Driver of the donkey

[donKey jote]

The race was a donkey, the driver was Vettel.
Great stuff Lotus.

[Koz]

Raikkonen!

[F1boat]

Both Seb and Kimi, can't choose between them. Romain also drove very well. No donkeys for me :)

[Garry Walker]

Driver : Kimi - great performance. Also great performance by Di Resta. One cannot not mention Red Bull for once again, for the 4th year in row, making the best and fastest car.
Donkey - Webber for wasting the best car, Alonso for crying about Rosberg and then moving over in the braking area like he did, McLaren pit guys,

[Tazio]

Kimi and Grosjean

[Mark]

The McLaren pit crew.

[Dave B]

You know, -I'm tempted to give it to Grosjean for his awesome start and keeping pace with Kimi to get on the podium.

Di Resta should get a mention for making his strategy work, and Schumacher for salvaging a point from a qualifying session to forget.

Donkey could be Button for getting swamped at the start, it could be McLaren's wheelnut designer for ruining Hamilton's race, but all are eclipsed by Rosberg trying to push Alonso off the track.

[Tazio]

Donkey - McLaren pit crew

[F1boat]

Maybe Rosberg could be donkey, his driving was overly aggressive.

[Hawkmoon]

Driver: Raikkonen with honourable mentions to Grosjean, Di Resta and Schumacher.

Donkey: The guy on the left rear in the McLaren pit crew.

[jens]

Vettel - stunning first lap, he created a huge gap there already. Pulled well clear of his team-mate in the race, later managed his tyres well to keep the lead from the challenge of Lotus.
Räikkönen - to finish second from 11th on the grid is a great achievement. Also after qualifying we were discussing about his strategy - and saving lots of tyres paid off!
Di Resta - alternative and risky two-stop strategy in the heat of Bahrain brought home a splendid and very valuable 6th place in a very tight midfield fight.

Well, I think those stood out. Of course I'm also happy that Grosjean got a podium, the first one of his career!! :) And most importantly, after the first two race weekends he has been able to show that he is able to race cleanly and bring the car home. But he is not the driver of the race. Needs to improve just a little bit to get that honour. But for a relatively inexperienced F1 driver like him still a nice showing.

Donkey? McLaren's pit-crew?(for the third race in a row they have messed up) Rosberg's blocking? The reliability of Williams? Kobayashi's strategy?

[Hawkmoon]

Driver for me was Kimi closely followed by Romain, great to see Renault back on the podium. The donkey for me was the McLaren pit crew for messing up Hamilton's race completely and putting him so far down the field to where he deserved to be. A good drive by Lewis though.

Freudian slip there mate? :)

[Garry Walker]

Maybe Rosberg could be donkey, his driving was overly aggressive.

Oh please, people have been crying about him being a pushover in races, now he shows balls and is agressive, he is attacked. I personally liked his aggressiveness today, I hate this after you, no after you, no I insist crap some drivers show when they let others pass them quickly.
You want to attack someone, look at Bieber and Alonso for moving over and blocking others during braking distances, which is far more dangerous and idiotic.

[spudrsca]

Mclaren who are so far the donkey of the year.
Why did they stopped Button before Hamilton on the first stop.

And their pit-stops were awful as usual, especially for Hamilton.


On the four races, they haven't done good strategy call for Hamilton, only bad one and their pitstops are awful.

On the last three races, they have managed to screw Hamitlon enough for Button to be in front of him at one point in the race while Hamilton was their faster driver.

[truefan72]

Driver for me was Kimi closely followed by Romain, great to see Renault back on the podium. The donkey for me was the McLaren pit crew for messing up Hamilton's race completely and putting him so far down the field to where he deserved to be. A good drive by Lewis though.

agreed

[truefan72]

Maybe Rosberg could be donkey, his driving was overly aggressive.

he's my donkey of the race...for a driver
overall donkey goes to mclaren pit crew

donkey of the boards. well we know it ain't johnny walker :|

[Garry Walker]

Another donkey - The awful week for sports that this has been. Firstly Chelsea beats Barcelona in CL, then real beats Barca in El Classico, in NHL my clubs are doing badly, then Bieber and Nadal win today. Just an awful week of sports, complete failure.

[pino]

Driver : Grosjean
Donkey : Too many to post them all :p :

[pino]

Garry, take your wife to a nice ital restaurant and have great evening...you really need it ;) :p :

[Garry Walker]

Garry, take your wife to a nice ital restaurant and have great evening...you really need it ;) :p :

Actually we have planned an evening of hot sauna (which is heating up as we speak) and pool (the watery kind that is). So no worries about my sanity :D

[DexDexter]

The driver of the race was obviously Kimi Räikkönen, from 11th on the grid to 2nd.

[airshifter]

Hard to pick the driver of the race. There were a lot of really good drives throughout the field.

Until I see more views of the Rosberg incidents, I'm going to call the Mclaren crew the donkeys for screwing Hamilton up.

From the angles we got on the broadcast it appeared that Rosberg/Hamilton was a legit move by Nico blocking. Nico/Fernando looked like it might have been slightly over the line but most likely just hard racing. Did anyone get any overhead shots?

[airshifter]

The driver of the race was obviously Kimi Räikkönen, from 11th on the grid to 2nd.

Without doubt a great drive by Kimi. As much as I'm a Kimi fan I couldn't give him the driver spot because he had a tire advantage that was partly luck really. If he hadn't just got knocked out of final qualification he probably would have had less tires, but would have started farther up the grid. Either way you look at it, great drive.

[Mia 01]

The best for me was Kimi! Second, GrosJean. Third Felipe Massa!!

[DexDexter]

Without doubt a great drive by Kimi. As much as I'm a Kimi fan I couldn't give him the driver spot because he had a tire advantage that was partly luck really. If he hadn't just got knocked out of final qualification he probably would have had less tires, but would have started farther up the grid. Either way you look at it, great drive.

It was their choice yesterday, they made the call not to go out to save tires knowing they might get bumped. That's according to Bouillier and Kimi. I don't understand why some people put Grosjean as the driver of the race, I mean he started in front of his teammate but was comfortably beaten by Kimi

[airshifter]

I understand the bump, as they rolled the dice and just missed out. And don't get me wrong, I'm a big Kimi supporter and was very happy to see his return to F1.

As for Romain, I think a lot of the support is due to his experience level. To be beaten by Kimi in an equal car really isn't a bad thing.

[P3ws]

Kimi for sure. Iceman is truly back in his old form.
What a season this is. I love it. Must be great for F1 as a sport.

[DexDexter]

I understand the bump, as they rolled the dice and just missed out. And don't get me wrong, I'm a big Kimi supporter and was very happy to see his return to F1.

As for Romain, I think a lot of the support is due to his experience level. To be beaten by Kimi in an equal car really isn't a bad thing.

Yep, it was a good performance from Grosjean, no doubt about it.

[Nikki Katz]

Donkey is definitely Bernie. It was a great race, but how much bad publicity does he want? Sports shouldn't be criticised by Amnesty!

[dj_bytedisaster]

Without doubt a great drive by Kimi. As much as I'm a Kimi fan I couldn't give him the driver spot because he had a tire advantage that was partly luck really. If he hadn't just got knocked out of final qualification he probably would have had less tires, but would have started farther up the grid. Either way you look at it, great drive.

That wasn't 'luck', being bumped out of Q3. The team wanted him to go out again at the end of Q2, but he said 'shove it, you screwed me on tires last time, I'm saving them'. That's what I love about him, he's not chickening away from telling the team 'I'm doing it MY way' and it worked out perfectly.

[F1boat]

Donkey is definitely Bernie. It was a great race, but how much bad publicity does he want? Sports shouldn't be criticised by Amnesty!

I think that with a race that close and interesting, in the end the result for the sport will be good.

[Malbec]

Kimi, Vettel and the Bahraini opposition, all of whom did very well today. Grosjean and Massa are honourable mentions, nice to see the latter harass Alonso for a good while.

[The Black Knight]

Hamilton did a good job to keep it cool considering two botched pitstops so I think he deserves some credit. Other than that I'd give driver of the race to Kimi for a splendid job to catch Vettel. Vettel and Grosjean did a good race. MS also did a fine job to finish 10 tenth from 22nd.

The whole entire race was a donkey indeed. Drivers having to nurse their tyres for half the race and gingerly guide their cars around the track in this day and age is ridiculous but the political situation in Bahrain notwithstanding the race should have never been held.

McLaren get the team of the donkey for me, once again costing themselves and one of their drivers valuable points due to botched pitstops.

[steveaki13]

Absolute Driver of the day: Raikkonen for me. We all knew (or thought we did) that Mclaren, Mercedes and RB had a winning pace today, but for Raikkonen to finish there from 11th on the grid is very impressive.

Other Mentions:
Vettel: A fine drive. Great First Lap
Grosjean: A fantastic race, he drove well and delivered the performance we all wanted to see and gave Lotus a massive boost for the comeback to Europe.
di Resta: Did a really well on a hard 2 stopper, where others failed and scored some great points.
Massa: A solid drive, kept Fernando in sight and got his first points.
Schumacher: He has had terrible luck this year. GearBox, Slow Car, Bad Mechanics, then a team call yesterday. So got a deserved point after a hard comeback drive.

As for Donkeys:
Bernie
Mclaren Pit Man
Ricciardo: Might not be fair (maybe he had an issue I don't know about), but plummeted from 6th to 15th behind his team mate.

[truefan72]

Kimi and Grosjean

same 2 also deserve a half donkey , or rather Boullier for not telling Grosjean to let kimi pass and hunt down vettel
it probably cost them the win in my book.

Its odd how such obvious calls as bringing the guys in earlier, letting driver 1, pass driver 2, using the undercut etc seem so clear to us, but somehow those guys on the paddock walls continue to screw it up.
The worst amongst them being Renault/Lotus

[N4D13]

I can't single out anyone in particular for driver of the race. Vettel, Räikkönen, Grosjean and di Resta drove magnificient races.

As for the donkey, McLaren take it by quite a distance, but an honorable mention should go to Rosberg for excellence in Schumacher-esque defending, and perhaps the stewards for not even giving him a reprimand.

[airshifter]

same 2 also deserve a half donkey , or rather Boullier for not telling Grosjean to let kimi pass and hunt down vettel
it probably cost them the win in my book.

Its odd how such obvious calls as bringing the guys in earlier, letting driver 1, pass driver 2, using the undercut etc seem so clear to us, but somehow those guys on the paddock walls continue to screw it up.
The worst amongst them being Renault/Lotus

I thought it strange that without any radio transmissions the Speed announcers stated that Grosjean must have been ordered to let Kimi pass. I didn't think it looked quite that easy, but anything is possible.

I also have to wonder if after having his one real shot at Vettel the Kimster started thinking about what happens if you push the tires too hard for too long and he backed out of it.

[longisland]

Donkey Team: Mclaren for messing up Lewis' race for the second time and once to Jenson. It's 3 out of 4 races they cocked up in the pit stop and the team really needs to take a hard look into this issue.
Best Team: RBR for coming back after the lack luster performance in the last few races.
Driver(s) of the day: Vettel. The vintage Vettel is back with the finger and the podium leap minus the infamous quote "That's what I'm talking about!" Quick get away, avoided traffic and pit stop cock up to make the strategy work, defended when needed to from Kimi in the second stint and managed the tires well in the final stint to win the race. More importantly, this win reaffirms his the no. 1 driver in the team; despite being out qualified in the last 3 races, he answered the skeptics by snatching a pole and a win that matters the most.
Honorary mention:
Kimi for his fantastic 1st & 2nd stint from 11th to 2nd. The extra sets of new tires, DRS, KERS & the track layout made the feat possible but it's still requires the incredible skills in Kimi to pull off the overtakings.
MS for turning around a horrendous saturday outings and moved 12 places up to 10th from 22nd and core a point along the way.
Di Resta for his control drive to make the 2 stop strategy work.
Donkey of the day: Maybe Ricciardo & Heikki for the incident at the beginning of the race. I'm not sure if it's a racing incident but for sure it's a waste of all the saturday's qualifying effort for both.

[odykas]

Driver: Kimi
Donkey: Rosberg (for MS like manoeuvres)

[Knock-on]

Seb drove a faultless race. Looks like the Red Bull is the car to beat again now they've tweaked it but you need to do better than drive the fastest car to the flag to get Driver of the Day.

Kimi surprised me and showed what a World Champion returning to the sport can do if he still has it in him. I was looking closely at his driving and he seems to have come back stronger than he left F1. He looks tighter and cleaner with strong motivation. In fact, he looks like a new Kimi. However, the Lotus is a very competitive car and Romain gets a huge pat on the back too.

But, the driver for me was Paul. He was strong in Q and during the race. He was canny in letting past cars he couldn't keep behind without wasting time and defended positions he needed to like a tiger right to the line. Quite a few people thought The Hulk would demolish Paul but Nico is probably Green with envy now.

So, Paul di Resta for a great weekend, making an sub optimal strategy work and getting the car into the points above the faster McLarens, Ferrari and a works Mercedes. Batting well above his average :D

Donkeys are the Stewards and McLaren. The Stewards for allowing drivers to drive competitors off the track and then being gutless in not having the balls to make a decision during the race. If there is a problem in the first half of the race, why can't they sort it out there and then. I understand if it's in the last few laps but really.... What's the point of having them at all during the weekend. It might just as well be done by committee bak in Paris to engineer what result the FIA want. And what's going to happen now? As Alonso has said, it's open season on driving people off track. Perhaps Schumacher might start doing better again if you're allowed to punt people off the island for daring to attempt an overtake.

Then we have McLaren. WTF are they doing. I don't think it's fair to blame the pit crew because they are unlikely to be at fault but this has happened to Button and now twice to Lewis as well. The McLaren might not be the fastest car out there but both drivers are driving their hearts out but just seem to be banging their heads against brick walls. Come on McLaren, you are the best, most professional team in the world. Get this sorted NOW!!! I bet sales of Red Bull, Coffee and ProPlus are going to go through the roof around Woking this week.

[odykas]

The Stewards for allowing drivers to drive competitors off the track and then being gutless in not having the balls to make a decision during the race. .

Well said :up:

[airshifter]

Donkeys are the Stewards and McLaren. The Stewards for allowing drivers to drive competitors off the track and then being gutless in not having the balls to make a decision during the race. If there is a problem in the first half of the race, why can't they sort it out there and then. I understand if it's in the last few laps but really.... What's the point of having them at all during the weekend. It might just as well be done by committee bak in Paris to engineer what result the FIA want. And what's going to happen now? As Alonso has said, it's open season on driving people off track. Perhaps Schumacher might start doing better again if you're allowed to punt people off the island for daring to attempt an overtake.



I agree that most decisions should be made during the race, and as quickly as possible as long as they remain fair. I'm not sure if the stewards have access to all the feeds/telemetry/etc so they could properly review an incident and make a decision quickly and fairly. If they don't have all that available they should.

[dj_bytedisaster]

Nice review Kock-on, but I think I disagree on some points.


Seb drove a faultless race. Looks like the Red Bull is the car to beat again now they've tweaked it but you need to do better than drive the fastest car to the flag to get Driver of the Day.

I doubt that the RB was the fastest car. I think that honour belongs to the Lotuses (or Lotii??). Mark was nowhere near Vettels pace and that would speak against the theory of the RB being the fastest car on the day. With these jokes of tires this year we will probably see a different fastest car each weekend. Whoever gets them to work in the temperatures on race day will have the edge. In China it were the Mercs and in Bahrain it were the Lotus and to a degree the RB's, while the McLarens were shafted by the sudden pre-race drop in temperaturs.


Kimi surprised me and showed what a World Champion returning to the sport can do if he still has it in him. I was looking closely at his driving and he seems to have come back stronger than he left F1. He looks tighter and cleaner with strong motivation. In fact, he looks like a new Kimi. However, the Lotus is a very competitive car and Romain gets a huge pat on the back too.

The timeout from F1 probably did him a world of good. So far we haven't heard anything about drunken boat cruises or anything, so he seems to have reached a higher level of professionalism without losing his cool attitude. I think that WDC of his will be joined by at least another one in the coming years. He certainly deserves driver of the race honours.


But, the driver for me was Paul. He was strong in Q and during the race. He was canny in letting past cars he couldn't keep behind without wasting time and defended positions he needed to like a tiger right to the line. Quite a few people thought The Hulk would demolish Paul but Nico is probably Green with envy now.

I can't remember anyone saying that Hülkenberg would destroy Paul. I think Paul has proven often enough last year that he has what it takes to be a top driver, while Hülkenberg has to play catch-up after a year as a test driver. He hasn't much experience with those weird Pirelli tires, so the idea of Hülkenberg walking all over Paul was not very realistic to begin with.


Donkeys are the Stewards and McLaren. The Stewards for allowing drivers to drive competitors off the track and then being gutless in not having the balls to make a decision during the race. If there is a problem in the first half of the race, why can't they sort it out there and then. I understand if it's in the last few laps but really.... What's the point of having them at all during the weekend. It might just as well be done by committee bak in Paris to engineer what result the FIA want. And what's going to happen now? As Alonso has said, it's open season on driving people off track. Perhaps Schumacher might start doing better again if you're allowed to punt people off the island for daring to attempt an overtake.

I think Alonso should be the last to complain. Seemingly he has forgotten his own antics in last years Monza GP (squeezing Vettel onto the grass). I can't remember him moaning then. Nico's driving was perhaps a bit hamfisted, but neigther Hamilton nor Alonso were far enough alongside him to force him to yield. I think both manovers were hard, but still within the rules. Neither Alonso, nor Hamilton are strangers to hard fighting, but Alonso does protest too much if he finds himself on the receiving end.


Then we have McLaren. WTF are they doing. I don't think it's fair to blame the pit crew because they are unlikely to be at fault but this has happened to Button and now twice to Lewis as well. The McLaren might not be the fastest car out there but both drivers are driving their hearts out but just seem to be banging their heads against brick walls. Come on McLaren, you are the best, most professional team in the world. Get this sorted NOW!!! I bet sales of Red Bull, Coffee and ProPlus are going to go through the roof around Woking this week.

The McLarens seemed off the pace even without the pit lane mishaps. I think the sudden drop in temperature before the race rendered their setup useless. Three botched stops in 2 races is indeed a reason for concern, but I would guess that they're history by the time of the next race.

[Dr. Krogshöj]

Driver: Kimi Räikkönen
Donkey: no one. The racing was clean and pit stop mishaps happen from time to time.

[pino]

Knockie I agree 100% with you...except for McLaren being best team in the world :s :p :

[truefan72]

Knockie I agree 100% with you...except for McLaren being best team in the world :s :p :

LOL
fair enough pino

[schmenke]

...I doubt that the RB was the fastest car. ...

???

Times / Ave. Speed:

Vettel: 1:35:11 / 174.61kph
Raikkonen: 1:35:14.3 / 169.34kph

[wedge]

Seb then Kimi. Kimi had the advantage of starting with better tyres but still a spirited drive. Who said Kimi was boring?

[schmenke]

.... Who said Kimi was boring?

I just about fell asleep during his post-race interview :p :

[jens]

Regarding RBR v Lotus and the issue of "superiority". You can compare Vettel and Grosjean, who were on a similar tyre strategy. Grosjean actually matched Vettel's pace for almost all race, he dropped 5 seconds behind him largely due to traffic in the early laps. Räikkönen's pace was pretty comparable to Grosjean and Vettel too, except on the second stint, when he was notably faster on softer tyres compared to medium tyres his direct rivals were running on.

[Knock-on]

Knockie I agree 100% with you...

Oh my god! Now I'm worried... OK, I admit it, I must be wrong :p


except for McLaren being best team in the world :s :p :

Phew, normal service is resumed :D

[ShiftingGears]

Driver of the race was Kimi. Donkey - McLaren pit crew. For lack of pace - Webber wasn't too flash. I think he may be in for a hard year, since conserving his tyres has been a problem for him in the past - however I hope I'm wrong, and it's down to Bahrain being a bad track for him. Perhaps it is promising, as this is his best result at the Bahrain circuit, and despite a poor performance he still gained solid points.

[Robinho]

Top 3 in any order, probably Kimi just shading it for me.

Mention for Di Resta also, good stuff from him

Was not a fan of the race in general, maybe it was the BBC edit, but it didn't captivate me.

McLaren's dodgy wheel nuts are getting a bit tyreing (pun intended) and I was not keen on Rosbergs big sweeps across the track, but have to say I was happy for the stewards to not get all pissy and leave things alone after the race. Whilst he was tough I don't think a penalty was in ordere

[Garry Walker]

I doubt that the RB was the fastest car. I think that honour belongs to the Lotuses (or Lotii??). Mark was nowhere near Vettels pace and that would speak against the theory of the RB being the fastest car on the day. With these jokes of tires this year we will probably see a different fastest car each weekend. That was down to a really bad day in office from Webber. You should never judge the speed of a car by it's slower driver. But of course, in your fanboy world, things are different.



I can't remember anyone saying that Hülkenberg would destroy Paul. I think Paul has proven often enough last year that he has what it takes to be a top driver, while Hülkenberg has to play catch-up after a year as a test driver. He hasn't much experience with those weird Pirelli tires, so the idea of Hülkenberg walking all over Paul was not very realistic to begin with.
I actually remember quite a few of hulk's fans saying that. Of course, the reality is that the hype on him is based on one lucky pole and no one consideres the beating Barrichello gave him in other races. Thankfully Di Resta has brought them back down to reality.



The McLarens seemed off the pace even without the pit lane mishaps. I think the sudden drop in temperature before the race rendered their setup useless. Three botched stops in 2 races is indeed a reason for concern, but I would guess that they're history by the time of the next race.
With higher temperatures, I believe, they would have suffered even more.

[F1boat]

That was down to a really bad day in office from Webber. You should never judge the speed of a car by it's slower driver. But of course, in your fanboy world, things are different.


Better a fanboy world than the nightmare of a hater. The average performance of the two RBR cars was not as good as the average performance of the two Lotus cars, still Seb won, as unpleasant at this might be to you, hater.

[Big Ben]

Another donkey - The awful week for sports that this has been. Firstly Chelsea beats Barcelona in CL, then Bieber and Nadal win today. Just an awful week of sports, complete failure.

It's just weird to agree with you on so many things.

[jens]

I think Lotus was at least as fast as Red Bull, if not faster. It depends, how you rate Grosjean's drive - fantastic or merely good. Because he had a similar tyre strategy to Vettel's and was able to match German's pace for much of the race. Both Lotus' were compromised in the early laps by traffic, while Vettel was never compromised during the race, so this has to be taken into account as well.