Thread: Driver and Donkey of the race - Monza 2011

Liuzzi and Webber for the Pantomime donkey. Webber for the front end of the ass because he managed to cock up his so well today and Liuzzi proved he can go arse end first so gets the backside.

Driver for me was Button. Great 2nd place and some good overtakes again.

Driver of the race - Seb, Schumi, Alguesari and Button in that order.

Donkeys of the Race - Liuzzi and Webber without a doubt.

Driver of the race: Schumi
Donkey of the race: Webber

Driver of the race: Jaime, special mention to Vettel and Schumi.
Donkey of the race: Mark Webber.

Totally useless 5-grid penalty for the Donkey, not of the race, but of the year! Nice going Liuzzi--24th to taking out row 4 and 5 by the first turn.

You stink.

Driver Button
Donkey Liuzzi

Schumacher was very hard but don't think he went over the rules (just), don't forget that the view up towards the Ascari bends makes the cars seem much closer than they really are - he covered the inside and then when it was clear that Hamilton wasn't going to be able to pass on the outside he moved back across to the racing line. The lap Hamilton went on the grass I don't think Schumacher took any different line - but it did look dramatic

WT

I'd give the Driver of the Race to Vettel - he's had the best car, but he's also racing better than any other driver in the grid. No clue as for Donkey of the Race - Webber hitting Massa was a single moment and I didn't see the Liuzzi accident well.

As for Schumacher's defensive driving, I recall that both Pedro de la Rosa and Marc Gené were complaining quite soundly about it on TV, as they claim that you must not change directions more than once when defending. Schumacher did two moves all the time - one to get in the inside and another one to move back to the racing line. But I think that Ross Brawn's messages were appropriate. Michael could have been given a penalty for his aggressive defending - and if you ask PdlR and Gené, they'll tell you that he would have deserved it. And with Schumi swerving back into the racing line, they could have had a repeat of the Hamilton-Kob accident at Spa, and that wouldn't have been a nice thing to happen.

Driver Vettel, honorable mention to MS. Donkey Webber.

Driver - Jenson and Sebastian. Mention to Jaime, and also to both Sauber drivers. BTW, what took Kobayashi out? Retract my mention if he did something stupid.

Donkey - Webber first donkey, Luizzi second biggest donkey. With such a good car Webber should have known better in both incidents. Luizzi doesn't have nearly as much car, and made a desperate move. He almost defeated Webber in the donkey battle by placing all blame on Heiki.

MS was over the line but very slightly IMO. I don't think there was any investigation reported, so apparently Ross thought he crossed the line as well.

Driver = Button, just
Donkey = Liuzzi in a league of his own for this one!

I don't agree that Mark was to blame in his coming-together with Felipe. In the replay I saw, MW was completely alongside FM going into the chicane, and even though Massa had the preferred line on exit, he gambled that Webber would just fall back.

On opening laps at Monza, drivers are almost expected to go through that chicane side-by-side.

Originally Posted by ioan

Exactly and the rules state that the driver is allowed to take the racing line for the turn after having moved once to defend their position.
Race direction asking the team to tell the driver to leave place for overtaking is just not OK. And MS mad it obvious by moving over and driving slower next time they approached the Ascari chicane.
Today a driver was forced to give up his place to the competition for no other reason than not interfering with the WDC fight in which Hamilton is not part anymore anyway.

Wow, a conspiracy claim. Let me guess, you believe the Apollo Moon landings were faked also.

Originally Posted by Mia 01

It´s quite obvious that The MacLaren team putted great pressure on the Race director during those twenty or so laps Lewis was trying to pass MS.

It's perfectly normal during the course of a race for teams to raise issues with the race director. In fact they don't really need to as the FIA monitor radio traffic. It's obvious Hamilton was none too impressed with Schumacher's defensive driving so that message would have got through to Charlie Whiting. He then decides whether or not to refer it to the stewards.

What's slightly odd in this case is that, according to F1 journalist Adam Cooper on Twitter (adamcooperf1), "Ross Brawn's message to Michael Schumacher was in response to FIA telling team he was overstepping the mark in fight with Lewis".

So in this case a driver overstepping the mark was not penalised. A new FIA approach perhaps?

IMO MS drove very well, I don't think that the rules must leave a defending driver helpless, as it is now... MS did a spectacular job with his defense ;-)

Originally Posted by ArrowsFA1

It's perfectly normal during the course of a race for teams to raise issues with the race director. In fact they don't really need to as the FIA monitor radio traffic. It's obvious Hamilton was none too impressed with Schumacher's defensive driving so that message would have got through to Charlie Whiting. He then decides whether or not to refer it to the stewards.

What's slightly odd in this case is that, according to F1 journalist Adam Cooper on Twitter (adamcooperf1), "Ross Brawn's message to Michael Schumacher was in response to FIA telling team he was overstepping the mark in fight with Lewis".

So in this case a driver overstepping the mark was not penalised. A new FIA approach perhaps?

Don´t think so, after Ross twice told MS not to defend to hard it was obvious that he started to defended clean, therefore no penalty.

Schumi may have used somewhat questionable tactics but one has to say that he drove very well and is still, at 42, a very very good racing driver. I wish he had a better car, though.

Originally Posted by DexDexter

Schumi may have used somewhat questionable tactics but one has to say that he drove very well and is still, at 42, a very very good racing driver. I wish he had a better car, though.

Even though he is past his prime, people have seen him as a bad driver since his return. I don't think that he's a bad driver at all - however, he's paired with an exceptional driver such as Rosberg, who, IMO, is rather underrated. I don't think Schumi would have looked bad if he was paired with somebody like Massa.

Donkey of the Race:

Same as many here. Mark Webber for his contact with Massa, he should have yielded once Felipe had gotten ahead into the second part of the chicane, although Felipe probably took a big risk turning in like that. Maybe if he left a tad more room he could have saved his own race.

Liuzzi: A donkey as well. It was an accident we have all seen at some point at the start of F1 races, but still got completely out of control and ruined some races.

Driver of the Race:

Driver of the race: Sebastian Vettel & Jenson Button. Both drove fast and smooth and performed some good overtakes.

Other mentions:

Michael Schumacher: Absolutley brilliant race defended excellently and on the soft tyres kept pace with the leaders. Only on the hards did he drop away, but still easily beat Massa
Alguersuari: Another great drive from 18th to points, but this time 6 points. Great Drive.
Di Resta: Did another solid job to score points.
Glock: I know it won't be noticed, but Glock finished pretty close to the Lotus cars today and showed a little Virgin pace.
Perez: I thought he drove well until his retirement. He was always running in 7th to 9th all race.