[Official] Driver of the Grand Prix: Bahrain Grand Prix 2021

[Born Racer]

Who gets your vote this time?

[crmalcolm]

Mazepin.





Seriously - Tsunoda for points on debut.

Honourable mentions to Norris, Perez, Verstappen, Hamilton and Leclerc.

[chillibowl]

Lots of great drives but Ham for first blood.

[ascarracinguk]

Hamilton. That drive was so measured...not in the fastest car and still winning

[Richard C]

Perez for successfully rebooting his car at the start.

Richard

[BTCC frog]

My ratings:

Lewis Hamilton - 9
I didn't give out any tens today, but Lewis came closest, so I voted for him. In the second fastest car, he just managed to resist Verstappen to score an impressive win. It wasn't a perfect drive, but it was better than the other 19. Maybe if Max had won it would have been a different story.
Valtteri Bottas - 7
The final gap isn't really representative, but he wasn't on the level of the other two today. I hope he can make this a three-way title battle.
Max Verstappen - 9
Not a perfect drive because he could have won the race, but very impressive all weekend. As the results showed, Hamilton was just that tiny bit better. It looks like he will be a title contender this year, and it is good that he did the decent thing and let Hamilton past. The old Max would have ignored that instruction.
Sergio Perez - 7
He can't score higher than this because he did finish a very long way behind Verstappen, and he didn't make Q3. But already he looks like an improvement on Albon, and should challenge for the podium next time out.
Daniel Ricciardo - 7
He outqualified Norris, but was generally off Lando's pace all weekend. Scored some decent points on his McLaren debut and beat Sainz, but he will have better days with McLaren.
Lando Norris - 9
Misses out on a perfect ten because he was outqualified by his teammate, but won the midfield battle convincingly and did a great job all weekend.
Lance Stroll - 8
A really impressive drive from Lance, getting that Aston Martin into Q3 and then scoring points as well. Loses a point for being passed by Tsunoda, but still totally outclassed his teammate.
Sebastian Vettel - 4
Oh dear. I was really looking forward to seeing Vettel back at his best this year, but that really was a shocking weekend from him. Miles off Stroll's pace in qualifying and the race, and then had that silly collision with Ocon. And had the cheek to blame Ocon for it!
Fernando Alonso - 8
Difficult to rate as we don't know when the brake problem started to affect him, but was very impressive in qualifying and would likely have scored points in his first race back without the problem.
Esteban Ocon - 6
Quite disappointing, but he was unlucky in qualifying and was only a few seconds behind when Alonso retired. Still looks like a totally different driver to the one that was so evenly matched with Perez at Force India.
Charles Leclerc - 9
Excellent, as usual. He is quite possibly the fastest driver on the grid over a single lap, and if he cuts out the incidents he could be on a similar level to Hamilton and Verstappen this year. But with a perfect race he could have beaten Norris.
Carlos Sainz - 7
I was expecting him to be a long way off Leclerc this weekend, and to score no points at all. But he did a great job and fully deserved that points finish. The Ferrari battle could be closer than I had anticipated this year!
Pierre Gasly - 8
What a shame! I thought he looked on for a fourth place finish after qualifying and maybe even threatening the podium. But he messed it up by driving into the back of the McLaren, and the car seemed damaged from there on in. Still much faster than Tsunoda in qualifying, though.
Yuki Tsunoda - 7
Well done to him for that first points finish, but he was not on Gasly's level this weekend, and that Alpha Tauri was capable of mixing it with McLaren and Ferrari. Gets a point back for passing Stroll at the end.
Kimi Raikkonen - 7
Not sure how good the Alfas are, but Kimi Raikkonen delivered a decent result. I am glad they look to be back in the midfield fight after last year's horror show.
Antonio Giovinazzi - 7
He finished around 12 seconds off Raikkonen, but a lot of that was down to a slow pitstop early on, and he comfortably beat him in qualifying, so the two Alfas get the same score.
Mick Schumacher - 6
The fact that both drivers spun shows how difficult that car is to drive, but Mick did a decent job this weekend, far better than his teammate. I didn't see whether he would have beaten Latifi without Latifi's late retirement, but I think it was close.
Nikita Mazepin - 3
What a shocking debut from Mazepin, with multiple spins in qualifying and then an unforced error leading to a crash in the race. But in fairness, Schumacher did the same, so the car is difficult to drive. Still not good enough.
George Russell - 8
Russell is in for a lonely season. The Williams and the Haas are at a similar level; and possibly the Haas is slightly quicker, but Russell is clearly a far superior driver to his three rivals, so should beat them comfortably every weekend. But his car just won't allow him to challenge the midfield. Did a great job to be in Q2.
Nicholas Latifi - 6
Retired late on when close to Schumacher. As Latifi is probably a better driver at the moment (but likely not for long), I thing the Haas is the slightly better car. Schumacher should be his main rival this year.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Hamilton. The experience of a 7 times WDC came through. Otherwise I thought that was a great drive by Lando Norris and a very creditable top 10 finish for Yuki Tsunoda, on his F1 debut. Shame Alonso's return to F1 ended as it did with brake failure.

[Knowlesy]

Sir Lewis Hamilton.

[andy666]

Voted for Lando , mentions for Sir Lewis and impressed by Yuki Tsunoda .

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by BTCC frog

My ratings:

Lewis Hamilton - 9
I didn't give out any tens today, but Lewis came closest, so I voted for him. In the second fastest car, he just managed to resist Verstappen to score an impressive win. It wasn't a perfect drive, but it was better than the other 19. Maybe if Max had won it would have been a different story.
Valtteri Bottas - 7
The final gap isn't really representative, but he wasn't on the level of the other two today. I hope he can make this a three-way title battle.
Max Verstappen - 9
Not a perfect drive because he could have won the race, but very impressive all weekend. As the results showed, Hamilton was just that tiny bit better. It looks like he will be a title contender this year, and it is good that he did the decent thing and let Hamilton past. The old Max would have ignored that instruction.
Sergio Perez - 7
He can't score higher than this because he did finish a very long way behind Verstappen, and he didn't make Q3. But already he looks like an improvement on Albon, and should challenge for the podium next time out.
Daniel Ricciardo - 7
He outqualified Norris, but was generally off Lando's pace all weekend. Scored some decent points on his McLaren debut and beat Sainz, but he will have better days with McLaren.
Lando Norris - 9
Misses out on a perfect ten because he was outqualified by his teammate, but won the midfield battle convincingly and did a great job all weekend.
Lance Stroll - 8
A really impressive drive from Lance, getting that Aston Martin into Q3 and then scoring points as well. Loses a point for being passed by Tsunoda, but still totally outclassed his teammate.
Sebastian Vettel - 4
Oh dear. I was really looking forward to seeing Vettel back at his best this year, but that really was a shocking weekend from him. Miles off Stroll's pace in qualifying and the race, and then had that silly collision with Ocon. And had the cheek to blame Ocon for it!
Fernando Alonso - 8
Difficult to rate as we don't know when the brake problem started to affect him, but was very impressive in qualifying and would likely have scored points in his first race back without the problem.
Esteban Ocon - 6
Quite disappointing, but he was unlucky in qualifying and was only a few seconds behind when Alonso retired. Still looks like a totally different driver to the one that was so evenly matched with Perez at Force India.
Charles Leclerc - 9
Excellent, as usual. He is quite possibly the fastest driver on the grid over a single lap, and if he cuts out the incidents he could be on a similar level to Hamilton and Verstappen this year. But with a perfect race he could have beaten Norris.
Carlos Sainz - 7
I was expecting him to be a long way off Leclerc this weekend, and to score no points at all. But he did a great job and fully deserved that points finish. The Ferrari battle could be closer than I had anticipated this year!
Pierre Gasly - 8
What a shame! I thought he looked on for a fourth place finish after qualifying and maybe even threatening the podium. But he messed it up by driving into the back of the McLaren, and the car seemed damaged from there on in. Still much faster than Tsunoda in qualifying, though.
Yuki Tsunoda - 7
Well done to him for that first points finish, but he was not on Gasly's level this weekend, and that Alpha Tauri was capable of mixing it with McLaren and Ferrari. Gets a point back for passing Stroll at the end.
Kimi Raikkonen - 7
Not sure how good the Alfas are, but Kimi Raikkonen delivered a decent result. I am glad they look to be back in the midfield fight after last year's horror show.
Antonio Giovinazzi - 7
He finished around 12 seconds off Raikkonen, but a lot of that was down to a slow pitstop early on, and he comfortably beat him in qualifying, so the two Alfas get the same score.
Mick Schumacher - 6
The fact that both drivers spun shows how difficult that car is to drive, but Mick did a decent job this weekend, far better than his teammate. I didn't see whether he would have beaten Latifi without Latifi's late retirement, but I think it was close.
Nikita Mazepin - 3
What a shocking debut from Mazepin, with multiple spins in qualifying and then an unforced error leading to a crash in the race. But in fairness, Schumacher did the same, so the car is difficult to drive. Still not good enough.
George Russell - 8
Russell is in for a lonely season. The Williams and the Haas are at a similar level; and possibly the Haas is slightly quicker, but Russell is clearly a far superior driver to his three rivals, so should beat them comfortably every weekend. But his car just won't allow him to challenge the midfield. Did a great job to be in Q2.
Nicholas Latifi - 6
Retired late on when close to Schumacher. As Latifi is probably a better driver at the moment (but likely not for long), I thing the Haas is the slightly better car. Schumacher should be his main rival this year.

Good, detailed analysis.

Just to point out you said Stroll scored points, but actually he only scored a point.

And you gave a driver 8 who needlessly knocked his front wing off at one of the starts, thus throwing away an enormous amount of good work from his employer???

[chunterer]

Leclerc for me.

I reckon he was better than his car today.

Bit like Alonso who's poor car couldn't keep up with him and broke!

[BTCC frog]

Originally Posted by peebee2

Good, detailed analysis.

Just to point out you said Stroll scored points, but actually he only scored a point.

And you gave a driver 8 who needlessly knocked his front wing off at one of the starts, thus throwing away an enormous amount of good work from his employer???

For Stroll, I know he only got one point. By ‘scored points’ I meant ‘finished in the points.’ Sorry for the vague language.

But for Gasly, fair enough. I watch the incident again and it was more his fault than I remembered first time around. I will only drop him one point to a seven, though, as I was very impressed with his qualifying.

[mj088]

Perez for me, after qualifying disaster and then the car breaking down on the formation lap, another driver would let their head sink, Sergio however doesn't seem to know when he is beaten and just goes for it. a great drive, looked some way off Max when you look at the final result but another exciting drive where I dont think he really did much wrong and didn't really let RedBull down in any way given the circumstances he had to work with.

[steve_r]

I went for Norris, but of course could have voted for Hamilton.

[canaglia]

Verstappen for me, today he was the best driver in the best car, unfortunately for him RB strategy was quite lame since they focused mainly to use yellow/M tires as long they could while merceders relied on white/H calling two smart undercuts.
I can't say anything bad to verstappen about the T4 episode during last laps because FIA policy about that corner cutting is simply ridiculous and no sense.

Honourable mentions to Tsunoda scoring points in his debuting race with a veteran like race outlook.
Dishonourable mentions to Mazepin, this corpo offspring simply doesn't know what is doing.

[Tourer]

Plenty of possibles for mine but I ended up going for Leclerc - had the thing further up than expected and raced as hard as ever. Close call though - only j-u-s-t pipped a few others at the post.

[steve nielsen]

Originally Posted by ascarracinguk

Hamilton. That drive was so measured...not in the fastest car and still winning

he went over track limits in turn 4 29 times

https://twitter.com/alfaestiu/status...40472771944457

[TrapezeArtist]

Originally Posted by steve nielsen

he went over track limits in turn 4 29 times

https://twitter.com/alfaestiu/status...40472771944457

Because the race director said it was allowed. Until he said it wasn’t! Seriously, F1 needs to sort itself out on this subject.

[TrapezeArtist]

DOGP is a real tough one this time. So many contenders: Hamilton, Verstappen, Norris, Perez and even Tsunoda. I gave it to Perez.

POGP was a bit easier, though even then there was close competition. Seb was on his usual sparkling form, and blaming Ocon was a masterclass in nonsense, but he rather blotted his copybook with a rather exciting dice with Fred. The award goes to Nicky Marzipan who was consistent throughout with 2 spins in Q1 and then throwing it at the wall on Lap 1. I hope Haas are charging his dad extra roubles because this could turn into an expensive season.

[Neil22]

Lewis, spectacular. Kudos to Norris and Perez.

[Neil22]

Jeez, I forgot to give kudos to Max.

[EastonNeston]

Lewis got the win, despite not having the best car, and in the last few laps he showed he is still has the ability to race hard, fairly and within the rules. As the Mercedes car has been so good he hasn't needed to show good he is in tight racing situations many times recently, his drive in Bahrain shows he's still the best.
Was also impressed by Perez, Norris and Tsunoda.

[GT6]

Lando Norris, gets my vote this time as Lewis and Max did exactly what was expected of them but Lando showing he is getting closer

[rbs]

Got to be Lewis, Max had the faster car on newer tyres but was still held off. Perez & Norris had great drives not a bad start for Tsunoda though.

[steve nielsen]

Originally Posted by TrapezeArtist

Because the race director said it was allowed. Until he said it wasn’t! Seriously, F1 needs to sort itself out on this subject.

They refered to sporting regulations 27.3 in the briefing:

27.3 Drivers must make every reasonable effort to use the track at all times and may not deliberately leave the track without a justifiable reason