After the first 72 hours of the Global Fan Survey – which has already attracted a response of over 50,000 fans – Alonso has leapt up from fourth place in the 2015 poll to grab the top spot currently.

Alonso’s stock has risen by a third in two years, despite his struggles with an uncompetitive McLaren-Honda in that time, to gain the fans’ acclaim.

However, three-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is numerically the biggest gainer, jumping from sixth in 2015 to second so far in 2017, grabbing almost two-thirds more votes than the previous survey.

Kimi Raikkonen has only lost 0.6% of his vote, but that’s enough to drop him from first to fourth, with Sebastian Vettel taking a 20% rise on his 2015 tally to jump ahead of him to third.

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen fill the remaining top six places.

2015 survey 2017 survey Pos. Driver Vote % Pos. Driver Vote % 1 Kimi Raikkonen 14.4% 1 Fernando Alonso 16.9% 2 Daniel Ricciardo 13.9% 2 Lewis Hamilton 16.1% 3 Sebastian Vettel 12.8% 3 Sebastian Vettel 15.6% 4 Fernando Alonso 12.7% 4 Kimi Raikkonen 13.8% 5 Jenson Button 10.3% 5 Daniel Ricciardo 9.7% 6 Lewis Hamilton 9.9% 6 Max Verstappen 7.3%

Ferrari pulls ahead as favourite team

In the favourite teams’ standings, Ferrari retains its clear number one spot. It has pulled away from the opposition, with McLaren losing 20% of its votes in two years but retaining second.

Red Bull and Mercedes are tied on a 10.7% share, but just 20 votes actually separating them by the end of Tuesday’s voting.

Williams has lost its fourth place to Mercedes in fans’ affections, with newcomers Haas jumping straight in at P6.

The survey, which remains open until after the Chinese Grand Prix, is available here: https://f1survey.motorsport.com