Driver of the Day - Spa

[steveaki13]

Vote time :)

[N4D13]

Danny Boy, no contest. I think Bottas and Kimi should get mentions as well.

[pino]

What N4D13 said !

[gm99]

Yep, Ricciardo and Bottas.

[Garry Walker]

Kimi and Bottas.

[Koz]

Finally a decent performance from Kimi!
Ricciardo, Bottas, Alonso.

[Hawkmoon]

Ricciardo with honourables for Bottas and Raikkonen.

[Tazio]

What N4D13 said !

Ditto

[Tazio]

whoops wrong thread :dork:

[steveaki13]

Driver of the Day:

Daniel Ricciardo - He stopped once less and drove brilliantly. Great effort and is looking at those Merc drivers.

Other Mentions:
Valterri Bottas - Another great drive

Kimi Raikkonen- I really wanted to see him on the podium, but still a great drive.

Max Chilton - After the crazy weekend he has had, he did OK.

Eddie Jordan - For trying to keep calm on the podium

[gm99]

And honourable mention to Eddie Jordan for calling the "fans" who were booing Rosberg on the podium to order!

[N4D13]

Driver of the Day:

Daniel Ricciardo - He stopped once less and drove brilliantly. Great effort and is looking at those Merc drivers.

Other Mentions:
Valterri Bottas - Another great drive

Kimi Raikkonen- I really wanted to see him on the podium, but still a great drive.

Max Chilton - After the crazy weekend he has had, he did OK.

Eddie Jordan - For trying to keep calm on the podium
EJ was great in the podium ceremony! :)

[A FONDO]

Ric, Bot. Mag also did a good job.

[steveaki13]

What would have been fun was if a SC had come out and Lewis had made it to the podium. Imagine the atmosphere then and EJ trying to control it.

[longisland]

1. The smiling assassin. He didn't simply inherited the lead. He made 2 impressive pass & was able to maintain the pace with 1 stop less.
2. Bottas
The Williams were handful in the wet. Bottas demonstrated how the move is done where Rosberg bungled it. Comprehensively out performing his more illustrious teammate.
3. Kimi
Finally, an incident free clean race & outperformed his team mate.
4. Special mention to Rosberg. Incident packed race, made a mess at the start with Lewis, sloppy attempt on Vettel but managed to redeemed himself with a decisive move over Bottas.

[Mia 01]

I have to give it to Kimi today, but Bottas and Ricciardo also deserves to be mentioned.

[driveace]

Ricciardo No doubt
Kimi for at last showing he still has IT !
and Bottas for a great drive which Massa cant give us

[N. Jones]

I'd have to say Kimi, even if he was still his normal low key self after the race.

[dj_bytedisaster]

Rosberg - for being Dick Dastardley. Hamilton has taunted him several times this year with his 'hungrier than thou' bullcrap - an then got what he deserved.

[steveaki13]

Rosberg - for being Dick Dastardley. Hamilton has taunted him several times this year with his 'hungrier than thou' bullcrap - an then got what he deserved.

hmmmmm......

Hamilton deserved to be crashed off?

I seem to remember you being up in arms, when Garry wanted Vettel to be crashed off.

Funny that :rolleyes:

[Tazio]

Right now I don't fell like either one of these freakin' guys deserve to win the freakin' title ;)

[dj_bytedisaster]

hmmmmm......

Hamilton deserved to be crashed off?

I seem to remember you being up in arms, when Garry wanted Vettel to be crashed off.

Funny that :rolleyes:

I'm, not saying Ham deserves to be crashed out and he wasn't - he merely got his tyre sliced. Isn't it Lewis who's so keen to compare himself to Senna? What Nico did was Senna's modus operandi all through his career - stick the nose in and blackmail the other driver into a simple choice - back off or have a crash. He probably thought Nico would keel over at the last minute because he's not 'hungry' enough, but he was proven wrong. Simple as that. He got some of the same medicine he dished out in Bahrain. Back then Nico backed off. Lewis didn't and paid the price, because he mistook his team mate for a push-over.

[airshifter]

Hard to pick a driver of the day. Though there were some mistakes made here and there, there were some freaking incredible passes in out of the ordinary places. Fred was hounding people like his car was on rails, and several good side by side passes took place with him and others.

I'll have to say everyone that finished in the top eight, including Magnusson. Every one of them earned their pay at Spa.

[Hawkmoon]

I'm, not saying Ham deserves to be crashed out and he wasn't - he merely got his tyre sliced. Isn't it Lewis who's so keen to compare himself to Senna? What Nico did was Senna's modus operandi all through his career - stick the nose in and blackmail the other driver into a simple choice - back off or have a crash. He probably thought Nico would keel over at the last minute because he's not 'hungry' enough, but he was proven wrong. Simple as that. He got some of the same medicine he dished out in Bahrain. Back then Nico backed off. Lewis didn't and paid the price, because he mistook his team mate for a push-over.

Getting into a pissing contest with Hamilton over who has the biggest balls isn't the smartest way to win a championship. Rosberg could quite easily have damaged his own car beyond repair by not conceding the corner (which was never his).

[Ari]

And honourable mention to Eddie Jordan for calling the "fans" who were booing Rosberg on the podium to order!

Agreed! Eddie handled that really well. We all knew why they were doing it, but it was still unsavoury. Really glad Eddie was doing the interviews, someone a little softer may have handled it poorly.

[Ari]

Driver of the day was Ricciardo for sure.

Hons. to Bottas and Kimi. Great to see Kimi finally get a decent result! Also to see Button having some fun out there.

As for Massa...? 13th? In a Mercedes powered Williams? Was he asleep?

[Tazio]

As for Massa...? 13th? In a Mercedes powered Williams? Was he asleep? :stareup: Nope!
There were contrasting fortunes for the Williams drivers in Spa, who were separated by over 45 seconds at the chequered flag. Valtteri Bottas (http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/valtteri-bottas/) enjoyed a strong run to his fourth podium finish of the season. But what happened to the team’s other car?
Felipe Massa (http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/felipe-massa/) qualified ninth, three places behind his team mate, and they were still in the same positions at the end of lap one. That’s when things went wrong for Massa, following the collision between the two Mercedes drivers.
“Unfortunately at the beginning of the race I had some tyre debris stuck in the floor that came from Hamilton’s car,” he explained. “This made the car very slow, losing about two seconds per lap.”
Massa was passed by Jenson Button (http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/jenson-button/) and Sergio Perez, and the problem didn’t get better after his first pit stop because his team hadn’t noticed what was wrong with his car.
The debris was removed when Massa came in for his second pit stop on lap 21. “After that I was nearly three seconds quicker and the fastest car on track,” said Massa, “but at this point it was too late for me to really do anything”.
Massa’s lap times were significantly quicker after that second pit stop (http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/08/24/2014-belgian-grand-prix-lap-times-fastest-laps/). But he still had one more stop to make – his final stop with nine laps to go dropped him behind Nico Hulkenberg (http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/nico-hulkenberg/) and Jean-Eric Vergne, where he finished.
Williams’ head of performance engineering Rob Smedley said Massa was “incredibly unlucky” and the debris “probably cost him about 40 seconds in total with his compromised pace and strategy”.
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/08/24/2014-belgian-grand-prix-lap-charts/

[The Black Knight]

:stareup: Nope!

This is probably the first time I've seen Massa have bad luck where it actually was bad luck, unlike all his other races where he claims he's not at fault but he actually is, like Germany.

Ricciardo gets my driver of the day today - no questions asked. Just splendid from the Ozzie. Great drive from Raikkonen too - extracted the maximum from his Ferrari.

[steveaki13]

I'm, not saying Ham deserves to be crashed out and he wasn't - he merely got his tyre sliced. Isn't it Lewis who's so keen to compare himself to Senna? What Nico did was Senna's modus operandi all through his career - stick the nose in and blackmail the other driver into a simple choice - back off or have a crash. He probably thought Nico would keel over at the last minute because he's not 'hungry' enough, but he was proven wrong. Simple as that. He got some of the same medicine he dished out in Bahrain. Back then Nico backed off. Lewis didn't and paid the price, because he mistook his team mate for a push-over.

He wasn't crashed out, but come on. He was basically put out of scoring many/any points.

Also I doubt Hamilton knew exactly where Rosberg was. You look at the side by side shot and Nico had half a wheel and front wing overlapping the back tyre of Hamilton's car.

Hardly side by side.

Anyway this is all meaningless until we get confirmation or denial that Rosberg did it on purpose.

[Tazio]

This is probably the first time I've seen Massa have bad luck where it actually was bad luck, unlike all his other races where he claims he's not at fault but he actually is, like Germany.

Ricciardo gets my driver of the day today - no questions asked. Just splendid from the Ozzie. Great drive from Raikkonen too - extracted the maximum from his Ferrari.
It wasn't bad luck when Kimi, driving like a lunatic at Silverstone earlier this season crashed Massa out of the race? :confused:

[airshifter]

I think you are missing his point Taz. I read that as saying that in this case, Felipe really did have bad luck. Unlike many of Felipes other races where he claims that his crappy race wad due to bad luck. If Kimi claimed that Silverstone was just bad luck, he must have pulled a Felipe that I didn't hear.


I have been pulling for Felipe and was hoping to see him do well. But I think he's done. And despite his decent finish at Spa, I don't think Kimi is far from done either. Seb still gets the benefit of the doubt. But overall a lot of drivers I have had a great deal of respect for are being outclassed by the others driving for the team. At least in Kimi's case he is being outclassed by someone with two WDCs and a well earned reputation for being a long standing great driver all around.

[henners88]

Ricciardo what a stunning drive to take advantage of the Mercedes situation. Vettel must be kicking himself.

[zako85]

Ricciardo what a stunning drive to take advantage of the Mercedes situation. Vettel must be kicking himself.


Can we all sign the petition to give Vettel his blown diffuser back already?

[Tazio]

I think you are missing his point Taz. I read that as saying that in this case, Felipe really did have bad luck. Unlike many of Felipes other races where he claims that his crappy race wad due to bad luck. If Kimi claimed that Silverstone was just bad luck, he must have pulled a Felipe that I didn't hear.


I have been pulling for Felipe and was hoping to see him do well. But I think he's done. And despite his decent finish at Spa, I don't think Kimi is far from done either. Seb still gets the benefit of the doubt. But overall a lot of drivers I have had a great deal of respect for are being outclassed by the others driving for the team. At least in Kimi's case he is being outclassed by someone with two WDCs and a well earned reputation for being a long standing great driver all around.I understood his post perfectly, unless he didn't say what he meant, which was:


This is probably the first time I've seen Massa have bad luck where it actually was bad luck, I wasn't saying anything about Kimi's luck or lack there of, only that his crash into Massa was bad luck for Massa. I do get your point (and possibly what TBN was getting at) because Felipe does seem to point fingers at anyone but himself a lot. but that simply wasn't how the comment was phrased. BTW Felipe has also had some bad luck with reliability this season iirc.
As for the rest of your post I concur.

[555-04Q2]

Bruce...what a drive from the youngster :)

[Duncan]

It wasn't bad luck when Kimi, driving like a lunatic at Silverstone earlier this season crashed Massa out of the race? :confused:

...and let's not forget getting crashed out of the very first race of the season on the very first corner by Kobash's out-of-control Caterham.

[Duncan]

..and, come to think of it, Canada. Felipe crashed out from a very good position on the last lap after colliding with Perez (for which Perez was penalized).

[dj_bytedisaster]

Can we all sign the petition to give Vettel his blown diffuser back already?

I'm pretty sure he would be grateful enough if he had a car that he could actually try to setup to his liking (at at least less to his disliking) as opposed to losing gobs of track time due to a broken car. After Barcelona that was the second race where he basically lost all of Friday and had to go into quali and race with a setup based on guesswork. To adapt to such a radically different car the one thing you need is track time and that's what he's been missing out the most this year. Barely any teasting any so many lost or compromised practice sessions.

[henners88]

I'm sure Ricciardo will give him some tips on how to get the best from and win in the same car.

[aryan]

Filipe has had bad luck this year no doubt. A lot of it in fact.

Bottas has still out raced and outqualified him, but Filipe deserves to have a lot more points that he does right now.

Anyway, DotR is Ricciardo for me. The amazing part was how he just drove away from Vettel after passing him, and was 15 seconds ahead of him 7 laps later! It really is difficult to find any fault with his performance these days.

[journeyman racer]

Anyway, DotR is Ricciardo for me. The amazing part was how he just drove away from Vettel after passing him, and was 15 seconds ahead of him 7 laps later! It really is difficult to find any fault with his performance these days.
It was because Vettel had no running in the dry on Friday! :o

[Tazio]

..and, come to think of it, Canada. Felipe crashed out from a very good position on the last lap after colliding with Perez (for which Perez was penalized).Yes Felipe...this season ...has had more than his share of bad luck. The one with Perez, which happened when Felipe was fighting for a top three finish, was precipitated by the lack of ability to get a pass done earlier in his battle with Checo. Although it was a bit of bad luck, it was also a situation where Felipe baby should have gotten it done earlier, and was a little desperate with that attempt at passing. In retrospect I don't really think Perez deserved a penalty as Massa's move was very optimistic. Felipe is like the boy who cried wolf, and it is natural for followers of this series to cast doubt on his comments when they are so whiney, but this is no reason to ignore the obvious, he has had a lot of bad luck this season.