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We're now entering the business end of the season, and with it we're starting to crown our first TMW winners for the season. With six votes left including this one, the math is pretty clear: any driver with a lead of seven or more TMW race wins cannot be caught. Five drivers headed into the Russian vote on the cusp of that mark - Hamilton, Verstappen, Ricciardo, Raikkonen and Russell. However, they had a mixed bag of results.

Former teammates Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo both got it done in Russia, being the only two drivers to collect 100% of the vote. It means they both open up a 9-1 lead on the season, securing themselves the TMW honours for the year in the process. Unsurprisingly, they have the best records for the year in terms of percentage of vote received, too. Max is now the only driver to have received over 90% of the vote, currently sitting at 91.28%, while Danny Ric is his closest challenger on 88.26%.

Considering Russia is seen as a track Bottas excels at, perhaps it isn't a surprise that Valtteri picked up just his second TMW win of 2020. It means Lewis will have to wait at least one more vote before he can wrap up his third TMW season win. At Alfa Romeo, Kimi Raikkonen also failed to claim the 'w' for the year as Antonio Giovinazzi took the Russia TMW victory, just his fifth in their time as teammates.

And what of the Williams pair? Well, for the first time this season - and just the sixth time since I started doing these threads at the beginning of 2018 - we had a tie! Both drivers received eight votes. Unfortunately for Latifi, this isn't enough to delay the inevitable as it means George maintains his seven race advantage, albeit taking a hit with regards to the percentage of the vote received for the season so far.

Elsewhere, previously close TMW battles at both Ferrari and McLaren have opened up a little courtesy of Leclerc and Norris both claiming back to back TMW wins. Romain Grosjean - on the cusp of pulling level with his teammate for the first time ever - will have to wait a little while longer after K-Mag comfortably handled him in the Russia vote. Daniil Kvyat took a home race TMW win to make it two successive TMW wins for the first time in 2020, while Sergio Perez prevented Lance Stroll from drawing level.

The Eifel GP vote could see the two drivers who didn't get it done in Russia claim the TMW honours for the season, as both Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen only require a single TMW win to wrap it up for the year. Four of the other TMW battles are now separated by just two wins, although the squabble at Racing Point will have to wait another round due to Nico Hulkenberg substituting for Lance Stroll.

Russian GP Vote Results

Mercedes: Bottas wins with 65% of the vote (11-6)
Ferrari: Leclerc wins with 94% of the vote (16-1)
Red Bull: Verstappen wins with 100% of the vote (18-0)
McLaren: Norris wins with 94% of the vote (16-1)
Renault: Ricciardo wins with 100% of the vote (17-0)
AlphaTauri: Kvyat wins with 81% of the vote (13-3)
Racing Point: Perez wins with 95% of the vote (16-1)
Alfa Romeo: Giovinazzi wins with 76% of the vote (13-4)
Haas: Magnussen wins with 94% of the vote (15-1)
Williams: Russell and Latifi tied (8-8)

Season Scores

Mercedes: Hamilton leads 8-2 (with 85% of the season vote)
Ferrari: Leclerc leads 6-4 (with 58% of the season vote)
Red Bull: Verstappen leads 9-1 (with 91% of the season vote)
McLaren: Norris leads 6-4 (with 54% of the season vote)
Renault: Ricciardo leads 9-1 (with 88% of the season vote)
AlphaTauri: Gasly leads 7-3 (with 70% of the season vote)
Racing Point: Perez leads 5-3 (with 58% of the season vote)
Alfa Romeo: Raikkonen leads 8-2 (with 78% of the season vote)
Haas: Magnussen leads 6-4 (with 64% of the season vote)
Williams: Russell leads 8-1 (with 82% of the season vote)

TMW Winners for 2020
Max Verstappen
Daniel Ricciardo
George Russell

Mercedes: Hamilton. Bottas did a great job in qualifying but the big lock up cost him the win, he was unlucky to not finish though. Hamilton was strong in the race and seemed to be putting Bottas under pressure just before the lock up courtesy of his better tyre management.

Red Bull: Verstappen. Great job in qualifying and I thought he was gonna get pole. Another really good job in the race.

Ferrari: Leclerc. An absolutely mega qualifying but was probably only ever going to go backwards in the race but still miles better than Vettel this weekend.

Renault: Ricciardo. The closest Ocon has been for a while in qualifying but still behind and Ricciardo was ahead when Ocon retired. Ricciardo’s drive was really strong, perhaps he was a little lucky to get the podium but still strong nonetheless.

Racing Point: I might not vote for either Perez or Hulk as they both did a great job in different circumstances.

McLaren: Norris. He eventually turned the tables in qualifying and was challenging for the podium until his engine failed. A pretty subdued performance from Sainz, who I think struggled with car updates.

Alpha Tauri: Gasly. Qualified ahead and had a good points finish. Kvyat was unlucky with getting hit by Albon and was pretty close to Gasly at that point so he had the chance of a good result too.

Alfa Romeo: Giovinazzi. He’s turned it around in the last two races, probably too late to save his F1 career though but he was comfortably better than Kimi again.

Haas & Williams: no idea how to vote here as I find it hard to follow their races often. Did Grosjean get lucky or did he do a genuinely good job to get points?

JN23 wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 16, 2020 11:11 am

Mercedes: Hamilton. Bottas did a great job in qualifying but the big lock up cost him the win, he was unlucky to not finish though. Hamilton was strong in the race and seemed to be putting Bottas under pressure just before the lock up courtesy of his better tyre management.

Red Bull: Verstappen. Great job in qualifying and I thought he was gonna get pole. Another really good job in the race.

Ferrari: Leclerc. An absolutely mega qualifying but was probably only ever going to go backwards in the race but still miles better than Vettel this weekend.

Renault: Ricciardo. The closest Ocon has been for a while in qualifying but still behind and Ricciardo was ahead when Ocon retired. Ricciardo’s drive was really strong, perhaps he was a little lucky to get the podium but still strong nonetheless.

Racing Point: I might not vote for either Perez or Hulk as they both did a great job in different circumstances.

McLaren: Norris. He eventually turned the tables in qualifying and was challenging for the podium until his engine failed. A pretty subdued performance from Sainz, who I think struggled with car updates.

Alpha Tauri: Gasly. Qualified ahead and had a good points finish. Kvyat was unlucky with getting hit by Albon and was pretty close to Gasly at that point so he had the chance of a good result too.

Alfa Romeo: Giovinazzi. He’s turned it around in the last two races, probably too late to save his F1 career though but he was comfortably better than Kimi again.

Haas & Williams: no idea how to vote here as I find it hard to follow their races often. Did Grosjean get lucky or did he do a genuinely good job to get points?

I actually thought Grosjean got lucky initially as he had a bad start and was behind Magnussen a lot of the race, but he was the only one who managed to pull off a one stop strategy - and unlike what I initially thought, his pit stop wasn't a free one. He partially benifitted due to 5 retirements, but Albon with the awful race he was having and Russell likely would have finished behind him anyway. I expected him to fall back after the last safety car as he was on the oldest tyres of anyone, but despite that safety car actually not helping him at all - in fact closing the others up to him, he still managed to only lose out to Hulkenberg and Gasly who were both in significantly better cars. Magnussen had better tyres than Grosjean at the end, but he seemed to lose out to both Vettel and then Kimi.

Hhaving worked out Grosjean didn't benefit in the race due to pit stop timing and Magnussen fell back at the end, the vote is pretty easy.

I will also add that Grosjean got walloped on the knuckle by some gravel flicked up by Kimi's car and that apparently bruised it a little after the race. Must have been a little painful!



Russell wasn't at fault for Kimi hitting him and he was ahead of his team mate in qualifying and the race. Although admittedly not much happened on race day due to how quickly Russell's race was over.

I think it will be quite hard to vote for RP drivers either way.

What’s Kimi getting votes for