Chinese year of the Dragon, Donkey and Driver

[Dave B]

Rosberg for Driver of the Day? He was widely expected to struggle on his tyres and proved everybody wrong, winning by a comfortable margin albeit helped by Button's bad pitstop.

Honourable mentions to Schumacher for the classy way he dealt with his unfortunate retirement, telling Sky that he felt desperately sad for his wheelman; and for Kimi's determination to pass Webber and his racecraft when he realised he'd been beaten. It's a shame Lotus didn't pit him before his tyres went off, he could have been in a good position.

Finally a mention to literally everybody else: there was some phenomenal close racing though the field and everybody had a good clean sporting race :up:

[donKey jote]

:up:

[i_max2k2]

Rosberg stringed together possibly the best race he could have done, never looked like he was in trouble, sad to see Schumi, still having bad luck after 2 bad races. Button raced superbly, but the Merc strategy was way better then anyone elses.

The only possible donkeys were pit crews for Schumi and Button, but Schumi was very gentle about it! Well done Mercedes, and I cant wait for wherever the next races is.

[christophulus]

No donkeys today, great clean racing throughout the field.

[A FONDO]

This time I cant nominate a "Driver of the Race". Rosberg owes his success to Merc engineers.

Donkey of the Race choice is pretty easy - Vettel. And Schumy's mechanic.

[donKey jote]

forgivable but small donkey for alonso's marble trip... lost him 3 seconds and possibly a couple of places at the end.

[Dave B]

This time I cant nominate a "Driver of the Race". Rosberg owes his success to Merc engineers.
Of course Mercedes were amazing this weekend but how do you explain Rosberg's phenomenal qualifying pace relative to Schumacher?

[F1boat]

DOTD is Nico. No donkeys, all drivers drove very, very well.

[i_max2k2]

Of course Mercedes were amazing this weekend but how do you explain Rosberg's phenomenal qualifying pace relative to Schumacher?

Couple things, his last min setup change, and difference in temperatures when Rosberg set his lap vs the rest. If you look at Q2 and Q1 there is hardly anything between them.

[Garry Walker]

Driver : Rosberg, I was also impressed by Grosjean till he made the stupid mistake when fighting Hamilton
Donkey: Alonso for almost collecting perez when coming back to track and Mercedes pitman.

[N4D13]

DOTD is Nico. No donkeys, all drivers drove very, very well.
Yup. It might be easy for some to say that Nico won only because of the car, strategy or whatever, but the fact is that he was clearly faster than Schumacher in both qualifying and the race. He really deserved this win and was the fastest man today.

[A FONDO]

Of course Mercedes were amazing this weekend but how do you explain Rosberg's phenomenal qualifying pace relative to Schumacher?

He was noticably faster only in one lap, and he couldnt have repeated/better it if he tried million times.

[F1boat]

Yup. It might be easy for some to say that Nico won only because of the car, strategy or whatever, but the fact is that he was clearly faster than Schumacher in both qualifying and the race. He really deserved this win and was the fastest man today.

Yes and he was very happy in the end, which is always good to see. In the end, we must all remember that these kids are driving for our fun, so hate mongering, which is often popular on message boards, is really unnecessary.

[Garry Walker]

He was noticably faster only in one lap, and he couldnt have repeated/better it if he tried million times.

He was also much faster in the race, he was on fire this weekend. He seems to like the circuit.

[DexDexter]

Driver of the race was Vettel. Donkey of the race was the Lotus race strategist and the pit crew.

[i_max2k2]

He was also much faster in the race, he was on fire this weekend. He seems to like the circuit.

I don't quite see that as a fact, if Schumi's race was not cut short we could have seen how he would have managed the tyres, but I do think the last min setup change that Rosberg talked about in the quali conference, did give him some advantage over schumi, I dont think anyone else in the race used the tyres as well as he did, meaning as his cars setup.

[F1boat]

Driver of the race was Vettel.

Why do you think so? :)

[Garry Walker]

Why do you think so? :)

Because the driver of the race should always be the man who is:
1) Slower than his teammate
2) Overtakes nobody, does nothing the whole race
3) Gets beaten by his teammate.

[tfp]

Fantastic race, i thoroughly enjoyed it! Driver was definetly rosberg, very pleased to see him at the top finally. Donkey was vettel, and bunsons pit crew:-)

[Tazio]

Rosberg for Driver of the Day? He was widely expected to struggle on his tyres and proved everybody wrong, winning by a comfortable margin albeit helped by Button's bad pitstop.

Honourable mentions to Schumacher for the classy way he dealt with his unfortunate retirement, telling Sky that he felt desperately sad for his wheelman; and for Kimi's determination to pass Webber and his racecraft when he realised he'd been beaten. It's a shame Lotus didn't pit him before his tyres went off, he could have been in a good position.

Finally a mention to literally everybody else: there was some phenomenal close racing though the field and everybody had a good clean sporting race :up:

http://s17.postimage.org/ui6oli6rz/RTL_Television_2012_04_15_10_41_00.jpg :up:

[Robinho]

Has to be Nico, took his chance and ran off with it. Everyone else was great, very clean on the whole, with a lot of action all down the field.

The only Donkeys I could think of were the Merc pit team for letting MS go before his wheel was on, and the McLaren boys for messing up Buttons last stop - whilst I don't think Button would have caught Nico in the last stint, the tyres would have been marginal and it certainly would have been very interesting and a lot closer

[aryan]

Yeah, Nico is the driver of the race, no doubt about it. Special mention also to Senna. He's getting some good points in that Williams.

No donkey of the race this time. It was an amazing spectacular race with lots of clean racing. Sure, some where better than others but I don't think anyone deserves the donkey lable.

[jens]

This time I cant nominate a "Driver of the Race".

I'm thinking the same, but mainly because we had a stunning race and drivers were all top professionals. With the aid of starting from the front and a good strategy Rosberg managed to pull clear from the scrap behind, but drivers in that big group behind were all doing their best too to maximize the result on whichever strategy they were on. Very impressive stuff. :)

[dj_bytedisaster]

I think singling someone out as driver of the race would be unfair as there were so many great moments in this race, involving so many drivers. An honorary mention should go to Schumacher. Once he noticed his problem, he immediately pulled out and used his experience to do it in a way that spared us a lengthy yellow or even a pace car period. Fair stuff there.
Handing out a donkey award would be equally unfair. Yes, the McLaren and Mercedes pitstops were wonky, but errors happen. If there has to be a WTF?? award it should go to whoever impersonated the strategist at Lotus. Leaving Kimi out that long on spent tires was certainly not one of the more brilliant decisions.

[F1boat]

Because the driver of the race should always be the man who is:
1) Slower than his teammate
2) Overtakes nobody, does nothing the whole race
3) Gets beaten by his teammate.

Vettel had a nice race and advanced well, but this is not enough for DOTD IMO. :)

[CNR]

not donkey just odd 3 races and lewis 3 3rds and mark 3 4ths

[truefan72]

Donkey of the race was the Lotus race strategist and the pit crew.

yup

[DexDexter]

Vettel had a nice race and advanced well, but this is not enough for DOTD IMO. :)

IMO he drove very well particularly at end with tires that were totally gone.

[N. Jones]

This race was pretty ordinary until the final ten laps.

Driver of the race has to be Rosberg. He never panicked and nursed his tires all the way to his first win.

Donkey has to be the lollypop man for Mercedes GP. He was a little to quick to let Michael go.

[wedge]

Nico/MGP found the sweet spot undoubtedly a deserved win but I must take my hat off to Button and if I have to give it to one person then it would probably be Button. Friday & Saturday I must admit he did not look like he would be on for a podium.

[Dave B]

He [Rosberg] was noticably faster only in one lap, and he couldnt have repeated/better it if he tried million times.

Nico also made a better start than Schumacher and pulled out quite a handy lead by the first round of pit stops. He was demonstrably quicker in the opening stage of the race.

[steveaki13]

DOTD: Nico Rosberg - He drove brilliantly and done what he had to do all race.

The whole field drove well, but some more outstanding mentions

*Button - Drove well and could have challenged for the win, but for a sloppy wheel change and the resulting traffic.
*Hamilton - Found himself in traffic all day thanks to poor strategy and made alot of passes.
*Webber - A bull dog drive, to overtake the midfield and his teammate.
*Vettel - Drove a good comeback drive from 14th at one point to 5th.
*Grosjean - Made a couple of mistakes but did well to be in the mix at the end, and some solid points.
*Senna & Maldonado - Both drove well and more solid points

[steveaki13]

As for donkey:

The Lotus strategy guys
Mclaren pit Crew
Mercedes Pit Crew

[dj_bytedisaster]

The "Darn, Mate, I'm badass"-award goes to Mr. Mark Webber for his fairly adept Valentino Rossi routine:
http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2iqneA1O31qlt7lao1_500.gif

[BDunnell]

I'm thinking the same, but mainly because we had a stunning race and drivers were all top professionals. With the aid of starting from the front and a good strategy Rosberg managed to pull clear from the scrap behind, but drivers in that big group behind were all doing their best too to maximize the result on whichever strategy they were on. Very impressive stuff. :)

I agree completely.

[djparky]

Rosberg driver of the day- can't think of anyone for donkey- other than those who had finger trouble for Schuey and JB. But am always delighted to see Schuey DNF so wasn't too upset about that. Lots of great wheel to wheel racing through the field

[Rollo]

The Driver of the day is Rosberg. He had a faultless GP and came away with a "perfect win".

The Dragon of the Day is Kamui Kobayashi who claimed fastest lap in the Sauber and I think that we saw a bit of return of the swashbuckling driver that he should be. I think that quite frankly he should be in Massa's seat because he'd do more with that car.

[airshifter]

The Driver of the day is Rosberg. He had a faultless GP and came away with a "perfect win".

The Dragon of the Day is Kamui Kobayashi who claimed fastest lap in the Sauber and I think that we saw a bit of return of the swashbuckling driver that he should be. I think that quite frankly he should be in Massa's seat because he'd do more with that car.

Don't wish ill things on Kamui. He deserves better than Ferrari!


Driver without a doubt Rosberg. Honorable mention to just about everyone else. We saw some good clean racing, and only a couple of instances where drivers pushed the rules (and other drivers) a bit much.

Most donkeys go to the teams, some bad pit work and poor strategy.

If I had to pick one donkey for a driver as much as I hate to say it Perez. His "push" on Kobayashi was after Kamui was well alongside, and it proved nothing other than frustration. Doing such a thing to another team is questionable, but doing it to a team car and driver isn't called for. Perez is my FGP driver and I think he has great talent but in this case.... Booooo for that move.

[truefan72]

If I had to pick one donkey for a driver as much as I hate to say it Perez. His "push" on Kobayashi was after Kamui was well alongside, and it proved nothing other than frustration. Doing such a thing to another team is questionable, but doing it to a team car and driver isn't called for. Perez is my FGP driver and I think he has great talent but in this case.... Booooo for that move.

yeah, forgot about that one
very suspect driving from an otherwise good driver

[SGWilko]

Nico was driver of the race for me and thank goodness he has finally got his first race win. An almost faultless drive and well done. The McLaren boys should be proud too as both raced brilliantly to recover from where they started IMO. Donkey has to be the guy in charge of the pit lights at Mercedes.

I think Norbert almost wet his panties on the podium - hard work pays off I guess. Nice to see Michael's graciousness in respect of the problem that was not of his doing - he appears to be in a really good place at Mercedes. :up:

[52Paddy]

At the end of the last up until Roberg's win, I thought Nico was on the verge of surpassing Chris Amon as (arguably) "the greatest driver never to win a race". Thankfully, he will not be burdened with that title. He gets my driver of the race as it was a dominating win - he was well paced throughout each stint which meant he had enough gap to cover his rivals (taking into account Button's botchy pit-stop) but also to preserve his tyres till the end, just.

Donkey for me is a toss-up between Schumacher's and Raikkonen's pit-crew and strategists respectively. As it seems a technological glitch put paid to a clean pit-stop for Schumacher (the lighting system), Raikkonen's strategists scrape the award. He was on for such a promising result - one which would have kept him there or thereabouts in the title race. And then it all just fell away :mark: