Following an exciting Canadian Grand Prix, it is clear that there are several candidates for The Checkered Flag’s driver of the day award.
Last time out, Nico Rosberg was frankly the only choice for the driver of the day award, but things are less clear cut this time.
The first candidate, obviously, is Sebastian Vettel. After putting together a stunning lap in qualifying yesterday to take pole position in tricky conditions, the triple World Champion was simply in a class of his own today. He never looked like he’d be challenge and opened up a strong advantage in just the opening first laps to put him out of DRS range.
It wasn’t a completely perfect race, with an off track moment and a brush with the wall showing just how hard the championship leader was pushing, but in the end, a fourteen second margin was a clear indication that he has put the demons of 2011 well and truly behind him.
The other two stand out candidates are Jean Eric Vergne and Paul di Resta.
Vergne put in the best qualifying performance of his short Formula One career yesterday, and completed a strong race today to claim a well-deserved sixth place. The Toro Rosso man kept numerous fastest cars well behind him to put his season back on track after earlier being out performed by Daniel Ricciardo.
In contrast, Paul di Resta suffered an awful day yesterday, failing to progress beyond Q1 for the second time in two consecutive races. However, he rectified that situation with a great race today, stopping out longer than anyone else and was the only driver to make the one stop strategy work. A seventh place was a fine reward for his performance.
An honourable mention must also go to Valtteri Bottas if just for his amazing qualifying session in the rain of Saturday. It was clear as soon as the race began under blue skies that he’d find things a lot tougher today, and he duly dropped back and failed to score a point. But that is more an indication of just how uncompetitive Williams is currently, more than anything.
Some great drives then. It’s tough to give a definite answer to who should be driver of the day out of those candidates, so, as ever; I’ll leave it up to you to decide.
