The official 2015 ASN Driver Rankings have been updated to reflect the 2015 Brazilian Grand Prix – which we are calling the Brazilian Grand Prix [for obvious reasons…and hopefully we don’t have to explain that to you]. The 2015 Brazilian Grand Prix is held at Interlagos, one of the notoriously most difficult places to overtake – supposedly – especially if your car isn’t fast enough.
The 2015 Brazilian Grand Prix had all the look of being a dud of a race since the current official Formula One driver standings leader – Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton – long ago clinched the season championship could care less about whether or not he won the race whereas his teammate, Nico Rosberg, only had to make sure he stayed in front of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel to all but clinch second place overall and with Rosberg going in as the pole-sitter, that wasn’t looking to be a terribly difficult task. The stakes were incredibly low and they lived up to their potential.
Rosberg and Hamilton sat on the first row and aside from a minor tussle on the first corner, Rosberg drove away from Hamilton and both of them drove away from everybody else from start to finish. In fact, the Mercedes blowout was so overwhelming that only the two Ferraris of Vettel and his teammate, Kimi Raikkonen, could manage to stay on the lead lap with them. Virtually the entire grid – 16 of the starting 20 cars, a whopping 80% of the field – was lapped either once or numerous times by the end of the race. This, of course, did not make for scintillating racing and with the race for the podium positions over within mere minutes of the race’s start, that left the only drama to be possibly existent in the Maldonado and Raikkonen Award categories.
As for the driver standings, the top points must again go to Rosberg with a determined win against what, admittedly, was an indifferent Hamilton, who has essentially quit putting forth much of a competitive effort in the last two races once his third world title was wrapped up in Texas. The runner-up spot is awarded to Vettel, who, unlike the rest of the non-Mercedes field, stayed within at least shouting distance and was ready to pounce had any mechanical issue arisen with either Rosberg or Hamilton. Since only four cars finished on the lead lap, the third and final placing goes to Raikkonen for, well, for not getting lapped. Vettel clinches the inaugural 2015 AutoSportsNation Driver Standings as the best Formula One driver of the season. Rosberg also clinches the third podium spot with his victory.
For the coveted Pastor Maldonado Driving School Award, it was a two-man race between Hamilton and Maldonado with Hamilton’s accident happening before the race in Monaco when he scraped his Pagani Zonda into three parked cars in the middle of the night and Maldonado’s happening on Lap 34 when he tagged Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson. Technically, since Hamilton’s did not happen within the race and was only symbolic of his buffoonery, the award will go to Maldonado, who now clinches at least a share of the title as he holds a lead over his Lotus teammate, Romain Grosjean, with the title to be determined in the final race at Abu Dhabi.
A similar situation exists after the 2015 Brazilian Grand Prix in the Kimi Raikkonen “Leave Me Alone, I Know What I’m Doing!” Award category as Hamilton holds a slim lead over Rosberg after Rosberg got the point for the race when he instructed his crew on Lap 57 – “Don’t talk anymore”. With that result, Hamilton has clinched a tie for the win in this category and only his teammate Rosberg can tie him.
Finally, the Lewis Hamilton Doofus Moment Award for the 2015 Brazilian Grand Prix was an incredibly easy call as Hamilton did not even bother waiting until the race to sew this one up with his Zonda escapades in Monaco then added a bonus by not bothering to show up for the top three qualifying photo shoot after qualifying in second for the race. Hamilton long ago clinched the win in his signature award category.
The 2015 Formula One season concludes with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Abu Dhabi at 7 a.m. [PDT] on NBCSN on November 29, 2015.
The 2015 ASN Formula One Driver Standings [after the Brazilian Grand Prix]
1] Sebastian Vettel – 32 points
2] Lewis Hamilton – 26 points
3] Nico Rosberg – 14 points
4] Valtteri Bottas/Kimi Raikkonen – five points
6] Jenson Button/Daniel Ricciardo – four points
8] Romain Grosjean/Felipe Massa – three points
10] Fernando Alonso/Nico Hulkenberg/Daniil Kvyat/Sergio Perez/Alexander Rossi/Max Verstappen – two points
16] Pastor Maldonado – one point
The 2015 Pastor Maldonado Driving School Award Standings [after the Brazilian Grand Prix]
1] Maldonado – 4.5 points
2] Grosjean – 3.5 points
2] Marcus Ericsson/Ricciardo – two points
3] Bottas pit/Ericsson pit/Hamilton/Hamilton pit/Raikkonen/Raikkonen pit/Sainz, Jr. – one point
The 2015 Kimi Raikkonen Leave Me Alone I Know What I’m Doing Award Standings [after the Brazilian Grand Prix]
1] Hamilton – 4.5 points
2] Rosberg – 3.5 points
3] Button/Vettel – 2 points
5] Alonso/Bottas/Hamilton pit/Raikkonen/Ricciardo pit/Will Stevens – one point
The 2015 Lewis Hamilton Doofus Moment Award [after the Brazilian Grand Prix]
1] Hamilton – eight points
2] Bernie Ecclestone/Vettel – two points
3] Alonso/Team Ferrari/Team Force India/Christian Horner/Team McLaren/Team Mercedes – one point