Grand Prix Rejects

As the fires from Kovalainen's Lotus dissipate, you are once again invited to vote for the Infinite Improbability Drive of the Race, a democratically-decided award

based on the assumption that, at any moment in time, there is a non-zero probability that even the slowest, most inexperienced and least reliable of underdogs might win the race. That under every rock, there might be a gold nugget. This is the award for that first podium that we all celebrate, for the overtake no-one was expecting, for Nico Rosberg's first win. This is the award, in short, for the driver or team that makes you go "Woah! Where did THAT come from?!".

Just remember: this is a feel-good award, that will focus on nothing but track action.

Usual rules: everyone gets two votes. First vote is worth 10 points, the second 6.

1st (10 points): Sutil, for a good points scoring position despite being nowhere after qualifying. Top teams, are you listening?

2nd (6 points): Klien, for annihilating Senna, first time out. Well done, good showing.

1. Robert Kubica for 5 truly inspired laps at the end of the race where he made bold but fair overtaking manouvres and made them stick. Lewis, take some notes!
2. Williams a solid race and a double point finish.

1. Kubica - Amazing overtake after amazing overtake. Well-deserved 7th.
2. Sutil - Get this guy a GOOD car already. He deserves it.

1. Kubica - puncture? what puncture?

2. Webber - made up for bad qualifying and risky pitstop with a great drive to podium despite 50/50 crash with hamilton and subsequently a damaged wheel

1st (10 pts): Webber - made an unexpected tactical gamble and took advantage with overtakings

2nd (6 pts): Kubica - overtook 5 cars in 6 or 7 laps in SINGAPORE.

1. Kubica
2. Klien

This one is actually quite difficult, because while there were many good efforts, barely anyone made anything beyond his capabilities, so...

1.: Timo Glock - Keeping a group of six behind him for a number of laps worth noticing is extremely impressive.

2.: Felipe Massa - Alonso had done it better before, but who thought Felipe could really return to the points

Kubica e.g. doesn't count for me because while he gets an "A" in Advanced Overtaking, he was in front of Rubens before his tyre gave up so he didn't exceed his abilites.

WEB for "stubbornly" refusing to be overtaken, holding his line & position knowing that a Red Bull will take out a Macca every time. (Or "Rack off Pom")

Kubica......similar thing lots of overtakes

1st - Robert Kubica - What an inspiring drive!! Nice overtakes, well deserved points!!

2nd - Heikki Kovalainen - Good race for him. And he put his own fire out at the end

1) Timo Glock: Shades of Simtek's run in Argentina 1995. Good for him in a car that is really not up to snuff.
2) Heikki Kovalainen: Good race, but what he did with the fire was extremely daring.

1st - Sutil
2nd - Glock (Although he went out with Hydraulics, he went up to 10th at one time and held up the field while near a points position!)

1. Glock - I actually thought he would have scored a point, he must love this circuit, although we don't.
2. Kubica - For his late race surge, Incredible.

1. Kubica - with his late-race performance and all those overtakings
2. Glock - for his early race. He wasn't losing too much on Kobayashi although he was holding queue behind him.

1. Kubica
2. Glock

1-Glock
2-Kubica

1. Kubica - Solid performance even without the last few laps, but he proved he has moved on from 2009 with those overtakes. Absolutely sublime at the end, and deserves every one of those 6 points.

2. Sutil - Earlier in the season, 8th would've been about par for the course for him. But Force India have slid down the pecking order, and he's STILL scoring, and is back ahead of Schumacher to boot. I think I've said it before, but I think it warrants saying again - if I was Ross Brawn, I'd be begging him to take over Schumacher's seat for 2011. He thoroughly deserves it.

TIMO GLOCK - He was at one point 10th, and secured the likes of Sutil, Hülkenberg, Massa (!!) and both Toro Rossos for quite a while.

This is going to be very biased, as I'm a big Virgin Racing fan but...

1st. GLOCK. As most people have said, seeing him run 10th and then for a very long time in 11th was great, he really put up a great fight and any questions about his motivation in the team can go out of the window after that performance. I bet he was gutted with another hydraulics failure. Xtrac should be hauled in front of the WMSC to explain the situation it's just ridiculous really. None of the teams deserve that.

2nd. KUBICA. I'll be honest, I didn't expect that recovery drive from him there, I thought his shout of a points finish was all over after that stop. Good work Robert, fingers crossed Renault keep up with the good car into next season.

kubica
glock

Kubica - Just awesome at the end.

Klien - Did miles better than Nick did in his first race back and better than Bruno. He didn't hit anyone for a start.

1. Glock - Always being an underdog person myself, I believe his performance in the first part of the race on older tires in a Virgin against everyone behind him on newer tires was very commendable, and it proves he still has the talent to be in an F1 car. Nonetheless, being the pessimist that I am, I looked at his position afterward and thought, "Watch, now he's going to go out on a hydraulics failure or something." Hmm.

2. Kubica - For pulling off some beautiful passes late in the race, including one on the outside line, to make it look like nothing had ever happened to his tire. Now if only every other racer would follow suit...

Honorable mention - Kovalainen - For taking matters into his own hands, the Finnish way. "Hmm. Car's on fire. No, no, don't get up, I'll take care of it myself..."

1. Glock: How did he stay ahead of that train of cars for so long? Overall a good drive that should have been rewarded with a point
2. Kubica: And who said overtaking is hard in F1? He overtook 6 drivers in the space of 6-7 laps.

Honourable mentions to Rubens Barrichello/Nico Rosberg for having good weekends and whoever made the call concerning Mark Webber.

Be patient with me on this one, I've just watched The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (first time in a long time) and in a fit of naiivety and plain retardness only just realised the significance of the name of the award...nawww!

As you were!

1st ROBERT KUBICA
Mega final stint. Just mega.

2nd MARK WEBBER'
I thought 5 laps after he had pitted his race was as good as over. But somehow he rose from the ashes to take a podium. Did not expect that.

1st - Kubica - Dropped back before brilliant comeback.
2nd - Massa - In the points from 24th?! Brilliant drive.

All this time I've never voted in the IIDOTR ... until now. Shame on me.

1st: Christian Klien. No he wasn't fast, but from trackside I was extremely impressed with his approach for a guy who's got to be rusty. And if the criteria includes the ability to make one go "Whoa, where did THAT come from?", all I can say is that I had exactly that reaction when I heard the track announcement that Sakon was out and Klien was in.

2nd: Timo Glock. For a while I was convinced he was going to score the first point for a new team and smear egg all over Lotus at what is effectively Lotus' third home race of the year (Malaysia and Britain being the other two) - given how close Singapore is to Malaysia and how many Malays there are in Singapore.

As for Kubica ... whilst brilliant, in hindsight that's no surprise to me given his breathtaking form this year.

1) Webber, for driving 26 laps with a tyre that shouldn't have lasted 2 (and still getting a podium).

2) Timo Glock, for running in the top ten until Hulkenberg muscled him aside.

1. Klien, for demonstrating that it is possible to come back after four years without racing in f1 and still outpace your team-mate.

2. Massa: gained 15 positions on the track, not bad.

1. Kubica, for doing some overtaking
2. Glock, for holding off a load of faster cars for a number of laps, and for comfortably beating the Lotuses in quali

AndreaModa wrote:Be patient with me on this one, I've just watched The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (first time in a long time) and in a fit of naiivety and plain retardness only just realised the significance of the name of the award...nawww!

As you were!

Well done!

Hmm, all things considered, I think that I might be out on a limb here, but here goes:

1. Rubens Barrichello - whilst the fireworks were going on in front and behind him, I think that Rubens drove a very solid race. He managed to hold a significantly faster Mark Webber behind him for a number of laps, and kept Kubica within his sight for almost all of the race, until Kubica's late stop. He had Hulkenberg completely covered this weekend, and went well on a track where many would have expected him to be further down the order.

2. Timo Glock - he managed to get the most out of the car whilst he could, and managed to keep cars with seconds worth of an advantage over him behind for several laps (and only really lost out due to a very aggressive passing move by Hulkenberg, which pushed him out over the rumble strips). Whilst it was a drive ultimately curtailed by yet another hydraulics problem, it was a fine drive up until that point, and a reminder of the potential that Glock has.

1. Kubica
2. Glock

I'm going to say Glock 1st, really enjoyed seeing a Virgin refusing to yield to all the midfielders he was keeping behind, not to mention a Ferrari!

I'll say Rubens 2nd.

I don't think there was an iidor. All the results looked very probable to me.

But Kubica deserves a mention. The TV footage of his 'go kart' racing part of the race was some of the best I have ever seen.

1) Timo Glock: Let's just say that a Virgin running in tenth for so long wasn't exactly what we were expecting. Very impressive performance.

2) Felipe Massa: Starting from the back and scoring points isn't Improbable, but starting from the back at Singapore and getting within the top 8 is, even if some of his points were facilitated by the Hulkenberg/Sutil arguments.

eytl wrote:
Timo Glock. For a while I was convinced he was going to score the first point for a new team and smear egg all over Lotus at what is effectively Lotus' third home race of the year (Malaysia and Britain being the other two) - given how close Singapore is to Malaysia and how many Malays there are in Singapore.

This is more like Virgin's 2nd race; Singapore Airlines own half of Virgin Atlantic

1st: Robert Kubica - he had fresh boots, but to overtake like that at Singapore was pretty impressive.
2nd: Timo Glock - giving in to peer pressure here (I was going to say Klien, but I've been convinced otherwise).

1. Glock, again proves that he is the best driver of the new teams
2. Klien, outpaced Senna after almost 4 years since his last GP.

The results! And it's Noseman yet again...



Proof that you only need to have a puncture and be in a different strategy with fresh tyres near the end of the race to get out IIDOTR. How come Christian fail to Klein this one up is beyond me...

CarlosFerreira wrote:Proof that you only need to have a puncture and be in a different strategy with fresh tyres near the end of the race to get out IIDOTR.

Disagree. I think it's more like proof of how unexpected lots of overtaking is in F1.

Warren Hughes wrote:

CarlosFerreira wrote:Proof that you only need to have a puncture and be in a different strategy with fresh tyres near the end of the race to get out IIDOTR.

Disagree. I think it's more like proof of how unexpected lots of overtaking is in F1.

True. I am being slightly obnoxious with Bob, and he isn't even related to Colin Kolles.