[Official] Driver of the race- Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

[wnut]

Originally Posted by jedrinck

Vettel gained 32 positions in one race. What else does he have to do?

That was about enough for me!

Kimi was great and very unlucky not to get my vote. loved "I know what I am doing, just leave me alone!"

Lewis - brilliant, untouchable, hard DNF to swallow. Can't believe he is going to Merc!

Alonso great race.

Webber - just doesn't know how and when to play the team game.

Karthekeyan ?! What was that?

Steering Failure Apparently!

http://www.crash.net/f1/news/185796/...erg_crash.html

[IceMan_PJN]

Kimi won but only by inheriting the win when McLaren once again failed, so I had trouble with giving this to him. Vettel accomplished much; more than Kimi. I gave ig to Lewis, however, because he deserved it. He didn't retire by any fault of his own and dominated the weekend up to his retirement, and people overlook that.

[JamesH]

Hamilton, for asking over the radio if the guys involved in the first crash were OK. Then going up to the pitwall team after his car failure and shaking their hands.

That's driver of the race right there.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by JamesH

Hamilton, for asking over the radio if the guys involved in the first crash were OK. Then going up to the pitwall team after his car failure and shaking their hands.

That's driver of the race right there.

I liked Hamilton's attitude when interviewed by the BBC; took it on the chin.

[GORDON STREETER]

David Coulthard for making excuses for Vettel's language

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by GORDON STREETER

David Coulthard for making excuses for Vettel's language

Lost in translation.

[Nicholosophy]

Originally Posted by QnickFTW

LOL "the austrialian vote"

hrmph. I resemble that remark

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by steve_r

I could have voted for Vettle, Raikonnen or Alonso, but only one driver has completely dominated the whole weekend, but didn't get the race win he deserved.

Well, we are voting for the driver of the race.

[QnickFTW]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I liked Hamilton's attitude when interviewed by the BBC; took it on the chin.

Had he just recently signed a multi-year contract with Mclaren Im pretty sure he wouldnt have been too cool about losing a win like that. I image every car failure kinda justifies his decision to go to Mercedes, so he doesnt exactly lose sleep over them now.

Class act throughout the whole weekend nevertheless. And some his best pole laps ever.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by QnickFTW

Had he just recently signed a multi-year contract with Mclaren Im pretty sure he wouldnt have been too cool about losing a win like that. I image every car failure kinda justifies his decision to go to Mercedes, so he doesnt exactly lose sleep over them now.

Class act throughout the whole weekend nevertheless. And some his best pole laps ever.

I don't know about that. Having looked good all weekend, then going out like that must be very frustrating. Lewis is a racer, the guy's racing to win, not wimp out at the end of the season just because he thinks he's got it made at Merc next year.

[strider]

I voted for Kimi, of course, because he is my favourite driver and did win the race despite extreme pressure, beating Alonso fair and square. Then there's this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula...+UK+Edition%29

On paper, Vettel's podium was very impressive, but it did seem that that he was helped considerably by the Safety Car inventions and even by the incident with Ricciardo, which forced RBR into a strategy they wouldn't otherwise have chosen, but which worked out very well.

Hamilton did look to have the race in the bag, but the circuit suited the car and his driving, so it wasn't that difficult. I was surprised he wasn't more upset because he's not going to have many chances to win races for a while after the next two.

[Trev Campbell]

I voted for Kimi. Sorry but I don't get all the praise that is being piled on Vettel. All I saw was a guy who good fortune seem to smile on relentlessly during the race.

Got involved in an incident with Senna and damaged his front wing.

Got a lucky safety car that closed him up with the leaders.

Made a mistake under the safety car requiring a pit stop for a new nose and took him off his original one stop strategy.

Ran out of tyres and had to make a second stop.

Got another lucky safety car that put him onto the tail of the leaders.

Then with fresher tyres was able to pass Button to get on the podium.

In between time almost every driver between him and the leaders took stupid pills and managed to take themselves out of the running.

I saw only 1 or 2 passes of substance and if it had of been a normal pedestrian Grand Prix he would have been luck to scrape into the top ten.

Lucky !!!!

[Razzzor]

It doesn't really matter what Seb does, because he's dominated recent seasons and looks set for another title, he's started to get a lot of haters. So no matter how good his drive is, there's a certain amount of people that won't vote for him. I'm the same, I'll try to never vote for Alonso unless he well and truly was the best driver on the day.

I'm not surprised Raikkonen got DOTR instead, because lots of people have been wanting Kimi to win a race. It's the popularity vote. But Kimi's race wasn't really that spectacular. He jumped Webber and Maldonado, but he was never going to beat Vettel or Hamilton if they were both up front. Sure he maintained a gap to Alonso, but that's about it.

Alonso once again punched well above his qualifying position and on paper looks like he did a very good race. His fastest lap was 1.7 seconds faster than Massa, and only 0.1 off Vettel, who was on the newer softer tyres. So apart from Hamilton, Alonso was very fast on the day. Fast enough to fly past Webber like he was standing still without DRS yet enabled. And easily passed Maldonado as well. On actual pace, the final results should have been something like Hamilton, Vettel, Raikkonen, Webber, Alonso/Button. So he got 2nd in the 5th or 6th fastest car. Not bad but also quite lucky that he didn't have to contend with Hamilton or Vettel, while Button and Webber got stuck behind him after the first lap, enable to get past with Alonso being so fast down the straights.

Webber made a complete fool of himself. Must have been ****ed when he realised Vettel had come from last, twice, and was still right on his tail before RB called him in.

Maldanado was pretty decent for once, well ahead of Senna.

Back anyway to Vettel, some people seem to think he made mistakes and got lucky. I'm not so sure. The Senna incident was just a racing accident. If it were a normal racing maneovre, you'd say Vettel was slightly more at fault, but in this case the situation was different; Senna was at the back of the field and was never going to hold out Vettel for 50 more laps. He's also racing a guy in a tight fight for the title, and it was only a few laps into the race. So, with all that, WHY fight so hard with Vettel? Vettel was clearly up the inside, yet Senna assumed he would back out of it and just turned in. By that point Vettel was no longer quite up far enough, but Senna was clearing not going to give him an ounce of space just to be on the safe side. A bit unnecessary. Even Button gave him more room with 3 laps to go in a battle for the podium.

As for the safety car thing, perhaps it was a bit more Vettel's fault for not paying attention? But the replays didn't really show who was at fault, perhaps Ricciardo was braking far too much as Seb said. If the foam sign wasn't in the way, all would have been fine.

So anyway, Vettel jumped from 24th (and from the pit lane which is much worse) to 11th I think it was prior to the safety car on lap 9/10. That's 13 positions. At that point he was 27 seconds behind the leaders I think.

When the safety car came back in, he was then back in 22nd again, 22/23 seconds behind the leaders. He got his hard tyres off, but the safety car really didn't help his progress as much as it should have, since he had to pit. In some respects, since the second incident happened, Vettel might have been better off without the safety car coming out. Had he not needed to pit he would have instantly got into the points past Ricciardo. On the hards he would have gone deep into the race anyway and jumped some of the same drivers he jumped in reality (the Saubers, Di Resta and Maldonado). Who knows he may have actually passed them before the pit stops. But since he did have a damaged wing, at least he got that off and the safety car would have helped Vettel there. He managed to stay on the same lap times as Raikkonen despite having to pass almost the entire field again between laps 13 to 30.

The second safety car helped him a little in being able to close the 10 secs gap to Button after his pit stop. I think he would have closed that gap anyway, but perhaps would not have had time to pass Button. Speaking of which, the pass on Button was probably the best pass of the race. Webber failed to do the same move twice. But it also helped everyone else in closing the gap, including Alonso. The only person it didn't help was Kimi.

We saw small mistakes from most of the field. Raikkonen was okay, though I think he stuffed a restart up, Hamilton ran off track at one point, Webber/Maldonado/Massa had clashes. Vettel managed to do how many passes... 30 or so? And only once was it not clean when Senna refused to give space. Should that cost him DOTR? And on track that's very difficult to pass on.

Easy for me... Vettel is DOTR. Should be one of the most clearcut of the season so far. Imagine if Button had done the same thing. Just my 2 cents.

[Bellof]

very happy for kimster to win, but my dotr is basti fantasti. drive of the season.

[Kempi]

Maybe we should revisit the DoTR vote from Monaco a few years back when Hamilton sliced up his rear tire by his own fault and got a SC while coming out of the pits just before dropping a lap to the then leaders. Of course that was pure skill and should have no influence on how to see his race.

The only mistake VET did was running through that DRS post and he admitted so on the podium (!). Luck is part of the game. See Valencia and the SC just before the end that led to VET retiring and ALO allowing to pass RAI. It is what one makes fro. Their luck what is important. RAI took full advantage of HAM retiring and VET full advantage of the 2nd SC bunching up the field.

[Razzzor]

We should also revisit the Canadian GP from a couple years ago when Button pushed Hamilton into the wall, went to the back, got some rain then got a safety car to put him up behind Vettel, then had Vettel make his only error of the season. I'm sure Button would have got almost 100% of the votes that day.

[Razzzor]

Originally Posted by Trev Campbell

In between time almost every driver between him and the leaders took stupid pills and managed to take themselves out of the running.

I saw only 1 or 2 passes of substance and if it had of been a normal pedestrian Grand Prix he would have been luck to scrape into the top ten.

I know it seems like there was lots of drama, but very little of it gifted Vettel positions. After his 2nd stop on lap 13/14 there were only 3 cars behind Vettel - Rosberg, Karthikeyan and Hulkenberg, all of whom were out. He still had to pass everyone else. The only driver that gifted him a position was Massa when he spun. EVERYONE else he had to pass (either on track or in the pits). The second safety car incident with Webber/Grosjean/Perez, Vettel was already ahead of them and had jumped them through better speed between pit stops. So actually he was only gifted 1 position, assuming we don't count Hamilton as well who gifted everyone.

If it had been a normal GP, without the safety cars and without his wing damage I think Vettel would have been, at best, 4th, possibly 5th but Pastor was quite slow on old tyres. The SC only allowed him to get JB.

[mattt]

Originally Posted by Razzzor

It doesn't really matter what Seb does, .... Just my 2 cents.

Originally Posted by Kempi

Maybe we....he field.

The vote is peoples opinions. everybodys opinions are different. And they all as valid as every other one, if they are different from your own, get over it and stop criticising them

[dsg]

Originally Posted by Razzzor

I know it seems like there was lots of drama, but very little of it gifted Vettel positions...

It certainly gifted him time he would not have made up had the safety cars not come out.

[Greem]

I gave it to Kimi, for the simple and uncomplicated reason that he drove a perfect race, managed everything perfectly, and still stayed ahead.
Close 2nd for Vettel for showing that he can, when necessary, actually race.

[Mike Bell]

I had to give it to Kimi just for the entertainment he provided in those two radio transmissions! Not often I am ROFL during a GP.

My opinion............

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by Mike Bell

I had to give it to Kimi just for the entertainment he provided in those two radio transmissions!

Sometimes that's all you need

[bjohnsonsmith]

An interesting article from Autosport on Vettel's luck in yesterday's race.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/104054

[Marbot]

If you're lucky, that helps. If you're lucky and very good at what you do, that helps a lot.

[Spritle]

Vettel, amazing result with issues added to the mix. Alonso was amazing too!

Good job by Kimi but McLaren gifted him that result although he did provide the Vettel haters an conveinient excuse not to vote for Seb.