planetf1.com

So this is a super duper mega PF1 TMW thread, containing the results from both the Singapore and Russia votes. The Russia vote wasn't ideal in that I got the thread posted so late, plus only left it open for a couple of days (due to the overlap with the Japanese GP) but my last two weeks at work have been absolutely mental. I kept putting it off and putting it off, intending to do a proper write-up, when what I should've just done is got the vote going and come back to the post itself if I'd had time. It means we only got a handful of votes on that which means drivers who won that vote, although they still get the TMW victory, receive a slightly smaller boost to their season-wide percentage than they would've/should've. Over 21 races it's probably a minimal thing, but come the end of the season I might do something like take the average number of votes for the other 20 races, then multiply the votes for Russia up to try and offset that just to see if it would've had any impact if there are any percentages that are really, really close. Or I might not. On the plus side, 57 hours of overtime at time and a half means I'll have a very healthy looking payslip this month! Anyway, results are as follows:

Singapore:



Russia:



Mercedes
TMW race winner, Singapore: Hamilton (76%)
TMW race winner, Russia: Hamilton (100%)
Hamilton 13 - 3 Bottas
Hamilton 75% - 25% Bottas

Having already wrapped up the TMW vote for 2019, Lewis Hamilton has continued to dominate Valtteri Bottas, extending his winning streak against the Finn to a season-high seven successive races. Bottas has now had six races without receiving a vote across the year, with the truncated vote in Russia the latest of those, and hasn't managed to string together a sequence of four races without a 0 vote all year.

Ferrari
TMW race winner, Singapore: Vettel (52%)
TMW race winner, Russia: Leclerc (57%)
Vettel 9 - 7 Leclerc
Vettel 45% - 55% Leclerc

Two races influenced by strategy and/or team orders resulted in two very close TMW votes, both determined only by a single vote. Singapore race winner Sebastian Vettel took the TMW vote there while the vote in Russia was just as close, no doubt split between those who felt Leclerc was hard done by and those who felt that regardless of the team orders, Vettel was still the fastest driver of the two. It means that Seb still leads by two votes for the season while Charles still holds the advantage in terms of the percentage of the vote.

Red Bull
TMW race winner, Singapore: Verstappen (100%)
TMW race winner, Russia: Verstappen (100%)
Verstappen 2 - 2 Albon
Verstappen 40% - 60% Albon

Ah, that's a bit more like what we were expecting. After seeing Alex Albon jump out to a surprise 2-0 lead, Max hit back in Singapore and Russia, taking both TMW victories whilst also preventing Alex Albon from scoring even a single vote. It means the TMW battle between the two is now level at 2 while the percentage looks a lot less lopsided. Alex still holds the advantage there (this one will be more affected by the Russia vote than others) but the tide seems to have very quickly swung back to Max.

Renault
TMW race winner, Singapore: Ricciardo (76%)
TMW race winner, Russia: Ricciardo (71%)
Ricciardo 12 - 4 Hulkenberg
Ricciardo 58% - 42% Hulkenberg

Apologies to Daniel Ricciardo - his victory for the season in Renault's TMW vote has been reported a race later than it was actually confirmed. Victory in the Singapore TMW vote gave him an unassailable 11-4 lead over his soon to be ex-teammate at Enstone, and that lead was compounded with a 12th TMW win of 2019 in the shortened Russian vote. The percentage suggests the two haven't been as far apart as the 12-4 score suggests, but the bottom line is that up against the best opposition of his career, Nico has been comfortably beaten and now faces a fight to even remain on the grid in 2020.

Haas
TMW race winner, Singapore: Magnussen (85%)
TMW race winner, Russia: Magnussen (71%)
Magnussen 12 - 4 Grosjean
Magnussen 63% - 37% Grosjean

Another driver who has had to wait an extra race to be crowned TMW winner is Kevin Magnussen. Like Daniel Ricciardo, he went into the Singapore vote needing just one more TMW victory in 2019 to take the honours for the year, and the Dane duly delivered. And like Daniel Ricciardo, he then added to that by further stretching his advantage in Russia.

McLaren
TMW race winner, Singapore: Norris (80%)
TMW race winner, Russia: Sainz (86%)
Sainz 10 - 6 Norris
Sainz 51% - 49% Norris

Only two of the original ten TMW votes are yet to be decided one way or the other - Ferrari and McLaren. And while the Ferrari score might be the closest of any, it's at McLaren where the percentage vote is the most evenly split. Both drivers took a TMW win in the last two races, with Lando Norris claiming victory in Singapore and Carlos Sainz hitting back in Russia. Sainz looks likely to take the win for the season by virtue of a four race advantage (indeed, he could have this wrapped up by the time I write the next one of these) but the percentage is very much too close to call.

Racing Point
TMW race winner, Singapore: Perez (78%)
TMW race winner, Russia: Perez (100%)
Perez 13 - 3 Stroll
Perez 65% - 35% Stroll

Sergio Perez is one of a number of drivers who could yet end 2019 with the best TMW result. It's currently George Russell leading the way (14 wins) but Perez - along with Hamilton and Raikkonen - all sit one victory behind the British rookie. Perez has done himself no harm by winning both the Singapore and Russia votes, extending his lead to ten and also growing his percentage lead a little in the process. While his loyalty to his son is both understandable and expected, surely Nico Hulkenberg's past results alongside Sergio Perez would suggest that Racing Point's prospects would improve if they again partnered Sergio with Nico...

Alfa Romeo
TMW race winner, Singapore: Giovinazzi (77%)
TMW race winner, Russia: Raikkonen (71%)
Raikkonen 13 - 3 Giovinazzi
Raikkonen 83% - 17% Giovinazzi

A TMW victory for Antonio Giovinazzi in Singapore meant that, for the first time in 2019, the Italian had recorded back-to-back TMW wins. That now leaves Bottas, Gasly, Grosjean, Stroll and Kubica as the only five drivers not to have strung together successive TMW wins. However, the Italian couldn't run that streak to a third race as Kimi hit back in Russia.

Toro Rosso
TMW race winner, Singapore: Gasly (76%)
TMW race winner, Russia: Kvyat (71%)
Gasly 1 - 3 Kvyat
Gasly 35% - 65% Kvyat

It only took 15 races but Pierre Gasly finally took his first TMW win in 2019 in Singapore! Unfortunately the joy didn't last as Daniil Kvyat took home honours in Russia, extending his lead in this best-of-nine shootout to 3-1. It all seems to be a little academic given how much closer Alex Albon has appeared to be to Max Verstappen, and without any other drivers really looking likely to push Gasly out of the Red Bull programme altogether, it looks like he'll be afforded the chance to regroup the rest of the year and then expected to come back stronger in 2020.

Williams
TMW race winner, Singapore: Kubica (61%)
TMW race winner, Russia: Russell (100%)
Russell 14 - 2 Kubica
Russell 86% - 14% Kubica

Almost as rare as a Pierre Gasly TMW win? A Robert Kubica TMW win. But that happened as well in Singapore as the Polish peddler took only his second TMW victory of the year. George Russell returned to form in Russia and gave Kubica his sixth 0 vote race of the year.

TMW winners so far:

Max Verstappen over Pierre Gasly (12-0, 97%)
Daniil Kvyat over Alex Albon (6-6, 57%)
Kimi Raikkonen over Antonio Giovinazzi
George Russell over Robert Kubica
Lewis Hamilton over Valtteri Bottas
Sergio Perez over Lance Stroll
Daniel Ricciardo over Nico Hulkenberg
Kevin Magnussen over Romain Grosjean

A few tough calls (including two I refused to even make a call on) this time:

Bottas over Hamilton -- A surprisingly solid win for the Finn. Hamilton might have beat him with strategy, but Bottas looked the quicker driver this time out.
Vettel over Leclerc -- Looked quicker in qualifying, and surprisingly wasn't the one who crashed into someone in the race this time.
Sainz over Norris -- From the sample we have, Sainz was better. Norris was unlucky with reliability and a racing incident.
Ricciardo over Hulkenberg -- Made his strategy work and beat the Hulk decisively by the end.
Gasly over Kvyat -- This was the form he needed at Red Bull.
Perez and Stroll -- A race-ending crash that never happened aside, Perez delivered a solid performance (and that crash was probably Gasly's fault anyway).
Raikkonen over Giovinazzi -- Although neither one was very impressive.
Grosjean over Magnussen -- At least he didn't crash in qualifying.
Russell over Kubica -- A pretty dire weekend for Robert all around.

The two I didn't vote on are Red Bull and Haas. In the case of RBR, the drivers set identical times and Max was out through a no-fault incident on lap one. In the case of Haas, I forgot that KMag crashed in quali and just remembered he had a pit start. That's enough to separate them for me, so when you add up the votes please add one to Grosjean for me!

PS: I appreciate that you're finding the time to do these at all. Considering how late I've been with the Top Three Championship lately, I certainly have no room to complain!

Exediron wrote:A few tough calls (including two I refused to even make a call on) this time:

Bottas over Hamilton -- A surprisingly solid win for the Finn. Hamilton might have beat him with strategy, but Bottas looked the quicker driver this time out.
Vettel over Leclerc -- Looked quicker in qualifying, and surprisingly wasn't the one who crashed into someone in the race this time.
Sainz over Norris -- From the sample we have, Sainz was better. Norris was unlucky with reliability and a racing incident.
Ricciardo over Hulkenberg -- Made his strategy work and beat the Hulk decisively by the end.
Gasly over Kvyat -- This was the form he needed at Red Bull.
Perez and Stroll -- A race-ending crash that never happened aside, Perez delivered a solid performance (and that crash was probably Gasly's fault anyway).
Raikkonen over Giovinazzi -- Although neither one was very impressive.
Grosjean over Magnussen -- At least he didn't crash in qualifying.
Russell over Kubica -- A pretty dire weekend for Robert all around.

The two I didn't vote on are Red Bull and Haas. In the case of RBR, the drivers set identical times and Max was out through a no-fault incident on lap one. In the case of Haas, I forgot that KMag crashed in quali and just remembered he had a pit start. That's enough to separate them for me, so when you add up the votes please add one to Grosjean for me!

PS: I appreciate that you're finding the time to do these at all. Considering how late I've been with the Top Three Championship lately, I certainly have no room to complain!

Gone for the same as you. Red bull is indeed pretty hard to decide so i didn't think i would vote either. Although albon did do a bit of a messy overtake, but then we didn't see anything from verstappen.

The rest are pretty easy.

I am struggling to understand how Grosjean and Magnussen have the same number of votes though. Magnussen has been very overrated this year, or at least the other way round for Grosjean. As you say, he crashed in qualifying and actually finished over 25 seconds behind grosjean. That is quite some difference. Grosjean has retired in 7 races this year. Only 1 of which he could possibly be blamed for which was Britain. He's also beaten Magnussen far more often than not when they have both finished and when he does, 2 or 3 times is has been by a simply massive margin. Bigger than any occasion Magnussen has beaten him. I don't really understand how Magnussen has won the battle this year. Grosjean has been incredibly unlucky and it is maybe the early points for magnussen that triggered his votes.