[Official] Driver of the race: Italian Grand Prix

[Born Racer]

Who is your driver of the race?

[FAS33]

Vettel was unbelievable, but my DOTR goes to Dan da Man!!!!! WHOOOOYEAAAH! show those haterz who think you can't race how it's done LOL!


Team RedBull mofo's!

[Aysedasi]

Hamilton. His last few laps were the only thing to stir me from my slumbers......

[GT6]

The hulk gets my vote performed well above expectations

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Hamilton. His last few laps were the only thing to stir me from my slumbers......

He was much faster than anything else on his second set of the softer tyres. I actually thought that he would manage to get by more cars than he did. But yes, you still need to get by those cars.

Driver of the race was either between Alonso or Vettel, for me. Great pass by Alonso on Webber and he got by quite a few cars into the first corner, but Vettel was just superb, again. Vettel it is.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Originally Posted by Marbot

Great pass by Alonso on Webber

It would've been had he not have forced Webber to back out of his overtake by cutting him up and giving him wing damage.

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by Biscuits In A Red Bull

It would've been had he not have forced Webber to back out of his overtake by cutting him up and giving him wing damage.

Sometimes you just need to know when the pass is done.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

My vote goes to the best of rest...

[CTD]

Hulkenberg.
Again shows what talent he has - and sadly no seat next year (currently)

[Lancsbreaker]

Hulkenberg for a result way better than most would have predicted......honourable mention to Lewis for not giving up.....tho he sounded very low after the race.

[Aysedasi]

Indeed - as we saw on one or two other occasions.

[ECW Dan Selby]

Hulk for me, easy. Had no right being up there in that dog of a car.

Would Sauber honestly do much worse going back to last year's car and sticking a few bits and bobs on that?

Hamilton was ok, but by his own self admission, it wasn't a good one for him.

Selby

[JohnSSC]

This was a tough one, actually. Vettel was superb; especially when the car began to fail. Hulkenberg showed his qualie was not a happy accident. Alonso crafted another awesome drive. Kimi and Lewis were on it and Webbo made a good start and fought hard...

Much as I like Alonso I have to give props to Seb Vettel.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by JohnSSC

This was a tough one, actually. Vettel was superb; especially when the car began to fail......

How much do we know about Vettel's car beginning to 'fail'? Was it beginning to fail that much more than Webber's?

[JohnSSC]

The radio we heard here in the US indicated that Seb had to short shift the upper gears and was having issues with the RF tyre.

Of course we have no way of knowing if the issues as compared to Webber were the same, worse or not as bad.

Whatever the issues Seb drove as fast as he needed to in order to win and made sure everyone else had to drive as fast as they could in order to keep close.

[Aysedasi]

Fair enough.....

[IceMan_PJN]

I give this to Lewis. It was a poor finish, but that alone doesn't tell the story. He started back in the field after an unfortunate qualifying blunder, and then had to make one more pit stop than just about everyone, and still made it into the points. He almost gained a couple more positions still at the end.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by IceMan_PJN

I give this to Lewis. It was a poor finish, but that alone doesn't tell the story. He started back in the field after an unfortunate qualifying blunder, and then had to make one more pit stop than just about everyone, and still made it into the points. He almost gained a couple more positions still at the end.

Oh dear!

Vettel.

Honourable mention to Hulk and another to Massa for backing Webber off Alonso and out of second place.

POT - Webber for compromising everything off the start!

Rather do himself and RBR harm than see Vettel succeed, now that's what I call a team mate!

Great to see him actually succeed in making a start for once!

[Razzzor]

Vettel was his usual dominant self. Hulk was DOTR for me though, only a second behind Massa and 5 behind Alonso and Webber, that's pretty good for a Sauber. Riccardo was good too, holding off Rosberg all race. I'd love to have seen Nico hold his position or move up to 2nd at the start, he may have kept it. And if it rained, he probably would have won.

Hamilton's gotten a tonne of votes simply because he was exciting. But ultimately he converted to a normal 2 stop race (though it was forced). How many times did Schumacher, throughout his career, suddenly switch strategy during a race in order to try something else when he was behind? Hamilton's slow puncture didn't cost him any time, and he was then able to go out and do two short medium tyre stints. The time at which he pitted was fine for a two stopper, maybe a bit early, but even if it was planned he probably would have pitted earlier anyway to get out of traffic. Obviously it wasn't planned, but it didn't really hurt him that much (unlike Kimi).

If anyone else was on this strategy we would have seen something similar. In the end he started 12th and finished 9th, which one of those positions was from Vergne's retirement, and he also would have had to deal with the Force India's if they didn't have problems. Some good passes from him though, and he was only 23 secs behind Rosberg (the equivalent of a pitstop). But the commentators did say a two stop is about 10 secs slower, so he did make up that difference, even with traffic. But then Rosberg was stuck behind Ricciardo all race long anyway. Exciting race from Hammo, but not DOTR.

Kimi was a stark difference, he was forced onto a two stop race but had to do it from the first lap of the race, so really he didn't get the advantage of two shorter med tyre stints and still had to make his tyres last like everyone else. And he still only JUST got passed by Lewis at the very end when his car was having problems.

So I think Kimi, although he didn't do any great passes, was more impressive than Lewis. If you look at the lap times Kimi was doing in clean air, they were actually as fast as Vettel. He was fast enough to be with the leaders and on the podium.

As for Alonso... almost great pass on Webber, but then he hit him! So he was lucky to get away with it. He could easily have got a puncture, spun around, and everyone would be calling him an idiot then.
After that, Webber was faster than him (even with all his car issues) and even Massa kept up, so I wouldn't call that a good drive from Alonso. He didn't really have to pass Nico on track and Massa just let him by.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by Razzzor

Hamilton's gotten a tonne of votes simply because he was exciting. But ultimately he converted to a normal 2 stop race (though it was forced). How many times did Schumacher, throughout his career, suddenly switch strategy during a race in order to try something else when he was behind? Hamilton's slow puncture didn't cost him any time, and he was then able to go out and do two short medium tyre stints. The time at which he pitted was fine for a two stopper, maybe a bit early, but even if it was planned he probably would have pitted earlier anyway to get out of traffic. Obviously it wasn't planned, but it didn't really hurt him that much (unlike Kimi).

If anyone else was on this strategy we would have seen something similar. In the end he started 12th and finished 9th, which one of those positions was from Vergne's retirement, and he also would have had to deal with the Force India's if they didn't have problems. Some good passes from him though, and he was only 23 secs behind Rosberg (the equivalent of a pitstop). But the commentators did say a two stop is about 10 secs slower, so he did make up that difference, even with traffic. But then Rosberg was stuck behind Ricciardo all race long anyway. Exciting race from Hammo, but not DOTR.

Erm, no, none of that was really relevant in my choice. The guy actually did some racing - real racing - and that's becoming quite important to me the way things are going.

[henners88]

Well for me there were plenty of good drives throughout the race. If I had to pick a driver I would struggle but two that stick out are Hulkenburg and Hamilton. Nico put his car where nobody expected and finished in a very good position. I think Ferrari will be knocking on his door this morning. Hamilton messed up by his own admission in qualy, but more than made up for it in the race. He finished a lowly ninth, but I have to say he showed his true racing ability in the final laps of the race. He also provided the best entertainment for the fans I think. Alonso is worth a mention too I would say. Felipe let him go early on as he was drifting backwards and Fernando was able to push like mad until the end. A well deserved second place.

Again it seems to be a race where I just can't award the winner as my drive of the day. It all just looked too easy from the front and I feel the Red Bull package in the hands of Vettel is just too hard to match. A good job from them, but highly dull for the rest of us. At least we had some decent racing a bit further back.

[Beryl]

Vettel or Hulkenburg, nobody else stood out really.

Originally Posted by Razzzor

Riccardo was good too, holding off Rosberg all race.

Some good passes from him though, and he was only 23 secs behind Rosberg (the equivalent of a pitstop). But the commentators did say a two stop is about 10 secs slower, so he did make up that difference, even with traffic. But then Rosberg was stuck behind Ricciardo all race long anyway.

Two things:
1. Rosberg wasn't stuck behind Ricciardo during the second stint, he was stuck behind Hulkenburg.
2. Gary Anderson meant that the 2-stop strategy is 10 seconds slower lights to flag in clean air, meaning Hamilton didn't make up the difference seeing as how he was more than 10 seconds behind at the end (though traffic did play a part in both Merc races so it's not a great comparison anyway).

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Erm, no, none of that was really relevant in my choice. The guy actually did some racing - real racing - and that's becoming quite important to me the way things are going.

To be honest, passing slower cars that are on older harder rubber with DRS (on a track like Monza no less) isn't exactly my cup of tea.

It was the circumstances that forced Hamilton into those moves. Before the slow puncture he was in line like everybody else, stuck behind Vergne.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by wnut

Oh dear!

Is Hamilton a bad choice?

[wnut]

Originally Posted by Adam43

Is Hamilton a bad choice?

Hi Adam43, yes I think so, Razzzor put it pretty well in his post above:

"If anyone else was on this strategy we would have seen something similar. In the end he started 12th and finished 9th, which one of those positions was from Vergne's retirement, and he also would have had to deal with the Force India's if they didn't have problems. Some good passes from him though, and he was only 23 secs behind Rosberg (the equivalent of a pitstop). But the commentators did say a two stop is about 10 secs slower, so he did make up that difference, even with traffic. But then Rosberg was stuck behind Ricciardo all race long anyway. Exciting race from Hammo, but not DOTR." [Razzzor]

He was good to watch, but not DOTR.

I try and look at the driver who did the best job, or significantly out performed the car, Lewis unfortunately wrecked his DOTR possibilities with a poor qualifying and the rest sadly was trying to make up the problem.
He really worked hard and I love the fight in him, but the blot still remained this week end.

He has been really good this season though! Good to see!

[Greem]

Vettel. Imperious all weekend, the git.

Obvious tips of the hat to Hamilton for his late charge; Webber for toughing it out with Alonso; Alonso for seemingly once again dragging his Ferrari where others couldn't.

And a really big wave to Hulkenberg, for showing us that he's ready to move up and play in a big team.