Round 17: Qatar
F1i's driver of the weekend: Oscar Piastri (McLaren) - 10/10
Verstappen was crowned champion after the Saturday sprint, and on Sunday he celebrated with a calm and considered win at Lusail. But the spotlight was shared if not outright stolen by McLaren's Oscar Piastri who had managed to win the sprint and went on to finish the Grand Prix in second ahead of team mate Lando Norris, while a costly first corner clash between Mercedes team mates Lewis Hamilton and George Russell grabbed the Monday headlines.
Piastri's brilliant performance over the whole weekend proved irresistible to our ratings team who awarded him the last perfect ten of the season ahead of Verstappen (9.5), Norris (9.0) and Russell (8.5). "An extraordinary break-through weekend for Oscar Piastri," we declared. "He's been getting better and better every race since the mid-season break, putting the improved MCL60 to good use and becoming an increasing threat to his team mate Norris as the pair as a whole turned up the heat on Red Bull.
"Taking pole and his first F1 race win in the Sprint on Saturday confirmed just how good Piastri is. It's a shame that he had his crucial GP qualifying time deleted on Friday and it was heartbreaking to watch him be told live on TV during a media interview that he would actually start the Grand Prix from sixth.
"However it revealed a lovely dry sense of humour from the rookie. When Mercedes self-destructed on Sunday he played a perfect hand to pick up second place, and afterward - when an interviewer approached him and said "We've just been told..." - his off-the cuff response - thinking he'd been given another post-session sanction - was a treat. 'Scared the crap outta me!'"
Round 18: United States
F1i's driver of the weekend: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) - 9.5/10
Verstappen started the United States GP from sixth but always looked on course for his 50th F1 career victory, despite braking issues leading to a close finish with Hamilton and Norris joining him on the podium ahead of Carlos Sainz, whose Ferrari team mate Charles Leclerc started on pole but suffered from an unsuccessful one-stop strategy. After the race, both Hamilton and Leclerc were controversially disqualified after failing a technical inspection of the underfloor plank putting Sainz back in the top three.
We gave an equal rating of 9.5 to Hamilton (despite his exclusion from the final results) and Verstappen, but in terms of a tie break we feel that Hamilton had more to overcome in the cockpit of the Mercedes and deserves the overall nod as our Driver of the Weekend. "After his disastrous time in the Qatar GP where he collided with his Mercedes team mate George Russell and retired on the first lap, Hamilton was determined to make amends this week.
"He did so with one of his most committed and battling performances of the season. How much of that was to do with the extra motivation, how much down to the latest floor upgrades, or whether it was down to the venue (Hamilton is a multiple winner at COTA and loves racing in the US) is hard to tell, but it certainly all came together.
"Faster than Russell throughout, finishing runner-up in the Sprint and again in the Grand Prix was the best Hamilton has looked in quite a while. Even though he ended up being disqualified - an undeniable setback in terms of his fight with Perez for second place in the drivers championship - we felt that the errant plank made no difference to just how well he did this week."
