The 2016 Mexican Grand Prix is in the books – now that F1 race stewards have finally determined the top five finishers – and surprise, surprise, it was another Mercedes 1-2 snoozefest. But the real drama occurred in the battle for the third and final podium position between the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel and two Red Bull’s of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen. First Verstappen, then Vettel officially held the position before F1 race stewards eventually awarded it to Ricciardo and demoted Verstappen to fourth and Vettel to fifth.
ASN’s point distribution was much less dramatic than that – Hamilton and Rosberg received the top points – and in the free-for-all circus for the third and final point, we decided to award them to Vettel, who was most likely demoted by his large time penalty as retaliation for telling the race director to f-off over his radio. ASN is not the race director, so for on-track racing, we had to go with Vettel.
The Pastor Maldonado Driving School Award is looking more and more like it will be renamed the Max Verstappen Driving School Award next year as Verstappen moved to clinch the 2016 title with his aborted twin maneuvers of trying to clumsily pass Rosberg and prevent Vettel from overtaking him. Three instances in one race means he easily gets this week’s award.
The Kimi Raikkonen “Leave Me Alone! I Know What I’m Doing! Award is also a no-brainer – going to Vettel for his profanity-laden rant towards Verstappen, F1 race stewards and the race director – we couldn’t pick out just one to highlight so we award Vettel the point for the rants as a group.
The Lewis Hamilton Doofus Moment Award was shaping up to be an intriguing battle between Bernie Ecclestone for his pre-race comments indicating he was favoring Hamilton to win the championship over Rosberg, Mexico for the robbery of some Mercedes personnel and F1 race stewards for their poor handling of the race penalties. ASN has decided it has to go to the F1 race stewards for be petty and not being consistent in their penalty assessments for this race.
The 2016 ASN Formula One Driver’s Standings [After Mexican Grand Prix]
1] Nico Rosberg – 36 points
2] Lewis Hamilton – 25
3] Sebastian Vettel – 16
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 Mexican Grand Prix]
1] Verstappen – four points
2] Hamilton/Rosberg – three
4] Kvyat – two
5] Alonso/Bottas/Hulkenberg/Palmer/Raikkonen/Vettel/Wehrlein – one
The 2016 Kimi Raikkonen “Leave Me Alone! I Know What I’m Doing! Award [after Mexican Grand Prix]
1] Raikkonen – four points
2] Hamilton/Vettel – three
4] Ricciardo/Verstappen – two
6] Alonso/Button/Kvyat/Rosberg/Wehrlein – one
The 2016 Lewis Hamilton Doofus Moment Award [after Mexican Grand Prix]
1] Hamilton – five points
2] Bernie Ecclestone – three
3] F1 race stewards – two
4] Brazilian kidnappers/Ferrari pit [Raikkonen]/Force India pit [Perez]/Malaysia/Mercedes/Red Bull pit [Ricciardo]/Renault pit [Palmer]Singapore/Verstappen – one