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

[Born Racer]

Who is your driver?

[marcel82]

I voted for Verstappen. A lot of people deemed him to young for F1, but today he showed to be a much safer driver than others at a more mature age. Even if he did make a silly mistake on pit-entry, he's an added value to F1.

[TheNo1F1Fan]

Either Vettel or Verstappen. I might pick up on Vettel for his unbelievable first season at Ferrari or Verstappen for being the youngest points finisher.

EDIT: Now voted for Verstappen.

[steve_r]

Has to be the race winner.

More great driving by the STR duo, with Verstappen catching the eye.

[GT6]

some really good performances in this race, but Seb gets my vote

[bauble]

Raikkonen for me, fourth after dropping to last, showed the pace of the Ferrari is real and exceeded expectations following his puncture, at the worst possible point.

I am not a particular fan of Kimi, but feel on balance that he was the driver who probably achieved most from his situation.

[bjohnsonsmith]

I'm not too sure who to give this too. There's obviously Vettel but then Kimi drove a great race. He started in the middle of the grid, had his left rear punctured, drove most of the way back to the pits and then ended up at the back of the field and carved his way up to fourth. Then there's Max Verstappen who drove with maturity and confidence, becoming the youngest F1 driver ever to win points in a GP; a bit of a tough one.

Edit. Verstappen

[Razzzor]

I'm going to be the troll here and say I fully expected a lot of Kimi votes being that he came from the puncture to 4th... but I definitely don't think he's deserving of DOTR when compared to Vettel. It's only good on paper.

Kimi was what 15th (at a guess) after the SC, on new tyres, perhaps only 10 secs behind Vettel. This is one of the easiest tracks of the season to pass on, but he still dropped 54sec behind his teammate by the end of the race. Plus it's a short pitlane. That's about a sec per lap slower. Even on similar tyre levels he wasn't very close to Sebs pace. I can't see what the FL's were since Bernie is a c--t and wants to charge for all that stuff now, but is Kimi's anywhere near that of Sebs FL? Kimi benefited a bit from the tyre deg that some other teams had and early pit stops. But he had nothing on Vettels pace.

Verstappen; okay he had some good pace and 7th is pretty good, although only 10s ahead of his teammate, but damn did he look rough today. That pit lane entrance was amateur and he was lucky he didn't slap into the wall, some of his other moves were close like the divebomb on his teammate. A few times I found myself wondering if he was about to wreck with the close battles. I guess he didn't though. And Perez did. So he's better than Perez! But 7th is really quite good for a youngster.

FI's were a disaster, both Perez and Hulk. Nasr a disappointment - gotta wonder if he had damage to the wing because he had no pace. Kyvat was quite good to beat Ricciardo, including some aggressive moves, just a shame Hulk spun him around. But then again how damaged was Ricciardo's car?

Anyway DOTR has to go to Vettel. Leaves his teammate almost a minute behind, first time someone has beaten the Mercs fair and square since 2013 AND on what was probably the slower strategy since Merc effectively got a free pitstop (well, 8s by the time Lewis got to 2nd). Passed both of the Mercs on track, that second stint when he was up to 2.5s a lap faster than them was crazy. His first stint making the meds last almost 20 laps and still running strong was also very good. Gotta be Vettel DOTR.

[Razzzor]

Oh yeah it's a shame Alonso and Button retired, I was curiously comparing their pace and Alonso was a tiny bit faster, but not by much.

[TrapezeArtist]

I gave it to Verstappen. The car is obviously pretty good, but that was seriously impressive for a lad in his second grand prix.

I could also have given it to Fingerboy because he won, and beat the much-fancied Mercs. Also maybe Iceman, because he seemed to recover well after doing a whole lap on a puncture. (BTW, did he preserve his car well on the in-lap or are the current cars less vulnerable to damage from a punctured rear tyre?)

Also full marks to Will Stevens. I didn't see a single driving mistake from him all weekend.

[VIVA GT]

A difficult one for me. First, I wanted to give it to Jenson for his brilliant radio message along the lines of "guy's, I'm confused here, I seem to be catching people up! What's going on?", but that's not really driving.
I'm no Ferrari or Vettel fan, but have to admit that Seb's win was a surprise to me. Finally (despite what I said above) I went for Kimi, he appears to be re-vitalised (or should that be re-Vettelised?). In nthe past I would have expected him to give up after his puncture, but he didn't and although the safety car helped, he manahed to get all the way back up from plumb last to 5th was quite an achievement.

[Aysedasi]

Easily Vettel. I've never been a huge fan but he was brilliant - so were Ferrari. Had it not been for Raikkonen's puncture, they could well have been 1-2. Special merit badge to Verstappen.

[Adam43]

Vettel? Rubbish, he's flattered by an Adrian Newey car and the blown diffuser. er...

[F1Pete]

Kimi no doubt! No one comes even close to be dotr. Reminded me of the McLaren days were he would start from the back and be on podium. Being in dirty air and traffic makes it difficult to match the leader in clean air I would think.

Allison's engineering prowess is shining through reminiscent of the Lotus days where they would typically do one less pit stop than the rest being able to extract a lot of laps on the tyres. This combined with the speed to match the Mercs is a recipe for more wins to come.

As for Max, he has the advantage having driving coach Jos telling him exactly what NOT to do.

[Born Racer]

Vettel for his margin over his nearest rivals (okay, I know Raikkonen had that incident, but he was helped a bit by the safety car).

Verstappen a very close second because he's still just a kid. Anyway, I gave it to Vettel partly feeling bad I didn't give him enough DOTRs when he was in the Red Bull and he did all he could.

[wnut]

Vettel excellent win nobody else came close today.

[stripedcat]

I've got to give to Fingerman. That was a dominant performance and a reminder of what he can do. He was fast all weekend. That Ferrari is a good car for this year - and Seb drove it to perfection today.

Kudos to Verstappen. He was racey today. Good performance.

I'd also highlight Bottas as well - his little move on his teammate was good.

[JeremySmith]

I gave this to Sebastian Vettel...... Young Max is a star in the making.....

[Neil22]

Gave it to Vettel, but impressed by Kimi too.

[BertMk2]

Kimi gets the nod but good drives from Vettel and the Torro Rosso boys as well.

[S griffin]

I'll go with Vettel too.

[chris bailey]

Kimi. Supreme patience to drive slow enough on a full lap with that puncture to not destroy the back of the car (take note Lewis) and then fight through the field without picking up any contact damage along the way, which in itself, can look unspectacular, but requires great awareness and self-control. Well done!

As for Vettel, one can only admire his sheer enthusiasm for the outcome. Liked his comment on the podium about getting pi**ed with the team that evening. However, he had far less to do than Kimi. Both good, but Kimi really had to earn it.

[sparkione]

A close one, this. Seb deserves it, of course – for declaring his intention to get ****ed. But, on balance, it has to go to Jenson (despite the execrable haircut), just for being such a super-cool dude. Ferdy might have been in contention, too, had we been made privy to his undoubtedly warm, heartfelt response to Ferrari's return to the top.

[sparkione]

Sorry about the '****ed'. Of course, I meant rat-arsed.

[chillibowl]

SV for his first win in a Ferrari.