The Top Dog for Monaco is...
- Published on May 30th, 2011 by Benson Jammichello"Hot Rod or Hot Dog" is our regular post-grand prix column where we review all of the driver performances in that race. As part of the process, one driver is declared as Badger's "Top Dog"; it's not necessarily the winner and, to be honest, it could be for anything.
It has to be...Kobayashi
It's not often a driver who finishes fifth gets the Top Dog award. At least we think it isn't. We'd have to check.
After such an eventful race, it's probably no surprise that we didn't see that much of Kamui on our TV screens but, while our prying eyes were elsewhere, he was making very good progress from his twelfth place starting spot.
The Sauber team have obviously decided that the best way to get the most out of their car is to do as few pit stops as possible. This is probably due to a combination of a) where they usually start on the grid, b) the way in which their car treats this year's tyres and c) Kobayshi's driving style.
Thus, in Monaco, it wasn't a great surprise to see him making only one stop. Having started on the harder of the two compounds, he then switched to the super softs for the second stint, with the Japanese driver saying afterwards he thought they could have gone even longer on them. Amazing.
Yes, he was running fourth and got passed by Webber, but that's what happens when you're being chased by a Red Bull and yes, he booted Sutil to get past him but it's Monaco and, to be honest, we'd much rather people had a go. These things happen and it's one of the reasons we like him so much.
Is the lesson from this season's strategies that doing something different is good? It seems to be that if you do more pits stops than you'd expect you do better and, conversely, if you do fewer then you're also in good nick. It's when doing the number of stops you'd expect that things really fall apart. Maybe that's rubbish but, whatever it is, it doesn't change the fact that Kobayashi's our Top Dog.
Well done Kamui.
Comments and Discussion
Fierce, fast, a true racer. Kobayashi has the stuff a world champion is made of. Take a look at the greatest drivers in the past, and they all had a very similar attitude (with the exception of Prost I guess). Brilliant, it is going to be fun to watch the championship, following the middle crowd since the top is becoming a sleep inducing torture, with Vettel taking everything home.
Thank you, Kobayashi San. Best to thee.
Go Kamui!
Can't agree.
He and Sutil got lucky that when it was time to change tyres SC was slowly grouping cars together and they didn't lose any positions.
Nothing special.
If not that SC, they would finish 12+.
I would give Top Dog title to Vettel, who looked like he would be able to hold off Button and Alonso on super-old tyres.
I must say the monaco tv director was rubbish! whoever it was (I know its not the usual FOM guy) missed so much important stuff, in quali and the race. Will Buxton was very vocal about it during GP2 commentary, and i agree. Time for Bernie to put the hammer down and get rid of whatever reason they have for having their own director. Experience is everything in that job.
I would have had Button down for Top Dog, Overall he managed to pull nearly 1 minute on Vettel, around 18 secs when he was in the lead, from 20 secs behind he closed the gap, and then he closed another 20 sec gap. It really was a stonking drive, he was just let down with bad strategy by stopping when he did for the 2nd time. Or was his first stop the one just b4 the 1st safety car? Although i must admit, he didn't really overtake anyone whereas Kamui did.
Quite right he didn't get a penalty for Sutil. It wasn't causing an avoidable accident - he accidentally locked up and slid into Sutil's rear right. I was hoping all of the top three would get wiped out at the end so that Kamui could win!
We all love Kamui!!!!!!!!!!!
Great to see Kamui's quiet contribution recognised! Such a pity he got passed by Webber towards the end after holding out for so long! If tyres hadn't been changed at the restart, would Webber have been past so easily? I'd have to double check the pit stop chart and see how old his rubber was, but the Sauber and Kamui tend to be pretty damn awesome when it comes to preserving their boots! I don't think I've ever screamed so much during a race for a guy who wasn't going to finish on the podium (maybe apart from Brazil '08!), but that first podium is on its way. It would be epic if that podium was to come whilst still at Sauber!
At Suzuka would be pretty good, wouldn't it?