Driver(s) of the Day - 2017 US Grand Prix

UnlikeUday · Post by **UnlikeUday** » Sun Oct 22, 2017 8:39 pm

For me,

Hamilton, Verstappen & Sainz

tootsie323 · Post by **tootsie323** » Sun Oct 22, 2017 8:40 pm

Never mind the positions gained. That move on Kimi with two corners to go was just mental. Go Max!

TheBlackFlag · Post by **TheBlackFlag** » Sun Oct 22, 2017 8:41 pm

UnlikeUday wrote:For me,

Hamilton, Verstappen & Sainz

Agreed

veffy · Post by **veffy** » Sun Oct 22, 2017 8:41 pm

Max / Sainz / Ocon

Honourable to Dan before the DNF

tootsie323 · Post by **tootsie323** » Sun Oct 22, 2017 8:45 pm

tootsie323 wrote:Never mind the positions gained. That move on Kimi with two corners to go was just mental. Go Max!

OK, that move has been deemed illegal. Looks as though I'm suffering from premature congratulations.

TheBlackFlag · Post by **TheBlackFlag** » Sun Oct 22, 2017 8:45 pm

mikeyg123 · Post by **mikeyg123** » Sun Oct 22, 2017 8:51 pm

Hamilton, Verstappen, Sainz.

Paolo_Lasardi · Post by **Paolo_Lasardi** » Sun Oct 22, 2017 8:53 pm

Hamilton, Alonso, Verstappen, Sainz
also Ocon

disappointing:
Bottas, Räikkönen, Stroll

Laz_T800 · Post by **Laz_T800** » Sun Oct 22, 2017 8:57 pm

mikeyg123 wrote:Hamilton, Verstappen, Sainz.

Invade · Post by **Invade** » Sun Oct 22, 2017 8:58 pm

Hamilton had vicious race pace, but I was more compelled by Verstappen and Sainz today.

Zoue · Post by **Zoue** » Sun Oct 22, 2017 9:05 pm

Verstappen was the best driver for me today. To finish just shy of a podium after where he started is outstanding. I also gave a vote to Kimi as I thought he did really well and would have finished 2nd if not for team orders. Well overdue decent drive for him, with a couple of very good overtakes to boot. Honourable mention to Hamilton for a pretty flawless race. Thought Vettel did well and had a pretty awesome overtake, but landing his team mate in it at the end earns a black mark for me.

Lt. Drebin · Post by **Lt. Drebin** » Sun Oct 22, 2017 9:24 pm

Paolo_Lasardi wrote:Hamilton, Alonso, Verstappen, Sainz
also Ocon

disappointing:
Bottas, Räikkönen, Stroll

Why was Kimi disappointing? He made a great pass on Bottas, let Vettel through and kept his 3rd place.

Flash2k11 · Post by **Flash2k11** » Sun Oct 22, 2017 9:38 pm

Hamilton, Verstappen and Sainz.

Verstappen would have been out on his own had he done Kimi cleanly at the end.... as is, I think all 3 share this one.

moby · Post by **moby** » Sun Oct 22, 2017 9:50 pm

Has to be Max.

Hamilton did a fine job, but in honesty apart from one pass, which was very good, his job was management.
Carlos also did a fine job, but I don't think he challenges Max's drive.

wolfticket · Post by **wolfticket** » Sun Oct 22, 2017 10:06 pm

I decided when Alonso's engine went mid race I was going to give him a DOTD vote irrespective and I'm going to stick with it. Mixing it with the Force Indias with that engine was outstanding and there was no suggestion he couldn't have maintained it to the end and got a good result if the engine could've managed it.

Other than that, Verstappen and Hamilton for me.

Herb Tarlik · Post by **Herb Tarlik** » Sun Oct 22, 2017 10:09 pm

moby wrote:Has to be Max.

Hamilton did a fine job, but in honesty apart from one pass, which was very good, his job was management.
Carlos also did a fine job, but I don't think he challenges Max's drive.

Hamilton did far more than management. He made Vettel look slow. He forced Ferrari to throw the dice on a pretty feckless gamble (a second stop) and drove away with this race.

j man · Post by **j man** » Sun Oct 22, 2017 10:10 pm

I'll vote for Sainz. His first race for his new team and he scored some decent points, looked quicker than Hulkenberg all weekend and put in what was in my view the best overtake of the race. It makes you wonder how many points Renault could have had this season if they hadn't had Palmer in the second car.

TheGiantHogweed · Post by **TheGiantHogweed** » Sun Oct 22, 2017 10:11 pm

Lt. Drebin wrote:
Paolo_Lasardi wrote:Hamilton, Alonso, Verstappen, Sainz
also Ocon

disappointing:
Bottas, Räikkönen, Stroll
Why was Kimi disappointing? He made a great pass on Bottas, let Vettel through and kept his 3rd place.

I don't think either Kimi or Bottas was disappointing. Kimi looked very strong and Bottas did some did some really good defending in this race even if it didn't work out in the end. Mercedes did put him a bit too early in my view concidering He would still be close behidn others and that clearly would wear his tyres quickly. I think they should have left him out 5 - 8 laps longer and then i think he'll have managed a podium. Although it will have been really tight.

Invade · Post by **Invade** » Sun Oct 22, 2017 10:12 pm

Bottas has pretty much always been a good defender. He has solid race craft especially in defence...

But his race pace was poor and he who is fastest wins.

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Sun Oct 22, 2017 10:59 pm

Invade wrote:Bottas has pretty much always been a good defender. He has solid race craft especially in defence...

But his race pace was poor and he who is fastest wins.

bottas main disadvantage is that he has lewis Hamilton as a teammate to be compared too. bottas is talented and can put a race together alah Russia, baku, Austria. its obvious the further the car got developed the more the car has gotten away from him.

like everything else, your only as good as your last race and people are so quick to forget what you did to get here. I look forward to seeing what he can do with a car that suits his driving style.

moby · Post by **moby** » Sun Oct 22, 2017 11:05 pm

Herb Tarlik wrote:
moby wrote:Has to be Max.

Hamilton did a fine job, but in honesty apart from one pass, which was very good, his job was management.
Carlos also did a fine job, but I don't think he challenges Max's drive.
Hamilton did far more than management. He made Vettel look slow. He forced Ferrari to throw the dice on a pretty feckless gamble (a second stop) and drove away with this race.

That is management.

Exediron · Post by **Exediron** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 12:07 am

It might have been Alonso, if his engine had held together - but as it is I'm going with Hamilton/Verstappen/Sainz.

Deep_blue · Post by **Deep_blue** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 12:24 am

No brainer: Hamilton, Verstappen and Sainz

WHoff78 · Post by **WHoff78** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 1:17 am

Can't help but think we are seeing Hamilton's aggressive style more unshackled as he has got to understand these tyres through the season. A joy to watch right now. And Max was pretty impressive today as well even with the penalty.

Sure that the Sainz Hulkenburg match up won't disappoint either. Keen to see them go head to head. Think Sainz will win out over time but Nico still seemed to have the edge in Q1 so think it could be interesting for the end of this season at least.

WHoff78 · Post by **WHoff78** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 1:17 am

Double post

kleefton · Post by **kleefton** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 1:19 am

Herb Tarlik wrote:
moby wrote:Has to be Max.

Hamilton did a fine job, but in honesty apart from one pass, which was very good, his job was management.
Carlos also did a fine job, but I don't think he challenges Max's drive.
Hamilton did far more than management. He made Vettel look slow. He forced Ferrari to throw the dice on a pretty feckless gamble (a second stop) and drove away with this race.

I have to agree. He just was never going to be denied today under no circumstances. When Vettel got the lead at the start I'm sure he and many fans thought it was race over from there and he would control it, but Hamilton took the place back from him and never really gave him a chance.
This is how I like a guy to drive with a championship lead. The way Rosberg drove last year after he knew he had things locked up was way too defensive for me and is the reason why I tend not to value his championship as well as others.

The other 2 most noteworthy drives for me were Sainz and Raikonnen.
Sainz, his first time in the car had one of the best drives of his career. He is going to be a mega handful for the Hulk I feel as long as he keeps his nose clean. He is just a real predator behind the wheel. I quite like that.

Kimi found pace out of nowhere and showed everyone it's possible for a Ferrari to overtake a Merc. He defended well from Verstappen, was, for me faster than Sebastian this race and it's a shame Sebastian didn't do him any favours at the end.

Other guys drove really well down the field; Ocon, Massa, Alonso until he retired again. Just a spectacular race and I felt privileged to have witnessed it in person. Couldn't have asked for a better weekend in terms of sheer enjoyment.

Exediron · Post by **Exediron** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:35 am

WHoff78 wrote:Double post

You can delete double posts, just so you know. There's an 'X' right next to the report button.

Warheart01 · Post by **Warheart01** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 5:13 am

Hamilton, Verstappen, Sainz.

mds · Post by **mds** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 6:07 am

Yeah hard to not go for Hamilton, Verstappen and Sainz. Verstappen shined once again, and you can't blame him for that last overtake when it was his only and rather far-fetched chance.

Negative mention for Perez. Has the audacity to try and order his teammate out of the way, shouting about how much more pace he has, then Ocon just drives away from him.

TheGiantHogweed · Post by **TheGiantHogweed** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 8:52 am

mds wrote:Yeah hard to not go for Hamilton, Verstappen and Sainz. Verstappen shined once again, and you can't blame him for that last overtake when it was his only and rather far-fetched chance.

Negative mention for Perez. Has the audacity to try and order his teammate out of the way, shouting about how much more pace he has, then Ocon just drives away from him.

I partly disagree. Perez was certainly quicker at that moment in time. If the team had done what he asked (which I think was fair) I think he may have been able to pull away. He said he would return the position if he couldn't pull away. The team then left it until this would no longer be possible without letting the car behind them through too easily. But it was from here on that Perez seemed to follow Ocon too closely and quite possible affect his tyres. This seems to happen more often if you follow the same car for some reason. I think he should have backed off so he'd have more pace for later. What I can agree with is that I think he was possibly one of the weaker drivers on the whole to day so I can understand why you have a negative mention for Perez. I actually think Kvyat and several others could be in drivers of the day if it was possible. He was within DRS range of Perez over most of the 2nd half of the race. He did some pretty solid defending too.
I'd even add Ericsson too I think. was P16 in qualifying. 0.007 off getting through to Q2. And quicker than his team mate, a Williams, Torro Roso and a Hass. His pace was very decent but he basically did exactly what Jean Eric Vergne did to Grosjean at this circuit in 2014. But It looked to be worth a try. I personally think both were racing incidents though. Until this point he was on target to finish in the same position and ahead of the same faster cars he qualified ahead of which isn't bad at all for Sauber.

GingerFurball · Post by **GingerFurball** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 9:00 am

Verstappen is getting far too much praise for finishing 1 place ahead of his absolute worst case scenario.

TheGiantHogweed · Post by **TheGiantHogweed** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 9:07 am

GingerFurball wrote:Verstappen is getting far too much praise for finishing 1 place ahead of his absolute worst case scenario.

I see just what you mean there. If he had finished lower than 5th with Ricciardo out, I think that will have been a bit poor considering the pace difference. I really do feel these 3 teams were equal this weekend. Verstappen's strategy worked out well and he managed it perfectly. But I do wonder that if Bottas didn't pit and Kimi didn't back off at the end, will Bottas have been in that 5 second window of Verstappen? Bottas may have missed out on 4th. But then I actually think if the team had pitted him about 5 - 8 laps later then they did, he'll have managed a podium.

mds · Post by **mds** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 9:30 am

GingerFurball wrote:Verstappen is getting far too much praise for finishing 1 place ahead of his absolute worst case scenario.

He went 16th to just a few seconds off 2nd. I don't see how one should not be receiving much praise for that.

TheGiantHogweed · Post by **TheGiantHogweed** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 9:40 am

mds wrote:
GingerFurball wrote:Verstappen is getting far too much praise for finishing 1 place ahead of his absolute worst case scenario.
He went 16th to just a few seconds off 2nd. I don't see how one should not be receiving much praise for that.

If Bottas hadn't pitted, he could well have been closer to his worst case scenario than 2nd which I think was GingerFurball's point. He did well to close that time gap though ahead of the midfield.

mikeyg123 · Post by **mikeyg123** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 9:41 am

GingerFurball wrote:Verstappen is getting far too much praise for finishing 1 place ahead of his absolute worst case scenario.

I think it's more that it only took him half a race to catch right up and be competing with the front runners. Verstappen basically finished with the cars he would have finished with had he qualified 6th. Starting 16th made almost no difference to him. He's that good.

TheGiantHogweed · Post by **TheGiantHogweed** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 9:57 am

mikeyg123 wrote:
GingerFurball wrote:Verstappen is getting far too much praise for finishing 1 place ahead of his absolute worst case scenario.
I think it's more that it only took him half a race to catch right up and be competing with the front runners. Verstappen basically finished with the cars he would have finished with had he qualified 6th. Starting 16th made almost no difference to him. He's that good.

Well this has looked one of the easiest trackt to over take on this year to me and Red Bull looked to be about as competitive at Ferrari and Mercedes here. Eddie Jordan predicted he would get a podium before the race began. I don't think it will have been that difficult for many drivers to catch up with the top 4 in a Red bull here today from that far. Just unlikely to be as quick as Verstappen.

mds · Post by **mds** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 10:55 am

So it's not the position that makes this so impressive per sé, it's how he did it and how close he came to the podium, to second place even.

mds · Post by **mds** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 10:57 am

TheGiantHogweed wrote: I partly disagree. Perez was certainly quicker at that moment in time. If the team had done what he asked (which I think was fair) I think he may have been able to pull away.

Not a chance. Ocon drove in a calculated way, he paced himself to get to the finish at good pace. Perez wanted too much too soon. Sure he might have been able to pull away for a few laps, but then would have been reeled in easily. He finished 15s behind Ocon, that's clear enough, and that's not because he was behind Ocon for a few laps.

I'd even add Ericsson too I think.

Sure you would...

mas · Post by **mas** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:13 pm

Lewis, Max and Kimi in that order. Kimi actually had faster race pace than Sebastian and Valteri when all were on the same tyre strategy. That was his first race performance since his Lotus days and Bahrain 2015 worthy of a world champion, shame we have had to wait years for it.

Lotus49 · Post by **Lotus49** » Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:25 pm

Lewis,Sainz and Max.

Honorable mentions to Dan and Alonso who got robbed by equipment.

Driver(s) of the day was / were:-