Poll 2010 German Grand Prix Chump of the Weekend

[cider_and_toast]

I think I have a suspicion about which name most people will have at their finger tips when it comes to this category.

It was a strange race in terms of chumpery since there wasn't actually that much on display. Once again consider the whole weekend when making your deliberations.

Some areas that may need looking at were the fact that both Mercs were lapped, Algersauri managed to do a hatchet job on his team mate while it was all fun and games at Force India in the pits.

Perhaps on this occasion the major stuff ups were team related however it's a driver category so it's for drivers you must vote.

 

[cosicave]

This is a tricky one since there are two clear candidates: Massa and Alonso.

But both complied with the team 'not-orders', and Domenicali appeared to be having an important chat to his boss Luca di Montezemolo, before going in front of the cameras. So perhaps it should really be one of them? - Or Bernie for allowing Ferrari to make such a chump of him and his public entertainment?

Edit: I have now placed my vote. It may seem unfair but it went to Massa, for complying with team orders. After all, he knows they're not allowed. Sorry Felipé…

 

[GeoffP]

I think Alonso and Massa's team orders qualifies them for chump of the series - so blatant, and Alonso claiming he got passed - #######

Chump of the race has to be Vettel. Pole again, throws it in the toilet again simply by his usual ploy of trying to compromise one other driver's position in order to gain, unfortunately there are 22 other drivers out there just waiting for the sort of opportunity that behaviour presents

 

[Brogan]

I don't think it's fair to blame Massa or Alonso as quite clearly they were both obeying the orders of the team.

However, to try and claim it as a win is galling but I'm still not sure that qualifies Alonso for CotW.

I'll have to think about this one.

 

[siffert_fan]

If it were possible, I would vote for the entire Ferrari team. The FIA will get my vote if they allow the Red Menace to get away with nothing more than a fine.

Runner-up, and the one that gets my actual vote, is Alguersauri-for violating the cardinal rule of ALL forms of racing-"thou shalt not eliminate thy teammate"

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

Difficult one;

Vettel, for forgetting that trying to push Alonso into the wall would leave the lefthand channel for Massa to sail through and take them both?

Alonso, for behaving like a spoilt child (yet again), getting his own way and then having the temerity to pretend that Massa had had some kind of problem at the hairpin?

Massa, for bowing to an illegal team order when he could have kept his foot on the gas and fought for his position?

Maybe even Schumacher for a) having another mediocre weekend behind the wheel and b) sticking up for Ferrari's tactics after the race?

In the end, I went for Massa. I really like the guy and would have loved to see him go for the win, especially on the anniversary of his accident. But I fear that his chance of the WDC (certainly for this season and maybe ever) has been washed down the drain in one swift movement of his foot off the throttle. Maybe he realised that too, which could be why he looked so browned off about the whole thing.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Alguersauri for me.

Not a great weekend for STR and the new guys are now getting ever closer but as Siffert fan said,It's one of the golden rules of motorsport. You don't take out your team mate.

 

[RickD]

It simply has to be Alonso for playing the same game he tried and failed to play at McLaren. I suppose successfull manipulation of team-'mates' in 2 out of 3 teams could be seem as a success for him..

Definite chumpery for the fact that he claimed it as a win!!

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

You know what? I'm changing my vote.

I went for Massa, but felt uncomfortable about it. Then cosicave's assertion that what he did was heroic got me thinking, as we both voted for Felipe as Driver AND Chump of the weekend.

Then it hit me like a flash:
Who was ultimately responsible for the shenanigens that we witnessed today?
It wasn't Massa. It wasn't Alonso. It wasn't Stefano Domenicali, Rob Smedley or even Luca di Montezemolo.

No, the person responsible for today, the person who was resonsible for the introduction of Article 39.1 in the first place, is none other than Michael Schumacher.

He's my Chump of the Weekend, Chump of the Season and Chump of the Decade all rolled into one.

 

[Enja]

I'd like to thank Jonathan Legard, David Coulthard, Stefano Dominecali, Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa, Rob Smedley for their very obvious contributions to today's chump trophy.

However, in the light of such blatant chumpism, I feel it is too easy to vote for one of those.

So instead, my vote goes to..

Sakon Yamamoto!


For having his pit-lane limiter switched to 'on' when the race started.

 

[Brogan]

For having his pit-lane limiter switched to 'on' when the race started.

Really?

Hang on...

 

[BlackCountryBob]

Ok I have thought about it and it is a tough one, if the entire Ferrari team were an option then they would be it.

Alonso actually had a good weekend and while I do not like the manner of his victory, I have no evidence that he demanded Massa move aside so he is not my chump. Massa followed orders and said just about as much as he could without seriously dropping the team in it. Alguesuari came close to getting my nod for running into his own teammate on lap one and forcing him to retire. Sutil and Liuzzi are also worth a shut for throwing away what could have been decent points over the 3 days.

However, somewhat unusually, I am going to go for Jenson Button. I know it was a very good recovery from the McLarens but here is my evidence;

- Lewis binned his car badly in Practice one and missed most of P2 while the car was completely rebuilt.
- Button did loads of extra laps in the new setup (67 to 31 in all 3 practice sessions combined)
- Button was close to falling out in Q2, LH was ahead in both Q1 and Q2
- He had a better starting position on the clean side of the grid
- He didn't even stay close to the back of Webber in the opening stint forcing the long run
- He failed to launch or even appear close to making a move on LH in the race, despite having no-one behind him after lap 35
- He still failed to beat the one car he needed to and his gap to the top of the championship grew

There was only one car he needed to beat this weekend in reality and despite every conceivable advantage, he failed!

 

[Enja]

For having his pit-lane limiter switched to 'on' when the race started.

Really?

Hang on...

Yep

http://twitter.com/VirginRacing/status/19498683145

 

[Speshal]

Sorry for my late entry, I was driving back from Cornwall avoiding the race result until I got to watch it in full (top tip - use the regular iplayer not the one on BbC sports page that wil give you the result under the player)

I can't vote for just one chump.

It's joint chumpery Vettel for trying his usual of dangerous driving tactics and trying to pin someone into the pit wall off the start and Alonso for getting in a tizz inside his helmet when he was right up Felipe's chuff and then losing 3 seconds as he was having a sulk and then complaining on the radio "izza reeediculous" - If you are that much faster than him then fucking drive round him, not really a hard concept is it Fernando.

I damn well hope they get sanctioned for blatent team orders

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[Sakari]

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[Speshal]

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Unfortunately people get pissed off when teams manipulate the fucking race result and in such circumstances people have a tendency to be royally pissed off when this happens and I apologise.

 

[Brogan]

Unfortunately people get pissed off when teams manipulate the chuffing race result

And rightly so!

It ruined what was one of the only battles during the race and turned it from a "will they, won't they crash" scenario with Vettel closing in on them into a boring last 20 laps.

Up until that point I had been thoroughly enjoying the race.

 

[MajorDanby]

I've had to go for Alonso, not because he necessarily did anything wrong (apart from the "this is ridiculous" comment) but because he has inherited his race win win again.

He did drive very well so maybe this is slightly unfair, and it should be Ferrari as a whole getting the chump of the weekend trophy, sadly thats not possible.

 

[FB]

I've got to go for Vettel, if he hadn't made such a stupid move on Alonso off the start line he would never have been behind the Ferrari's and none of us would have had to put up with this farce of a result.

Given Alonso doesn't appear to be able to overtake without help from his team it would appear anyone in front at any Grand Prix, apart from Massa, has nothing to fear.

 

[JamesHunt]

It has to be Massa. I like Mark Webber more now....can you imagine Mark taking those orders?