Grand Prix Rejects

1. Renaut. Where the hell did that performance come from? Suddenly, the battle for 4th in the constructors is back on!

2. George Russell. Nearly finished ahead of a Ferrari on merit.

East Londoner wrote:1. Renaut. Where the hell did that performance come from? Suddenly, the battle for 4th in the constructors is back on!

2. George Russell. Nearly finished ahead of a Ferrari on merit.

No other obvious choices, I've got to agree here.

Renault: They needed that, well done.

Perez: Solid stuff, got himself back to the midfield fight

Giovinazzi: Had a strong run today, spent a lot of the race in 6th, made up for Spa

I feel this one should go to Renault. With how their season had gone until now, I expected them to break down on last lap or something, but they got the best result one could imagine.

1 Renault: Up to now it's been an Underwhelming season and this is the last track where you would think they'd do well. But from FP1 to the race they were always around the top 6. I was praying for one of the top 3 to go out so they could pick up a podium.

2: Charles Leclerc: This lad has so much mental strength on and off the track. To be under pressure from both Mercedes on the team's home ground where they haven't won for 9 years and take the win is fantastic. Also nice to see him rattle the best driver in F1 ever (sarcasm).

HM's
Giovanazzi: Redemption for Spa
Perez: Held off Verstappen at the end

1. Renault Didn't see that coming for this weekend. great result.
2.Giovanzzi redemption after his daft mistake at Spa.

HM Perez. Holding off Verstappen was a great achievement. HM Russell. Another Top drive and Kept Grosjean behind him. Again.

East Londoner wrote:1. Renaut. Where the hell did that performance come from? Suddenly, the battle for 4th in the constructors is back on!

2. George Russell. Nearly finished ahead of a Ferrari on merit.

Yep, it's this.

Freeze-O-Kimi wrote:1 Renault: Up to now it's been an Underwhelming season and this is the last track where you would think they'd do well. But from FP1 to the race they were always around the top 6. I was praying for one of the top 3 to go out so they could pick up a podium.

2: Charles Leclerc: This lad has so much mental strength on and off the track. To be under pressure from both Mercedes on the team's home ground where they haven't won for 9 years and take the win is fantastic. Also nice to see him rattle the best driver in F1 ever (sarcasm).

HM's
Giovanazzi: Redemption for Spa
Perez: Held off Verstappen at the end

I second these. For me this was the race that Leclerc finally dethroned Vettel as Ferrari's #1 and he will be their golden boy for years to come now. Almost a perfect weekend.

Well the obvious ones are covered, so I'll throw a biscuit the way of Ferrari's Strategists. They've gotten some (justified) hammerings in the past couple of years, but they made a good call to go for hard tires and outlast the Mercs today.

1) Renault. Very strong run from both drivers. They're still a step behind the big three, but that points haul knocks back at Mclaren in their fight for 4th in the Constructors.

2) Antonio Giovinazzi. Rather anonymous, but showed he can bring results in if he keeps his cool.

Honourable Mentions:
Charles Leclerc (A bit scrappy at times, but his win cements himself as the driver on the upturn at Ferrari for the short term)

Sergio Perez (Doing what he does well, scrapping hard in the midfield for points)

Williams (Made the most of a weekend where they had no pace at all, and if the race had more crashes they may have pipped another point)

Enforcer wrote:Well the obvious ones are covered, so I'll throw a biscuit the way of Ferrari's Strategists. They've gotten some (justified) hammerings in the past couple of years, but they made a good call to go for hard tires and outlast the Mercs today.

I'll go with this. They screwed up royally so much this year, but credit where it's due, the hards were a brillant choice.

Renault - Big points haul, maybe a chance of P4 in the Constructors Championship.
Giovinazzi - Didn't throw away the points finish this weekend.

1) Renault: Great result with good pace even against the top teams on the grid.

2) George Russell: A solid effort in a backmarker car.

Going for Renault then Perez - really didn't see him getting points from the back!

1. Renault
2. Giovinazzi

Renault Given they have done well on the power tracks this year (Bahrain, Canada) I expected them to head the midfield here but they were on par with Red Bull here.

Antonio Giovinazzi Redemption for Belgium, he may finally be coming into his own now.

1. Renault - it was like they were a big manufacturer-backed team or something
2. Racing Point - if not for the incident with Stroll, they would've looked quite good

East Londoner wrote:1. Renaut. Where the hell did that performance come from? Suddenly, the battle for 4th in the constructors is back on!

2. George Russell. Nearly finished ahead of a Ferrari on merit.

Yes indeedy

East Londoner wrote:1. Renaut. Where the hell did that performance come from? Suddenly, the battle for 4th in the constructors is back on!

2. George Russell. Nearly finished ahead of a Ferrari on merit.

Clear winners

Renault and George Russell get my votes. For reasons see the posts further up this thread.

Renault and Leclerc for me. Don't think it needs a huge amount of explanation, other than the latter. Not only did he win his first two wins back-to-back (last time that was done was Hamilton himself in 2007), but Leclerc had to fight off two Mercedes for his life in front of his home-crowd and succeeded. Good job, Charles.

East Londoner wrote:1. Renaut. Where the hell did that performance come from? Suddenly, the battle for 4th in the constructors is back on!

2. George Russell. Nearly finished ahead of a Ferrari on merit.

What he said.

Had to weigh up the option of either Sergio Pérez, or Charles Leclerc, and decided on the latter as there were also nominations to Ferrari itself for their strong strategy. So the poll is up, you have 48 hours, people!

So out of nowhere, Renault went from struggling around in 6th or 7th in the constructors' championship, to genuinely challenging near enough the front that they were on pace with Red Bull! During qualifying and the race, both Ricciardo and Hulkenberg were surprisingly close to the podium, and had a front-runner crashed they would have been the first to pounce. Their haul of 22 points must have been a glorious breath of fresh air to the team, and has bumped them up to be actual, genuine challengers against McLaren. After the latter team has had issues since returning from summer, the former has earned their Infinite Improbability Drive of the Race award as they set their sights on 4th in the constructors.