Poll 2010 Chinese Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend

2010 Chinese GP Driver of the Weekend

  • Jenson Button

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Sebastian Vettel

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Vitaly Petrov

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Felipe Massa

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Michael Schumacher

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Adrian Sutil

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Rubens Barrichello

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Jaime Alguersuari

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Heikki Kovalainen

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Nico Hulkenberg

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Bruno Senna

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Jarno Trulli

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Lucas di Grassi

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Pedro de la Rosa

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Sebastien Buemi

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Kamui Kobayashi

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Vitantonio Liuzzi

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Timo Glock

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    29

cider_and_toast

Exulted Lord High Moderator of the Apex
Staff Member
Valued Member
Right it's time for that ever popular post race discussion and time for us to choose our driver of the weekend.

So who impressed in China? Obviously Button's name will figure on some peoples list for another right time, right place call that lead to victory. Lewis impressed once again with his usual fight through the field and his double overtake at the hairpin deserves a special mention.

Further down the field perhaps Petrov caught your eye. One or two mistakes should not detract from a strong performance from the young Russian in only his 4th race. Or for the outside bets perhaps you were impressed with young Jamie A again this weekend or by the fact that Heikki managed to run the Lotus in the points briefly and managed to keep his car ahead of a Williams in another steady performance?

So who is it going to be?
 
Bizarre though it may be - I'm going for Alonso an a double whammy!

The situation and tactics played into Button's hands (plus I think his safety car tactics were unforgiveable), Hamilton drove a blinder, but made some decisions (his pit entry, wheel to wheel with Vettel) which tell me he's just driving too hot headed. Rosberg was a star, but then, once caught, how easy was he to pass!

Alonso, made himself look like an archytypical Numpty off the line, but how did he get fourth - he wasn't seen, commentated on, he just quietly worked through the field. Such a shame I just don't like the guy!
 
Rosberg, for complete domination of a team-mate who is much better than Kazuki Nakajima, and for dragging an undeserving Merc to the podium.
 
I’ve voted for Jenson Button.

Started from 5th and finished 1st. :1st: He made the right call on the tyres (making the decision is one thing, making it work is another!), overtook Nico Rosberg to take the lead and apart from one minor slip, made no mistakes. Any F1 driver that does well in wet and slippery conditions, with next to zero visibility, gets my thumbs up :chuffed: , so to win the race seals it for me.
 
A lot of contenders this weekend, no doubt about it.

I'm going for Vitaly Petrov - he excelled in conditions that many drivers lacking in experience would find terribly difficult. He ran close to the pace of his highly-rated team mate, and having dropped from 7th to 10th through no fault of his own with a late change to fresh inters, he fought back and passed both Schumacher and Webber. Very impressive.
 
I've got to agree with GM on this one. There were many contenders but for me Petrov just shades it. It was a difficult race to call with it's changing conditions and for a guy in only his 4th race in F1 he looked really on the ball.

Sure he had a couple of tank slappers but then so did almost everyone including the eventual race winner. What mattered is that he kept it all together, pulled off some good overtakes and picked some decent points.
 
Driver of the Day..................Jenson Button.

It was a flawless run for him Sunday. He was smooth all race, didn't put a wheel wrong and didn't flog the tires like everyone else seemed to(only had to make 2 stops as opposed to what, at least 3-4 for the others....). Other than his somewhat boneheaded attempt to stack the field up on that one safety car period, it was his race.
 
I'm afraid I have to be honest and vote for Hamilton. Even tho I think he was reckless at some moments I also think his aggressive driving was some of the best and most entertaining driving I've seen in long time. Button.. good work on holding the top position again showing some tactical qualities. Kudos for Rosberg.
 
I'm going to go for Petrov too.

After only qualifying 14th, he managed to finish in 7th ahead of Mark Webber, Felipe Massa and Michael Schumacher (although that last one's not saying much :snigger: ).

Not bad going for a rookie.
 
Can i pick two lol,

Button and petrov both would get it then.

Think Button would have to get the honors for me, Once again made the right call on tyres. overtook Rosberg for the lead and kept it all together in tricky conditions where the tyres was also going off. Ill forgive him for that little slip up at the hairpin.
 
Well it's taken a while to make my decision but here goes.

I'd like to actually give it to EJ for calling DC & JH "muppets" during the weekends commentry LOL and also to Mercedes for their first engine powered podium 1,2,3 since aintree 1955 (if you can believe anything Matin Witmarsh says) but they are not drivers so...

But seriously if i were to take the thread by it's title i.e. driver of the weekend then it would have to go to Lewis Hamilton Statisticly.
Best Sector times - FP1,2,3,Quali, Race - 5/15
Fastest laps - FP1,2,3,Q1,Q2,Q3,Race - 4/7
Speed Trap - F1,2,3,Quali, Race - 1/5 (had quickest speed of weekend recorded during race @ 318kph)
Lowest position was 16th on lap 6 having started 6th (lot of sixes in there! and just to add another, at the end of the 2nd saftey car period on lap 25 he was in 6th!)
Overtaking - Immense (see stat thread for details) but it has to be said to find the grip and moves at turn 8/9 showed great racecraft & fun to watch.

That said here's where i follow suit with most and make a tendenancy to base it on just the race itself and inter team rivalry.

Hamilton - although deserving doesn't get it overall being marginally outpaced by his team mate on the basis of laps quicker than.
Full race distance - Button 29 v 27 Hamilton
Saftey car corrected - Button 27 v 23 Hamilton (saftey car laps noted by G in ovetaking stats thread removed)
I might here cry's of foul on the basis Hammy stopped more times yes he did but only once not under the SC with that being negated by the second SC, so here's a quick one on the last 17 laps and both back up to speed having completed the final pit stop and in a 1,2 position.
laps 40 to 56 - Button 9 v 8 Hamilton.

Button - Excellent drive again showing good tactical sense in the prevailing conditions but like hammy gets a no vote for although having the measure of his team mate in laps quicker than, the average time over those last 17 laps was marginally slower because of the one mistake and subsequent tyre temp loss. Also that bizzare SC restart had a bearing on my thoughts.

Next candidate Rosberg. Superb steady drive and again as Button good tactical sense early doors with the strategy. The comparision with Schumacher doesn't even bear thinking about over the entire race distance if your name is MS.
I could put the figures up but for arguments sake lets just say for those teams that had 2 cars cover the full race distance Rosberg's domination was the most comprehensive of all. That followed suprisingly closely by Alonso over Massa but Alonso's jump start ensures he won't be getting the vote either.

Whilst on the subject of teamate domination that bring up the next two not to get voted for. Webber came 3rd in the "i was dominated" stakes and apart from the quali 1-2 of which Vettel's lap was awesome his subsequent race pace and pit lane antics crosses both Red bull's of the contender list.

This brings us onto Renault, both Kubica & Petrov running with good early stategies and members of the two stop club which had them up into 3rd & 4th Repectively early in the race until lap 27 where it started to go downhill for the pair. Again Kuica with a solid drive and for Petrov as a rookie showing good racecraft as pointed out by others but here's the killer for him, Petrov ranked 4th in the "i was dominated" lap list which actually was third in average time differential of the full 56 lap distance runners.

Kovalainen does deserve a mention having ran in the top ten for all of 7 laps being brave enough to go with the 2 stop strategy while the majority went for the 3 lap inter destruction route. This culminated on lap 8 getting as high as 6th place (theres that 6 again)

Not many others to be in contention Hulkenberg & Alguersuari drove well, but 6 it stops!!

So who gets my vote?
For i think the second time this season Brunno Senna. :s? i was as well for a while

Here's the deal, he's finally gotten over the honeymoon period and admitted the HRT is the worst car in term's of grip level he's ever driven. That car is easily 4+ laps off the pace over a race distance and ok we may have had a few saftey cars to aid that stat in this race but here's the facts given both cars finished albeit not the full race distance.

Senna +2 Laps
Chandhok +4 Laps

To finish only two laps down is no mean feat in that car but whats even more impressive is the team mate domination, it's on a par with what Rosberg did to Schui but what is incredible is the the average lap time differental which tops the charts of 2 car finishers at a rate better than 3.5 secs a lap!
Mr Chandhok you've been blown away and lapped by your team mate!

Just for fun - Button v Senna, 49-7 nearly 6.2secs lap av diff. (corrected 47-3) (last 17 16-1)
 
There were several superb performances button balance a slip of the tongue is perhaps no accident:

Jenson: 10/10. He was consistently quick; paced himself better than the rest of the field - with the now all too familiar payback on tyres; made the most shrewd tyre choice at the right time; did all the overtaking asked of him and, once there, stayed in the best place (out of trouble!); and of course he won the race. Had he not had his lead chopped away by the safety car - twice - I believe he would have sailed off into everyone else's setting sun as surely as John Wayne in a corny cowboy film. 10 out of 10 for a drive that Alain Prost would have been very proud of.

Next best for me was Hamilton: 9.5/10 who once again "raced his heart out". His spectacular driving and superb overtaking skills were called on again by qualifying 6th - and a tyre gamble that didn't work. His performance once again did F1 proud, being the star of the show in every sense but the most important: the top step.

Petrov: 9/10 impressed me immensely. Although beaten by his team-mate, it is very easy to watch him and think one is watching someone who's been around as long as Barrichello. For just four races; he is proving to be the 'find' of the season and is surely the best value driver on the grid.

Alonso: 8.5/10 did a good job. But there is a caveat: I don't approve of what he did to Massa when pitting. Massa clearly was not expecting such a move, so this has put another question mark over Fernando's role as a team player - once again. Nonetheless, it is difficult not to acknowledge his ruthless, Senna like 'raciness'.

Rosberg 8/10 showed what the Mercedes can do. But he is still falling short of the top flight. When the going gets tough, he has not yet shown the gritty determination of Hamilton, Button and Vettel. It is unfortunate that his performances are most easily seen as impressive for the wrong reason: that of beating his illustrious but totally outclassed team-mate.

So that's my top five for China 2010.
 
I'm going for Hamilton simply for sheer entertainment value throughout the whole race. Nothing more to add that hasn't already been said :)
 
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