[Official] Driver of the Grand Prix: Chinese Grand Prix 2015

[Born Racer]

Who is your driver of the Grand Prix?

[stripedcat]

Hmmm, a bit tricky. Obvious choice is the Hamster man - got pole, fastest lap and won the race. He wasn't racing flat out - and today the Ferraris couldn't touch him.

I'd say that Danny Boy did a very decent job - as that Red Bull is a dog of a car. He did some decent racing and got to 9th.

Likewise with Max Verstappen - that guy can race! He's barely old enough to hold a UK driving license. There is some talent there. He did some really good passes. Again - another case of the car going bang on him.

I going to give it to Verstappen - as that guy clearly shows some talent beyond his years. Plus, not having a front running car.

[TheNo1F1Fan]

Verstappen with good overtaking.

[GTRMagic]

Mr Maldonado... For finding yet another way to turn a perfectly good F1 chassis into a canoe... Always someone else's fault.. Of course

[bjohnsonsmith]

Max Verstappen, some fantastic overtaking, showing how it can be done.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Ricciardo did a good job? His start was woeful, his car was woeful, his overtaking was woeful, it was all very bad.

One of JB or Verstappen, but JB drove into Maldonado just after proving he's the best defensive driver on the grid (maybe his recent chassis have been so poor he's never actually overtaken since 2012!!!) so it has to be Verstappen for driving past a lot of cars before typical STR reliability struck.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Mr Maldonado... For finding yet another way to turn a perfectly good F1 chassis into a canoe... Always someone else's fault.. Of course

If you're refering to the incident with Button, Button admitted it was his fault, otherwise Maldonado's excursion as he went to pit was entirely his own doing.

[Kempi]

Verstappen is spectacular, that is true. However, so far his overtakes are dive bombs where drivers have to jump out of his way. I am not sure whether he will or should be able to keep this up. Once he runs (literally) who turns in instead of jumping out of the way, a lot of people will cry too young again.

[billy bleach]

Nico Rosberg - a bit whingey ....?

[TrapezeArtist]

DOTR: Verstappen. Highly entertaining and effective overtaking moves.

WOTR: Rosberg. "Lewis was driving too slow." Well, pass him then!

[Paradise City]

Verstappen did well here. There was some handy moves and he stunned good drivers along the way today.

[F1Pete]

Kimi. Blazed through the pair of Williams at the start. Setting up for attack on Vettel until the safety car ruined that plan.

[Neil22]

Gave it Lewis for his superb drive, kudos to Pastor for keeping me awake.

[Razzzor]

Originally Posted by Kempi

Verstappen is spectacular, that is true. However, so far his overtakes are dive bombs where drivers have to jump out of his way. I am not sure whether he will or should be able to keep this up. Once he runs (literally) who turns in instead of jumping out of the way, a lot of people will cry too young again.

Exactly Kempi, that first one with Perez or one of the Saubers left no room for the other car, it was just a divebomb and if they other driver didn't jerk the other way they would have crashed.

Still good on him for giving it a go. I'd have thought he'd try not to be too hotheaded this early in his F1 career, but so far he's gotten away with it.

[Razzzor]

Do we have to give someone a DOTR? No one really stood out.

Hamilton was a smidge faster than Rosberg. Vettel a smidge faster than Kimi but was often compromised by being on fresh rubber but dirty air, which allowed Kimi to almost catch him by the end of the race, but by no means at all is that enough to give Kimi DOTR.

Button was actually beating Alonso for most of the race, until that brain fade near the end. But who knows Alonso could have been having tech issues or maybe couldn't be bothered trying.

Pastor was actually doing pretty well in the first half of the race, until deciding he hadn't had enough 'offs' so went offroading a few times, much to my satisfaction.

Overall probably between Ricciardo and Verstappen. The rest just did as expected.

[John Turner]

Well notwithstanding his penalty (and he is still the cleanest driver out there) I'm giving it to JB again for simply displaying the fact once more that he is a racer, however slow his car, and for making life extremely difficult for a quicker car. Anyone, let alone an ex WDC, still prepared to fight like that for a minor place still clearly has the 'fever'.

Lewis was brilliant of course and he seems fully at one with his car. I think that the Hamilton/Mercedes combination will be regarded in the future as one of the great pairings, rather like Fangio/Merc and Clark/Lotus.

[bauble]

For me a somewhat turgid display all round so I have voted for Felipe Nasr, as I thought both Sauber drivers fought well, but Ericsson has a year's experience.
On another tack; Nico has complained a lot lately, does anyone feel that Mercedes have pinned their faith in Lewis, and see Rosberg as a number two?

[wnut]

Max, brilliant passing, I think we can add racer to his name!

[JamesH]

Originally Posted by bauble

On another tack; Nico has complained a lot lately, does anyone feel that Mercedes have pinned their faith in Lewis, and see Rosberg as a number two?

I don't think they have pinned their faith on either driver. They don't need to. They have a great car and two great drivers. However, LH has outperformed NR so far, so that sort of implies NR is a number two, whether the team look at it like that or not.

[BertMk2]

Voted for Max - although I'm worried that one of those banzai overtakes is going to go wrong soon when someone doesn't leap out of the way. Still, nobody else really did much of note. I suppose I could have given the vote to Maldonado as a nod to his comedy genius.

[JeremySmith]

Max......

[Aysedasi]

Yep, Max for me too. Loved Kimi's radio calls and laughed out loud at Nico wanting Lewis to speed up for him.....

[S griffin]

Max for me

[Mekola]

What an irony... voted Verstappen!

[gomick]

Originally Posted by JamesH

I don't think they have pinned their faith on either driver. They don't need to. They have a great car and two great drivers. However, LH has outperformed NR so far, so that sort of implies NR is a number two, whether the team look at it like that or not.

Agreed & the results are showing that. You could almost already say that Lewis is going to romp away with this championship, possibly winning 12/13 races & Nico will be lucky to beat Vettel to P2 in the standings....All very boring