Poll 2010 Canadian Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend

[cider_and_toast]

After a great weekend in Canada it's going to be an equally close fought battle for the driver of the weekend. Of course there will be one name at the top of most peoples lists which will be Lewis Hamilton. At a track where McLaren were expected to go well he didn't disappoint. With a stunning qualifying lap at the very last minute of the session and a near perfect drive in the race he certainly deserved his place at the top of the podium.

Let's look a bit further down the list however, and consider a few more names.

After the disaster that was Turkey, Alonso managed to keep it all together in Canada and out perform both the RBRs. This was something that no one really predicted at the start of the weekend. On the pace pretty much all weekend, Alonso did well to turn around his performance since and was well worth his spot on the podium.

Further down the grid there were two great drives, one from Seb Buemi who had a fantastic Sunday and who actually lead the race for a lap. Now if that's not a performance worthy of consideration for driver of the weekend I don't know what is but to add to it, he showed great maturity in passing Schumacher and his 8th place was a superb reward for a great day.

The second being Tony Liuzzi, as most of us were writing him off and pretty much giving his seat to Di Resta for the remainder of the season, up pops Antonio with a superb lap in qualification and then in a race where unfortunately he came off second best to Massa at turn one, he still managed to keep himself in with a chance and drove to a well deserved 9th. Out performing his highly rated team mate in qualification and the race will have been a great boost for him.

Was there anyone else that caught your eye? Who was your driver of the weekend?

Vote now.

 

[Muddytalker]

As he may never have another chance to be the DotW, I went for Tony, not least for giving one back to MS on behalf of RK, FM, and RB, DC, JV, JH, DH...

 

[Bullfrog]

I'm going for Liuzzi as well.

Under immense pressure to perform at the moment, he posted an excellent time in qualifying and managed to keep his head after the first corner pummelling he got from Massa. Very assured recovery drive to pick up a few useful points. Finished ahead of his team mate which is always important and was part of a titanic 3 or 4 car scrap that seemed to go on for almost the entire race. Lastly, he performed a great service (that it turns out the stewards would not have had the balls to do) in stuffing it up the inside of ol' banana-face on the last lap and shoving him out of the points.

A thoroughly impressive performance and a massive turn around from the awful weekend in Turkey and some very lacklustre showings in previous races. I think he may have saved his season (and maybe his F1 career seeing as this is his second stab at it) all in space of one weekend.

Alonso or Buemi would have been my second choice, closely followed by Hamilton and Button.

 

[teabagyokel]

I'm going for Alonso. We were expecting great things from McLaren, but not Ferrari, and Alonso was unlucky not to win the race.

 

[Brogan]

Hmmm, tough one this.

I'm going to rule Alonso out though as he did badly in traffic, overtaken by both Hamilton and Button trying to defend instead of trying to pass.
Negotiating traffic and overtaking slower cars should be basic skills, especially for a double WDC.

Still no idea who to pick though.

 

[McZiderRed]

Luizzi

I was going to vote for Hamilton, but Luizzi was battered by Massa, several times!, but still came back to earn points, he over-took the wandering Schumacher which deprived the German a point and out performed his team-mate. A thoroughly entertaining drive, Mr Liuzzi, so you are my Driver of the Weekend!

 

[Brogan]

All things considered, I've gone for Vitantonio.

It was hard to see past Lewis' drive as he didn't put a wheel wrong but he's probably going to be in the frame again for DOTW so this is possibly the one and only chance for Liuzzi.

Unless the Force India continues to get better and better, which it seems to be doing.

 

[cider_and_toast]

As compelling as the case for Tony is I've given my vote to Buemi. A great drive that saw a Torro Rosso actually lead the race all be it for one lap. Another driver who managed to get the better of an ailing Schumacher and a great sensible driver to bring the car home in 8th place.

 

[slickskid]

It would have been far to easy to vote for Hamilton who again was the class amoungst the field all weekend. Unlike most others i was expecting Ferrari to do well with the characteristics of the circuit suiting their cars better.

Despite the first / second corner rendition of dodgem / strictly come dancing i thought Luizzi & Massa had superb drives coming back through the field until schumacher decided to put one on his ex team mate.

Another to have an excellent weekend was Rosberg, outdoing his team mate all weekend then unwittingly caught up un the Liuzzi / Massa incident had a pretty much unobserved race setting the odd fastest lap here and there.

However the Sunday drive ofthe day had to be from Buemi as previously mentioned so he gets my vote but hats off to Kovalienen as well for a good effort.

 

[Bullfrog]

On the subject of Mr Liuzzi, did anyone else want to reach into the TV and shake Eddie Jordan by the beard every time he pronounced it Luizzi?

 

[siffert_fan]

I am giving Massa an extremely rare prize- winning driver and chump of the weekend. He drove with a great deal of fire and kept coming back from adversity in impressive fashion. Not so impressive was continually getting into adversity.

 

[Brogan]

Surely being chump of the weekend automatically excludes him from being champ?

To be champ, you first have to beat your teammate (or equal them) and your weekend has to be almost faultless and Massa's was far from that.
Even discounting his misfortune during the race, he didn't qualify particularly well and was also at least partly responsible for the first corner triple hit.

 

[BlackCountryBob]

To me, I think Lewis was driver of the weekend, not only because he won but because he had to work for it, he lead a controlled race and by way of a poor pit stop (how un McLaren like to have such a poor pit crew of late) had to overtake Alonso to get to the top and took Webber as soon as he could rather than just follow him. Finally, to bang in a fastest lap on tyres 20 laps old to give Button the don't even bother treatment was just amazing.

However, if I were able to give votes to others I would say a bit well done to Heikki and Chandhok who both did very well, finishing the race, beating their closest competition (Chandhok beat the sole Virgin while Heikki did Petrov) and being really good guys about it too, I have a lot of respect for drivers in their situation in very slow cars but doing all they can with a smile on their face. Also, congrats to Rubens on his 15k lap but I have to wonder how he could start 11th, have no crashes or penalties in a race where several drivers had a bit of a mare yet not get close to snatching a point.

 

[FB]

This was a tough one. Hamilton drove superbly, Button was on his game but not up to Hamilton's pace, Webber was let down by Red Bull's strategy calls, Buemi gave Schumie a lesson and both the FI drivers did a sterling job. Alonso nearly got my Chump of the Weekend vote for not being able to pass back markers and keep either Hamilton or Button behind, Vettel was anonymous and Rosberg, although consistent, didn't set the world alight.

Based on all this I have to go for Buemi simply for the double "champagne moment" of leading a lap and sticking it to the Red Baron.

 

[F1Yorkshire]

I'm going to go against the grain here. Kovalinen in the Lotus did a great job lapping the other backmarkers for the 1st time this year. He almost out-qualified a Sauber as well. I don't think it will be long until Lotus are making it through to Q2 and hanging on for a point.

 

[Bullfrog]

Valencia could be good for them too, low downforce tracks make less of the big aero deficiencies of the 3 new teams.

Still a big step forward though, but I'm waiting for one of them to beat an established team on pace alone.