Rate the Race and Driver of the weekend

Round 5, Spain, 2018

Mean Reader Score: 4.36

Sadly, this race is ranked lowest of the year so far, scoring a mere 4.36, compared to last year’s 7.65 and 2016’s 8.65, but then again, we didn’t have two championship leaders colliding nor did we have the youngest ever F1 winner to keep us entertained.

Unlike last year, we did not see Vettel stealing the lead from Hamilton before turn 1, but we did see a touch of the Grosjean of old as he caused a spectacular crash (and three retirements on the first lap), which made last year’s ‘three into one still don’t go’ collision between Bottas, Raikkonen and Verstappen look minor. The stern talking to of Christian Horner to Ricciardo and Verstappen (for being very naughty in the last race) seemed to be doing the trick until #Vercrashen hit Stroll but only managed to damage his own endplate in the process. Flapping his way around the circuit and releasing carbon fiber on the racing line was also not enough to reel in the wunderkid, who then went on to win his first podium of the season. Did Ferrari’s strategy cost Vettel P2 or did they have no choice? Raikkonen retired (even with a ‘precautionary’ engine change), Leclerc had an epic battle with Alonso for the first half of the race and won points (ok, point) for the second time this season, (much to the delight of Peter Sauber) and Alonso bagged four points for McLaren. Who, then, won our Driver of the Weekend?

Driver of the Weekend: Kevin Magnussen 85.78% of reader vote.

Having accused Ferrari of sandbagging through free practice we found out it was Mercedes who had been doing just that as Hamilton took an impressive pole position, setting a new lap record of 1:16.173. But that, along with winning the race by 20+ seconds and winning the F1 Driver of the Day and extending his lead in the WDC to 17 points, was not enough to impress our discerning readers, who voted for Kevin Magnussen. Well, KMag may not be the most popular driver in the paddock, but he was certainly the most popular driver here this weekend. Keeping his nose clean and staying out of trouble (unlike his team mate) coming home sixth KMag bagged eight very valuable points for Hass this weekend. Hass are now one crucial point ahead of nearest rivals, Force India in the WCC standings, Kmag is now ninth in the WDC, AND he was only lapped once! Well done Kevin!!

@F1TheaJ