This year sees a reworking of the Hot Rod or Hot Dog feature. Rather than looking in detail at all of the grid, we’ll be selecting drivers who we think deserve recognition for strong performances and those who, quite frankly, should be ashamed of themselves.
Heikki Kovalainen
We’ve already done him – read it here.
Pastor Maldonado
It seems two weeks is a long time in F1. Winner in Spain Pastor Maldonado had it all in his hands – first win, spearheading a Williams revival, heading to his favourite track – and then in a few seconds on Saturday morning it all went out of the window.
The shame is that without the penalty, Pastor would have been firmly in the top ten for the race and on for some strong points to consolidate his Spanish win. Saying that, he would’ve been in the middle of the Grosjean-Schumacher-Alonso bumpercar start, so who knows what could have happened.
(Taken from this week’s Badgerometer)
Mark Webber
A welcome return of the Mark Webber of 2010, who knew how to put a car on pole position and make it count. Although Monaco is slowly turning into who’s fastest on Saturday, Mark got it spot on in qualifying to give him the best possible start on Sunday.
The Aussie knew how to get the job done in Monte Carlo, especially after his previous win two years ago. He’s now the first Australian to win twice in the principality – a fact not lost on Sky, who repeated it umpteen times after the chequered flag – but most importantly, he’s put Sebastian Vettel in the shade once again. We bet that was the sweetest feeling after the race.
Romain Grosjean
Grosjean is such a curious case – although he is super quick, he still is prone to making an error that if he kept calm, would rarely occur. There’s just something a little bit too “I’m a 17 year old who’s just passed my test” about him.
It seems the reigning GP2 champion still has a wild side to his driving style that is costing him dearly. Malaysia is another example where he should have relented when being overtaken – again by Schumacher – but pushed to hard and spun the Mercedes round. Another good start and grid position thrown away.
(Also taken from this week’s Badgerometer!)
Nico Rosberg
“I had the best car out there today” was Nico’s response to most of the questioning after the race, which, in our view, is a rubbish answer when asked “where’s the loo?”.
You could see the disappointment in Nico’s face that he was fast, but not fast enough, all weekend. He lost out on pole position by 0.67 seconds, and was able to keep up with Webber until the chequered flag, finishing a mere 6-tenths back. So close, but no cigar for Keke’s boy.
But how refreshing is it to see a driver like Rosberg, who’s never really been in real shout for a race win until this season, looking downbeat about finishing second in Monaco? The Mercedes man, deep down, seems to think that he could be in with a shout of the title – and why not?
Felipe Massa
Better, our Brazilian friend, better.
Close to the force of nature that is Fernando all weekend, and if he’d repeated his Q2 time he would have outqualified the Spaniard on his own merit. Remember 2008? Seems like little Felipe is beginning to as well.
