly, There was no way he could have, he shed off to little speed for a clean entry, any attempt would have ended up in upsetting the car, understeering wide and missing the apex.

          • Agree … Rosberg should have anticipated traffic next to him … so for my taste a reckless move. And 919, braking late and still making the turn are their trademarks. Vettel and Verstappen were racing for p3 … what’s the problem?

          • @RickyG

            You must have missed the helicopterview. Rosberg left plenty of room, a whole car could have been ridden next to him. If Vettel and Verstappen weren’t to busy with outbraking eachother at least one of them could have rounded the corner neatly on the inside of Rosberg. But they didn’t, even when it is supposed to be youre trademark braking late and still managing corners, how come Vettel understeered right in to Nico and couldn’t hold Hamilton’s line around the corner?

            Look closer, the footage tells the tail.

            You just can’t anticipate on torpedo’ing kamikaze pilot’s, if you do, you’ll be going wide at each corner.

          • @919

            My assessment was actually based on the helicopterview. Rosberg was coming from behind Lewis to make T1 so he was slowing down whilst the gamecocks were fighting for p3 in the space right behind him. My point is that during the getaway one should always expect kamikaze pilots and try to avoid them rather than joining their space. He chose for the latter … risky business as he found out.

          • @RickyG
            Well, I’m 180 degrees on that one, It’s not Rosberg that is intruding space here, he hasn’t been blue flagged nor was any portion of any car next to him at entrypoint of the corner. He just got punted by someone who intruded his space because they failed to brake timely.
            Youre racing backwards if you say that you should overshoot your corner entrypoint as a precautionary measure, basicly wrecking youre own position and leaving doors wide open. Just because there could be some idiot behind you that can’t find his brakes.
            To me that sound like a failure in placing responsibilties at were they should be at.

          • @919

            In fact, I agree with you … however, this all happens during the getaway where you should expect kamikaze pilots left and right from you and certainly not assume that they will brake timely.

        • I think we all agree that his elbowing attitude on and off the circuit, basicly trying to mark his territory, does not go to well with other drivers (or fans for that matter). More clashes will come, brought to him by his own attitude.
          So yes, there is some responsibilty there for sure, he’s attrackting the attention and some are eager to give him a lesson.
          I personally find it a bit funny that these clashes only tend to strengthen his reputation as nearly everybody that tried teaching him ends up drawing the short straw.

          It’s interesting at the least, I’m eager to find if, and if so, when things will turn around, he can’t avoid being bitten forever.

  4. Max. He beat Ricciardo in Qualy, fought him hard but fair and drank out of his (Ricciardo’s) shoe. That fact alone should reward any driver DOTW. I couldn’t vote for Rosberg (or Horner) but they deserve it too.

    As someone else wrote so eloquent:
    Eeeeeeeeuuuwww!

  6. There are people that vote for Verstappen regardless – although Hamilton fans are almost as persistent.
    There are people that vote against Verstappen regardless, see him as the root of all evil – Like RogerD.
    There are people that think this is a sympathy vote, which it is not; it’s not about someones personal best but who was best overall (which eliminates Palmer).
    And there are people that have actually assessed the race, put there personal preferences aside and conclude that in a race where quite a number of drivers shone, Alonso was the best.

  9. Verstappen for me, for playing chicken with Vettel and avoiding the melee, for another few very nice overtakes, for putting pressure on Hamilton (was he frantically pushing the emergency power button?), for keeping it clean with his battle with Ricciardo, and for taking the shoey.

    Close call with Alonso, but like somebody already sayd last time, you can set your clock on him.

  10. I voted for Max because he has had the edge on Ricci all weekend. Had there not been a stacked pitstop during VSC after Hamilton retired, Max would have passed Ricciardo or Ricciardo had lost the position because he still needed to pit for new tyres. It is just the one failed pass attempt and the (understandable) team tactics that gave the win to Ricciardo.

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