[Official] Driver of the Race - US Grand Prix

[chunder]

Gotta give it to Jenson, made overtaking places where noone elese did, albeit helped by the tyres, and made a different strateggy work for him, the lad is the best overtaker out there and rarely makes mistakes.

[Aysedasi]

Hamilton for sure. Special mentions to Button and Massa.

Originally Posted by Purist

It was a toss-up between Button and Felipe, and I went with Button, as he was looking so lonely on this poll.

After all those bonehead moves in 2007-09, pushing too hard when he could only lose, lying to the stewards, and all that bad-mouthing of and disrespect to the team, publicly over the radio and on camera, I don't know that I can give Lewis a DOTR award!

The same goes for Alonso, after threatening blackmail on Ron Dennis, the mess at Singapore in 2008, and then there's something about his attitude and vibe that just rubs me the wrong way!

(And I hope Vettel gets his third title, putting him in indisputable company with Brabham, Stewart, Lauda, Piquet, and Senna! It's NOT the car! There are clearly some people who just don't like him, and I see NO fathomable reason WHY there would be THAT MUCH vitriol towards him! Three-in-a-row for Vettel, and let the doubters weep and gnash their teeth!)

Jeez, watch that blood pressure.....

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Adam43

I thought the Kimi move was good too. And I liked how Kimi raced. He could overtake and knew how to be overtaken. Great battle with Button too. I would like to vote Kimi, but I think it will have to be Lewis, because he's French.

Surely it's Louis?

I can't decide if it's Massa, considering the dodgy gearbox penalty or Button, with his lowly start and a great stint on those old tyres. Maybe Other?

[Bononi]

Yeah, Massa, he did well, he played his part for the team, and it's alright.

[Born Racer]

Lewis Hamilton for winning his battle with Sebastian Vettel. He just looked up for the win from qually onwards.

I also predicted the top three in that order this morning and that Alonso would end up where he did at the end of the first lap.

Next week's lottery numbers are 15, 7, 9, 49, 36 and 32.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

Lewis Hamilton for winning his battle with Sebastian Vettel. He just looked up for the win from qually onwards.

I also predicted the top three in that order this morning and that Alonso would end up where he did at the end of the first lap.

Next week's lottery numbers are 15, 7, 9, 49, 36 and 32.

What about next weeks Raiders' game?

[Lancsbreaker]

@ Purist.....what part of "Driver of the Race" do you not understand.....?

Making your judgement based on whatever perceived problems of the past seems a little..........odd!

Have to say Lewis on this showing - tenacious chase, seized the opportunity, and made it stick! Salutations to Alonso, and of course Massa for a strong performance despite having to recover from his "gearbox" problems......

[bjohnsonsmith]

Button.

[Bononi]

Good call, I guess Kimi is british.

[Purist]

Lancsbreaker, considering that Vettel has NOT been in the form he was last year for the great majority of the season, I don't see what was so mighty about Hamilton's performance today. It was good, but not so wholly exceptional.

[stripedcat]

For me it had to be the Hamster. Not just because he's British , but also because he kept the pressure on Vettel and took his opportunity when he could for a race win.

Special mentions to Vettel(still had a really good race), Alonso(how is he extracting the performance out of that car?), Webber(if the he hadn't had that technical issue he would have been higher up), JB(made a good comeback), Massa(decent race from him again) and Kimi(he still has the old magic).

[IceMan_PJN]

Hamilton

It looked to be Vettel's race all weekend, especially on account of the much faster practice times. Boards were populated by posts praising Vettel's amazing practice times. Fast forward to the race and Lewis is penalized by the dirty side of the grid but manages to fall no farther than third. After getting by Webber he has what should be an impossible task - close the gap on Vettel, who was fastest all weekend and open track to build a gap to Lewis. Despite the monumental challenge he legitimately gains on Vettel without DRS or pit stops. After stops he rejoins in third, makes an on-track pass back to second, and hunts Vettel down again, finally getting him. Then, instead of Vettel hanging on to threaten to take it back, Lewis builds a gap to Vettel and keeps it.

[Purist]

Ayse, I just hit one of those thresholds where I needed to say some of my more heated thoughts out loud.

This is the last of it:

(As to the other stuff, I just have a hard time showering much of any praise on either man right now given their histories; it just feels "wrong" somehow to do so, at the moment.)

(I could see Hamilton redeeming himself, in my eyes, in due time. If he can go all of 2013 without slagging off his crew over the radio, or after qualifying or a race, I might well give him some enthusiastic congratulations come 2014.)

(Alonso, however, has been involved in a couple actions that ARE considered by some to be downright criminal, but he has received no direct penalty specifically for those actions. That makes having real respect for him VERY hard to come by.)

(On a final note, people already DO let these things come into their assessments of a driver's performance in a given race. You can see it in their general tone towards certain drivers in the other threads. I'd have a good laugh about it, but I bet some would suggest, if Vettel did well in another car, that that was magically THE car to have, or that it was really a Red Bull, just painted up as something else. I'm simply putting on the record what WE ALL already do, at least to some extent. We're humans, emotional beings, and we remember, and those imprints impact our judgment calls.)

Now, I'm going to go pull up some good, classic, turbo-era F1 races. Goodnight all.

[Aysedasi]

Of course. I have to work very hard sometimes to give DOTR to someone I don't particularly like.....

[andy666]

Lewis , I thought he was evenly matched with Seb speed wise and when the opportunity arose he jumped and took it with both hands . Huge kudos to Massa as well a great drive after he "took one for the team"

[GORDON STREETER]

Only just watched it (without listening to any news bulletins) and it was Hammy all the way.

[GT6]

just to be different gave this one to hulk, he did very well in a car that has not been great and deserved some credit

[chunterer]

Alonso. I don't care what his team did to move him up a spot, I doubt it would've made all that much differecne to where he finished anyway?! The guy gets most of his job done in the first few laps, heck, first few corners even. He is maxing out with what he has available in the most spectacular way.

Hamilton showed why when he's in the zone, he is superlative. Full praise for not getting all handbags afterwards after Seb jinked right at him like that down the straight.... what the hell was Vettel thinking??!! That would have been an aircraft accident!!!

Massa? That was the real Felipe we saw, as in Korea.... Blimey, Ferrari should demote him every 2 weeks if he can pull that sort of drive out of his hat. Fantastic.

[TrapezeArtist]

Hamilton. He won the race, which is the object of the exercise. More than that was the way he won it.

I also enjoyed watching JB work his way through and some very ballsy driving from the Iceman.

Why have so many people picked Massa? For performing better than his teammate all weekend (after a shocking earlier part to the season)? Or was it just a sympathy vote?

[Grandpa_Rob]

Hamilton, great racing must take the honers .

[TF110]

So Kimi gets a pass but Hamilton is distasteful? Kimi showed little emotion in his win. That's his 'character' though, right? He can tell his team to shut up over the radio, brush off a win for Lotus as another race etc. and it's ok. But Hamilton says what his team wants him to say- i.e. lying, he gets mad because his team botches his pit stops, gets frustrated because he has DNF after DNF in the lead... you get the picture. I watch F1 for the racing, not for what Mr. Hamilton or Mr. Vettel or the Iceman say or how they act. This is just about who drove the best today. That was Hamilton. He and Vettel were 35 seconds in front of 3rd. He passed both Red Bulls, that in itself is a feat.

[Knowlesy]

You would struggle to find a driver on the grid who hasn't said anything controversial over the radio.

How times change. People used to laugh at this kind of thing. Now people are in tears because drivers speak their mind on the radio and swear on the podium.

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by TrapezeArtist

Why have so many people picked Massa?

Because we are allowed to make our own choice?

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by Mike Bell

Because we are allowed to make our own choice?

Sorry, but that kind of radical thinking has no place in this thread at all!!!

[bella]

i'm stuck between wating to give it to hamilton, because he was pretty much faultless, he hunted vettel down, passed him and then ran away with it and:

Originally Posted by IceMan_PJN

It looked to be Vettel's race all weekend

but then looking at the rest of the race, i thought i should give:

Originally Posted by GT6

this one to hulk, he did very well in a car that has not been great and deserved some credit

and because he had a far better race than di resta in the same car.

so i haven't voted