Grand Prix Rejects

1. Yuki Tsunoda. Points on debut!

2. Lando Norris. Basically stayed in P4 all day long, and clearly had the measure of Ricciardo.

Honourable mentions to Sergio Perez for a sublime comeback drive, and I guess Mick Schumacher for getting what looks like a totally undriveable car to the chequered flag.

1. Norris - amazing drive
2. Kimi - Kimi

1. Sergio Perez, brilliant drive from the back
2. Lando Norris, man drove a superb race in P4 all day long

1) Yuki Tsunoda: Quietly making up for a poor qualifying with a points finish.

2) Lando Norris: Solid performance and a good finish for a driver I have certainly learnt to rate.

Honourable Mention: Sergio Peréz - Another comeback from a poor qualifying; hoping to see him higher up the grid in later races.

IIDOTR
1. Yuki Tsunoda: Impressive pace all weekend, great racecraft, points on debut: convincingly the best of the rookie crop (tho admittedly in a far better car than the other two)
2. Lando Norris: quietly went about his business and was best of the rest, well ahead of Ricciardo
HM:
The championship battle: we might actually have one this year!

1. Yuki Tsunoda, very solid rookie performance. Looked quick all weekend
2. Lando Norris, good weekend with a quiet but more than solid fourth place finish.

Norris for being a clear BOTR.

Tsunoda: I so hope this guy can become what we wanted Sato to be

Perez: Very good recovery. Yeah he had fresh tires at the end but would Gasly or Albion have come back from the start?

Raikkonen: so close to points on merit

1 Tsunoda
2 Perez

1. Tsunoda for a great debut
2. Norris for a very consistent drive to 4th

I nominate Tsunoda for a very impressive debut weekend. Shame about Q2, he could have done much more if not for his failure there, but otherwise he showed a much better performance than some more experienced drivers.

Honorable mention for the Verstappen/Hamilton battle at the end, that was one of the most exciting finishes in a while.

1- Yuki Tsunoda - Impressive Debut and points.
2- Lando Norris- 4th place. Beat Danny Ric fair and square. That McLaren looks good

HM- Perez for everything that was thrown at him at that race he kept passing cleanly and I think might have beaten Bottas if he didn't have to start in the pitlane.

1. Yuki Tsunoda. A shame he didn't make it into Q3, but a more than solid debut race.
2. Lewis Hamilton. Winning a race on merit when you're not in the fastest car is always IIDOTR worthy.

HMs for Perez (showed in the race why he's better than Gasly and Albon were at Red Bull) and Leclerc (great qualifying, great opening laps and good result).

1. Lando Norris - quiet race but very successful one
2. Lewis Hamilton - Red Bull seemed better car but Hamilton won

1. Yuki Tsunoda. Class first race
2. Sergio Perez. Battled back from the bottom

1. Tsunoda - consider me a fan already
2. Hamilton. Yes I know but I had Max down as race winner all weekend. Not many win races they shouldn't without the other main contenders retiring!

Norris definitely deserves credit too - I expected Danny Ric to be ahead of him despite being new to the team.

Perez too - from looking like a DNS to P5. Could be interesting if he qualifies better which he surely will, could start giving Bottas a hard time.

Lando Norris: Silent but great race.
Tsunoda: Solid debut after the disappointment of Q2.

HM: Pérez. From 20th to 5th, not as impressive and heroic as last year win, but he deserves some recognition.

One nomination to Sergio Pérez for a storming recovery drive that I'd hope Alex Albon was watching from wherever he might be watching from, and the other to Yuki Tsunoda. I knew this day was coming, but now that there's someone born in 2000 on the F1 grid who's now scored a couple of points at his first attempt, it reminds me I am old, even if I'm only three months north of Kimi Räikkönen.

1. Lando Norris - Beat Ricciardo by a good margin and ran 4th all race long. Brilliant drive.
2. Sergio Pérez - Great comeback drive and seems better and better each day in knowing car.

Honorable mention to Alfa Romeo, Fernando Alonso and Yuki Tsunoda.

1. Lando Norris -- Given his form at the tail end of last year, I didn't expect much. But he was a place away from the podium positions and he outclassed Ricky. Not a bad innings at all.

2. Yuki Tsunoda -- Points on debut. Didn't swear on the radio during the race. Always a win

1. Lando Norris; yes, it's Ricciardo's first race in a new team, but if Norris keeps this up he'll be part of the elite
2. AlphaTauri; okay, more like IIDOTW, but they were entertainment. And I want them to get some credit for Tsunoda's points too.

1. Tsunoda - very solid debut. Looked quick, made some nice overtakes on some very illustrious names, and capped the weekend off with points. Very impressive.

2. Norris - I'm a bit loathe to give IIDOTR to a McLaren driver for finishing 4th (unless it happened in the McHonda days ofc ) but he had a solid drive to P4 and no faults really.

Honourable mention - Perez - Once again, I'm loathe to give IIDOTR to those driving cars that are pretty much the class of the field but having seen Albon and Gasly really struggle against "Formula 1.5" cars in the second Red Bull for the last few years, it was a nice change of pace to see someone put that second car to good use and carve through the field.

IIDOTR nominations, in no particular order, are Yuki Tsunoda, Lando Norris, and Sergio Perez, for the same reasons that others have already nominated them.

IIDOTR for this race is a difficult decision, as there were several drivers who outperformed expectations, but no real standout drives. Tsunoda certainly impressed on his debut, but since Gasly was effectively out after losing his front wing, Yuki's performance becomes difficult to rate. Sergio Perez pulled off a good recovery drive, but he did so in arguably the fastest car on the grid. Norris did pretty much what was expected of the McLaren, and beating Ricciardo will be a bit more impressive if he still does it once Daniel has acquainted himself with the car.

My nomination for IIDOTR is therefore Lewis Hamilton. On Saturday, this race appeared over, as Verstappen outqualified Lewis by a margin of several tenths. Perhaps helped by the better performance of the Mercedes on harder tyres, Lewis managed to stay close enough to Verstappen to pull off an impressive undercut. At the end of the race, he held off a rapid Max Verstappen who was on fresher tyres and narrowly hung on to an unexpected victory. This was the battle we have been hoping to see for years now, and let's hope that it continues this way over the season.

1st: Tsunoda: Even if he has a wild driving style, he made it work, and got the job done. Can be well chuffed.

2nd: Perez: Kept his head up after the early setback, and bought it home with a decent points haul to boot

1st: Sergio Perez
Considering his car nearly died on the formation lap and he started from the pits, getting back up to 5th by the end of the race was a pretty good effort, and as oother people have already pointed out, not something we're likely to have seen from Gasly, Albon or Kvyat.

2nd: Yuki Tsunoda
Some of it will have been the car, but compared to the other two rookies sliding around early on, Tsunoda kept his head down and quietly got on with the race, and managed to grab 9th from Stroll right at the end.

HM: Lando Norris - 4th's good, but it's about where I'd expect him to be at the moment. Interesting how he had the measure of Daniel Riccardo though, and I suspect if this continues that'll be largely the end of Riccardo's chances at a world championship (sadly).

1) Yuki Tsunoda. Points on debut, and looked like a solid driver from the get go.

2) Sergio Perez. Climbed up the grid from the back, which isn't a guarantee for Red Bull's second driver these days.

Honourable Mentions:
AlphaTauri (Could have been DOTR if it wasn't for Gasly's tangle)
Mercedes Strategists (outfoxed a faster Red Bull for the win)
Lando Norris (Held P4 all race, was clearly the better driver at Mclaren today)

There were three main contenders for this award, and the three candidates that vastly outnumbered anyone else are free to choose from at the top of this thread! Get voting, you have 48 hours

The GPR editorial board have decided to bring back website articles announcing the winners of ROTR and IIDOTR at each race, which our very own Rob Dylan will write up for us following the forum polls. We hope to keep this up for more than two races in a row.

Anyway, the results for Bahrain 2021 can be found right here!