eurobrun wrote:And how many points do you get for qualifying?
Quite - Buemi managed to beat Alguersuari more often than not in qualifying last year, but Alguersuari finished a long way ahead of Buemi in the WDC (Buemi was ultimately unlucky on a number of occasions though). Hamilton also regularly outqualified Button in 2011, although it did him little good all too often that year, whilst Petrov outqualified Heidfeld more often than not but was being beaten by Heidfeld in the WDC before he was kicked out . Whilst out and out single lap speed is important, it isn't the be all and end all given that the points are awarded on Sunday. Kimi has had a couple of poor races recently, but when he is happy with the car he is clearly quick (he picked up those two podiums on merit).
Grosjean is, when he can string it together, quick and has evident talent, but at the moment he is still a bit too wild and ragged to apply that talent consistently - it's something he's carried over from GP2 where, due to the sprint format of the races and the spec nature of the cars, the drivers tend to be much more aggressive, almost desperate, in the races.
Wizzie wrote:Someone who IS heading the way of Pantano however is one Nico Hulkenberg who in two years has gone from 'the next big thing' to 'the next big flop' with nobody to blame but himself
That is certainly true - whilst Di Resta and Hulkenberg have been fairly close together in qualifying (with Di Resta having a slight edge there), in the races Di Resta has, excluding Australia (where Hulkenberg retired), beaten Hulkenberg in all but one race, and currently has three times as many points. Hulkenberg certainly needs to improve his form in that sense, because at the moment Di Resta is consistently beating him by a substantial margin.