[Official] Driver of the Race - 2011 Chinese Grand Prix

[Bononi]

Webber, what a fantastic race !

[JamesH]

I still can't decide. Webber or Hamilton.

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Taprobane

Webber for me. I'm still not sure how he appeared in 7th or 8th after what seemed to be a disappointing first stint! Excellent stuff in the middle of the race went unnoticed I think.

The disappointing first stint, other than traffic was probably slow because he was on the harder of the two tyre options..... He had chosen to use the hard tyres for a very short 10 lap stint as they would best handle the extra fuel weight early on.

However, with the short first stint on the hard tyres, Mark got that stint over with very early and made his first stop on lap 10 to fit the first of his new soft compounds..... Mark was then able to use his three sets of brand new soft tyres he had accumulated unused with his fail in qualifying. (Which he failed at the Q1 level ironically, using a set of hard tyres in his attempt to progress to Q2.

Therefore the four sets of softs that 2 runs in each of Q2 or Q3 would likely have taken care of, but not used because he was out in Q1, were available to use on the Sunday, whereas all other drivers who had progressed to Q3 were , as usual, often looking to dig out the best used tyres for SUnday.

Lewis Hamilton deliberately did not take his two runs in Q3, thus isolating himself from the battle for pole.... this single run only was a specific startegy to give Lewis a brand new extra set of soft tyres to use when fuel loads were down and others were using their best of the rest tyres. With top 10 qualifiers they must use the tyres they used to achieve their best Q3 time, which is generally the soft tyre. Thus Lewis started on the soft tyres, went to hard at his first stop and then back to his new soft tyres for the last two stops.

Hence why the three stopping Hamilton was able to catch and pass Vettel with ease with just a few laps to go, using his much fresher fresh soft rubber...... Vettel, on a two stopper was already on tyres that were fitted circa lap 30, and when Hammilton charged up there was nothing left in his tyres to compete. Vettels tyres fitted at his second stop had to last over 25 laps to the end.

So without taking too much away from Webbers performance basically he was able to do what he did and pass people who had KERS etc to help defend... so he used the extra grip from all his soft tyres for the braking and cornering benefits, when all others were struggling on left overs.

Hence his blistering times towards the end of the race were when he used the fact his new unused soft tyres, which as we saw were at least a second or more quicker. The tyres were a far greater benefit than the lack of KERS was any disadvantage.

Of course Mark did use his carryover soft tyres to the very best advantage, of that there is no denying.... but it was more thanks to soft rubber in good nick that gave him (and Hamilton) the the secret power.

Button on the other hand, although also 3 stopping, had used an extra set of soft tyres over Hamilton on Saturday, by taking 2 runs in Q3 to try and snare pole.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by JamesH

I still can't decide. Webber or Hamilton.

Flip a coin.

[Fox89]

Hence why the three stopping Hamilton was able to catch and pass Vettel with ease with just a few laps to go, using his much fresher fresh soft rubber...... Vettel, on a two stopper was already on tyres that were fitted circa lap 30, and when Hammilton charged up there was nothing left in his tyres to compete. Vettels tyres fitted at his second stop had to last over 25 laps to the end.

He did? I thought he went Soft > Soft > Soft> Hard and caught Vettel just because his tyres were younger, but the same compound. I may be wrong of course but I swear that's how I remember it. Was still a damn fine strategy either way though, I thought after Massa got past in the first stint that it was all over!

[gttouring]

Either redbull is that good, or Webber is the best driver ever and madeinto a team no.2 to driver a test car with no KERS wtf? He should earn a few point based on positions gained.

[GT6]

When a few good candidates for this one, Hamilton and Webber shone but have to give it to webber this time.

[Peter Mallett]

Now I've had a chnace to watch it. Got to say that Lewis was awesome. Still sticking with my choice of Webber but they both lit up what was an already exciting GP.

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by Fox89

He did? I thought he went Soft > Soft > Soft> Hard and caught Vettel just because his tyres were younger, but the same compound. I may be wrong of course but I swear that's how I remember it. Was still a damn fine strategy either way though, I thought after Massa got past in the first stint that it was all over!

I would say your right here. Lewis set his fastest lap of the race 1 lap before Seb did. Lewis's lap was 1 second faster than Seb's (although Seb's was on a set of tyres 16 laps old at that time), whereas Marks fastest lap, set 6 laps earlier was 1.4 and 2.4 seconds faster (respectively to Lewis and Seb), we've got to assume that had Lewis been on the soft tyres his fastest lap would have matched Marks, which was set on the softs.

[Chatters]

Kovalainen! Here's hoping the Lotus boys keep up the speed at the start of the European season.

[Aysedasi]

I see someone voted for Schumacher - crikey! I didn't know Michael was a member here........

[Bononi]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

I see someone voted for Schumacher - crikey! I didn't know Michael was a member here........

Must be some ancient member from those times of the Pro-TGF gang that used to lurk around the forum...

[TrapezeArtist]

Contenders for me were Hamilton, Webber, Rosberg, Massa. I fairly readily narrowed that down to Hamilton and Webber. Hamilton won the race, which is the whole purpose of the game, so it would take something pretty special to knock him of the top spot. Webber's performance was great but there were points is Lulu's favour too, apart from just winning:
Intelligent use of tyres (the boy is learning)
Tremendous pace and some excellent overtakes
All achieved despite the mental distraction of a last minute engine panic

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by TrapezeArtist

Contenders for me were Hamilton, Webber, Rosberg, Massa. I fairly readily narrowed that down to Hamilton and Webber. Hamilton won the race, which is the whole purpose of the game, so it would take something pretty special to knock him of the top spot. Webber's performance was great but there were points is Lulu's favour too, apart from just winning:
Intelligent use of tyres (the boy is learning)
Tremendous pace and some excellent overtakes
All achieved despite the mental distraction of a last minute engine panic

Lulu?

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

I see someone voted for Schumacher - crikey! I didn't know Michael was a member here........

Perhaps the vote was for his persistent, though mostly unsuccessful, defensive driving........

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Lulu?

A nickname for Lewis on another forum. "Jenny" is another that gets used a lot on there too.

Whilst neither is particularly flattering, they are a vast improvement on the ones you see on some Spanish and Italian F1 forums.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Marbot

A nickname for Lewis on another forum. "Jenny" is another that gets used a lot on there too.

Whilst neither is particularly flattering, they are a vast improvement on the ones you see on some Spanish and Italian F1 forums.

Lulu as in Lewis Lulu?

[Adam43]

I thought TGF drove a good race. Not DotR material, but decent.

Isn't Hamilton's nickname Louise. I think Mr Audi gave him that nick on RLM a couple of years back. Even before the earrings (which are rebellious in a conformist type of way).