2016 Belgian GP - ROTR

[DemocalypseNow]

A few contenders today! It's a tricky one for sure.

[tBone]

1 - Max Verstappen. Overly agressive driving, a disappointing recovery drive compared to Raikkonen... I still think he is a future world champion, but he did nothing today to make the Dutch crowd proud.

2 - Williams' team orders. Williams already had another disappointing result, but by letting Bottas past Massa, they let Massa alone to be overtaken by Raikkonen, losing another point.

[tommykl]

1. Quite obviously Max Verstappen. Absolutely disgraceful driving today, and it's a wonder why he wasn't penalised for it.
2. Hype for a Hamilton comeback. He did finish third, but he effectively started fifth. Not quite the excitement we could have had.

[golic_2004]

1. Max V: His driving is like that of an 18 yr old's, not that of an 18 yr veteran.
2. Ferrari with their silly 1st lap shenanigans

(Dis)Honorable Mention: The red flag was ill-timed for Hulkenberg for his first podium chances and Haas for a possible points-scoring finish for both drivers

[noiceinmydrink]

1 - Max Verstappen: I don't think the first corner incident was his fault, although the move on the inside was possibly a tad optimistic, but some fairly reckless driving with a few drivers, namely with Raikkonen. Deserves more than a slap on the wrist.

2 - Kevin Magnussen's headrest: Naughty little thing, not meant to fly off like that.

Honorable Mention - Daniel Ricciardo and Mark Webber: u mingerssssssssss

[Fetzie]

Max Verstappen: for driving like a boy racer, not a racer.

The crowd: for booing the podium as if it were their fault that Verstappen drove like an idiot and didn't take a podium spot.

[Londoner]

1. Max Verstappen - He drove like an absolute idiot all day, caused the La Source contretemps by being impatient, then stacked up the field on the first lap which probably caused Wehrlein and Button's crash. The fact he didn't even get an investigation for blocking Kimi at 330kph is absolutely shocking. Quite frankly he deserves a race ban for his conduct today, instead he's probably gonna get away scot-free. Which leads me to...

2. The stewards - Verstappen wasn't investigated for nearly sending Kimi into the trees, yet Nasr cops a penalty for an unseen track limits infringement, and they turned a blind eye to the Alonso/Hulk pitlane stupidity. Danny Sullivan, I am disappoint.

[Aguaman]

1. Martin Brundle and David Croft. So many mistakes from Crofty
- Called Raikkonen Vettel and vice versa
- Said Nico Rosberg finished 4th ahead of his teammate Sergio Perez.
- The hype over Max and Lewis
Brundle with the over love of Max. Like give Paul di Resta the gig.

2. Max Verstappan
Kind of caused the incident between Kimi and Seb. A bit reckless driving and also trying to blame Kimi only to be shut down by Horner.

[Meatwad]

Really difficult, as many of the rejectful drivers did something impressive enough to undo their rejectfulness. However, these are my nominations...

1. Pascal Wehrlein: After a good qualifying, it was a shame to see him throw his chances away with such a silly crash. At least Ocon had a mature debut in one of the craziest races in a while.
2. Sauber: I know they have been crap all season, but this weekend deserves a special mention. Nasr finished last behind a rookie in a Manor while Ericsson retired, after yet another awful qualifying. Every other team on the grid, even Manor and Renault, impressed at some point of the weekend.

[This Could Be You]

1. Palmer, for wasting yet another chance for points and whining to the team.
2. Verstappen, for driving like a total idiot (and being very lucky that the stewards like him)

DHM:
Ferrari/Williams Pace

[Samster]

1. Red Flag Pit Rules - I've complained about this before but this occasion took the biscuit. How unfair is that to those that had already pitted under the safety car to allow those that hadn't the opportunity to get a free pitstop and for Alonso and Hamilton to leap frog a bunch of cars for no effort. Thankfully it looks like this will be changed for 2017. All part of the Hulk can't have nice things policy as he lost a certain podium.

2. Golden Boy - Start line collision was painfully optimistic at best. Then there was more stupidly aggressive blocking. Most dangerous driver in the field bar none.

Mention

Stewards - For letting Golden Boy get away with more stupid driving.

Fernando Alonso - For nearly wiping out Hulk in the pitlane.

Kevin Magnussen - (Tounge in cheek mode) Did you really have to crash at Eau Rouge and damage the barrier and ruin the race.

[Aguaman]

1. Palmer, for wasting yet another chance for points and whining to the team.
2. Verstappen, for driving like a total idiot (and being very lucky that the stewards like him)

DHM:
Ferrari/Williams Pace

To be fair on Palmer and I am never fair on him. He had a decent race. The red flag ruined it for him as he just pitted before.

[rachel1990]

1- Max Verstappen. Awful Sunday. Ran kimi off the road more times than I care to mention and not a single punishment. He was the youngest ever driver on the front row and it showed.

2- red flag tyre rules. What a farce. Instead of lewis Hamilton showing us why he is a deserving wc the tyre rules allowed him to skip that and go up to 5th. this rule wrecked the finale of the 2011 monaco gp and cost the hulk a deserved 3rd place

[Dan B]

1) Max Verstappen: Unacceptable driving. Period. The divebomb into La Source was completely unnecessary and on top of that was the most dangerous driver on the grid as others have stated. I don't know if the Dutch fans have gotten to his head, but he ought to be benched for that driving. What a jackass.

2) The Stewards: For letting Verstappen get away with everything he did. Again, I don't know if it was because of the Dutch fans - maybe they didn't want to piss off the fans by penalizing their driver- but had it been anyone else driving they would've gotten severe penalties. In addition they did not investigate that pitlane incident between Alonso and Hulkenberg, and instead gave a penalty to Felipe Nasr because they had to do something so they looked like they weren't dead and instead looked just woefully inept.

[lance_rambert]

1. Max Verstappen - Sheesh, what the bathplug was up with him today? Oh, and no penalties somehow. I'd be less surprised if he decided to turn around another car into the wall at speed just for bumping his tires or "turning in" on him. Completely disgraceful driving, no doubt about it.

I also came across his post-race stuff. Guess what? The Golden Boy also gets a bonus award! Go wipe away your angry tears with this. You deserve it... .

2. Stewards - Were these guys just huffing glue the entire race? First off, they did jack shite about Golden Boy, despite him making at least one stupidly dangerous move that could've ended with a big wreck. Bonus points for being inconsistent with the stupid blocking move, as they knicked K-Mag for doing something similar to Alonso two years ago. Nasr, and probably some other drivers I forgot about, get penalized for stuff while Max runs scot-free doing whatever the hell he pleases. That unsafe release crap with McHonda and Alonso also got brushed off (and shouldn't have)... even though part of me didn't want them to get a penalty...

[Shadaza]

1) Max Verstappen. Overly aggressive and at times dangerous driving that ruined his race. He needs to cool his jets before a horror smash happens.

2) Dutch/Belgium Booers. Booing is not nice in F1, sometimes it happens after a controversial result or person. Rosberg did nothing controversial at all yet was still hounded by the boistrous crowd. ME NO LIKE.

[Normal32]

1. Max Verstappen - Absolutely disgusting and horrible driving, worthy of a ban...

2. Stewards - ... how didn't this get a ban again?!

[good_Ralf]

1) Red flag tyre rules - Although Magnussen's crash neutralized the field, this turned what had been a great race into a fairly predictable affair. It made Hamilton's job stupidly easy and contributed to yet another close-but-no-cigar finish for Hulkenberg, who drove what was easily his best race of the year. I'm still a little cross over how things overfolded today,
Then again, if tyre changes under red flags had already been banned, would Romain Grosjean have scored that popular 6th place in Australia?

2) Max Verstappen - If it was any other driver (possibly with the exception of Hamilton) the announcement of a penalty would appear on the TV screen within a handful of laps, the talk of the stewards being biased almost feels plausible.

[mario]

1) Max Verstappen: as others have said, his driving was reckless and dangerous, whilst his attitude after the race was equally appalling (he reportedly boasted to a Dutch broadcaster that he would rather push another driver off the track than let them overtake him). I have to agree with Kimi when he complained that, if he hadn't braked, Max's moves would have put them both into the trees.

Frankly, the only points he deserved to earn today were on his licence - speaking of which...

2) The stewards: perhaps the stewards managed to fall asleep in the office, because they certainly seemed to be oblivious to what the drivers were getting up to. A few years ago, Magnussen was penalised for aggressively chopping across Alonso's path along the Kemmel Straight - however, Verstappen seems to have been given carte blanche to behave as he wanted without the stewards even bothering to look at his behaviour. All in all, quite a few people drove fairly recklessly on track and yet the stewards didn't seem to care.

[CaptainGetz12]

1) Max Verstappen. One of the most aggressive drives I've seen in a good while and it got him nowhere. He needs to mellow out a bit if he doesn't want to throw away points like this again.

2) Pascal Wehrlein. Put his car into Button in the opening laps, costing Manor a potential points haul.

(Dis)honourable Mentions:
Rules under Red Flag. Giving those who didn't stop under the safety car a pitstop screwed over much of the field today, not just Force India.

Verstappen not getting a penalty. I sense some excessive bias here...

[mario]

1) Max Verstappen. One of the most aggressive drives I've seen in a good while and it got him nowhere. He needs to mellow out a bit if he doesn't want to throw away points like this again.

His comments after the race make it sound as if his moves on Kimi were out of spite for having his race spoiled at the start. He is quoted as saying this after the race:

"The Ferrari's ruined my race in the first corner. Then I will not let them past. I'd prefer to run them off the track instead. Let them rage over the team radio, it's fun for the people at home in front of the television".

It seems that Lauda is pretty furious with Verstappen's attitude - he stated that "He's unfair and outrageous to say he does not do anything wrong.". At least he seems to be prepared to call him out for his attitude - the fact that he now appears to have confessed to intentional malice with his moves is frankly disgusting.

[Dj_bereta]

1- Verstappen: A disaster "home GP". He was lucky of not getting penalties today.

2- Vettel: Even considering Verstappen dive bomb in the first corner, the German gave no room for Kimi.

Special mention for:

Massa: A dreadful race, especially for finishing behind Alonso.

Stewards: Only for the lack of consistency. I think they are right to let the drivers racing hard with each other.

Magnussen: Apparently, his crash was his own fault. Not a good moment for this, considering Renault team has a long driver list for the next year.

Red Flag rules: Like what happened in Monaco, this reset the race... in the wrong way.

[lance_rambert]

His comments after the race make it sound as if his moves on Kimi were out of spite for having his race spoiled at the start. He is quoted as saying this after the race:

"The Ferrari's ruined my race in the first corner. Then I will not let them past. I'd prefer to run them off the track instead. Let them rage over the team radio, it's fun for the people at home in front of the television".

...the fact that he now appears to have confessed to intentional malice with his moves is frankly disgusting.

Wow. Reading that over again, to me, Max wasn't too far off from saying "I'm going to spin out/wreck Kimi because he f**ked me over" on turn one of the first freaking lap. I'd hate to see him become the next Dan Ticktum, but if he can't keep his cool, then I guess we'll just have to watch a would-be rising star's spectacular meltdown.

Pretty appalling of Max to be thinking like this. That will definitely not help his case against folks who think he's way too young to be racing in F1.

[roblo97]

1: Max Verstappen
2: Pascal Wehrlein

[Rob Dylan]

The athlete that comes into mind when I think of Max Verstappen is Nick Kyrgios. Both very young and talented, but the entitlement goes to their head, and while Kyrgios is currently in this stagnant state of "great, but won't get at the top level with his attitude", Verstappen is still in early-enough days to sort himself out. He doesn't want to ruin possibly the best opportunities of his career by being out of control, angering his peers and accepting no responsibility for his actions.

[CaptainGetz12]

1) Max Verstappen. One of the most aggressive drives I've seen in a good while and it got him nowhere. He needs to mellow out a bit if he doesn't want to throw away points like this again.

His comments after the race make it sound as if his moves on Kimi were out of spite for having his race spoiled at the start. He is quoted as saying this after the race:

"The Ferrari's ruined my race in the first corner. Then I will not let them past. I'd prefer to run them off the track instead. Let them rage over the team radio, it's fun for the people at home in front of the television".

It seems that Lauda is pretty furious with Verstappen's attitude - he stated that "He's unfair and outrageous to say he does not do anything wrong.". At least he seems to be prepared to call him out for his attitude - the fact that he now appears to have confessed to intentional malice with his moves is frankly disgusting.

If he did try to take out Kimi out of spite, then my point still stands. He's there to bring points to Red Bull, not get revenge. I hope Red Bull at least give him a reprimand for potentially throwing away a car and even their chances for 2nd in constructors.

Today's performance was somewhat amusing, but I hope going too far with it doesn't become the norm for him.

[Peteroli34]

1) Max Verstappen - Woeful driving, You cant drive like that when you are defending your position

2. Red Flag Rules - Why does a Red Flag give you a free Pitstop.

[TheFlyingCaterham]

1. Max Verstappen - for some driving that was lucky to not cause any major incident.
2. Red flag pit lane rules for screwing up everyone who already made a pit stop (well, not majorly, but the red flag didn't help matters).

Dishonourable mentions go to Kevin Magnussen's headrest for flying off and Vettel for that first corner incident.

[James1978]

1, Max Verstappen. What a bloody mess. Needs to wind his neck in.

2. Carlos Sainz - it did make me laugh that he was trying to drive a car in THAT condition back to the pits.

[CoopsII]

1- Verstappen - Watch out! There's a new bad-boy in town! Pity he resembles the guy who runs the D&D club at Uni.

2 - Fans booing - I don't care what their reasons were they made themselves look like the imbeciles they clearly are.

[tommykl]

A bit late to change my vote, so I'll add this as a honourable mention.

The fans who voted for Hamilton as Driver Of The Day. Seriously. He passed four drivers to take that podium. Kvyat, Ocon, Alonso and Hülkenberg. Hardly a titanic achievement worthy of praise.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

For people voting the crowd, it had nothing to do with Verstappen, and I'm pretty sure none of the booers (who were very much in the minority) were Dutch, they were Hamilton fans.

[CoopsII]

For people voting the crowd, it had nothing to do with Verstappen, and I'm pretty sure none of the booers (who were very much in the minority) were Dutch, they were Hamilton fans.

How you know this?

[tommykl]

For people voting the crowd, it had nothing to do with Verstappen, and I'm pretty sure none of the booers (who were very much in the minority) were Dutch, they were Hamilton fans.

How you know this?

He was there.

[CoopsII]

For people voting the crowd, it had nothing to do with Verstappen, and I'm pretty sure none of the booers (who were very much in the minority) were Dutch, they were Hamilton fans.

How you know this?

He was there.

Ooh, yet another reason to be jealous of Simtek!

[Fetzie]

For people voting the crowd, it had nothing to do with Verstappen, and I'm pretty sure none of the booers (who were very much in the minority) were Dutch, they were Hamilton fans.

In that case, I'll change the second nomination to the crowd, for booing the podium because Hamilton didn't win.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

For people voting the crowd, it had nothing to do with Verstappen, and I'm pretty sure none of the booers (who were very much in the minority) were Dutch, they were Hamilton fans.

In that case, I'll change the second nomination to the crowd, for booing the podium because Hamilton didn't win.

Again, not exactly accurate, because the majority of the crowd was cheering. The booing almost entirely came from this small group of morons: