Driver Of The Race

[JeremySmith]

Today for me Fernando Alonso drove a very fine race. Taking care not to make mistakes..

[Dani Filth]

pizzonia ..

[Big-O]

Fernando drove wery well... no mistakes, but for me, Kimi drove one hell of a race .... Ok, he did mistakes and paid for them, but what a fun to whatch him in this kind of rush ....

[Kicking-back]

Juan Pablo Montoya won the race very well.

Alonso did what he had to.

Raikkonen was very fast.

But for me Pizzonia gets the nod - thrown in at the deep end and gets points.

[Raven]

Pizzonia here too.

[youngoldy]

What about those Jordans and Minardis?

Going strong as always

[luke]

The race was given to Montoya again due to Kimi's bad luck with the very relaible silver arrow. He did what he had to do and half Alonso from taking maximum points.

[Adam43]

Poll added. Please ask for any others that you want to vote for.

[Peter Mallett]

Rarely do I go for the race winner but today it had to be JPM. Pizzonia performed out of his skin and got TW some points, but JPM drove a peerless race from an inherited pole to vistory.

[kuchi]

I voted for JPM, no surprises here, but Fisico drove very good as well.

[luke]

I voted Montoya as the poll was no opened.

[Knowlesy]

Montoya driver of race. Pizzonia and Alonso great too.

[John Turner]

Kimi, the fastest (again), fine race by Alonso, super race by Pizzonia and Fisi did pretty well, but JPM gets my vote - the last few laps tipped it for me when he drove with that delaminating tyre whilst maintaining sufficient pace to stay ahead. Brave, given the number of very high speed sections at Monza.

[Snrub]

I'm not sure why people have said Alonso. What did he do? He had a slowish start and did some laps. Equally worthy were the guys at the Ferrari test track who were probably putting in laps while the race was on.

It's a crime to see JPM continually doing only what's required to finish in a given position. He pushed for 2 laps at the start and 4 at the end. Those were 6 awsome laps, but basically we no longer get to see what he's made of. Heck he has made comments suggesting that in qualifying he's trying to ensure a merely adequate performance.

Kimi's qualifying was awsome given the 1 stop stratagy, but I'm not sure that he was super impressive during the race. He was pushing and extremely fast at points, but he made a couple of mistakes.

It would be nice to say Pizzonia, but I didn't see much of him and he got into an accident at the start.

[Menelaos]

My vote goes to JPM. Alonso was good, but he didn't have to do anything really, no problems at all, just kept the car going. Kimi was very very fast, but made a mistake. however, his qualifying was simply perfect. I don't think anyone did an extremely impressive job today, but as I said JPM was the best, imo.

[runshaw]

Robert Doornbos without a doubt.

[runshaw]

O no, i forgot about Pizzonia. He is the driver of the race without a doubt.

[senna12]

I thought that since Antonio had basically not sat in the car for the better part of three months (with Rosberg doing the testing), and only had 24 hours or less notice that he would be driving, that his performance warranted the honours this race.

[GolddustMini]

montoya for me, closely followed by pizzonia and alonso.

montoya did what he had to
pizzonia was thrown in at the deep end and did well in a relatively poor car
alonso - again did what his car could do and kept himself in the hunt, the renault wasnt quick enough to truely challenge the leaders
kimi - probably would have been on the podium after a hellish race, were it not for overcooking it under pressure

[thejester]

My driver of the race is going to be Rubens Barrichello. I felt he drove like a man unshackled. He muscled Michael aside on the opening laps and was simply not going to let him past on the track. More power to him. I'm sure BAR were very happy to see that performance.

Then he got a slow puncture...

[Dixie Flatline]

In terms of the spectacle, I'll give it to Kimi. It makes you wonder how far he would have streeted the field if his Mercedes hadn't gone kaput on him on Saturday.

Very good race from Montoya, especially when his tyre began to suffer late in the race.

Alonso did the necessary but perhaps could have pushed just a little harder in the middle stages of the race, to keep the pressure on Montoya. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Good work from Pizzonia to jump in the car after three months of not going near it and putting it in seventh place. Outshaded his teammate considerably, though Webber wasn't helped by his tangle in the opening lap.

Honourable mention to both Toyota drivers. Trulli and particularly Ralf Schumacher drove strong races and delivered some valuable points to Cologne.

"Better luck next time" to Button and Sato. Button's early race promise evaporated after a few laps, while Sato had his own problems from the start, and wasn't helped by "strange readings" coming from his fuel rig.

[Mattracer]

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[Mattracer]

The fact that all cars were still running at the end may have counted in favour of Pizzonia, but really, hats off to Raikonnen. It wasn't his fault he suffered a 10 place penalty but his efforts to correct things seemed like he was making up for a situation that was!

[FPV GTHO]

Pizzonia easily. Made the biggest gains of everyone, and to do it with 1 day to re-acclimatise himself to the car deserves extra credit.

[JohnSSC]

I voted for JPM and while agreeing to an extent with Adam's comments, JPM did make the most of his starting position. He also kept his focus in the middle part of the race and brought the car home. In short, it was the type of drive that while not spectacular brought the team points and also gave Kimi the opportunity to gain on Alonso by keeping FA behind him. Extra points for keeping his cool when the tyre started to go. Further it was the type of drive that many here have said JPM needs to become a practitioner of in order to win a WDC or help his team to the WCC. Who knows Adam, had he pushed harder perhaps his left rear tyre would have failed sooner and more spectacularly.

Driver 1A though was Trulli, who under the pressure of running his "home" Grand Prix reversed his high quali/low finish trend. Good overall racecraft.

Honorable mention goes to Pizzonia for jumping in to the car with no recent seat time.

Kimi did well but did not help himself with the spin - at times this year the car has let him down and at times he has let the car down.