Post
by phil1993 » 23 May 2011, 08:38
Quick analysis:
Vettel - The kid really is a superstar. Red Bull pitted him and he came out in a stack of traffic and he had a smart head and overtook them efficiently. Managed a KERS problem well and knew Lewis was fast. Made sure he nailed the final corner every lap and position himself well into T1 such that Lewis couldn't take him on the inside, nor could he get the cutback into Turn 4.
Webber - What now? He made a mess of the start and then finished 47 seconds behind Vettel.
Hamilton - Stunning job. No-one, not even McLaren, could have believed he would finish half a second shy of Vettel. McLaren need to just make their pit-stops slightly better, but its a warning shot to Red Bull: the championship is far from over.
Button - After he slipped to 10th, it was a great recovery drive. Two good moves on Webber and Alonso as well. Made a 3 stopper work
Alonso - Amazing start. Not even the diehard Alonso fans could have seen that coming. He was left a gap about an inch wider than the F150 and he put the car there. From there, he ran out of tyres and pace. Finishing a lap down after leading is shocking, although little of that is Alonso's fault. He's driving the wheels off that car.
Massa - Oh dear. Its all too easy to be critical, but we don't know the extent of the gearbox problem and if that was affecting him. Without the benefit of the doubt, it was a shocker for Massa. He had a poor race, but he's had too many of them since the start of 2010 to suggest it was the exception rather than the norm. Half spin was just pathetic sadly.
Schumacher - A good clean race, beat Rosberg too
Rosberg - Would have been disappointed. Pace is there but qualifying needs more work
Heidfeld - A great recovery drive after starting 24th. Seemed to be nowhere early on but then drove out of his skin
Petrov - It all sort of went wrong. Can be seen near the front at the start but slipped out of the top 10
Barrichello & Maldonado - Complete shockers. Maldonado's 9th on the grid turned out to be false hope, whilst Barrichello was nowhere. 15th and 17th is a disaster.
Sutil & di Resta - Not using softs in qualifying was a stab in the dark sort of strategy (hurr) but the pace wasn't quite there. di Resta beat Sutil again though
Kobayashi - Come from nowhere. Got a puncture at the start, was running at the back and then ended up 10th. He knows how to save his tyres
Perez - Great drive. Put a superb move on Massa and points was a just reward after a couple of average drives.
Buemi & Alguersuari - In Nowhere Land really. Buemi ahead of Alguersuari again though.
Kovalainen - A shame he crashed as there was pace in that car. Ran in the top 10 during the stops.
Trulli - Similar to Kovalainen, although he didn't stuff his car into the wall.
Glock & d'Ambrosio - Lapped 3 times. Probably not as bad as predicted
Karthikeyan & Liuzzi - Nothing to say really. Liuzzi battled against Perez for as long as he could, which given the state of the car, was about 3 turns. Maybe not even that. Planned Monaco protest unlikely to succeed.