Who was your driver of the 2017 Spanish 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.
thejudge13
F1: Daily International News roundup, inside whispers and insight together with thoughts and opinion
I would give this to both Hamilton and Vettel. Both drove stunning races from start to finish, on the limit for most of the race, and neither put a foot wrong. Two great drivers at the top of their game putting on a superb display of car control.
Werhlein for finally showing why he has a Mercedes contract.
Wehrline had a great race, but the story for me was hearing Lewis incredibly stressed on the radio, panting. It kept a real edge into the race, hearing the tones in his transmissions as he struggled with the car and with the pace, but kept putting in quick laps to seal the win. Vettel drove almost as equally amazing race, with Ferrari screwing up in the last stage by not going to Softs one more time; I think that would have helped but probably still not enough.
Ferrari could not run a third set of softs.
In a dry race each car is required to run two of the three compounds.
They could if they had pitted again. The gap to Danny was big enough. But he would’ve had a very hard time catching up to Lewis again. Taking traffic in to account. But perhaps it would’ve been possible. We’ll never know. I wouldn’t have mind it one bit. It’s better to die fighting than to give up.
The race wasn’t over though even staying out. Even if Seb couldn’t close up to Lewis, the gap was only 4 seconds. Staying close kept the pressure on. One mistake from Lewis, one corner where he ran wide and Seb could have taken advantage. As it turned out, neither driver made a single mistake which is testament to how well both drivers performed.
So Vettel was trying to do ‘a Jenson’ on Hamilton? The German still had Canada fresh in the mind 😉
I agree. But what he did was nothing more than waiting for a mistake of Lewis. At that moment Lewis had the upper hand. Going in and maximising the pressure, with new tires, would’ve given Seb the upper hand. But this is all hindsight, of course. And I’m just saying this without any data to back me up. If I find the time I’ll look in to it closer, but don’t count on it. Busy days ahead.
Gianlu D’Alessandro claimed on twitter that Vettel lost 14 seconds to Bottas and the VSC compared to Hamilton. I’ve asked him how he came up with that number, no response so far.
https://polldaddy.com/js/rating/rating.js@cav
6 secs due to Bottas,
8 secs because of the VSC timing
Vettel said the last thing post race “i was 8 secs ahead and you were next to me after the stop”
The first I don’t know if I got that from the on screen data or from the German commentary.
But to me the numbers are familiar
Gave it to Lewis. A bit of a shame that the DRS pass was so easy but he and Vettel made the race. He came out out on top. Therefore it’s justified to vote for him. Great race.
For me the difference between the two was just a matter of fortune.
I was surprised that Ferrari made the first stop so early. I thought they would have waited a lap or so to give Vettel a bigger cushion over Ricciardo. Then Hamilton got some luck with the VSC, because the goal was to always limit the running on the medium.
When Vettel emerged from the second stop alongside Hamilton who was on a fresh set of softs, it was just a matter of when, not if.
Yes, I too felt it was too early to pit.but once again, I don’t have all the data. And yes Lewis got lucky, but that’s racing. I thought it was very interesting to have two different strategies between them. And like mentioned earlier on this article, I would’ve liked to see Ferrari take even a bigger gamble with an extra pitstop. But I haven’t crunched the numbers to see if it would’ve been possible.
Good race. Mercedes looked to have the pace all weekend long and so it proved. I think Ferrari did a reasonable job to get that close to them really. I was rather frustrated that Ferrari didn’t pit Vettel under the VSC as stops cost so much less time at that juncture. It seemed odd to stay out and wait for Mercedes to move first. Hamilton’s stop was only partially under VSC conditions. In all honesty though I don’t think this would have changed the outcome. The Merc was the quicker car on the day and even with a pretty average exit off the final turn it had the pace (DRS assisted) to be completely past Vettel into T1; unlike the Ferrari which we saw pretty graphically with Vettels Mansell-esq pass on Bottas.