The 2016 USA Grand Prix was another Mercedes 1-2 snoozefest but there were some interesting moments that did not involve the Taylor Swift concert nor her teen female crowd. In the actual race, Lewis Hamilton easily won the race with his Mercedes teammate, Nico Rosberg, in a close second while Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo was a distant third. There was little drama with those positions.
There was also little drama with regard to the 2016 AutoSportsNation Formula One driver standings since Nico Rosberg wrapped the ASN title up earlier in the month. Hamilton got ASN’s three points this week and that was good enough to put some distance between him and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel for the second spot on the podium as the second-place points went to Rosberg and ASN awarded the third-place final point to McLaren’s Fernando Alonso for his inspired drive.
The Pastor Maldonado Driving School Award this week goes to Max Verstappen, who decided to manufacture his own pit stop strategy and surprised his team by coming into the pits unannounced because, well, because he is a teenager and as we all know – teenagers are always right.
The Kimi Raikkonen “Leave Me Alone! I Know What I’m Doing!” Award could have gone to any number of drivers, but the race was just not exciting enough to justify most of the radio blather or usual garden variety griping, so ASN has decided to also give this week’s point to Verstappen, who seemingly admitted to his pit after he surprised them with the pit stop that he was hearing voices in his head with his response of “Sorry, I thought you called me in.”
Finally, the Lewis Hamilton Doofus Moment Award must go to Raikkonen’s Ferrari pit, who allowed Raikkonen to drive out of the pit with a jack still attached to the car.
The 2016 ASN Formula 1 Driver Standings [after USA Grand Prix]
1] Nico Rosberg – 34 points
2] Lewis Hamilton – 22
3] Sebastian Vettel – 15
4] Daniel Ricciardo/Max Verstappen – seven
6] Kimi Raikkonen – six
7] Fernando Alonso – four
8] Sergio Perez – three
9] Jenson Button/Carlos Sainz, Jr. – two
11] Valtteri Bottas/Romain Grosjean/Nico Hulkenberg/Daniil Kvyat/Stoffel Vandoorne – one
The 2016 Pastor Maldonado Driving School Award [after USA Grand Prix]
1] Hamilton/Rosberg/Verstappen – three points
4] Kvyat – two points
5] Alonso/Bottas/Hulkenberg/Palmer/Raikkonen/Vettel/Wehrlein – one
The 2016 Kimi Raikkonen “Leave Me Alone! I Know What I’m Doing!” Award [after USA Grand Prix]
1] Raikkonen – four points
2] Hamilton – three
3] Ricciardo/Verstappen/Vettel – two
6] Alonso/Button/Kvyat/Rosberg/Wehrlein – one
The 2016 Lewis Hamilton Doofus Moment Award [after USA Grand Prix]
1] Hamilton – five points
2] Bernie Ecclestone – three
3] Brazilian kidnappers/F1 stewards/Ferrari pit [Raikkonen]/Force India pit [Perez]/Malaysia/Mercedes/Red Bull pit [Ricciardo]/Renault pit [Palmer]/Singapore/Verstappen – one