USGP Driver of the Day - VOTE NOW!

[Paul Jeffrey]

Who do you think deserves the accolade of RaceDepartment 'Driver of the Day' at the 2017 United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.

The race over in the US probably won't go down in history as the most dramatic of sporting events, however plenty of the current crop of Formula One drivers did enough to catch the eye at the conclusion of 56 laps of racing action.

With Mercedes unstoppable up front, Verstappen impressive from the back, Sainz driving like a Renault veteran in his new team and plenty of other drivers performed admirably throughout the event, who was your driver of the day?

Vote now and let us know your opinions in the comments section below!

 

[samcar304]

Solid drive from Lewis, Good overtake for Seb at the start and then on Bottas after the strategy switch. Verstappen driver of the day for me. Great drive to comeback from where he started and a solid day from Kimi too. Happy with the race considering how much of a snoozefest it could have been.

 

[Patrick van der Meulen]

Verstappen obviously, brilliant race. Shame on the stewards for giving him a penalty. The whole free practice, qualifying and race, track limits were broken literally everywhere by everyone. And than THE move of the race.... Ah... who did it? That Verstappen boy? Oh, and he overtook a Ferrari? Well, let’s give him a penalty then. Inconsistent cucks...

 

[Paul Jeffrey]

Head says Max, but to be honest for me it was a toss up between the aforementioned Red Bull man and both Sainz and Hartley. Both "rookies" did a wonderful job considering the circumstances, but I've gone for Hartley due to the sheer lack of prep the boy had. Sterling job.

Remember seeing him all the way back in F3 and hair aside, the bloke has star quality. Would love to see him full time next season alongside Gasly, with Kvyat going where he deserves to be, some kind of Russian Lada championship...

 

[samcar304]

Head says Max, but to be honest for me it was a toss up between the aforementioned Red Bull man and both Sainz and Hartley. Both "rookies" did a wonderful job considering the circumstances, but I've gone for Hartley due to the sheer lack of prep the boy had. Sterling job.

Remember seeing him all the way back in F3 and hair aside, the bloke has star quality. Would love to see him full time next season alongside Gasly, with Kvyat going where he deserves to be, some kind of Russian Lada championship...

I thought Kvyat had a good drive today, But sadly its too tale for him to be doing that now. He should have been driving like that all season. I think with SMP doing a full LMP1 effort next season as a privateer there is a home for him there... Although the Torpedo will have a lot more targets with the slower classes being involved too

 

[el_mattpro]

Verstappen obviously, brilliant race. Shame on the stewards for giving him a penalty. The whole free practice, qualifying and race, track limits were broken literally everywhere by everyone. And than THE move of the race.... Ah... who did it? That Verstappen boy? Oh, and he overtook a Ferrari? Well, let’s give him a penalty then. Inconsistent cucks...

One thing is go outside of the corner, other thing is CUT literal the corner. Daniel Ricciardo i think in lap 4 or 3, cut a corner and then engine shut down. Max Verstappen CLEARLY cut the corner from the inside, pushing kimi to steer to the outside of the track when Max appear from the inside, no one spected him there.
0:03 / 0:04 - Pause it, you can clearly watch how his car go 4 wheels off the track (inside the corner + OVERTAKE) = 5 sec penalty.

 

[Christian Moreau]

Verstappen obviously, brilliant race. Shame on the stewards for giving him a penalty. The whole free practice, qualifying and race, track limits were broken literally everywhere by everyone. And than THE move of the race.... Ah... who did it? That Verstappen boy? Oh, and he overtook a Ferrari? Well, let’s give him a penalty then. Inconsistent cucks...

Verstappen was driver of the day, hands down, no other way about it on that one. But really, you have to look at this objectively for what it was. He completely cut the track all four wheels over the white line and gave himself a superior line to overtake Kimi. Not saying I knew this would get called back as soon as I saw it, but I had serious doubts, and not too long after, they penalized him. In virtually any series, this is a penalty.

Also, I've seen a lot of people complaining about everyone going over track limits and getting nothing. This wasn't just exceeding track limits, this was overtaking while exceeding track limits. There lies the difference.

Now, I can't wait to see the next driver briefing.

 

[@apocapollo]

Verstappen obviously, brilliant race. Shame on the stewards for giving him a penalty. The whole free practice, qualifying and race, track limits were broken literally everywhere by everyone. And than THE move of the race.... Ah... who did it? That Verstappen boy? Oh, and he overtook a Ferrari? Well, let’s give him a penalty then. Inconsistent cucks...

Maybe the difference is Max made an overtake while over the white line and the others didn't?

Wasn't is Pastor Maldonado that did the same exact thing at Catalunia years ago?

Ah yes I think that's it.

 

[Boby Kim]

Honda sucks

 

[antirussia81]

I really like Palmer, he seems to be a nice guy (which is not so common amongst F1 drivers) but Sainz showed us today what Renault can achieve when they have a qualified man behind the wheel.

 

[gamer19]

Max was driver of the day.
He deserves his penalty.
That's it.
It's ok to have all four wheels of the track.
Gaining advantage while doing it ...isn't.

edit:
Driver of the day - Palmer !!!
I didn't even noticed he wasn't there. Anyone ?

edit2:
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/verstappen-says-stupid-penalties-killing-the-sport-969326/
As Ricciardo said... sore loser.

edit3:
And Kimi, as usual - clueless.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/raikkonen-had-no-idea-why-verstappen-was-penalised-969289/

 

[Patrick van der Meulen]

And how would you call Lauda then?

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/132578/verstappen-decision-the-worst-ever--lauda



Again, it isn’t about whether Verstappen exceeded the track limits (which he did as so many others who also gained advance). It is the sheer inconsistent decisions of the stewards. That is the whole point.

For example, how would you call it when Vettel at the start of the race in turn one where he obvious takes advantage by leaving the track and going wide as possible to lose as little of his speed and thus gaining a position. And that was just the first few seconds of the race...

 

[WOKOWEN1]

Hamilton is the only possible driver of the day. Max took good advantage of the upgraded engine unfairly denied to Ricciardo. Daniel should have been in that car challenging Hamilton and Vettel. Poor race overall

 

[Obscurity]

Honda sucks

I wouldn't say they suck, I'd say they're unreliable. But when they are reliable in some races they do provide pretty good results compared to some other back-marker teams. Using the word suck is just petty tbh...

 

[muzikant]

http://www.planetf1.com/news/more-backlash-to-bullsht-verstappen-penalty/

inconsistancy is wrong

 

[Cote Dazur]

Good to see the kind of driving Verstappen did to pass Kimi is not rewarded in F1.

 

[Craig Dunkley]

To be honest I did not see so much of it.. It was a good drive by Hamilton for sure .. but the award in my opinion, would have to go to Verstappen

 

[Tobiman]

Verstappen's performance was solid but the podium retraction was the right thing. Gaining an advantage while clearly cutting the track is a no no. He was running wide like crazy at turn 19 during qualifying which caused the stewards to have all eyes on him.

 

[GP20]

Sainz, he surprisingly did it very very well for his first race with Renault.

Verstappen is brillant when the engine is brillant. New Renault engine has been brillant yesterday.
When Verstappen lost this is due to the engine, when he wins he is brillant, just lol.

 

[Coffer]

Nobody's really worthy of the vote, as they all performed within the limits of their respective cars. For pure skill, this was probably one of the worst races of the season. With the engine upgrade and the oil burning ban, Red Bull have a convincingly better car than Ferrari now, so even Verstappen himself is nothing to write home about as he was outperformed by Vettel.

Speaking of Verstappen, corner cutting is corner cutting. The very fact that people consider it to be a sign of brilliance is a tell-tale sign that this sport is going down the drain. At this rate it won't be long before the sport no longer features the best drivers in the world, but rather the best corner cutters and car hitters who drive to within 95% of their car's specification and nothing more.

And how would you call Lauda then?

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/132578/verstappen-decision-the-worst-ever--lauda



Again, it isn’t about whether Verstappen exceeded the track limits (which he did as so many others who also gained advance). It is the sheer inconsistent decisions of the stewards. That is the whole point.

For example, how would you call it when Vettel at the start of the race in turn one where he obvious takes advantage by leaving the track and going wide as possible to lose as little of his speed and thus gaining a position. And that was just the first few seconds of the race...

There's nothing inconsistent about it - the only other car who cut that specific corner even once the whole weekend was Sainz, and he backed out of it and didn't overtake Ocon when it happened.

Track extending on lap 1 to gain no advantage whatsoever and corner cutting on the final lap to gain a full position are also worlds apart, as shown in the rules.

Lauda's also gone senile. Sad to see, but not the first such case, considering how much of an egotistic forgetful idiot Stewart is these days.