Donkey of the race?

[F1boat]

Title says it all, guys. What's your opinion?
For me Buemi for the weekend and Jaime for the race...

[HenryM]

Fisichella!?

[ShiftingGears]

Title says it all, guys. What's your opinion?
For me Buemi for the weekend and Jaime for the race...

Yeah, we get it, they crashed and brought up unfortunate circumstances for Brawn.

S*** happens.


Kovalainen for me - that was a dumb maneuver trying to stop Sutil.

[harsha]

Buemi , Alguersari

Kova is a donkey for the entire season

[Robinho]

Kovy - slow, messed up a strong stretegy, failed to defend the place and then drove straight into Sutil.

everyone else seemed to do pretty well in the race, no one too slow or crashing, sure Algie had a big one, but people have crashed there many times before and he is a rookie so i will give him the allowance for making a mistake and getting punished for it

[DexDexter]

Kovy for being slow, Fisi for being Fisi, this was not the first time someone has overtaken him in strange circumstances. (I'm referring to Kovy passing him just after the pitstops.)

[Robinho]

of course if Rosberg picks up a penalty for speeding back to the pits under SC conditions then he will be right up there for me

[UltimateDanGTR]

kovy has yet again secured a donkey spot. alguesuari made a mistake of youth and inexperience, i cant class that as donkeyish, he's still gotta lot to learn. Fisi was asleep, but thats the way things have been lately for fisi......

so Kovy for being such a wolly, ruining sutils race and giving jenson a slice of the luck cake.......

[Hawkmoon]

Fisichella for getting jumped by Kovalainen coming out of the pits. Very amateurish.

[VkmSpouge]

Heikki Kovalainen for him sliding into Adrian Sutil. Anyone in a Red Bull/Toro Rosso who isn't Vettel also deserve a mention for the collectively awful weekend they have had.

[woody2goody]

Kovalainen, and Glock for trying to drive when he should have been in bed.

Also, Nakajima for being pretty average in the race and a bad qualifying.

[gm99]

How can Glock be donkey of the race when he hasn't even taken part in it?

To me, it is Fisichella & Alguersari.

[ioan]

Fisichella.

[jeffmr2]

Button

[Sonic]

Roman Grosjean.

Pretty slow all weekend and scared himself into falling off the track at spoon under only moderate pressure from behind.

[Ent]

I would have given it to Kovalainen for the Sutil incident, but that move on the half asleep Fisi at the pit exit made up for it. So, Fisi gets it for being asleep at the pit exit!

[Saint Devote]

Kovy for being slow, Fisi for being Fisi, this was not the first time someone has overtaken him in strange circumstances. (I'm referring to Kovy passing him just after the pitstops.)

I concur.

Fisichella reminded me of Badoer allowing Sutil [??] to pass him when exiting the pits.

I would also add Alguersuari to the list - how many times does he have to crash? I think dear Jaime is reaching beyond his limit. No good.

Time will tell whether he is up to f1.

Heikki being overtaken I think has sealed his exit from Mclaren.

[Saint Devote]

Roman Grosjean.

Pretty slow all weekend and scared himself into falling off the track at spoon under only moderate pressure from behind.

I think Grosjean secretly allows Piquet into the car prior to the race.....

[Saint Devote]

Button

Why? After the grid reshuffle by the regulating morons what did you expect him to do?

A team is prohibited from changing fuel load. Jenson's intention was to not be involved in any starting incident - easy to do when in the pack.

Then he drove a race with an eye on scoring the most points possible while defending his championship lead.

He capitalized on the Kovaleinen - Sutil clash and drove to the finish scoring a point with his nearest rival just ahead of him.

And towards the end he was the quickest of the Mercedes powered drivers and did not put a wheel wrong - as he has been for the entire year really.

It was a good peformance by Jenson - and even if you disagree with me on that, he certainly was nowhere even near to being considered a "donkey" of the race!!

Be fair.

[Jag_Warrior]

There was a whole pack of donkeys in this race. I'd have to give equal donkey points to the entire Toro Rosso team, Mark Webber, Kovalainen and Fisichella.

[Shifter]

I have to go back and look at the Kovalainen/Sutil incident again. Looked to me like Sutil tried to 'hang him out to dry', which doesn't work well in short chicanes. Kovy had both left wheels completely over the curbs and would have had to come to a complete stop, i thought. Like I said I'll look at it again.

My donkey vote goes to Alguersuari. Priority #1 at that point should have been 'don't crash the car'.

[wedge]

Kovy - slow, messed up a strong stretegy, failed to defend the place and then drove straight into Sutil.

Sutil was quicker because he had less fuel than Kovy. Kovy should've played it smart and let Sutil through.

And calling him a donkey when the best overtake of the race was him overtaking Fisi kinda cancels things out for the entire race though we won't disagree with this:



Kovy is a donkey for the entire season

[ShiftingGears]

Mark Webber,

Webber drove a very good race considering he was 2 laps down by lap 5, through no fault of his own.

[woody2goody]

I have to go back and look at the Kovalainen/Sutil incident again. Looked to me like Sutil tried to 'hang him out to dry', which doesn't work well in short chicanes. Kovy had both left wheels completely over the curbs and would have had to come to a complete stop, i thought. Like I said I'll look at it again.

My donkey vote goes to Alguersuari. Priority #1 at that point should have been 'don't crash the car'.

Kovy was still a bit careless in hitting him IMO, he should have conceded the place because he could surely see he couldn't make it back past in the second part of he chicane. He would probably have overtaken Sutil again on the straight with KERS.

I don't think Jaime drove a bad race, he was doing a good job. Yes he crashed, but he was on the pace throughout the race on a very difficult track.

Oh, and on Glock, I sort of meant donkey of the weekend, not the race. He did spend the race in a cast so I guess he was the least impressive out of all the drivers today :p

Ok, maybe apart from Grosjean...

[woody2goody]

Jaime Alguersuari was not sure what caused his big accident at 130R:

http://www.itv-f1.com/news_article.aspx?id=47101

But it doesn't look like driver error anyway.

[Sonic]

Kovy was still a bit careless in hitting him IMO, he should have conceded the place because he could surely see he couldn't make it back past in the second part of he chicane. He would probably have overtaken Sutil again on the straight with KERS.

Kovy wouldn't have had any KERS left as everyone I saw onboard used it all exiting spoon. Still doesn't change the fact that he should have played smart and let the short fueled Sutil past.

[millencolin]

Grosjean.... Slow, Boring, not good enough to even keep it on the island.

[jimakos]

Of course Fisichella!!!
Ferrari didn't choose the best driver!
Massa come back.................

[ShiftingGears]

Of course Fisichella!!!
Ferrari didn't choose the best driver!
Massa come back.................

Out of who was available, I can't think of anyone who was a better pick than Fisi.

[AndyL]

Jaime Alguersuari was not sure what caused his big accident at 130R:

http://www.itv-f1.com/news_article.aspx?id=47101

But it doesn't look like driver error anyway.

At least not in Jaime Alguersuari's eyes ;) But even if it was his mistake I'd still agree he did pretty well on balance, given his rookie status and the formidable challenges of Suzuka. It's harsh to call someone a donkey for a simple driving error like that, especially a rookie, when they've generally had good pace. I'd be more inclined to give it to Kovalainen, not just for the incident with Sutil but for being so much slower than his teammate.

[stevie_gerrard]

Kovalainen for leaving a gaping hole for Sutil to pass and then driving into him. Then for leaving a gaping hole for Fisichella to overtake him out of the pit lane.

[wedge]

Then for leaving a gaping hole for Fisichella to overtake him out of the pit lane.

Fisi left a big hole to invite Kovy so I can't see how Kovy can be regarded as a donkey!

[ioan]

Then for leaving a gaping hole for Fisichella to overtake him out of the pit lane.

I'm fairly sure it was the other way around.

[Shifter]

Jaime Alguersuari was not sure what caused his big accident at 130R:

http://www.itv-f1.com/news_article.aspx?id=47101

But it doesn't look like driver error anyway.

Ah, well I guess I'll retract my donkey vote if there was mechanical failure, can't blame him for that! Fuji TV only gave us a snippet replay and I thought he had simply gone over the kerb on the right causing the slide.

[Knock-on]

As has been noted, there was more donkeys this race than on a sunny August bank holiday at Margate.

I think I am going to give it to Kovy for a completely unnessary incident although he did pull off a cracker on Fisi. All very unfortunate for the young man and looks like he's out.

[Robinho]

Sutil was quicker because he had less fuel than Kovy. Kovy should've played it smart and let Sutil through.

And calling him a donkey when the best overtake of the race was him overtaking Fisi kinda cancels things out for the entire race though we won't disagree with this:

Kova was opportunist and it was all about KERS on a napping Fisi, good, but not the best pass and for me he'd already got the donkey for being so slow compared to Lewis (again) and punting off Sutil, Button's dummy and pass on Kubica was a much better piece of passing

[woody2goody]

Kova was opportunist and it was all about KERS on a napping Fisi, good, but not the best pass and for me he'd already got the donkey for being so slow compared to Lewis (again) and punting off Sutil, Button's dummy and pass on Kubica was a much better piece of passing

Yep. His overtake was good, it was just everything else that was crappy if I'm honest.

PS: 1,111 posts! Does that mean I have to stand on one leg until my next post? :p