Sutil voted Driver of the Weekend for Brazil

2011 Brazilian Grand Prix

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Sutil passed Rosberg to finish sixth

Adrian Sutil became the ninth different F1 racer to be voted Driver of the Weekend in 2011.

The Force India driver, whose place at the team is under threat, won the poll after finishing a strong sixth at Interlagos.

Race winner Mark Webber only received enough votes to rank fifth.

His team mate Sebastian Vettel tied for second place with Jenson Button, each with less than half of Sutil’s votes.

Driver of the Brazilian Grand Prix Weekend poll – top three

1. Adrian Sutil – 38.4%
=2. Sebastian Vettel – 14.4%
=2. Jenson Button – 14.4%

Adrian Sutil

Qualifying: 8th
Race: 6th

Sutil continued his run of strong finishes, ending his season on a high – with his best personal result of the year.

I’m giving my vote to Adrian Sutil. Considering he knew it could have been his last race for Force India, he showed his team – and other potential employers – what he has to offer them by delivering his equal-best result of the season. A great drive under pressure.

Nico Rosberg provided the highlight of the race when he took his position back from Sutil, but Sutil finished the job a lap later and then pulled away from the Mercedes driver.

I’m still not sure Sutil will be at Force India next year, but it’s unthinkable that he won’t be driving for somebody.
Estesark

With the championship pretty much decided, Adrian Sutil had the most pressure placed on him this weekend and delivered when it mattered. Driver of the weekend, no doubt.
RumFRESH

Sutil for me, excellent drive with great re-overtake on Rosberg promoting him to ninth this season. Hope he can stay with Force India next season.
zippyone

Sutil wins this one easily. Very impressive of late. If he doesn’t have a drive next year it will be a tragedy.
snowman

Sebastian Vettel

Qualifying: 1st
Race: 2nd

Vettel beat Nigel Mansell record of pole positions in one season on Saturday with his 15th of the year. He finished a strong second on Sunday despite having to deal with a gearbox problem for most of the race.

This one goes to Vettel.

That Q3 lap was amazing, he made a great start and kept pulling away from Webber until his gearbox issue. […]

Vettel focused on what was important, getting the car home, and he still showed reasonable pace.
mads

I voted for Vettel.

His qualifying lap was amazing. It was incredible to see that he was two or three tenths faster than his previous time, and as he was climbing up the hill everyone knew that he was going to be on pole. And in moments like that one you can’t help thinking how good he is, especially in qualifying.

His race [was] very solid, obviously the gearbox problem probably cost him the victory, but being second is still a very good performance.
Yobo01

Vettel’s pole lap was superb. We were lucky on Eurosport to see it from A to Z, and it was flawless. Where you just felt the other cars were suffering and fighting not to lose speed (…), Vettel just seemed to cruise effortlessly.

It’s the first time I voted for him this year (I am the first not to know why) but after that lap, it just felt like : "Ah, well, I guess that’s why he is a double world champion".
Tango

Jenson Button

Qualifying: 3rd
Race: 3rd

Button beat his team mate in qualifying and was flawless and fast in the race, particularly on the prime tyres. He grabbed third place and became the championship runner-up.

I voted for Button. I was going to vote for Sutil before I thought about it.

He out-qualified Hamilton, on pace. Did well with a car that had a compromised set-up for the soft tyres, (destroying them). Was very quick on the hard tyres.

Forced Alonso to go defensive in turns one and two therefore allowing the run and for DRS to work for him. Closing down Vettel but ran out of laps.

Sewed up 2nd in the drivers championship, was best of the non-Red Bulls which were untouchable again this weekend.
BBT

Complete 2011 Driver of the Weekend results

FirstSecondThird
AustraliaSergio Perez (36.3%)Vitaly Petrov (32.5%)Sebastian Vettel (12.0%)
MalaysiaNick Heidfeld (38.4%)Sebastian Vettel (16.0%)Jenson Button (12.1%)
ChinaMark Webber (47.8%)Lewis Hamilton (42.4%)Felipe Massa (2.5%)
TurkeyFernando Alonso (37.8%)Kamui Kobayashi (25.8%)Sebastian Vettel (22.1%)
SpainLewis Hamilton (39.6%)Sebastian Vettel (23.9%)Fernando Alonso (13.3%)
MonacoJenson Button (33.1%)Fernando Alonso (18.8%)Sebastian Vettel (17.0%)
CanadaJenson Button (61.0%)Michael Schumacher (27.8%)Sebastian Vettel (2.2%)
EuropeFernando Alonso (32.6%)Sebastian Vettel (27.6%)Jaime Alguersuari (25.7%)
BritainFernando Alonso (53.0%)Lewis Hamilton (22.3%)Mark Webber (8.0%)
GermanyLewis Hamilton (76.6%)Adrian Sutil (9.8%)Fernando Alonso (5.6%)
HungaryJenson Button (50.7%)Paul di Resta (14.4%)Lewis Hamilton (11.8%)
BelgiumMichael Schumacher (45.1%)Jenson Button (28.2%)Sebastian Vettel (14.7%)
ItalySebastian Vettel (38.2%)Michael Schumacher (29.6%)Jenson Button (18.2%)
SingaporeSebastian Vettel (41.8%)Paul di Resta (30.9%)Jenson Button (15.6%)
JapanJenson Button (67.3%)Fernando Alonso (13.3%)Michael Schumacher (6.3%)
KoreaLewis Hamilton (36.4%)Jaime Alguersuari (22.6%)Sebastian Vettel (22.2%)
IndiaSebastian Vettel (47.5%)Jenson Button (13.5%)Michael Schumacher (11.6%)
Abu DhabiLewis Hamilton (45.1%)Fernando Alonso (35.1%)Jenson Button (4.9%)
BrazilAdrian Sutil (38.4%)Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button (14.4%)

It was Sutil’s second appearance in the top three of the Driver of the Weekend poll and his first win.

This was the only time this year the winner of the race did not feature among the top three drivers of the weekend.

What do you think of the results? Share your thoughts below.

Debates and polls

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44 comments on “Sutil voted Driver of the Weekend for Brazil”

  1. Did anybody ask Jarno Trulli what he thought of Sutil’s performance this year?

    1. Why one should ask Trulli, you mean Sutil could fill Jarno’s seat at Caterham?

      1. @osvaldas31 remember their clash together in Interlagos two years ago? that’s what @prisioner-monkeys is saying, I guess

        1. Oh, yeah, I remember.

        2. haha yes. I love watching on the ’09 dvd , the arguement they had in the press interview for the next race, with the other drivers sitting around them trying not to laugh out loud.

          1. Britalian Stallion
            10th December 2011, 22:11

            That was brilliant X-D I’d love to see them as infants with toys!

    2. Perhaps Jarno has some photographic evidence he could share with us? ;-)

  2. It was well deserved, he outperformed Di Resta all weekend. He was really impressive in the second half of the season, no characteristic mistakes, rock solid consistency.

    1. I picked Vettel, but that doesn’t mean I think Sutil’s race wasn’t excellent. He’s improved a lot this year.

  3. I decided to spend an hour calculating just who is the F1 Fanatic Driver of the Season – allocating the F1 Points scale to the Top 10 drivers in each of these votes. In the case of tied positions, as with 2nd here, the points available are shared, so Button and Vettel 16.5 points each; while if 4 drivers shared 10th place they would get 0.25 points each.

    Podiuming in 13 of the 19 races, Sebastian Vettel comes out as champion, but this Championship came down to the final race – Vettel only holding a 16 point lead over Hamilton before Brazil. Hamilton is 2nd, beating Button, and along with Vettel, Lewis was the only driver to Top 10 in every race weekend. Both Hamilton and Button scored more wins than Vettel though – 4 vs 3. Alonso is 4th, also with 3 wins.

    Schumacher beats Webber to 5th, while Sauber would have taken 5th in the Constructors championship with both Perez and Kobayashi inside the Top 8. Alguersuari and Sutil just edging Kovalainen out of the Top 10, and then Di Resta.

    Rosberg is surprisingly low down in 13th – outscoring Schumacher in reality, he didnt even get half as many points here. He still beat Massa though. Massa actually made the Top 10 in 15 of the 19 races, but beyond 3rd in China, that was always towards the lower end.

    Also of note:
    – After 1st in Malaysia and 4th in Spain, Heidfeld didnt make the Top 10 anywhere else.
    – Petrov scored 18 points for being voted 2nd in Australia, and only gathered 3.75 points for the rest of the season.
    – Buemi only made the Top 10 two times all season
    – Liuzzi scored 6 points in Italy, for his best start of the season gaining a lot of places even before the first turn, albeit going no further.
    – Maldonado only impressed once, taking 5th in Monaco.
    – Other than De la Rosa who had just the 1 race, Glock and Trulli were the least impressive drivers this season

    1 Vettel 281.5
    2 Hamilton 255
    3 Button 248.5
    4 Alonso 229.1666667
    5 Schumacher 134.75
    6 Webber 129.6
    7 Kobayashi 76.33333
    8 Perez 70.5
    9 Alguersuari 66.5
    10 Sutil 64.5
    11 Kovalainen 63.75
    12 Di Resta 56.26666667
    13 Rosberg 45.74999667
    14 Massa 42.68333
    15 Heidfeld 37
    16 Petrov 21.75
    17 Buemi 18
    18 Liuzzi 16.5
    19 Karthikeyan 13.91666667
    20 Barrichello 12.99999667
    21 Maldonado 8
    22 D’Ambrosio 7.58333
    23 Ricciardo 6.5
    24 Senna 4.33333
    25 Chandhok 4
    26 Glock 2.85
    27 Trulli 0.6
    28 De la Rosa 0.166666667

    Constructors:

    Mclaren beat Red Bull, with Sauber taking 5th instead of Renault who are down in 9th – below Lotus in 8th. HRT take 10th – beating Williams – with Virgin still bottom.

    1 Mclaren 503.5
    2 Red Bull 411.1
    3 Ferrari 271.8499967
    4 Mercedes 180.4999967
    5 Sauber 146.9999967
    6 Force India 120.7666667
    7 Toro Rosso 84.5
    8 Lotus 68.35
    9 Renault 63.08333
    10 HRT 36.91666667
    11 Williams 20.99999667
    12 Virgin 10.43333

    1. Sadly, I think all this really shows is that we’re rubbish voters.

      Was Perez really better than Sutil and Di Resta this year? Should it really have taken until the final weekend to tell that Vettel had had an outstanding season? And who really thinks that Hamilton didn’t have even one bad race this year?

      Certain drivers have blinkered voters who would pick them even if they drove the wrong way around the track. Others – like Vettel – are avoided on principle. And votes are so low below around 5th or 6th that positions after that are often meaningless.

      I reckon the post Keith’s preparing on ‘drivers of the year’ (submit your opinions in the forums!) will give a much better picture of what people really think, over a season – and will be much fairer to the drivers.

      I wonder how the results would be different if instead of, “vote for the best driver,” the poll was “pick the drivers you think raced well this weekend,” or “which drivers had a weekend to be proud of?” – and you can pick as many as you want.

      I bet Vettel would have done a lot better. And we’d also have given a lot more credit to the midfield and tail-end teams.

      1. Maybe. But still its intersting to see. Thanks @sumofmarc

      2. sid_prasher (@)
        10th December 2011, 20:58

        :) true…but what an effort @sumofmarc.

        Fun stats!

    2. Fantastic work, I was wondering if Keith or someone else would have put this together!

    3. I think that this is an excellent analysis, thanks @sumofmarc

      I guess the ‘driver of the weekend’ poll attempts to adjust for car superiority which is why Vettel was given a closer run for this championship, but the fact that he still won demonstrates that it wasn’t all about the car (whereas Webber clearly suffers when allowance is made for the Red Bull).

      Alex makes a valid comment about Hamilton appearing in the top 10 too often and no doubt enjoys the support of some fans regardless of whether or not he has had a good weekend. However this will only have an effect at the lower placings, so perhaps if we used an older scoring system giving points only to the first 6 places then this sort of distortion would be avoided. This also seems reasonable because it is often a close run thing between two or three drivers as to who was the driver of the weekend, but I don’t think that there has been a race all year where as many as 10 candidates could seriously be considered so ignoring beyond the first 6 placings removes distortions.

      1. Using the 10-6-4-3-2-1 system:

        Vettel still features in 18 of the 19 races, then Hamilton has 15, Alonso 14 and Button 13 – although this time, Button is ahead of Hamilton. Same drivers in the Top 10, although Kobayashi is lower, and Massa is now even further down the table in 16th.

        1 Vettel 83.33333333
        2 Button 76
        3 Hamilton 75
        4 Alonso 68
        5 Schumacher 32.33333333
        6 Webber 30
        7 Perez 18
        8 Sutil 17.5
        9 Alguersuari 16
        10 Kobayashi 15
        11 Di Resta 13.33333333
        12 Heidfeld 13
        13 Kovalainen 9
        14 Rosberg 7.5
        15 Petrov 6
        16 Massa 5
        17 Barrichello 3
        18 Buemi 3
        19 Liuzzi 2
        20 Maldonado 1

    4. I appreciate the work you’ve put in here @sumofmarc but I don’t think it’s a representative way to treat the data.

      All people have been asked to do is vote for the best driver. They have not been asked to rank all the drivers at all the races. If they were I expect we’d see substantially different results.

      1. Obviously! I expect therell be plenty of differences between this and your own upcoming list based upon a lot more thought!

        Doesnt mean its not interesting to look at though.

        And it wouldnt surprise me if say, you asked to everyone to rate the top 3 in each weekend, that the 3 who made the Top 3 in the votes as listed above would feature prominently. Clearly accuracy decreases the further positions looked at – especially since the bottom end of the Top 10 was often achievable with very few votes.

      2. I would not mind if you would put the polls up next year to give us the chance to either distribute points between the drivers or rank the first say 3 in our view for next season @keithcollantine, that would really add to the depth of it.

  4. Hamilton seems to have got the biggest margin of victory in Germany, think that might be more to do with him being the only one to really show up to that race. Everyone else made mistakes that cost them.

  5. What was the other race this year where the winning driver wasn’t in the top three in the vote? I can’t see it.

    1. @Estesark Perez, Melbourne.

      1. No, Vettel was voted third for Australia.

    2. I notice “this was only the second time…” has been changed to “this was the only time…” in the article, so I wasn’t missing anything :)

  6. Funny how Webber just cannot seem to impress this year after his drive from 18th to the podium in China! Guess he should take a que from Jaime Alguersuari and focus on starting 18th to impress then :-)

    I think Sutil deserved the votes he got, he really did well in the last couple of races.

    1. @BasCB Ah, the fabled 18th position on the grid! It delivered some real excitement.

    2. @BasCB Webber’s drive in China was great but unfortunately I tend to remember him being 18th in the first place rather than his recovery…

      1. For me that was also a reason not to vote for Webber as the best driver of the weekend.

        Although it was not his driving that made him end up there, but a mess-up on his side of the garage (of which he was a part), making it a tad less of an embaressment for his driving.

      2. Exactly Steph.

        1. Agreed with @john-h , @Steph .

          Webber may have had a good race, but Hamilton was the real driver of the weekend in China.

  7. Wait, what? It seems like months since Brazil! I really thought an old had accidently been reposted when I saw this :S

    1. An old *article

    2. lol Same here

  8. I don’t know about you chaps but I am waiting in anticipation for the outcome outcome of Adrian Sutil’s future.

    The Brazilian GP was another example of what a great driver he is and I would hate to see him without a seat for next year. I’m happy we have a couple of old faces coming back to F1 (seems to be a developing trend?), especially with the return of Kimi, but get Sutil a seat in one of the big three and I think he could upset a few people.

    Anyhow…. I’m sure we will hear shortly….

  9. A good result for Sutil. I THINK I voted for Button but Sutil would have got my vote otherwise.

    I don’t think it’s enough to guarantee him a seat at Force India though. There is little consistency, particularly at the start of a season.

    1. Well, it will be even harder for him at Williams ; the team is somehow in a very vulnerable position even if they wi ll have the engines from Renault. It will take 1 or even 2 seasons to have a competitive car….

  10. sid_prasher (@)
    10th December 2011, 21:02

    With Renault seat gone if Sutil doesn’t stay at FI then it will be a step backward in his career…I would have liked to see him against Kimi.

  11. Britalian Stallion
    10th December 2011, 22:16

    We should have driver of the year! Mind you, everyone would go for Vettel, but I go for Jenson Button. It would mostly be made of Vettel and Button though wouldn’t it?

    1. Those two and Alonso.

  12. A bit shocked but where is the “Rate the Race’ Result from the Brazilian GP?

  13. Jack Leslie (@)
    11th December 2011, 10:34

    I think Sutil did a great Job in Brazil, Really interesting having the top 3 from all the races!

  14. Fantastic article @Lilla-My! I’ve enjoyed this feature and I hope you continue into next year. :)

    1. Thank you :))

Comments are closed.