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Stroll lost the car, it was a racing incident, I wouldn't call him race idiot. That should go to Perez probably

And I don't know what clear evidence you've got in the last 4 races that Leclerc has been far better every time...
Baku, ok, Ericsson was bad

Spain, although Ericsson did finish behind, these two were the closest pair of team mates that both finished the race.

Then Monaco. They pitted 1 lap apart. Ericsson came out 10 seconds behind Leclerc. Then 10 laps later, was behind Leclerc within 2.5 seconds and DRS range. And stayed there until Leclerc was unlucky enough to have a problem. I'm not saying Ericsson was better, but from what we saw, he could well have been as fast or faster. I can't really conclude much though but it was not far better from Leclerc again in the race which is what counts.

Then as I said, Ericsson pitted on lap 1 in Canada. Strategy ruined. He may well have done a bad job anyway, but he didn't have the chance to show he was decent.

In the races (which matter more than qualifying) I do not see how Leclerc has been far better. Concidering he's a rookie with 7 races, then yes, that is certainly impressive, but given Ericsson's reputation and that Leclerc hasn't been far better every race makes me wonder why Leclerc is so highly rated.

How does qualifying count for driver of the day on race day?

I think a lot of the races between Leclerc and Ericsson have been a bit difficult to compare. Ericsson certainly seems to have a weakness in qualifying at the moment, but aside from Baku, I don't think he's been bad at all in the races. In Monaco, there wasn't really any evidence that either was quicker. The only thing that we did see is that Ericsson was faster until he caught up to Leclerc, who was stuck behind Hartley. Leclerc is certainly looking solid, but IMO, it is way to soon for other teams to start considering him. He didn't look good in the first 3 races and only 4 weekends have gone by since then. 2 of which Ericsson didn't look significantly worse in. And he often gets really heavily criticised for being terrible. Regarding the latest race, Leclerc again did do really well and I think Sauber are certainly turning things around at the moment. I think Ericsson only will have pitted on lap 1 if the team wanted to try an insane strategy that wouldn't work or had picked up damage due to the first lap incident. So that is another race difficult to compare them. I think that given Ericsson hasn't been that far off Leclerc's race pace recently shows that either Ericsson is very under rated, or Leclerc isn't quite what I would call amazing just yet. Given his experience, then yes, that makes it more impressive but I think there are still a lot of better drivers out there with more experience that would do a better job at Ferrari. Not saying Leclerc won't improve. I certainly it to be the case that he will get really good.

In Lewis' defense, I have seen a couple of sources that suggested his electrical boost dropping in and out could have cost him as much as 160 horse power when it dropped out. Both Niki Lauda and Toto Wolff said that Lewis did not have the car to take the fight to Max or to repass Daniel.

If he was down that much on HP during portions of the race, I would have to call it a fairly decent drive for Hamilton. I hope they get their new power units up to snuff and in the cars for France.

The top three.

Special mention to Gasly going from 19th to 11th in a race with zero overtaking.

Half mention to Ricciardo who, allegedly struggling with the new engine, managed to provide just about the only excitement of the race in the pit stops with Lewis Hamilton.

Would Ericsson himself or his cousin rate him near the bottom of the grid? I think Even Ericsson himself will realise he isn't very good. And I don't think he is either. There are only 2 or 3 drivers I would rate lower than him. It is just the fact that leclerc getting rated so highly against what many call a terrible driver that makes me wonder why people think Leclerc is so good. When Ericsson wasn't far off at all even in a very recent race. I do believe Leclerc is already better, but not by that much in race pace yet. Qualifying, yes. And will he get much better.

Strange when you mention Ricciardo's struggles with what was basically a healthy engine beating Hamilton who actually had a faulty engine.

Strange when you mention Ricciardo's struggles with what was basically a healthy engine beating Hamilton who actually had a faulty engine.

Hamilton had a chassis related problem that caused the overheating. I don't think he had an engine problem, did he?

apparently he found it gave him very poor driveability

Which still was nothing compared to the problems that Hamilton was having, Ricciardo was less than 2 tenths slower than Verstappen in qualifying with that problem.

Yeah I did hear something of the sort although Mercedes were being a bit secretive about it, the upside was that it caused his engine to be down on power which was what made him slow.

I'm not comparing. I'm just fleshing out his issues. The engine may have been healthy, but it wasn't easy to drive (for Ricciardo, at least).

I think they removed some panels from his headrest to improve the airflow for the cooling. No idea if they are allowed to remove parts of the car during a race, is it legal as long as it makes the minimum weight?

He couldn't find the optimum setting and thus couldn't heat the tyres properly if I got it right. So healthy engine, but if you can't make it work to your liking then not much point I guess

Still as a comparitor he was less than 2 tenths slower than Verstappen in qualifying, Hamilton was said at times to be losing 160hp, I find it hard to believe it was as much as that but still he was losing a lot of power much more than 2 tenths a lap in performance.

Agreed, I find the 160hp figure very iffy (not sure when this came from, I have never seen this figure mentioned by Hamilton or Mercedes).

Hamilton said that the engine wasn't the problem for his poor qualifying, he just couldn't get everything to work. His words.

yeah the power losses were only in the race. Hamilton was complaining before his pit stop but I don't recall any complaints after. His engineer told him everything had been fixed and he could just go for it

Still as a comparitor he was less than 2 tenths slower than Verstappen in qualifying, Hamilton was said at times to be losing 160hp, I find it hard to believe it was as much as that but still he was losing a lot of power much more than 2 tenths a lap in performance.

As others have said, I'm pretty sure the power loss - aside from the simple age of the engine - was limited to Sunday. His main loss of time in quali appeared to be locking his brake at the hairpin every lap.

Yet another case of his team failing him.

Interesting comment from Mark Hughes in his race report:

Vandoorne couldn’t avoid the debris and the McLaren picked up a right-front puncture. After stopping for replacements, he didn’t really have enough suitable tyres left to go the distance, his race effectively done.

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/reports/f1/2018-canadian-grand-prix-report

So maybe Vandoorne's pace relative to Alonso this weekend wasn't entirely his fault

Agreed, I find the 160hp figure very iffy (not sure when this came from, I have never seen this figure mentioned by Hamilton or Mercedes).

Hamilton said that the engine wasn't the problem for his poor qualifying, he just couldn't get everything to work. His words.

yeah the power losses were only in the race. Hamilton was complaining before his pit stop but I don't recall any complaints after. His engineer told him everything had been fixed and he could just go for it

Yet another case of his team failing him.

Was it the same brake duct as the one that they found the dead bird inside?

On that score it's being said that a bird got ingested by the front brake duct in qualifying causing the brake to overheat and presumably causing the locking issue that he had.

he also said that's where he lost pole, which maybe puts the cars into perspective?

The bird or the brake locking?

the brake locking, which as per your post was caused by the bird. I.e. not a car performance issue, but an outside influence

On that score it's being said that a bird got ingested by the front brake duct in qualifying causing the brake to overheat and presumably causing the locking issue that he had.

Well I don't know that for certain it just gives scope for it not being Hamilton's fault, that and the issue in the race seems like it just was never meant to be for him this time around.

Hamilton never blamed anything else but himself. Either he was being modest or he didn't know about the issue.

Maybe because you can't overtake, it was a key element to him winning the race plus in the race he also seemed to be the quickest so there is also that, qualifying was very close, if Hamilton had not messed up the outcome of the race may have been different again.

That's an odd view, where they start doesn't affect how well they drive in a race.
Yes it made him able to win easily. In doing so the only effect I can see pole having given is that he didn't need to drive so well, hence he did nothing special in the race and isn't driver of the day...
Many drivers in the pack IMO did things more deserving of the race than Seb given his advantage of Pole and the Ferrari performance in Canada. If the power problems on Hamiltons car were as serious as suggested it could be argued he performed better in the race given where he started and the issues (don't think he was driver of the day, but depending on the extent of the issues who knows).