2017 Australian Grand Prix - IIDOTR

[Ataxia]

The first race of the season is now over! Feel free to select your nominees for the Infinite Improbability Drive of the Race, based on the most surprisingly good performances from any driver/team/thing across the weekend. As the old copypasta states...

...based on the assumption that, at any moment in time, there is a non-zero probability that even the slowest, most inexperienced and least reliable of underdogs might win the race. That under every rock, there might be a gold nugget. This is the award for that first podium that we all celebrate, for the overtake no-one was expecting, for Ericsson's first win. This is the award, in short, for the driver or team that makes you go "Woah! Where did THAT come from?!".

Remember, your first choice receives 10 points and your second choice receives 6 points, helping determine the forum's ultimate IIDOTR. Vote now!

[pasta_maldonado]

The big story of the day, has to be:

1) Sebastian Vettel
2) Fernando Alonso

Alonso definitely put in the better drive of the pair, it was thrilling to see him take that McLaren to places it shouldn't be, but props to Vettel for beating the Mercedes on pure pace.

[Meatwad]

1. Antonio Giovinazzi: Admirable job given the car at his disposal and the circumstances in which he ended up driving it.
2. Felipe Massa: Best of the rest, didn't expect that much from Williams.

Honorable mentions: Vettel, Alonso

[UncreativeUsername37]

1. Romain Grosjean
2. Fernando Alonso

[mario]

1. Romain Grosjean - not only did he impress in qualifying, he was putting in a very creditable performance in the race itself until reliability issues crept in.
2. Fernando Alonso - given the problems in pre-season testing, the fact that he managed to get the car so far up the grid and into the tail end of the points until his retirement was pretty unexpected.

Honourable mention: Giovinazzi (did a good job to step in at such a late time and put in a creditable performance), Massa (quietly managed to haul his car right up into the points and put in a respectable performance).

[Aislabie]

1. Antonio Giovinazzi: Admirable job given the car at his disposal and the circumstances in which he ended up driving it.
2. Felipe Massa: Best of the rest, didn't expect that much from Williams.

Ditto.

[Aguaman]

10. Ferrari - Managed to make the strategy work with excellent driving from Vettel.

6. Fernando Alonso - Managed to hold off Ocon and Hulkenberg in a crapbox for a while. An amazing race until the car gave up.

[girry]

10 Romain
6 Giovinazzi
HM Massa

[CarloSpace]

1. Antonio Giovinazzi: Admirable job given the car at his disposal and the circumstances in which he ended up driving it.
2. Felipe Massa: Best of the rest, didn't expect that much from Williams.

Honorable mentions: Vettel, Alonso

Agreed 100%.

[andrew]

Tough one here.

10 pts Antonio Giovinazzi: lost an entire day of running and finished 12 with a solid drive.
6 pts Fernando Alonso: Dragging that car into the points and only dropping out when it failed (but still battled even with a broken car)

HM: Vettel, Grosjean

[takagi_for_the_win]

1. Romain Grosjean
2. Antonio Giovanazzi

[WaffleCat]

1. Antonio Giovinazzi -- For a new guy with relative inexperience in his car called up last minute, he handled it way better than most other drivers would. Congrats.

2. Daniil Kvyat. I don't know what strategy Toro Rosso was running, but he was quick and was practically begging his team to let him set the fastest lap of the race, which he pretty much did for a while. Congrats to you.

[Normal32]

1. McLaren
2. Antonio Giovianazzi

[DemocalypseNow]

1. Antonio Giovinazzi

Not voting for a 2nd place, as you can't vote for the same person twice.

[RAK]

1) Antonio Giovinazzi: A pretty decent performance, given that he was drafted in at the last minute for his debut. Hoping to see more of him in the future.

2) Esteban Ocon: First point through a pretty decent overtaking manoeuvre.

Honourable Mentions: Sebastian Vettel, Romain Grosjean, Fernando Alonso

[rachel1990]

1- Sebastian Vettel- After friday I thought it was all over- now there are only two words I can say- Game On.

2- Antonio Giovinazzi- I thought he would be dead last but he did reasonably well in tough circumstances. Beat an extremely poor Mclaren as well.

HM- Mclaren for actually finishing the race- they lasted longer than I expected.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

1. Antonio Giovinazzi

Not voting for a 2nd place, as you can't vote for the same person twice.

Just you watch.

1. Antonio Giovinazzi
2. Antonio Giovinazzi

And it doesn't end there!

3. Antonio Giovinazzi

[James1978]

1. Vettel/Ferrari - REALLY did not see that one coming, I thought they were going to have flattered to deceive as usual in testing.

2. Bottas - way closer to Hamilton than I would ever imagined first time out too.

Also HMs to Giovanazzi, and also attrition, something we haven't really seen recently!

[good_Ralf]

1) Giovinazzi
2) Grosjean
HM: Bottas (was really impressed by the end)

[lance_rambert]

1. Whoever at Ferrari made that strategy call - Someone in red tried to channel their inner Chad Knaus... again. However, unlike the numerous other times that made Ferrari look even stupider, it actually worked. Can't say I'm unimpressed.

2. Antonio Giovinazzi - Not bad considering Gio only had FP3 to learn how to drive the car.

HMs:
- Honda: Keep in mind McLaren's stuff broke on both cars, not Honda's

[novitopoli]

1. Antonio Giovinazzi - Italy's back. Shame it won't last...
2. Felipe Massa - Best of the rest while his teammate was nowhere to be seen.

[Spectoremg]

1. Giovinazzi: for being this seasons Stoffel Vandoorn.
2. Bottas: he wasn't far from Ham at the end.

HM: Ham for being gracious by his standards post race.

[This Could Be You]

IIDOTR:

1. Giovinazzi: The probability that he would be racing at all was pretty low to begin with, but both qualifying well and racing decently to a result just outside the points in a Sauber is an exceptional effort from him, and career suicide from Wehrlein.

2. Ferrari Strategy; They actually got something right!

HM:
Ocon; got his first points
Mclaren; seemed less hopeless than expected, and got a car to the finish
Ericsson; Got into Q2 with a year old engine.

[Nessafox]

1 Giovinazzi: seems to be the real deal, being able to drive unprepared.
2 Alonso: how he got the McLaren that high is a mystery.

Honorable mentions to Vettel, Ferrari, Bottas, Massa, Toro Rosso, Grosjean, Ocon, Kvyat. Though i guess Perez and Sainz deserve some credit for simply doing exactly what we expected of them, in a race where lot of drivers and teams did not manage to.

[CoopsII]

1 - Giovinazzi. I kept hearing the Nazi part of his name, though. Mind you in this ever more right-leaning world..

2 - Vettel. Won the race by driving quick. Radical.

[Fetzie]

1. Giovinazzi for jumping in an unknown car, qualifying well and nearly scoring points 24 hours after he heard that he would be driving.

2. Alonso for being able to put a bit of a shine on that turd of a car. If his suspension had held out he would have finished in the points.

[watka]

Lots of great drives, really difficult to decide between them. But I gotta.

1. Romain Grosjean - I think he was the driver who outperformed his car the most. So unfortunate that he had to retire.

2. Antonio Giovinazzi - Purely for jumping into one of the two slowest teams on the grid at the last minute and meeting others on merit.

Others: Alonso, Massa, Kvyat, Vettel

[eagleash]

Vettel

Giovinazzi

[Pilot]

1. Romain Grosjean
2. Antonio Giovanazzi

Agree.

[Dj_bereta]

1 - Kvyat: Superb driving after a lackluster season. Only finished behind Sainz due bad strategy from Toro Rosso.

2 - Giovinazzi: Missed two practice sessions and did a good job replacing Wherlein.

[Rob Dylan]

So the scores are:

1 Antonio Giovinazzi 204
2 Romain Grosjean 66
3 Fernando Alonso 42
4 Sebastian Vettel 41
5 Ferrari / Ferrari's strategy 31
6 Felipe Massa 24
7 Daniil Kvyat 16
8 Valtteri Bottas 12
9 McLaren 10
10 Esteban Ocon 6

Antonio Giovinazzi wins on his debut for Sauber, filling in at the last minute and doing an all-round respectable job under the circumstances.
Romain Grosjean comes second after his great performance in a still imperfect Haas.