Vote for your 2021 Italian Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend

2021 Italian Grand Prix

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Which Formula 1 driver made the most of the Italian 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 Monza.

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 2021 Italian Grand Prix weekend?

  • No opinion (0%)
  • Nicholas Latifi (0%)
  • George Russell (0%)
  • Nikita Mazepin (0%)
  • Mick Schumacher (0%)
  • Antonio Giovinazzi (0%)
  • Kimi Raikkonen (0%)
  • Yuki Tsunoda (0%)
  • Pierre Gasly (0%)
  • Carlos Sainz Jnr (0%)
  • Charles Leclerc (0%)
  • Fernando Alonso (1%)
  • Esteban Ocon (0%)
  • Sebastian Vettel (0%)
  • Lance Stroll (0%)
  • Daniel Ricciardo (65%)
  • Lando Norris (5%)
  • Sergio Perez (1%)
  • Max Verstappen (1%)
  • Valtteri Bottas (23%)
  • Lewis Hamilton (1%)

Total Voters: 210

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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39 comments on “Vote for your 2021 Italian Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend”

  1. Bottas, qualifying first on Friday, first in the sprint race, recovering from a non-self-induced maximum grid penalty to third, and smiling throughout. Loved it. Seems like the move away from Mercedes next year has already improved him.

    1. I’m so glad someone agrees with me. As happy as I am for Ricciardo, Bottas was undoubtedly the driver of the weekend. He beat Hamilton in qualifying without a tow, he won the sprint race comfortably and he came through the field strongly to grab himself a podium. Even without the crash between Hamilton and Verstappen he would have been in the top 5 which would still have been a top effort.

      1. Agree. Danny Ric had a great drive from the front, but Bottas tipped it by passing through the field on a track that it is supposedly so hard to pass on.

        1. It’s Valtteri Bottas for me too,, never thought i would be voting for him this year but he proved me wrong .

      2. For me it was between Bottas and Norris @geemac, @david-br. Bottas put that Mercedes on pole in front of both Max and Lewis. He had a good start, he ran great in that sprint race. And then he showed that it was possible to overtake, not even relying on only DRS passes to get onto the podium. Also, very good to see him thinking about the situation enough when trying to pass Perez, giving it a good go without overdoing it (since he knew that the penalty would do the job if he didn’t get past on track)

        It really should make Toto wonder whether maybe he should have given Valterri a 3 year contract 3 years ago!

        In the end i gave it to Norris, since he outqualified Daniel again, almost beat Max to 3rd and had to do some passing. Also, I consider his defensive drives on saturday and sunday as key for McLaren being able to win on sunday, but Bottas really deserved it for this weekend as well, I hope we get to see more of this from him.

        1. I agree about Norris @bascb, not just the defensive duties, the pass on Hamilton in the sprint race was also crucial to securing 1 and 2 for McLaren on Sunday, an all round team player performance.

          1. Quite true as well, yeah @david-br, Norris really was key to pulling this one off.

    2. Bottas’ car is better and smile smaller than Ricciardo’s.

    3. I totally agree!
      I’d love to give my vote to McLaren, my favourite team and drivers, but Bottas did a stunning job, and delivered the entire weekend ^^ , He deserves it :) Happy to see him smiling…. Looks like a burden has being lifted off his shoulders by not having a seat/ the pressure @ merc anymore.

  2. Blaize Falconberger (@)
    12th September 2021, 22:55

    Bottas, now he’s been released form the bind he was in, he’s come alive… all of what @david-br said :-)

    1. Pretty close between Bottas, Ricciardo and Norris to be honest! Ricciardo’s ecstatic celebration almost swung it. Norris’s jump on Hamilton at the start of the sprint qualifying was also epic.

      1. Indeed. I first wanted to vote for Bottas, than switched last second to Ricciardo but clicked accidentally on Norris name :D

  3. I voted for RIC but I could just have easily picked BOT, and on reflection maybe he deserved it more.

    Great drive on Sunday, great drive on Saturday, and a superb performance when it counted on Friday.

  4. Heart votes ricciardo brain says Bottas. Bottas was pretty much flawless.

    1. Stomach says “Bottas”. Still not comfortable watching Ricciardo drink from his shoe :-)

  5. Lando Norris, nice clean mature racing taking Lewis at the start of the sprint and was fair to Lew with clean hard racing when he was overtaken during in the race. We need more Lando’s and less destruction derby max’s

    Danny ric is a nice fella but he lucked the win being in the right place at the right time after Max torpedoed Lewis and McLaren forced team orders. to prevent Lando trying to overtake.

    But lets not be delusional, McLaren are still not at the standard of excellence that was the norm when Ron Dennis was in charge, having a slippery car that suits low aero tracks and winning when the top cars take each other out is one thing but most importantly is to have a constantly fast car. Do the engineers at Woking still have the ability to build a championship car??

    1. @ccpbioweapon

      Your reasons for voting Norris over Ricciardo seem somewhat odd.

      Ricciardo outlaunched him in the sprint and finished ahead. That’s one reason to vote Norris over Ricciardo.

      Ricciardo was in the “right place at the right time” because he qualified 3rd, where Norris could have been…

      The team orders couldn’t prove that Norris would have been able to overtake without them either.

      And your claim of “nice clean mature racing” also is odd, as he nearly ended up getting a black and white flag. Getting track limit warnings twice isn’t the best example of clean and mature racing.

      I would say Ricciardo was convincingly better in the sprint and the race and can’t understand your reasoning to vote for Norris over him.

      1. @thegianthogweed – Ricciardo was where he was due to a superb qualifying performance, a great sprint race, and a better launch on Race Day followed by a superb drive. I agree with you, this was not luck – he got himself into that position himself.

        It is true that McLaren said to hold position, but Ricciardo demonstrated that he was not considerably slower than Norris and even went on to pump out the fastest lap of the race!

        Norris also had a super race, but it was certainly Ricciardo’s chance to shine this weekend.

  6. Ricciardo for me he had a terrific weekend he drove a very smart race from start to finish. Norris was not far behind but just couldn’t quite match his team mate yesterday.
    Now the pressure is on Ricciardo, can he maintain the momentum for the rest of the season?

    1. Oh, also if ricciardo’s form continues for the rest of the season it’s over for the 3rd place race, so far ferrari only had a chance because of ricciardo’s poor form.

  7. Who voted for Hamilton? I think this was one of the worst weekends of his career. Did OK Friday. Sucked Saturday. DNF’ed Sunday from a low position. Definitely worth a vote, for some…

    1. Yet it’s marginal if he’s gonna be a struggler or not, and I’m pretty sure he won’t, since he wasn’t at monaco.

      1. @esploratore1 True. Also Bottas had a really good weekend, I can’t remember the last time I seen him work his way through the field like that.

    2. Someone always votes by party list. Don’t mind them.

    3. Never ever voted such a sorry excuse for a featherless biped, but was tempted to do it this time.

      Why? I predicted it would never have the nerve to show up in Max’s exterior, after the Silverstone enormity.

      I was wrong. It did, in the first approach to della Roggia. And survived.

      Max, you’ll never learn!

      1. Racing incident 100%.

  8. In my mind there can only be 2 star contenders: bottas and ricciardo, don’t think anyone else did something exceptional.

    The reason I went for ricciardo is I tried to imagine both in the other driver’s situation, as in an in-form ricciardo and a bottas, and I’m pretty sure ricciardo could’ve done what bottas did in that mercedes, remember some good recovery from him in 2017 already with a red bull that wasn’t as strong, he ended up 4th and chasing vettel for the podium, whereas I’m not sure bottas could do what ricciardo did and hold off verstappen using a mclaren, since bottas isn’t very good on wheel to wheel, in any case no matter what I vote ricciardo wins by a huge margin and bottas is clear 2nd best.

    1. @esploratore1

      I’m not sure bottas could do what ricciardo did and hold off verstappen using a mclaren, since bottas isn’t very good on wheel to wheel

      Bottas is also not good on tyre management. A better driver than him on this department, as well as in racecraft, would have won this Italian GP even starting from the back. The other top drivers took each other out and Perez, also in a top car, just complicated his own life again, albeit not so dramatically this time.

    2. Hard to fault Gio.
      And Alonso gets a small nod for his Sprint overtake.

      1. jff

        And Alonso gets a small nod for his Sprint overtake.

        Almost sure he also fully maximised his results, outqualified and outraced Ocon, considering the relatively subpar machinery performance for the weekend (in the opposite trend of McLaren, Alpine was considerably stronger in Zandvoort than in Monza).

  9. Ricciardo this time.
    Also great weekend for Bottas, Norris, Giovinazzi.

  10. Easy to say Ricciardo, but for me Bottas just about edges it. It was far and away his best weekend of the season, and quite possibly one of the best of his career. It was one heck of a response to losing his seat. Truly superb throughout.

    It’s a timely reminder that on his day he really is world class. It’s just a shame these sorts of performances only happen 2 or 3 times a year for him. Hopefully this reset away from the spotlight will bring out the best in him more often.

  11. Could’ve been Bottas but it’s Ricciardo for me.

  12. I voted Ricciardo, but not much to choose between him and Norris who was actually a tad faster, just a bit worse / unlucky start in the Q race.

    But props to Leclerc too. Feeling sick to the point of being dizzy (not what you want driving an F1 car) and still delivered way above par. Verstappen was also very solid with a super Q lap, but poor tyre management in the first stint.

  13. Daniel deserved this. But I knew he would won the poll, so I pick Valtteri as a token of respect.

  14. DOTW & DOTD: RIC

  15. At least there are some with humor here and voted for Lewis :)

  16. If anyone is still wavering between Bottas and another driver just remember that Bottas ruthlessly murdered a small woodland creature on Friday. 🥲

Comments are closed.