Driver of the Epic Race - Bahrain

[N. Jones]

no driver for me.

It would have been Lewis for holding off Rosberg on the slower tyre, but some of his moves were just too foul. He shoved Rosberg over the white line at least 3 times and blatantly chopped his front tyre once. Senna, Schumacher, Alonso and Vettel got a lot of shit for such agression. Same standard apllies to Lewis.

For me "driver" of the day is Merc for sacking Brawn and letting their drivers race till the very end instead.

Uh, Hammy wasn't the only one pushing people off track at this GP.

For me I have to give it to Perez. I hope his stint with FI gets him a top drive again.

[ShiftingGears]

I thought Hamilton's win was a real victory in the psychological battle between the Mercedes drivers. That was Rosberg's race to win. Ricciardo drove brilliantly as well.

[easy rider]

Lewis without question the driver of the day, and to date IMO one of his best performances. Hamilton defended aggressively but fairly, and attacked forcibly to regain his position in the fight for the win yesterday at Bahrain.

[Doc Austin]

I think Checo probably got the most out of what he had. I felt like he got a bad deal getting pushed out of McLaren because he didn't do a bad job with what he had there either, so it good to see him get a little validation. Checo looked good against Button, and now he looks pretty decent against the Hulk.

I'm relieved that it is not yet another year of total domination by that team, and it appears that he has a team mate that can hang with him. You will not ever read anything by me that is pulling hard for a RB pilot, ever!

I'm happy to see Vettel struggle, but only because I like him. He's gotten next to no credit for his four championships, simply because so many people think he's been in an unbeatable car. Now it's different and he finally has a chance to prove what he is made of. Now he has a chance to claw his way back into the fight against someone else's unbeatable car.

I like Vettel because he drives fair and he wins clean, and he seems very down to earth with a genuine appreciation for the sport and it's history. In the times where he has absolutely had to perform, he's delivered, from his first championship when he rallied from way behind to steal it in the last seconds, to getting the points in Brazil he needed with a damaged car. I think the times he has made it look too easy makes people forget about the times he had to fight like hell to get it done.

Right now Ricciardo seems to have the better of him, but then again Vettel's car never seems to have been right and Ricciardo has enjoyed far better reliability (bad pit stops and wings and faulty meters aside). Once Red Bull gets the reliability going on both cars, I think Vettel will outpace him, though probably not as badly as he did with Webber.

Either way, like Vettel or not, I think now is going to be when we see what he really has. I am predicting we will see the best Vettel ever. It is good to finally see him challenged, and it will be fascinating to see him respond.