2011 Spanish GP IIDOTR

[LionZoo]

You guys know what to do.

1. Kamui Kobayashi - I really hate to give it to him as he seems to have a lock on this award, but even by his own standards this drive was amazing. After his early puncture, he was about 30 seconds behind even the HRTs and probably 50 seconds behind Perez. I figured his race was over. Yet, he put his head down, passed half the field, and was only 4 seconds behind Perez at the end of the race. If he wasn't blocked in Q2 and made it through the first lap unscathed, he probably could've gotten 5th with this drive. Yet, everything went wrong, but he still got on with it and managed to salvage a consolation point through sheer maturity. Not a flashy drive, but ninja-esque in being able to get to the points at the end.

2. Nick Heidfeld - From dead last to 8th on the Mark Webber strategy. We all knew it was coming, but he still had to put it together. Finishing in front of Petrov was the icing on the cake.

[shinji]

1. Schumi - for some reason I'm surprised
2. Heidfeld - last to 8th, can't really argue with that

[shinji]

...

[LionZoo]

I have to give an honorable mention to Schumi as well. It was a nice bounce back drive after the nightmare that was Turkey. Keep it up.

[Pointrox]

Schumacher - nice and consistent drive.
Heidfeld - nice and consistent drive.
Perez - nice and consistent drive.
Can't really say more than that, because most of the time we could see the top 5, but I guess that Perez's first points this season and Heidfeld's run 16 positions up are not a work of chance.

[jackanderton]

1. Heidfeld

Coulthard and Brundle once again sneering at the guy at the back for not making instant headway are proved utterly wrong when the strategy played out to the end. Heidfeld ended up one lap from passing Rosberg. An extraordinary drive that embarrassed his teammate whose slide down the field makes this drive look even more improbable.

2. Kobayashi

A steady race finish but when you consider what befell him early in the grand prix, his fightback was sensational and he really is a contender. The guy has a very mature attitude to race strategy and still has the guts to go for an overtake. Almost Button-like.

3. Button

A pretty impressive showing on a three stopper after that awful start, and he pulled off some great overtakes- he really knows when to stick a move on someone when he has to. It's a shame he gets all tentative when nearer the front.

[Ed24]

1. Heidfeld - Like Webber, it looked like he left his run too late, but could have passed both Mercedes if they weren't lapped and had to finish a lap early.

2. Perez - Under the radar, but popped up late on with a good strategy.

[Dan B]

1) Heidfeld: 24th to 8th is pretty damn good.
2) Perez: Solid race all around.

[tkcom]

Kobayashi Today's scenario is even worse that the last time. Unlike starting last, having a puncture on 1st lap means tens of seconds behind the next backmarker. Also, he's the only one doing 2 stops equivalent.
Button Great recovery from bad start. Worked wonder with the troublesome hard tyres.

[AndreaModa]

1: Kobayashi - I'd completely forgotten about his puncture, so thanks to LionZoo for reminding me of that! In that context his drive was simply superb, and along with Perez's good drive, earned Sauber a decent few points in what is an increasingly hard-to-break-into top 10.

2: Button - showed the field the way with what was the correct strategy to be on. If he hadn't had his nightmare start who knows where he might have ended up. As it was though he made some great passes, especially his pass on Webber when he needed to make the options work against the primes that both Alonso and Webber were on at the time.

[Shizuka]

Sauber, Heidfeld, Schumacher.
All four of them!

[Pieman]

1. Schumi - for some reason I'm surprised
2. Heidfeld - last to 8th, can't really argue with that

I agree with this.

[Cynon]

Why the hell are we nominating a semi-fast car that starts last, five races in, when it's clear that if your target is 7th-10th, starting last is advantageous?

1. Perez
2. Button

Honorable: Kobayashi, a bit stilted because getting a clean track at any time (even if its for a puncture) is also advantageous, especially early in the race when you're likely to be jammed in traffic.

[DemocalypseNow]

1ST Kamui Kobayashi
The puncture basically gave the rest of the field (at least) a half a minute handicap over him, yet he still charged back into the points. Not spectacular, only very solid. We already knew he had the sensational banzai pace in him, but these patient and mature drives are starting to show he's the real deal, an all-round driver.

2ND Nick Heidfeld
Much like Webber's drive in China, looked all out at sea for the first two dozen laps, but then turned up the wick and made passes left right and centre. If only the race were a lap longer and we'd have been talking about how he'd finished 6th instead of 8th...

[QuickYoda41]

Hard to choose, again...

1. Heidfeld: we can all remember what he could do in Melbourne (ok, with damaged chassis), now he was close to finish in 6th and Petrov was nowhere near despite his far better starting place

2. Button: he could finally prove his strategy to be right and made his nightmare start not happened

[RAK]

1) Sergio Perez: A solid, consistent drive which gave him some of the points he's been lacking since Australia.

2) Jenson Button: Strategic drive which relied on his ability to preserve tyres. A well-deserved podium.

[FullMetalJack]

1) Sergio Perez: A solid, consistent drive which gave him some of the points he's been lacking since Australia.

2) Jenson Button: Strategic drive which relied on his ability to preserve tyres. A well-deserved podium.

This.

[James1978]

I'm going to say McLaren actually - I thought this race would be a complete Red Bull cakewalk given the nature of the circuit, and McLaren would struggle to hold off Alonso. Didn't for a minute expect Hamilton to be right up Vettel's exhaust right at the end, nor did I expect both McLarens to soundly beat Webber!

[golic_2004]

You guys know what to do.

1. Kamui Kobayashi - I really hate to give it to him as he seems to have a lock on this award, but even by his own standards this drive was amazing. After his early puncture, he was about 30 seconds behind even the HRTs and probably 50 seconds behind Perez. I figured his race was over. Yet, he put his head down, passed half the field, and was only 4 seconds behind Perez at the end of the race. If he wasn't blocked in Q2 and made it through the first lap unscathed, he probably could've gotten 5th with this drive. Yet, everything went wrong, but he still got on with it and managed to salvage a consolation point through sheer maturity. Not a flashy drive, but ninja-esque in being able to get to the points at the end.

2. Nick Heidfeld - From dead last to 8th on the Mark Webber strategy. We all knew it was coming, but he still had to put it together. Finishing in front of Petrov was the icing on the cake.

Perfect candidates. And Schumi having a good run after his disasterous Turkish GP. Maybe he does have something left in him.

[patrick]

1. Lewis Hamilton
2. Sebastian Vettel

Why? they were both on the limit, non stop for the final two stints. They pushed each other so hard and the gap at the end and extent to which they lapped the field shows that. They made no mistakes, didn't give up and it was fantastic to watch. They drove superbly and I hope Lewis v Seb becomes the fight of the season.

[jackanderton]

You realise this is the 'infinitely improbable' drive of the race?

What about Vettel and Hamilton's coming first and second was improbable, let alone infinitely improbable?

Why do I have to bring this up every race? What can't people understand about the proposition of this thread? It isn't driver of the day, alright?

[dr-baker]

You realise this is the 'infinitely improbable' drive of the race?

What about Vettel and Hamilton's coming first and second was improbable, let alone infinitely improbable?

Why do I have to bring this up every race? What can't people understand about the proposition of this thread? It isn't driver of the day, alright?

So I nominate the two Lotus drivers - whoever would have thought that both would have got into points-paying positions at the same time for a least a couple of consecutive laps? THAT'S IID. Isn't it?

[jackanderton]

Sort of, though they were on weird strategies by that position and out of sequence with the pit stops. The end result was one crashed out quite badly and the other one ended up driving very slowly and getting in the way as usual. Which isn't so improbable. But a better suggestion than Vettel and Hamilton for doing a very very probable thing.

[Barbazza]

1) Heidfeld - Especially as he wasn't looking good in the early stages.

2) Perez - Looked there or thereabouts all afternoon and deserved points after the other ones were taken away.

[patrick]

You realise this is the 'infinitely improbable' drive of the race?

What about Vettel and Hamilton's coming first and second was improbable, let alone infinitely improbable?

Why do I have to bring this up every race? What can't people understand about the proposition of this thread? It isn't driver of the day, alright?

I found it infinitely improbable, for a number of reasons. I understand the concept of the thread, and at the end of the day that is my opinion. To be fair I didn't think Heidfeld or Kobayashi's races were pretty surprising, despite the quality of their drives. So I chose Lewis and Seb

[Enforcer]

I'd go with

1) Heidfeld. Good drive from the back, although with the tire thing, you have to wonder just how infinite the improbablilty of that was.

2) Lotus. They ran 7th and 8th for a couple of laps. Okay, I know they ended up nowhere, but that's a genuine improvement in pace.

[sswishbone]

1. Kamui Kobayashi: - To start low down, have a puncture, drop nearly a minute off, and recover to 10th is unbelievable

2. Nick Heidfeld: - We expected him to get relatively high-up, but to nearly close down Mercedes was a huge achievement

3. Jenson Button: - 5th to 10th on opening lap to recover to 3rd via intelligent racecraft was truly sensational

[Bleu]

1. Button. Disastrous start but then made good use of different strategy and got a podium.
2. Perez. Finally rewarded and also nice pass on Massa although he may have had problem already.

[Nessafox]

perez and heidfeld

[jackanderton]

I found it infinitely improbable, for a number of reasons. I understand the concept of the thread, and at the end of the day that is my opinion. To be fair I didn't think Heidfeld or Kobayashi's races were pretty surprising, despite the quality of their drives. So I chose Lewis and Seb

'at the end of the day that is my opinion', the get-out for someone with nothing to say to qualify their views.

I think your choice of Vettel and Hamilton as the least probable performance of the race is one of the most laughable things I've heard in weeks,the point of absurdity. But don't worry, at the end of the day that's just my opinion.

[DOSBoot]

Heidfeld. Again, "The John Watson Effect" played out.

[Tealy]

I found it infinitely improbable, for a number of reasons. I understand the concept of the thread, and at the end of the day that is my opinion. To be fair I didn't think Heidfeld or Kobayashi's races were pretty surprising, despite the quality of their drives. So I chose Lewis and Seb

'at the end of the day that is my opinion', the get-out for someone with nothing to say to qualify their views.

I think your choice of Vettel and Hamilton as the least probable performance of the race is one of the most laughable things I've heard in weeks,the point of absurdity. But don't worry, at the end of the day that's just my opinion.

My votes go to:
1. Schumacher - I've all but written him off now so I was surprised by his performance today
2. Button - Picked over Kobayashi purely because I now assume Kamui will pull a blinder out of the bag each and every race. Button put a solid, strategic drive to a well deserved podium from an awful start.

[patrick]

I found it infinitely improbable, for a number of reasons. I understand the concept of the thread, and at the end of the day that is my opinion. To be fair I didn't think Heidfeld or Kobayashi's races were pretty surprising, despite the quality of their drives. So I chose Lewis and Seb

'at the end of the day that is my opinion', the get-out for someone with nothing to say to qualify their views.

I think your choice of Vettel and Hamilton as the least probable performance of the race is one of the most laughable things I've heard in weeks,the point of absurdity. But don't worry, at the end of the day that's just my opinion.

This is a fun thread on a great forum and I'm not going to duke it out with you because you disagree with me. I can see why a lot of people have chosen more obvious choices but I chose differently and it really doesn't matter. Good day!

[TomWazzleshaw]

1. Nick Heidfeld: Eventually we'll think of burn from the stern performances from faster cars as par for the course but as Enoch said back in 2006 Heidfeld is known for making the most of opportunities, not creating them.
2. Pastor Maldonado: Ok, hear me out on this one. He made it into Q3 (which incidentally was Williams' first Q3 appearance all year) and whilst only finishing 15th he was still 15 seconds ahead of Barrichello who should have been able to do something with that bank of tyres.

[DanielPT]

Heidfeld: Last to points beating your team-mate in the process is good stuff. The question is, it is happening too often these days. Does really skipping qualifying gets you in the points if you have a solid midfield team?

Schumacher: Never mind that Rosberg had problems, the man finally did it! He beat his team mate and finishing a solid sixth, the highest that a Mercedes could have finished really.

Perez: Got the better of Kobayashi. Nuff said.

[mario]

Hmm, a little tricky this time, but I think that I'll nominate first Schumacher - he has been under a lot of pressure and criticism, a fair amount of it self inflicted after that poor showing in the Turkish GP, but he knuckled down this weekend and pulled out a much stronger performance. I think that this performance might give him a little boost in confidence, and overall this was a slightly better weekend for Mercedes, albeit still some way behind Ferrari.

Second place for me is Button - managing to not only hold off, but actually pull away from Webber during his final stint, despite having older tyres, is a good performance. Having seen his strategy fail in Turkey, he tried to do something different again, and this time it did work - and, moreover, he was prepared to fight his way through at times when it mattered.

Lastly, an honourable mention must go to Karthikeyan - mainly because it's impressive he finished at all. It turns out that he was suffering from an overheating seat, so his back was badly burned by the end of the race - to the extent that he said the pain was unbearable. That, in itself, deserves credit merely for persevering when others would have simply parked it and called it a day.
http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/2604 ... rand-prix/

[Phoenix]

Nick Heidfeld - From last to 7th, that was one mighty showing from one of the so-called most conservative drivers on the grid.

[Row Man Gross-Gene]

Heidfeld