Hot Rod or Hot Dog? The Drivers’ performances analysed… Singapore Pt.3

- Published on Sep 30th, 2010 by Benson Jammichello

Virgin

• Qualifying: Glock (18^th) di Grassi (20^th)
• Race: di Grassi (15^th) Glock (ret)

A good weekend for the Virgin team – whoever thought that’d finally happen?

Glock qualified eighteenth, ahead of both the Lotus’ (should that be Lotii?) and even di Grassi managed to beat one of them.

Then, in the race, di Grassi put in strong performance to finish 15^th and Glock, arguably, put in an even stronger performance to finish…well, to retire with an hydraulic problem (I’d have got away with it if it wasn’t for you pesky hydraulics etc etc) Before that though, he had the Badger team roaring him on. After deciding not to pit during the first safety car he ran as high as tenth and was keeping a huge queue of cars behind him for a decent amount of time. Sadly, after Sutil eventually got past, the rest followed soon after. Maybe it’s something to do with the British loving a gallant loser, but we at Badger were loving it. In fact, if we didn’t already have another driver earmarked for Driver of the Day, Glock would be right up there.

Badger’s best: Glock

Lotus

• Qualifying: Kovalainen (19^th) Trulli (21^st)
• Race: Kovalainen (16^th) Trulli (ret)

Not a great weekend for the Lotus team. Not only were they out qualified by the Virgins, they felt their car could have given more. Kovalainen complained about traffic and Trulli complained, well, just about being slow. Not ideal.

During the race, Trulli retired with the by now standard hydraulic problems (what does this actually mean? What exactly went wrong? Anyone?) Kovalainen had an all together more exciting exit from proceedings, stopping on the main straight in a ball of flame, before gamely grabbing a fire extinguisher from the Williams team through the pit wall wire mesh and putting out the fire. Only about three minutes later did a marshal finally come running in. Where was he running from, that’s the question?

Badger’s best: Kovalainen

Sauber

• Qualifying: Kobayashi (10^th) Heidfeld (15^th)
• Race: Heidfeld (ret) Kobayashi (ret)

A good qualifying performance by both drivers was immediately followed by a dreadful race. Such is life, eh?

During the race, Kobayashi managed to plough into a wall, quickly followed by Bruno Senna. There’s only one thing worse than crashing into a wall and that’s having Bruno Senna follow you in. We at Badger quite liked the Japanese driver’s reason for the accident after the race: It was clearly my mistake. After I overtook Michael Schumacher I knew I had to push very, very hard to score a point, but meanwhile the tyres were completely gone. I misjudged this in that corner and crashed into the barrier. Brilliant.

Nick Heidfeld should have every reason to be happy with his performance. We saw last season how difficult it can be to come into a car during the season and try to make it work (Badoer, Fisichella, we’re looking at you). To even look vaguely competitive (which he did) is an achievement in itself.

Badger’s best: Kobayashi

HRT

• Qualifying: Klien (22^nd) Senna (23^rd)
• Race: Klien (ret) Senna (ret)

Still here. Still rubbish. Still wasting my time (and yours) by trailing round at the back with no money. It must be no fun when your car’s held together with dreams and ice cream.

In other news, Klien stepped into the car and was 1.2 seconds faster than Bruno Senna in qualifying.  See what happens when you put a racing driver in the car - time to get rid of the man with the famous surname.

During the race, both cars retired although only Senna managed it with comedy panache, crashing into the back of Kobayashi, who’d already ploughed into a wall. We suspect he was going to have an accident anyway and it just happened that someone else had got there first. Silly.

Badger’s best: Klien