Your Reject of the Race - Baku

[Londoner]

1. Daniel Ricciardo - Spectacularly dumb move, that's the stuff ROTR is made of.

2. Ferrari strategists - Really should have pitted Leclerc a lot earlier than they did.

[Rob Dylan]

I loved watching Ricciardo's shenanigans. Ruined Kvyat's race by pushing him off track basically, then reversing into him. Hilarious. Otherwise:

- Balloons: for being one of the greatest ever reasons for a safety car, virtual or otherwise.
- Ferrari: I had really great hopes for Leclerc, but whatever happened, it just didn't add up and they never really challenged.
- All the pitlane and grid changes: especially on the IRC chat, I saw nothing but posts and updates explaining which drivers had copped which penalties, and which ones were starting from the pitlane, oh wait back of the grid, oh wait pitlane.
- Pierre Gasly: I just posted this on the stats thread. He has very few points and I just want to mention him, even if this race specifically wasn't his worst.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

Everything this weekend except the race - That is not an endorsement for the race.

Disagree with Ferrari strategists. I honestly don't see what they could have done to improve their standing unfortunately.

[You-Gee-Eee-Day]

I think it has to go to either the Manhole Cover Welders, the guy who drove a crane into a bridge, or to Ferrari for their infinite wisdom when it comes to strategy.

Edit: Almost forgot Kyvat for getting in the way of Ricciardo when he was reversing.

[mario]

1. Daniel Ricciardo - Spectacularly dumb move, that's the stuff ROTR is made of.

2. Ferrari strategists - Really should have pitted Leclerc a lot earlier than they did.

In the case of Leclerc, it sounds as if the problem was that they didn't have any confidence that the tyres would last that long - Verstappen didn't really seem to have much difficulty in keeping up with Leclerc, despite the difference in age and compound (in fact, it looked like he was actually pulling away from Leclerc when Leclerc switched onto the softs).

The softs just seemed to fade too quickly - we saw how early some drivers switched onto the mediums in the opening laps - and Leclerc's times were still improving on the mediums, as it was noted that there seemed to be a negative time delta on the medium tyres (i.e. the rate at which you lost time due to tyre wear was less than the benefit gained from burning off fuel).

In hindsight, it might have worked better if they knew there was going to be that VSC period, but it sounds as if Leclerc ran his strategy pretty much as expected - Horner pretty much predicted to the lap when Leclerc would pit - so I think that Ferrari were in a tricky position however they might have played it.

I do have to agree with Ricciardo's move - he'd been having a reasonably good race up until that point, but it felt as if he let some of his frustrations get the better of him there and ended up throwing it all away.

[girry]

Daniel Ricciardo for colliding into Kvyat's car in an eerily similar fashion that a senile grandfather did into my road car on a supermarket parking lot just a few months back.

[Miguel98]

Daniel Ricciardo - I love Ricky just as the neighbour next door does, but that was immensily dumb. And he was having a really good race until that point, considering the shitbox that Renault were this weekend.

Renault - Lord, they were terrible. The car wasn't on pace with anything, and all weekend seemed like the second slowest car around here.

The whole weekend bar the race - The manhole inccident, the crane accident, the terrible marshalling which culminated in that awful VSC, which probably ruined the fight for the win since it ruined Max and Vettel's momentum.

Ferrari - Yeah.

[Meatwad]

Daniel Ricciardo for his hilariously rejectful crash with Kvyat. He did spice up the unremarkable race a little, though!

[rachel1990]

Well I have to agree with Mario about Ferrari since I doubt they could do nothing about their 'number two' driver tires.

(as for their clear 'number one' driver he did nothing bascially. Vettel had no pace to challenge the Mercedes and no-one really got neat him)

but back to ROTR and it's clear who the winner is. Step Forward
Daniel Ricciardo
Bad move to take himself and Daniil Kvyat out of the race.

4 Races into the new Renault for him and the same old feeling of most of last season returning for him.

[MatthewFirth]

Riccardo is the definite reject for me, though I'd also put Ferrari as a contender for mishandling the Lederec situation and failing to even challenge Mercedes this week.

[UncreativeUsername37]

Ricciardo has saved me from having to nominate something from Friday.

[Vassago]

Renault F1 Team is clearly the big ROTR winner for me.

Enough has been said about Ricciardo's bump on Kvyat but Hulkenberg finished non-existent 14th which is actually an upgrade since he crashed out the last two years on this track. Even the balloons were in Renault team colors which sums up their wayward run so far this season

[dinizintheoven]

This forum may not be as Australian as it was in the old days, but Jamie, Enoch and all the others who were once here with us from the Land Down Under where they eat Vegemite sandwiches will have looked on at Daniel Ricciardo and said...

Mate.

[Pacific Edge]

Let's see

1st. Ricciardo: That is the type of thing you'd expect from an old lady in a supermarket parking lot

2nd: Williams: Just nowhere. The pit lane error with Kubica was the difference between finishing second to last or last.

3rd. Ferrari, dominated the weekend until it actually mattered (Qualy and Race) .... again....

[FortiWinks]

1. Renault - the obvious is to say Ricciardo specifically but Hülkenberg was completely anonymous too with P14, this team should be fighting for fourth in the WCC but instead they pull off this instead.

2. Romain Grosjean - lock up under pressure followed by running in front of only the two Williams’ for most of the race, if he serves this up for the rest of the year then it’s bye, bye, Romain.

HM to Baku’s welder & truck driver

[golic_2004]

1. Ricciardo Are there mirrors on those things?

2. Williams Absolutely nothing went their way and there were some bizarre moments as well.

[FullMetalJack]

Ricciardo
Renault

[Faustus]

The crane driver.

[yannicksamlad]

Ricciardo
Renault

My thoughts precisely

[Rob Dylan]

Ok doke, the poll is up for Baku! Get your votes in by 48 hours' time.

[Rob Dylan]

So in a classic reject move, Daniel Ricciardo has done his country, and I'm sure this website's forefathers, proud, by winning Reject of the Race in Baku! Renault were having an absolute garbage weekend, as part of what seems to be a 2019 campaign that hasn't even started yet. Daniel put the cherry on top of the figurative cake by not only a clumsy overtake which cost himself and Daniil Kvyat valuable seconds, but then indeed reversing right into the Russian at full speed. It destroyed both of their cars, and it was frankly just really funny. Perfect clumsy manoeuvre with funny consequences: a classic Reject of the Race!