The 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix is officially in the books and what a wild ride it was – with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo eventually coming out on top followed by Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas in second and Williams’ Lance Stroll in third.
Current ASN and F1 driver leader Sebastian Vettel and challenger Lewis Hamilton had a mid-race kerfuffle that undoubtedly helped Ricciardo win but Ricciardo still had to drive for the victory so ASN awards top points to Ricciardo for the win. Bottas had an early flat tire and was also a beneficiary of the Vettel-Hamilton shindig, which allowed him to get up to the podium, so he gets his points and Stroll gets a well-deserved point for being anywhere near the podium even with the help of the Vettel-Hamilton fiasco.
The Pastor Maldonado Driving School Award has to go to Vettel for intentionally driving into Hamilton after he surmised that Hamilton had brake-checked him, causing him to run into the back of Hamilton. Whether or not, Hamilton was intentionally slowing down is no excuse for Vettel to intentionally hit Hamilton.
The Kimi Raikkonen “Leave Me Alone! I Know What I’m Doing!” Award also goes to Vettel after he was assessed a 10-second penalty for dangerous driving and then asked his pit disingenuously after the incident – “what dangerous driving did I do?”
The Bernie Ecclestone Doofus Award goes to Ecclestone again – merely for setting up races in places like Baku, Azerbaijan in the first place – due exclusively to trying to extract as much money as he could for himself rather than support the sport.
2017 ASN Driver Standings [after Azerbaijan Grand Prix]
1] Sebastian Vettel – 18 points
2] Lewis Hamilton/Valtteri Bottas – seven
4] Esteban Ocon/Daniel Ricciardo – four
6] Sergio Perez/Kimi Raikkonen – two
8] Fernando Alonso/Romain Grosjean/Lance Stroll/Stoffel Vandoorne/Max Verstappen – one
2017 Pastor Maldonado Driving School Award [after Azerbaijan Grand Prix]
1] Perez/Carlos Sainz, Jr. – two
3] Grosjean/Kevin Magnussen/Jolyon Palmer/Vandoorne/Vettel – one
2017 Kimi Raikkonen “Leave Me Alone! I Know What I’m Doing!” Award [after Azerbaijan Grand Prix]
1] Alonso/Vettel – two
3] Jenson Button/Grosjean/Mercedes pit [Bottas]/Red Bull pit [Verstappen]/Vettel – one
2017 Bernie Ecclestone Doofus Award [after Azerbaijan Grand Prix]
1] Bernie Ecclestone – three
2] Australian Grand Prix officials/Bottas/Canadian Grand Prix officials/Mercedes marketing/Stroll