[Official] Driver of the race: Bahrain Grand Prix

[Marbot]

Vettel. He was in a different race. He truly understands how his car and the tyres work together. Don't make his life any easier by giving him more durable tyres.

[Neil22]

Grosjean, but it could go to just about anyone in the top ten.

[F1Pete]

Kimi. For staying under the radar, managing his tires, making his way up the order and quietly taking second place. He was so good at staying under the radar in stealth mode that the camera didn't even catch him racing. Surely deserves DOTR for that one.

[Razzzor]

Originally Posted by Neil22

Grosjean, but it could go to just about anyone in the top ten.

Yeah it was a solid drive from most in the top 10, but not all. Rosberg may have taken pole, but where was his pace in the race? He was dropping like a stone. Did he use his tyres too hard in quali? Even getting beaten by Lewis from 9th on the grid. Poor performance.

And Webber. Just at a time with all this controversy that he needs to put one to Vettel and show he's not the clear #2, and what's he doing? 7th, way behind a cruising Vettel, and if the race was 2-3 laps longer he would have been passed by Alonso and Rosberg.

The other was Jense, definitely not as fast as Perez and with a different steward he would have been given a penalty for running Perez off track. Sure, Perez cramped him down the previous straight and was definitely a bit dirty throughout the race, but to be honest the dirtiest move I thought was Jenson running him clean off the race track.

[Peralta]

Perez is my vote for making the race exciting to watch and answering his critics. Good drive with a difficult car.

[formerf1champ]

12 blokes so far have picked Perez? Who'd have thought the day would come where a guy finishes 6th in Mclaren is worthy of being considered driver of the race?* I shake my head in disbelief.










*inb4alainprost1980argentina1986belgium

[formerf1champ]

I do like that there are only 3 that picked Raikkonen. Finishing 2nd after starting 9th, in not the straight out best car in the field, is really a reflection that great drives a par for the course with Raikkonen. We're not really impressed with him when it's only just standard output from Kimi. Lol at anybody who tries to diminsh him.

[Flavio Galtieri]

DiResta, for showing how good that FI car is and a perfect drive.

[stripedcat]

I picked Vettel for his race pace here. He might not have been on pole, but made up for it during the race.

Runner-up is Kimi for getting second spot after a poor qualifying and bad start.

Got to give the third spot to Pérez for his fighting drive in the race. That guy took on his teammate and made him look bad. I think he had a point to prove.

[JamesH]

Not sure why so many have picked Vettel. He won, but he's one of the fastest drivers, in (arguably) the fastest car, and had to do nothing to do except except for the first two laps. People seem to underestimate the advantages of being at the front in clean air. He didn't 'own' the race for that reason.

Whereas KR, PdR, LH, SP all had to work very hard to get where they were. They were actually RACING DRIVERS, doing a DRIVING job, not simply running round the track with no-one around them.

I'd go with KR I think, with PdR a close second.

[TF110]

Hamilton for me. The mercedes of Rosberg was dropping like an anchor. He started 1st ended up just inside the points. Hamilton drove his butt off to get 5th place. His scrap with Webber was great as well. Kimi was next best imo. He should have stayed out longer on his 2nd stint like his radio message to the team said. He may have challenged Vettel if he stayed out a bit longer.

[bella]

pic had 3 weetabix pace in the caterham and handled it well. i can always get behind a norwegian.

gutierrez looks like he's about 2 iffy races away from crying in the bogs after qualifying, he had a stinker yesterday. if the sauber was just a little bit better you get the feeling the gap to hulkenberg would be much less.

[MagnetON]

Gave it to Porn DiRector for a solid drive, and just being so close to a podium finish.

[Alan Raine]

Perez for me. Fast, racy and just about keeping it on the island...

...but very impressed with Di Resta and Raikkonen

[Born Racer]

Sharl Peak.

A massive kudos to Di Resta for his performance and being smiley afterwards, though. So nice to see him happy and pleased with his performance. He deserves to.

Excellent drives from the usual suspects, Messrs Hamilton, Alonso, Raikkonen and Vettel. All three once again delivered the goods.

Grosjean did a fine job to get on the podium although this was not a lot more than you'd expect of him and the car.

Perez took the fight to Button and won, which deserves some credit. He clearly beat the renowned tyre saver today.

Here is the reasoning for my choice of the Caterham driver:

Charles Pic (17th)
“That’s our best race of the year so far and one the whole team should be pleased with. I quickly passed both the Marussia cars after starting on the medium tyres which held up for the first stint pretty well, allowing me to pit for the first time on lap 11. By that point the car felt good, well balanced and I was pulling away from the cars behind without any issues. We stayed on the hard tyres for the second stint and again the deg levels were good. I passed Gutierrez and was running comfortably in 16th until Sutil got past about two thirds of the way through the race. As the fuel levels dropped the deg levels increased a little but it wasn’t an issue. I was keeping pace with Ricciardo just ahead, and keeping Gutierrez behind me and we decided to stay out after the third stop so I did a very long stint on the hard tyres, 21 laps, and brought it home in 17th. I’m really pleased with how close we finished to the Toro Rosso ahead, and the fact we kept a Sauber behind - maybe if I’d been slightly further up the road after the start we could have beaten Ricciardo, but we can take this performance as a good step and look forward to what’s coming next in Spain".

From: http://www.formula1.com/news/headlin...3/4/14498.html

[Beetle]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Grosjean for me. Good race, great result. Just edges out di Resta.

This.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by JamesH

Not sure why so many have picked Vettel. He won, but he's one of the fastest drivers, in (arguably) the fastest car, and had to do nothing to do except except for the first two laps. People seem to underestimate the advantages of being at the front in clean air. He didn't 'own' the race for that reason.

I think it would have been quite a different story if Alonso hadn't had the DRS issue.

[jedrinck]

Originally Posted by JamesH

Not sure why so many have picked Vettel. He won, but he's one of the fastest drivers, in (arguably) the fastest car

The same was true for Alonso last week. Vettel did well but Ferrari gifted the victory to him, I think they have better pace over a race than RBR.

[Mekola]

I'm going with di Resta.

[Born Racer]

Originally Posted by bella

pic had 3 weetabix pace in the caterham and handled it well. i can always get behind a norwegian.

gutierrez looks like he's about 2 iffy races away from crying in the bogs after qualifying, he had a stinker yesterday. if the sauber was just a little bit better you get the feeling the gap to hulkenberg would be much less.

I wonder whether they think/ thought Gutierrez is better than Kobayashi. I'm spectical but willing to wait.

[Bononi]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

I wonder whether they think/ thought Gutierrez is better than Kobayashi. I'm spectical but willing to wait.

I just remembered he's racing in F1 because someone said that there were two mexicans racing...

[bella]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

I wonder whether they think/ thought Gutierrez is better than Kobayashi. I'm spectical but willing to wait.

his potential in the junior stuff was pretty epic, and when the circumstances were right to convert it he was nigh on unbeatable. but everything else was just a bit midfield.

i think if saubers palms weren't being crossed with silver they'd not have taken the risk, or they'd make a careful decision about perhaps guiding him into a formula and team that they could extract the most information from. perez was a very similar situation, imo. i don't think frijns would be doing a better job by any means, particularly since he's a bit too determined to overtake in the past 8 or 10 races in gp2 and fr3.5.

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

I'm spectical

I see where you're coming from.

My DoTR should be Fernando, simply because he drove his heart out knowing he had no chance. What he did do was prove you don't need DRS to succeed.

Then again Perez woke up and was quite feisty of a little wayward.

Grosgean was pretty steady and in the post race interview looked like a puppy whilst his manager said some kind words about him.

Kimi was, er Kimi. As was Seb. Seb, that is not Seb being Kimi.

Bottas seems to be doing right. the Hulk deserves more.

Paul Di Resta was pretty good and of course Lewis was on top form.

Then again Pic showed what he can do with a reasonable package. And Massa was plain unlucky.

So Fernando gets it this weekend for driving his nuts off.

[Born Racer]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

I see where you're coming from.

I didn't.

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

Bottas seems to be doing right.

There is a gulf between that comment and your comments on Maldonado even though their pace is very similar, with Maldonado generally performing better over a race distance so far.

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

My DoTR should be Fernando, simply because he drove his heart out knowing he had no chance. What he did do was prove you don't need DRS to succeed.

And Massa was plain unlucky.

So Fernando gets it this weekend for driving his nuts off.

Massa was plain slow when his tyre wasn't busy exploding. Fair points on Fernando but although everyone has the prerogative to choose a driver according to their criteria (Webber for merely being Australian for instance), I can't agree on Fernando this time, because his normally quick-thinking brain let him down on the DRS thing. He should've thought of the risk of reusing it.

[Adam43]

I too thought it odd hey risked it, but Fernando didn't have the benefit of knowing how it failed like we did. Team may have given the wrong impression that it was fixed. He could have clarified, although he was driving an F1 car at the time. We normally expect him to do hat kind of thing though.

Overall I was swayed by Peter's arguments and wish I'd voted for him. I may not vote early next time to hear other opinions first. You never know deeks may say convince me to vote for someone who isn't British.