Infinite Improbability Drive of the Race - Russia

[Londoner]

1. Alexander Albon. From the pits to 5th on the road, that's a decent day's work for the chap.

2. Unreliability. We actually had a decent number of cars retire for once. More of this please.

[Meatwad]

I'm also voting for Alexander Albon. He had an amazing recovery from a disastrous qualifying – while Albon still has his off days, he recovers from them a lot better than Gasly did!

[Fetzie]

Also posting a vote for Albon. pits to 5th is definitely worthy of that.

[mario]

I'm going to go for a slightly different direction and say Carlos Sainz deserves a nomination here - best of the rest for the midfield pack, and managed to do well to hold his position despite being on older medium tyres against a midfield pack of drivers on newer soft tyres.

[IceG]

(1) Albon

(2) Mercedes strategy team - cool, calm, flexible, best result possible

Plus an honourable mention for Grosjean - his first lap retirement was neither his fault, nor Magnussen's.

[rachel1990]

1- Albon. From Pit-lane to 5th was impressive

2- Sainz- Good pace and was best of the rest.

[Wallio]

Albon - Last to 5th, Top 6 in every race with the A-team, and dueling at 180+ with a spongy brake pedal!

Paul Di Resta - The best commentator F1TV has. Bar none. Martin Brundle should never come back. Ever.

[CaptainGetz12]

1) Mclaren. Kept things together and kept above Renault.

2) Alexander Albon. Came to his own after the VSC to take 5th.

Honourable Mentions:
Toro Rosso (Provided most of the action today)
Sebastian Vettel (Showed he had the pace to win on race day, a shame team politics and an MGU-K failure ended his run)

[UncreativeUsername37]

George Russell. He was, like, ahead of people.

[Alextrax52]

Albon: I know it’s easy to say he should have finished at least 5th in a Red Bull but would Pierre Gasly have done the same earlier this year?

Vettel: Nice to see his ruthless streak come back. Also Leclerc can moan about team orders all he likes but Hamilton was closer to him than he was to Vettel. Seb should have won that today

Sainz: Comfortably best of the rest all race. I’d love to see him in one of the top 3 teams

[Pacific Edge]

1st. Albon: Wouldn't have seen that coming, and he did that on sheer merit, only 1 faster car retired and gave him a spot, other than that, he did that himself.

2nd: Sainz This is why I like how he does things, not the most exciting driver, but he just puts his head down and does the job.

[golic_2004]

Paul Di Resta - The best commentator F1TV has. Bar none. Martin Brundle should never come back. Ever.

post of the year

[Rob Dylan]

Came here to post one nomination: Paul di Resta.

He was enjoyable to listen to, he clearly knows what he's talking about as he runs through the possible strategies ahead of us during the race. And not just the strategy over the next few laps ("Will there be an undercut hurr-durr") but for everything. You can tell his brain works fast and that he's been in the racing business for a long time. But he was also enjoyable for his frankness. Not afraid to speak his mind, he was adamant that Sebastian Vettel should have won the race and deserved at least Driver of the Day, and lamented the unfairness of gaining an advantage under the VSC period. It was refreshing to hear a commentator not simply hold up the status quo with "I don't have an opinion on anything that actually matters". It reminds me of Brundle in the late 90s! Commentators need to throw out an opinion from time to time, to actually question whether what they're watching is actually really all it is.

Contrast him with David Croft, who outrightly said early in the race "I understood that!" sarcastically when Paul commented on how Mercedes were going to try to beat Ferrari on tyres. Contrast it with Croft, who mumbled and hesitated when asked his driver of the day as Hamilton went on to win, and didn't seem to have an opinion or insight into anything.

[Rob Dylan]

Support was concentrated to a very few candidates on this thread, so there are three options to choose from for this award. You have 48 hours

[Rob Dylan]

A man with braking problems starts from the back and still finishes 5th? A decent day's driving for Mr Albon, who's certainly proving that even on his bad days he can deliver the goods. Most importantly, when being directly compared to his predecessor, Alexander Albon is doing everything right to secure his 2020 Red Bull seat, and this race has only solidified his case. Good job, Alex.