Donkey of the race - Turkish GP

[Spoonbender]

Those new overtaking regs weren't working too well either.

Seemed to be working for anyone overtaking a Renault!!

Rubens had technical probs, so Donkey has to be Piquet Jr

[ioan]

Well, see valve, there was this thing called "pole" and if sebie had done kept his wits about him and not let Jensen drive right past him towards the end of lap 1...

he might well have been far enough ahead to make it a victory.

Stop kidding yourself, there was no chance for a victory unless Button made a big mistake or his car broke down.

[ioan]

Seemed to be working for anyone overtaking a Renault!!

Rubens had technical probs, so Donkey has to be Piquet Jr

You mean overtaking a McLaren?!

Go Piquet, that was the overtaking move of the year!

Rubens is a tool he ran into 2 cars on his own, AFAIK his steering and brakes were functioning well, only his head was not screwed on properly.

[I am evil Homer]

Agreed...no 7th gear doesn't excuse stupid lunges up the inside of Heikki and at a chicane!

[AndyL]

I agree with your assessment of Rubens. I'm not going to blame him for the start as it can happen to anybody. And if he'd have taken a better opportunity to overtake Kovy he could have finished 5th or 6th.

He did overtake Kovy! Unfortunately with no 7th gear vs a car with KERS he got immediately re-passed.

[Valve Bounce]

Well, see valve, there was this thing called "pole" and if sebie had done kept his wits about him and not let Jensen drive right past him towards the end of lap 1...

he might well have been far enough ahead to make it a victory....so how can one blame the engineer for his running off the rack on lap 1, and then clearly being unwilling to even make a real attempt at a pass on jenson later before he pitted???

nope donkey belongs to vettel, all by himself

I followed the race on three fronts: pino's chat, The webcast, and also the F1.com's live internet web where I can follow each lap, pit stops, and the gaps between the cars as well as the individual sector times of each lap and the lap times.

They brought Vettel in for a short pit stop and lighter fuel load after the first stint. Vettel tried to catch bunsen after that with his lighter fuel load and unfortunately there was no hope of him either catching bunsen let alone pass him. Vettel; then was lumbered with an extra pit stop vis a vis both bunsen and Mark Webber, and as a result he lost p2 to Mark.

I hope this explains things a bit more clearly.

The point is: Vettel did make a mistake in lap 1 and let bunsen through when he ran wide, but as he was on a lighter fuel load then and couldn't catch bunsen, his engineer should have figured out that he was heading for p2 as he was much faster than Mark Webber.

That silly extra pit/fuel stop cost Vettel P2.

I hope this makes it clearer for you.

[Valve Bounce]

Rubens, after the start line fiasco when he was blessed with the anti-stall and lost heaps of places, wasn't going to make up enough positions to get points; losing a gear didn't help. His Brazillian temperament got the better of him and he drove, as some say, like a tool.

But, Vettel's engineer cost him p2 - that's the point I am making.

[Knock-on]

Stop kidding yourself, there was no chance for a victory unless Button made a big mistake or his car broke down.

He had slightly less fuel and qualified on pole. He had an opportunity to lead from the front and build up a bit of a gap but made a mistake and let Jenson through.

Even then, he had a faster car when he closed up on Jenson and had a chance to get past but couldn't make it happen.

So, he had a much bigger handle on his destiny than you give him credit for.

[ioan]

Piquet was in a considerably lighter car than the Mclaren.... When I say considerably I mean 70-75Kg's lighter,

70-75kgs?!
And even if that was the case, overtaking on the exterior of turn 12 and than banging wheels for the next 3 corners was great racing show from a guy everyone like to rubbish!
Tell you what, Piquet is a better racer than Rubens ever was or will be, he just didn't have the luck to be in the right team and the right time.

[ioan]

He had slightly less fuel and qualified on pole. He had an opportunity to lead from the front and build up a bit of a gap but made a mistake and let Jenson through.

Even then, he had a faster car when he closed up on Jenson and had a chance to get past but couldn't make it happen.

So, he had a much bigger handle on his destiny than you give him credit for.

He stopped 1or 2 lap earlier than Jenson, which means he wasn't so much lighter.
And in order to make a 3 stops strategy work he should have had a serious advantage over the Honda, which really wasn't the case yesterday.

IMO, even after they failed to change his strategy accordingly the team should have brought him in as soon as they realized that it was almost impossible to pass on track and put him again in clean air. They failed twice to give him the right choice in terms of strategy.