Which Formula One driver made the most of the Austrian Grand Prix weekend?
It’s time to give your verdict on which driver did the best with the equipment at their disposal over the last three days.
Review how each driver got on below and vote for who impressed you the most at Red Bull Ring.
Driver performance summary
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Vote for your driver of the weekend
Which driver do you think did the best job throughout the race weekend?
Who got the most out of their car in qualifying and the race? Who put their team mate in the shade?
Cast your vote below and explain why you chose the driver you picked in the comments.
Who was the best driver of the 2019 Austrian Grand Prix weekend?
- No opinion (0%)
- Robert Kubica (2%)
- George Russell (0%)
- Alexander Albon (0%)
- Daniil Kvyat (0%)
- Antonio Giovinazzi (0%)
- Kimi Raikkonen (0%)
- Lance Stroll (0%)
- Sergio Perez (0%)
- Lando Norris (9%)
- Carlos Sainz Jnr (11%)
- Kevin Magnussen (0%)
- Romain Grosjean (0%)
- Nico Hulkenberg (0%)
- Daniel Ricciardo (0%)
- Pierre Gasly (0%)
- Max Verstappen (62%)
- Charles Leclerc (14%)
- Sebastian Vettel (1%)
- Valtteri Bottas (0%)
- Lewis Hamilton (1%)
Total Voters: 247
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When this poll is closed the result will be displayed instead of the voting form.
2019 Austrian Grand Prix
- 2019 Austrian Grand Prix Star Performers
- Top ten pictures from the 2019 Austrian Grand Prix
- Leclerc denied again as Verstappen’s hard racing gives Red Bull home win
- Six wins and no pole for Verstappen, two poles and no win for Leclerc
- Paddock Diary: Austrian Grand Prix day four
Debates and polls
- Will Alonso win a world championship title with Aston Martin?
- How long should Red Bull give Ricciardo to prove he’s not lost his touch?
- Were stewards right to penalise Alonso over his driving before Russell’s crash?
- Are Williams right to bench Sargeant so Albon can race after crash?
- Is the FIA right to make ten seconds the new standard for penalties?
MacLeod (@macleod)
30th June 2019, 22:55
Should be Easy
Max Verstappen, Kuddoes Leclerc and Sainz, Lando
Mioki (@okif1)
1st July 2019, 17:29
Nonetheless Max had a very bad start and Leclerc could have done it better at the end. Carlos had a perfect race. He overtook more cars than any other driver and never exposed any weakness during the race. This is why I finally voted for Sainz. Kudos to VER and LEC for the excellent performance too, however they both could have avoid their single failures.
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
30th June 2019, 22:57
Although Verstappen had a stellar race, I gave it to Sainz. He did an outstanding job with his team. Down to 14th after the pitstop and then overtook six cars, started from the 19th and got a nice share of points in a trouble-free race with all 20 drivers finishing – Ok, that’s maybe too much talking, but I’ve voted for him because his drive got really overlooked by the most spectators and media.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
30th June 2019, 23:37
@pironitheprovocateur – nice points.
GnosticBrian (@gnosticbrian)
1st July 2019, 0:36
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur) – You are right. Saintz was overlooked. Carlos set fastest lap and it was ignored by Brundle. Moments later, Max set fastest lap and Brundle paised the achievement.
Mashiat (@mashiat)
1st July 2019, 5:20
@gnosticbrian Even I don’t remember Sainz setting FLAP.
GnosticBrian (@gnosticbrian)
1st July 2019, 17:01
The FL indicator popped up on the sidebar next to Saintz name.
MacLeod (@macleod)
1st July 2019, 8:00
Even Olaf (Dutch reported didn’t report fast lap But to be fair he didn’t report max fastest either. I think it’s the age of those reporters.
FA
1st July 2019, 13:33
No not the age. It’s favouritism. That he once did not mention a FLAP set by max sounds quite unbelieveable. Maybe he was praising him on yet another way. He did catch every other FLAP set by belgian max. He even attributed a FLAP set by VET to max, and when he realized his mistake, he just kept quiet instead of admitting his mistake.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
30th June 2019, 23:08
Max’s drive (near win as Max screwed up at the end) was very reminiscent of Ricciardo’s wins. 2 drivers passing many cars to win.
Gasly on the other hand can’t drive this chassis and even Vettel had trouble with it despite being untouchable with the V8 chassis.
FA
1st July 2019, 13:36
Interesting mental gymnastics.
faulty (@faulty)
30th June 2019, 23:09
Driver of the weekend to the guy who stalled at the lights?
Ok!
George (@george)
30th June 2019, 23:18
From what I understand the initial stage of the starts are pretty much data driven. Unless he put a setting in the wrong place or didn’t hold the right amount of revs it’s on the engineers.
glynh (@glynh)
1st July 2019, 0:01
I thought about that but that’s a fraction of the race and winning from 7th these days is an amazing achievement.
GechiChan (@gechichan)
1st July 2019, 7:29
F1 has gotten to a point where top drivers usually say that they lost the race at the start… meaning they had to settle for 2nd place in Turn1 and that was the race. That’s why I really wish more top drivers would stall at the start, it gives us something to cheer for in the race.
Matteo (@m-bagattini)
1st July 2019, 8:26
@faulty I also have not noticed him during the other days; @keithcollantine maybe this can be changed to driver of the day, since the vast majority seems to focus on race day usually.
Ioannis (@ioannisk)
30th June 2019, 23:57
Although it should have been easier, for the first time in years I am torn for my vote.
LEC: Solid performance throughout the weekend, clear pole and close to his 1st victory.
VER: Stalled, dropped to 8th, then had a Senna reincarnation. Perhaps he provided us the most memorable race and driving the recent era. A touch of 80’s-90’s, racing all the way.
SAI: 19th to 8th, with quite a few overtakes which we missed by poor TV directing.
NOR: Solid and consistent. Recipe for long term success.
RAI and GIO: Exceptional weekend.
On pure racing terms I have to give this to either VER or SAI, but given that VER came back and overtook 3 top contenders in a row, VET, BOT, LEC, I am going to give it to VER.
peter
1st July 2019, 0:10
He dropped to 9th.
Andres
1st July 2019, 0:38
Great points. Gotta love this one!
Arush
1st July 2019, 3:50
I wish they’d split screen to show Sainz’s charge, like they do in IndyCar
Mioki (@okif1)
1st July 2019, 17:24
I had the same dilemma. Nonetheless Max had a very bad start while Carlos had a perfect race. Carlos overtook more cars than any other driver and never exposed any weakness. This is why I finally voted for Sainz. Kudos to VER and LEC for the excellent performance too, however they both could have avoid their single failures.
Robbie (@robbie)
1st July 2019, 0:49
Max without doubt. His quali was also strong. The bad start was not his fault.
FA
1st July 2019, 14:21
“The bad start was not his fault.” – Whose was it then, the wind? Whenever there’s something with the anti-stall, you can bet your gearbox on it it’s a driver error. It was his fault, just as it was in Austria’17. It’s only a whole lot easier to admit it after you won the race:
“It was a shame at the start as I triggered anti-stall and dropped back to seventh” – max, yesterday.
@robbie
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
1st July 2019, 3:40
Vote for Max because the stall made F1 bearable again.
The limit
1st July 2019, 3:46
Verstappen, Leclerc, Norris in that order. Norris for me has been the standout of the season, and McLaren the most improved team.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
1st July 2019, 4:13
I voted for verstappen who reminded me of his almost win in brazil 2018 and was the hero of the day, however leclerc didn’t make the mistake at start and deserved this win, like italian commentators said, both deserved today but imo leclerc would’ve been slightly better also cause he lost his only other chance to win due to a mechanical problem, while verstappen had several.
Regardless I don’t really mind who wins as long as it’s finally a non-mercedes win, finally red bull shows their race pace again in the hands of a good driver and finally ferrari is clearly superior to mercedes all weekend.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
1st July 2019, 6:47
About twenty laps from the end I started thinking, how am I gonna vote this. Max is doing a great job but messed up the start. Last laps cleared out the issue for me.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
1st July 2019, 7:02
As I write this, no one has voted for either of the Mercedes drivers (115 votes) as Driver of the Weekend. Does anyone know how long it has been since neither of the Mercedes drivers received No Votes?
GechiChan (@gechichan)
1st July 2019, 7:32
Kubica has 2%, more than both Merc drivers :))
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
1st July 2019, 7:51
Even if I pin the blame on Verstappen, it has to be him. He passed every single driver in the top two teams. You cannot, and I don’t know how to put this any clearer, you cannot overtake Hamilton, Bottas, Vettel, and Leclerc in one race. Did Verstappen care that it was impossible? No, he just did it. And all this while keeping his tyres alive much more strongly than those around him.
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
1st July 2019, 7:52
For the start, that is. Even if we blame Verstappen for the poor start, it’s still not enough to remove him from DOTW.
FA
1st July 2019, 13:47
So basically you voted on a wrong premise: HAM wasn’t passed by max, only by VET.
The last time s/o passed every single driver of all the THREE top-teams, not just two, was RIC in China last year, though he passed max while the latter was adrift after he tried to overtake HAM.
@chrischrill
Patrick
1st July 2019, 17:00
Top 3 being Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull…then he passed all three. gasly, Vettel and bottas…
FA
2nd July 2019, 9:36
Nope, he said: “He passed every single driver in the top two teams.”
BTW GAS went of the racing line on a straight; he clearly LET him through. And BOT didn’t put up a fight at all too, he immediately went out of the way to be in a better shape to defend against VET probably.
isaac (@invincibleisaac)
1st July 2019, 8:43
It has to be Verstappen for me. Qualified very well but had a poor start (mechanical or driver error?) and then went on to recovery brilliantly. Made his tyres last well at the end of his first stint, and produced some great overtakes and was easily the fastest on track. Lapped his team-mate and made a brilliant comeback.
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
1st July 2019, 9:24
Leclerc or Russell. Much as Verstappen’s win was something nobody else in F1 could do, he crashed in FP2 and he did a terrible start. Leclerc was faultless and on a bad strategy. Russell managed to take the fight to midfield teams…
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
1st July 2019, 9:26
Shouts for Sainz also very valid.
FA
1st July 2019, 13:52
“he crashed in FP2 and he did a terrible start. Leclerc was faultless and on a bad strategy. Russell managed to take the fight to midfield teams…Shouts for Sainz also very valid.” – Well founded points.
“Much as Verstappen’s win was something nobody else in F1 could do” – Ill founded point.
Aapje (@aapje)
1st July 2019, 16:51
FP2 was before the weekend :)
juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
2nd July 2019, 9:28
Oops – I included Friday in my deliberation.
Can I change my vote?
Philip (@philipgb)
1st July 2019, 10:26
I don’t think Verstappen’s poor start is enough to count him out. Without Verstappen we would all be talking about how Red Bull switching to Honda was a disaster and things were no better than when McLaren were using their power units.
To recover from falling behind your team mate to lapping them is astonishing. Verstappen has been near perfect this season, and even when he slips like his start he did what I think no one else could, I don’t even think Hamilton could have delivered that victory.
FA
1st July 2019, 14:11
@philipgb
“I don’t even think Hamilton could have delivered that victory.” – I’m pretty sure he could. I think two of the best performances of the last couple of years were RIC in China last year and HAM in Silverstone last year. One was getting the maximum result after applying utmost (overtaking) skill, overtaking all the others in a top-car, in a bit more competitive car after a lucky break. And the other was a display of having so much surplus in sheer speed, having to come back from (almost) the back of the pack after starting from pole, thanks to being in so much harmony with your car, and after a lucky break once again, you still get 2nd, 2s behind the winner.
GAS, unfortunately, is no benchmark at all.
BoRa (@bnwllc3)
1st July 2019, 11:41
For the weekend, noone was faultless except Leclerc. At the end he lost the win but I believe it was impossible to keep Max behind for last 3 laps, so there is nothing he can do about that. I consider this lose as extraordinary speed of Max and strategic misjudgement of Ferrari.
Max lost the start, and again he tried and took an unnecessary risk for the winning move, and even he touched to another one, he was just lucky that he kept going. Difference between a winning driver and a world champion driver is the quality of this kind of moves and how silly risks you take. So, he is just fun to watch driver for me, instead a driver of the weekend.
Adam (@rocketpanda)
1st July 2019, 11:56
Verstappen. Impressive throughout, especially given he dropped to 7th on the first lap and went on to win. Pretty much perfect. Norris, Sainz, Leclerc and Vettel did well too.
Bottas 1.0 returned.
Jere (@jerejj)
1st July 2019, 12:30
DOTW: Max, as well as the DOTD with honorable mentions to Leclerc, both Mclaren-drivers especially Sainz, and the Alfa Romeo-drivers.
Alvaro (@marin)
1st July 2019, 19:30
Sainz and Verstappen, who is finally building on the maturity as a driver to match his raw skill. He messed up the start but fixed his own mistake so won’t hold it against him, if you clean up your own mess and then win, well done.
Sainz didn’t really make a mistake all weekend, being forced to start at he back of the grid and using Q2 to give Norris a tug. Here are all of Sainz’s overtakes which F1 for some reason decided not to show us:
https://streamable.com/ptpmv
Leclerc did well until it really mattered and then lacked the genius of the all time greats to defend. Honourable mention to Norris and the Alfas. Mercedes and Vettel bleh.
Glennb
2nd July 2019, 3:14
I went with KUB.
He was only 3 laps off the pace and brought the car home unscathed. I wonder how often he was shown the blue flag. Maybe a record?
I also wonder if Williams underfuel their cars accordingly as they don’t need to complete as many laps as everyone else. The lap savings may add up to an engine or 2 over a season.
Imre (@f1mre)
2nd July 2019, 17:01
Norris. I am surprised by the relatively low number of votes for him. He drove and excellent qualifying and race.
montreal95 (@montreal95)
2nd July 2019, 20:57
Max will win this easily, but I voted for Sainz. Absolutely mega!