The Top Dog for Italy is...
- Published on Sep 11th, 2011 by Craig Normansell"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...Jenson Button
There were plenty of drivers up for the award this weekend; Sebastian Vettel drove flawlessly to win, Michael Schumacher brought out the old tricks to fend off Lewis Hamilton, while further down the grid Bruno Senna scored his first points of his career and Jaime Alguersuari went from 18th to 7th. All good drives, but not our best.
We've given it to Jenson, who is in the midst of a purple patch of form right now. At the start he wasn't as quick as he'd like to be - falling to 7th into the first chicane and running 6th behind the safety car - as the laps ticked down it was clear the Frome flier had a plan up his sleeve.
In the early stages the focus was mainly on the Hamilton vs. Schumacher fight, but Jenson was closing on that battle at a rate of knots. Once Lewis had finished his go at the German legend, Button overtook his teammate to attempt a pass on the veteran German - and succeeded first time. 5th to 3rd while making a fool of his teammate. Next up, Fernando Alonso.
12 months ago the race victory was determined by the pitstop times of Ferrari and McLaren. The race for position was decided on track this time, both stopping at exactly the same time, and the Achilles heel of the Ferrari's poor use of the prime tyre. Button passed the Spaniard, and second was his.
Mr. Button - please keep qualifying off the front row of the grid. It makes Sunday that more exciting for us at home!
Comments and Discussion
I've never been a fan of Jenson Button, but if he'd drove as good as he is at the moment through more of his career, I really could have been.
I said during the race, as he was coming up behind the Hamilton Schumacher fight, that he'd be past them both soon, and he made it look fairly easy. I think you are right when you say he made his team mate look like a fool.
Keep up the good work Jenson!
Jenson was brilliant today, but it was no Canada. For me it has to Jaime Alguersuari - he put in another exceptional performance - of Jenson Button in Canada style epic proportions, and brought that Toro Rosso home to his best ever career finish, despite qualifying in only 18th.
As he said - it takes time to learn the car, and for him - a young driver with little racing experience in general - he finds it takes a bit longer to learn the car, but when he does he can really excel, and he showed that today.
He kept his cool, avoided the accident at the start, then he pushed through the mid-field (and that is a very talented, very fast midfield) and finished comfortably in 7th place. Brilliant drive! Vettel should start worrying!
Made a fool? I think most people know MSC's tyres had gone "over the cliff". So you could say getting him out of the way was a team effort. I guess it's more fun to say Lewis was foolish, even though he drive very cleanly for the first time in a while.
+1. One could also see that Lewis was driving a bit more careful than usual, which is not surprising, given his last string of results.
Then how come Lewis couldn't make the pass stick until Schumi banged the limiter? Sorry I think the Lewis fans are being too sympathetic, had it been the other way round and Lewis trounced Jenson and Schumi like that you would all be saying how much of a better driver Lewis is!!!
As for it being a team effort to get him out the way oh please.....