Diamonds and Duds of the Spanish GP (DotD & Donkey) 2012 - Holy Long Title Edition

[gloomyDAY]

Duds:

Stewards so far. Almost as bad as the GP2 race.

Button.

McLaren's crew when Hamilton has to stop.

[F1boat]

Best driver: Pastor for sure. Fernando, Kimi, Seb and Lewis also drove very well.
Donkey: Bruno, Jenson, Felipe.

[truefan72]

diamonds:
maldonado
Hamilton

duds:
button
mclaren pit stop crew
marshalls/race control that had the yellow flag out for several laps when the HRT stopped on the front straight, meaning the best chance to overtake was unavaliable to many drivers in a critical phase of race
I mean how difficult was it tp push that hrt out of the way

Massa & Senna as well, but at this point it's barely news
senna's best performance is behind the mic not the wheel

[gloomyDAY]

Hamilton: Started last and finished 8th. :D
Button: Qualified 11th, started in 10th, and finished in 9th. :down:

[N4D13]

The best drivers today were Maldonado, Alonso and Hamilton. Maldonado was my DotD, although I must point out that, had it been Vettel, people might have started with the won-from-pole-in-the-fastest car argument. Anyway, congratulations to Pastor, Fernando and Lewis on their excellent races.

I can't single out anyone for donkey of the race this time. I don't really think that anyone did that badly, and I find it hard to disagree with the stewards' decisions. They might have been overly cautious at times (e.g. when they held the yellow flag for long after Karthikeyan stopped on the pit exit), but I understand they did it for safety reasons, and that's paramount. ;)

[driveace]

But MS was a retirement today,after his collision with Senna,so him and the Mac pit crew again are my Donkeys today !

[Dave B]

Faster Pastor for a superb race win. He was mature enough to know he's surrendered the first corner, looked after his tyres and put in a stonking out lap to make his pit strategy work.

Honourable mention to Kimi for another controlled drive to the podium on his remarkable comeback, another lap or two and who knows where he'd have finished?

Also to Hamilton for keeping cool despite a terrible qualifying and yet another botched pitstop, and for looking after his tyres and making a difficult strategy pay off.

Donkeys are whoever designed the RBR's front wing necessitating replacement noses for both drivers, Schumacher for failing to go to Specsavers, and Karthikeyan for getting in everybody's way again. I'd also like to nominate Pic for holding up Alonso (even though I was secretly rather pleased!) and Massa for finishing a lap down on his team mate.

[keysersoze]

IIRC, the last time (and perhaps only time) Pastor was in a race-long battle for a big points-scoring opportunity he . . . threw it all away on the last lap dicing with . . . Fernando Alonso.

Looks like the lad learned from his lesson!

[N. Jones]

Pastor is the DOTD today. Fernando also is a special mention for driving that lump around in the top five.

Donkey is a tie between Senna/Schumacher. Who knows which one was at fault.

[Dave B]

Diamond of the weekend: everybody who picked up a fire extinguisher or first aid kit and rushed to help out at Williams. :up:

[christophulus]

Donkey is a tie between Senna/Schumacher. Who knows which one was at fault.

The stewards say Schumacher


Michael Schumacher (http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/michael-schumacher/) will be docked five places on the grid for the Monaco Grand Prix following his collision with Bruno Senna during today’s race.

Michael Schumacher given penalty for Senna collision - F1 Fanatic (http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2012/05/13/schumacher-fiveplace-grid-penalty-senna-collision/)

[jens]

Donkeys are clearly Massa and Senna. Simple: they were absolutely nowhere in cars, which were fighting for the race win!

[djparky]

Drivers- Maldonado- fab drive under pressure from Alonso
Donkey- Schumacher- for his crashing into Senna

[steveaki13]

Diamonds(are not necassarily forever)

Maldonado - Hands down got the Williams up on pole against expectations, then when some including me saw him fading away went and closed down Alonso and jumped him and won with a brilliant drive. Awesome.

Other mentions
Alonso- Drove along with Pastor away from everyone else. Great drive.

Kobayashi- Drove well to more points. Great pass on Rosberg from way behind and also a brilliant move on Button. As Martin Brundle said on commentary "You know when you've been KK'd"

Hamilton - Drove to 8th from 24th. Even better than others as when you get knocked out in Q1 or dont set a time you have no tyres used and full sets for the race, but Hamilton had few new tyres left as he had done a full Quali session.

Kovalainen and Petrov - Dont know exact timings but only finished 1 lap down as did Hulkenberg 10th to Massa 15th. They must have been within a minute of the midfield, which sounds poor, but they haven't often done better. So maybe a small sign of progress.

[steveaki13]

Duds

Not real duds but I did expect better from Lotus, but thats just a small moan.

Real duds Mclaren pit crew - For not moving a tyre out of the way. How many tyre changes have they done before?

Button - Started 10th and finished 9th while Hamilton started 24th and finished 8th, not even with the advantage of sets of tyres to spare. Also his record number of moans over the radio this weekend.

Webber - Had problems but still a poor race.

Massa- Well a lap and a bit behind Alonso which is bad enough but also last of the main runners and not all that far ahead of Caterhams. A joke (More and more it feels like he needs a midseason replacement. He has had poor races before and was outperformed by Alonso last year, but this season is becoming a farce.

[A FONDO]

Best driver is McDonaldo without doubt. Won the race with pure driving and certainly not clearly faster car than the chasers.
Good were Kobayashi, Vettel, Hamilton. And Alonso of course.
Kimi was fast but not in the right time so it doesnt matter.
Button, Webber, Groesjan just watched the race from close distance without tickets. Bad day for their zodiac signs maybe.
Donkey of the month is Schumacher. Of the race - the usual suspects Rosberg, Massa and McL pit mechanics. And for sure the Ferrari engineer with the ridiculous advice at the end to save the engine for next races. This is probably the last or penultimate opportunity for victory this season and they traded it for slightly faster car in 1 or 2 races. The eventual marketing values are absolutely incomparable.

[ShiftingGears]

Maldonado was just exceptional. Very mature performance from a driver who has been very erratic at times. Raikkonen, Hamilton and Alonso were very good as well. Kobayashi did well, as did Vettel, salvaging decent points from not the best of days, again. Webber was quite poor, it must be said, as was Button.

[airshifter]

Drivers - Obviously Pastor and Fernando. Honorable mention to Kobayashi for quietly finishing fifth.

Donkeys - MS, Jenson, Massa and SpeedTV for putting on soccer instead of the post race interviews!

[Hawkmoon]

Driver: Maldonado (wasn't this guy supposed to be a pay driver?). Honourables to Hamilton and Alonso.

Donkey: Massa (sucked in qualy and was worse in the race, he's driving a car that was capable of winning and he gets lapped?)

I also think the stewards were a bit donkey-ish. I think the penalties handed out the Vettel and Massa weren't really called for and penalising Schumcaher when Senna was moving around in the breaking zone was stupid, in my opinion.

[aryan]

DotR: Maldonado. I considered him a pay driver, and wasn't sure he would be F1 material. Glad to be eating some humble pie right now.

Honourable mention to: Alonso, Kimi, Seb, Kobayashi and Hamilton.

Donkey: Button, Webber, Massa and Schumacher.

[Knock-on]

Lewis drove superbly and but for the flawless, mature drive from The Pastor, would have been DotD for sure. As it is, the driver who won his first GP stands out as the most deserving driver today.

Donkey is Schumacher. Another woefull performance from a 'has been'.

[longisland]

Driver of the day - Pastor hands down. Outstanding qualifying, got lucky when Lewis' pole was stripped. Kept his cool after being overtaken by Fred, maintained his pace and undercut Fred with a blistering pace and kept Fred at bay with a controlled drive towards the end. No bad for a pay driver.
Move of the day - Koba on Jenson. No DRS, maybe Jenson's tires were gone but I think Jenson didn't see it coming. Another season's highlight. Someone should do a Koba's overtaking collection.
Donkey of the race - Mclaren for screwing Lewis once again.

[Malbec]

Maldonaldo deserves it purely on the last stint alone.

If there are more terrifying things to hear in the last laps of a race than "Fernando is six seconds behind you closing at a second a lap with 14 laps to go, BTW can you slow down a bit to preserve your tyres?" I can't think of them. Personally I thought Pastor would bin or bottle it but instead he manages his tyres, keeps Alonso behind him, carves through backmarkers like a veteran and goes on to win the race. Very well deserved victory. I bet SFW didn't imagine this would be how his birthday weekend would end.

Otherwise Kobayashi and Lewis for carving their way through the field as I predicted they would, and of course Alonso for taking his lame duck Ferrari to a second place finish.

Donkey of the weekend goes to Senna who showed how lacklustre he is, and finished it with a gormless little weave at the end of the straight that confused Schumi (who should also have known better and reacted earlier) about whether he was going to stay on the inside or go back on the racing line.

[aryan]

If there are more terrifying things to hear in the last laps of a race than "Fernando is six seconds behind you closing at a second a lap with 14 laps to go, BTW can you slow down a bit to preserve your tyres?" I can't think of them.

Just read this sentence out to my girlfriend. She can't stop laughing now.

Gold!

[SGWilko]

Just read this sentence out to my girlfriend. She can't stop laughing now.

Gold!

My wife, on hearing Smedley telling Massa to pass the STR to get in the points, commented 'He [Massa] should tell him to drive the car then'

It went over head when I suggested this might improve their position in the constructors standings!!!

[wedge]

Driver of the day goes to Alonso for his 4 wheel drifts!