Driver of the race. (YOU MAY NEED TO RE-SUBMIT YOUR VOTE)

[Knowlesy]

A mod can add the poll to this later on.

So who was your driver of the race today at Spa?

A few candidates for me:

Villeneuve, brought the Sauber home sixth which is good, although may have been beaten by Massa.

Webber, deep into the points positions, a fantastic result for the forums favourite Aussie.

Button, fighting drive, no mistakes, textbook overtaking moves.

Monteiro, scored a point in a Jordan. Good effort, slightly aided by retirements but he still beat some better teams and cars.

Those would be my three main candidates.

Rubens, JPM, Massa, Alonso, Kimi, Ralf et al all did good jobs too. Massa and Ralf made tyre errors which dropped them from good positions, JPM was probably the moral winner until his collision, Kimi and Alonso both did what was needed, Rubens had a solid, unobtrusive day.

Some good drives all round today I think!

My vote goes to Jenson though.

[CobraSVT]

Jacques Villeneuve for me. It wasn't "expected" of him to do as good as he did.
Raikkonen did what we thought he would. Webber did very well.
The usual others did the usual, (alonso etc..)

When I turned on the TV, I saw Villeneuve in 2nd! I thought I was dreaming and went back to bed.

I missed a part of the race, why was it that after Villeneuve's 1st pit stop, he was 9th, and then even after the others had done a couple of pit stops, he was still 9th.
Did something happen that I missed? Cause in common sense he should of been furthur up front

[Menelaos]

Nobody for me, I think this time we really have to add this option. I mean, no one was impressive. McLaren were both ok (we don't know about JPM though), but after all they had nothing difficult to do. Alonso? Well, same as with the McLarens. Had a nice ride around the circuit. Villeneuve? Not only would I not give him the "title", I would even give him a penalty for almost crashing on Alonso when he lost his position pretty early in the race. Not to mention that bringing the sauber home sixth was absolutely no achievement. Everything got rearranged (here's where LUCK comes into play!!) with the safety car and he was LUCKY to be up there. Then 300 cars retired. Webber, maybe he was good, but they didn't show too much of him, so I couldn't know. Button was good indeed, but still he didn't do anything really impressive. Monteiro: once again, why should I care that he scored a point when so many people retired? Rubens was outrageously BAD, and EXTREMELY lucky AGAIN. He should have stayed faaaar out of the points if you ask me. Stupid safety car, it just destroyed the race. Trulli was very very good, and he had to fall back there. Ralf was nothing special and he almost claimed a podium. I hate it when the sc comes out, it's like playing cards. Anything fair in the game is lost just like that. My vote would go to Button if there's no "nobody" option, but if there is, that's my choice.

[Knowlesy]

Button made some great moves though. Round the outside at Pouhon was pretty good stuff, although that corner is tarmacced off now and has lost it's challenge.

Still a pretty brave move though.

[Peter Mallett]

I was of a similar opinion to Menelaos, but on reflection I think Ralf was outstanding even if he did goof on the tyres thing.

JV (how can I say this?) was pretty good and put in a fine drive.

Monty was going well but I felt his head dropped after the "swap" and he let himself down. I'm not referring to the Pizzonia incident because I've no idea what happened there.

Taku really does need to think harder. (Nuff said), but I thought it funny when Mickey-the-shoe cuffed him round the ear.

Alonso played the percentage game and got the reward.

Kimi was struggling for a while and if team orders were allowed would probably have romped away instead of being exposed to possible errors.

Mark put in a solid but unspectacualr run to the points (much needed from a team and driver perspective).

Jenson? Started cautiously and looked out of it, especially when the tyre thing dropped him back, but that was the making of his race! Coming from all that way back and closing down on Alonso, OK without the JPM/Pzzonia thing, it would have been fourth but third, including two damned fine overtaking moves, was the performance of the race.

So Jenson Button for this race.

[Menelaos]

ehm, sorry, I wrote before that JV was lucky to be up there due to the sc and everything, sorry for that it's not accurate. He didn't pit.

[ensign14]

Has to be Monteiro. He was about 10 places higher than he should have been come the finish.

[race aficionado]

Racer of The Day: Juan Pablo Montoja

• He had the goods to end up first.

and he was a total team player by sticking to the logical McLaren Plan.

• Unfortunate racing incident took him out and damaged what would have been a perfect 1-2 for the McLaren team.

Mala suerte Juan Pablo.

Great that Kimi's hopes are still alive.

[Rich R]

i was going to say monteiro for finishing in the points and beating karthikeyan who is considered as a wet weather specialist, but all things considered i thought button was probably the best driver out there today. great move on villenueve in pouhon, good sense in keeping the same set of tyres on at the second pitstop and some great pace at the end of the race.

[Ralf's Girl]

Button for me, although there were a few decent drives today. Raikkonen was solid as usual, although not on the pace of his team-mate, Ralf was doing well until the tactical blunder of putting on dry tyres too soon and Alonso was his usual steady self (probably going to be one of the least interesting world championship victories ever ).

[freud]

Juan Pablo did well when it mattered. Its must be frustrating for him to let Kimi go.

[luke]

I voted bUtton we saw a new falir of him, with tow great overtaking moves. But why is he on the poll twice?

[Ralf's Girl]

Because he's that good?

[Jordi]

Jacques!!

He drove probably the heaviest car on the grid going on a one stopper which paid off for him. Keep in mind that only Montoya retired while he was ahead of Jacques. He brought home valuable points and I have to admit I wish he could do it more often.

He probably wasn't the fastest out there but kept that car on the road. With an amazing slide in Eau Rouge if you recall!

[Kicking-back]

Raikkonen.

Peerless.

Kept his cool in the early stages and used controlled agression to win.

[gert]

Originally Posted by luke

I voted bUtton we saw a new falir of him, with tow great overtaking moves. But why is he on the poll twice?

I think one of the two "Button" options should have been "Webber"

[Adam43]

Due to a copy and paste problem with the original poll a new one has been created. You may need to re-submit your entry.

Thanks.

[Marbot]

I voted for Jenson Button.....both of them,excellent team work.

[ASCII Man]

Jacques Villeneuve!

[BootsOntheSide]

Originally Posted by Kicking-back

Raikkonen.

Peerless.

SO why was Juan Pablo so far ahead of him for much of the race? And if you're implying that JPm lost his head, Pizzonia's been found guilty and penalised by the FIA.

My chocie was between 2 drivers I've been perceived to be critical of in the past - Webber and Ralf. Mark was solid throughout and overcame the lost places due to the extra pitstop, but my vote went to Ralf, as he showed real pace and was unlucky to lose out through the tyre change, which he really had to do considering that he needed to refuel at that point. On a different day he could've taken the win.

[Kicking-back]

Originally Posted by BootsOntheSide

SO why was Juan Pablo so far ahead of him for much of the race? And if you're implying that JPm lost his head, Pizzonia's been found guilty and penalised by the FIA.

I'm not implying JPM lost his head - far from it - I blame Pizzonia 100% for that.

I just think that Kimi did what he had to do.

I didn't see JPM "far ahead" aside from after the pitstops - but that was because Kimi was behind other cars due to being second in line for a stop.

Montoya had an excellent drive too today.

[429CJ]

I chose Tiago Monteiro. From last row to points is always respectable thing.

[GolddustMini]

Originally Posted by BootsOntheSide

SO why was Juan Pablo so far ahead of him for much of the race? And if you're implying that JPm lost his head, Pizzonia's been found guilty and penalised by the FIA.

that was my thoughts as well, peerless is a bit wide of the mark in decription terms, if he was indeed peerless then he would have led the race from start to finish, which he didnt.... montoya let him past, that was obvious, so if he was so 'peerless' how did montoya end up infront of him (tardis/teleportation/lucky underwear/magic spell/chaos theory/better start from a qualifying spot gained by being faster during qualifying? -delete as apropriate)

[Menelaos]

Boots, Ralf showed real pace and "was unlucky to lose out through the tyre change"? No he was not unlucky, his team (and him) made a wrong choice. Apart from that don't you think he was SO LUCKY with the safety car? Come on, his going up there was 100% luck and he's falling back down was 90% team mistake.

[Kirk]

Originally Posted by Menelaos

Nobody for me, I think this time we really have to add this option. I mean, no one was impressive.

Huh? How little you understand F1 if you truly think that there wasn't some impressive driving going on today. It is much more than just raw speed on a dry afternoon in perfect conditions. Just ask Fisi ... or the GP2 guys who were out there earlier (and all over the track). These drivers and engineers really earned their money today in adverse conditions; and just to finish is an accomplishment in itself.