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Hamilton vs Di Resta was the battle of the year so far. But as for the best pass, I’ll go with Webber on Kimi in Copse. It was extremely difficult
I’d go for Hamilton to Button. Nice fair battle and that move needs a lot of trust to the other driver.
The battle between Rosberg and Button was good as was the Grosjean-Hulkenberg. But I’ll go for the Hulkenberg on Perez.
Bahrain’s grand prix parody – It shouldn’t be done and despite being a good race, still it left a bad taste watching it.
Sid Watkins passing away – Professor Watkins was a living legend of F1. May he rest in peace.
Maria de Villota crash – Nasty crash with shocking consequences. Real shame.
McLaren phenomenon – Or how can a team with 7 wins and 11 podiums managed to come 3rd in constructors and his driver with 4 wins and 8 podiums to end up 4th, despite having a great season.7 different winners in 7 races – That was amazing. A feat never repeated in the past 61 championships. Quite a moment.
6 champions on a grid – Also a feat never repeated before. The 6 last champions were scattered in 5 different teams. All of the finished at least one time at podium. And all of them proved why they are champions.
The showdown in Interlagos – If a race could recap a whole season then what happened in Sao Paolo was just that. A legendary ending for a legendary season.
Podiums for Sauber, wins for Maldonado – Pay drivers? Not anymore. Kobayashi, Perez and Maldonado were supreme and was another reason this season was great.
The return to USA – What a return that was. From the qualifying battle till the cowboy hats in the podium, the GP in Austin was a big success. And in a track able to become a classic one.
Mercedes and Lotus first wins – Finally those teams were able to win. And the deserved. Especially Lotus.
Kimi’s comeback – The most talented F1 driver is back. He made it look easy. A win. A handful of podiums and lots of entertaining battles.1. Fernando Alonso. For yet another year his car was less superior than the ones of its rivals but he was spectacular. He drove consistently and aggresively, he squeezed the maximum potential from its car and he didn’t give up even after some crucial bad luck moments after Belgium and Japan. Not that Alonso was unlucky this year, though…
2. Sebastian Vettel. All we’ve said that in a car that is not “on rails” he is not that good as Alonso or Hamilton. This year he proved us wrong. Red Bull was affected by the ban of blown diffuser but Vettel wasn’t. He had excellent drives, amazing qualifying laps and a couple of battles where he showed great patience and ferocious ability.
3. Lewis Hamilton. If I had to vote for the most unlucky driver of the year, this has got to be Lewis. He lost 2 victories when leading and a couple of podiums, as well. He was calm, patient and showed a great amount of his phenomenal talent. For me the 4th position is not where he should have finished.
4. Kimi Raikkonen. He returned and it’s like nothing has changed to him. Always reliable, the most consistent driver of the grid, grabbed an astonishing win and point out why he should have won more than the single title he has.
5. Nico Hulkenberg. If my calculations are correct the young German collected more points than anyone except Vettel after Germany. He had an fantastic second half of the season and a podium was really in his sights. But I’m sure that will come shortly. Along with a victory. And, why not, a championship. Fabulous driver.
6. Sergio Perez. He arrived at Sauber as a “pay driver”. He left as the best driver in the history of the team. Checo won more points than anyone else in the history of Sauber and the 2 podiums were just a proof of his year. And what a year that was.
7. Pastor Maldonado. He won with Williams. In Spain. In front of Fernando Alonso. In a straight battle. If that’s not enough, just remember how many times he -almost secretly- jumped in Q3 and qualified in the first places. He is a raw talent. He only needs to find patience.
8. Jenson Button. I don’t know how but Jenson managed to win 3 times (the same amount as last year!). Problemaic year for the Briton but still he had some great moments this year.
9. Felipe Massa. In the first half of the season, he shouldn’t be at Ferrari. In the second half, he was equally fast (if not faster) as Fernando Alonso. He may found the switch, but I believe that Massa hasn’t lost it at all. He just had a low-form period. And now he is back for more…
10. Kamui Kobayashi. One of my favourite drivers. Fast, aggresive and ruthless, Koba is just the best japanese driver ever. He scored a podium and had some great races. But is not something special. He is just a good and valiant driver.
11. Nico Rosberg. He managed to win in China and placed in podium 2-3 times. Good year but could have been better. Especially the second half couldn’t have been more miserable.
12.Mark Webber. In the first few races he was quicker than Vettel. After Silverstone, he disappeared. He was bad. Just bad.
13. Michael Schumacher. Everything seemed to go wrong for Schumi this year. Mercedes was able to give him a good car in the first few races, but he was unlucky. Then Mercedes couldn’t improve his car and even with some good races, the mighty Schumi had to battle to get into the points. Miserable ending for a living legend of F1.
14. Romain Grosjean. Many may found Maldonado the penalty-prone driver of the year. But the severity of accidents, Grosjean caused were much bigger than Pastor’s. In Belgium, he made a horrific mistake. And even after the one-race ban didn’t show much improvement in that area. Otherwise Grosjean is a great driver. But he lacks of the basics.
15. Paul di Resta. He was dissappointing. He had some good results but he lost to Hulkenberg way too easy. He is a talented driver but 2012 wasn’t his year.
16. Vitaly Petrov. A big surprise. Especially in the last races he had some fine races and he managed to climb to 11th place and give his team a much deserved 10th place in the constructors. Good job for Petrov.
17. Daniel Ricciardo. He is good. And pretty quick. Miserably, Toro Rosso was just quick to top 3 last teams. In qualifying, Ricciardo, put some great laps and even made it in Q3, but that was his top performance.
18. Heikki Kovalainen. For me Heikki is F1’s most underrated driver. He is a pure talent and he does not deserves to drive for Caterham. As far as this season is concerned, he lost his consistency after a great first half. Perhaps the reason is that his contract expired and his seat was uncertain for 2013.
19. Bruno Senna. He is not a bad driver. But he carries a name that his talent is not equivalent of. Though he could race in F1 any time any place.
20. Charles Pic. He was amazing. In a bad car and a bad team, he beat Timo Glock in plenty of races and in a great percentage of those he out-perfomed his veteran team-mate with ease. A great year for him.
21. Timo Glock. He also deserves to drive for a better team. And he knows it. And I believe that his performances aren’t as good as I expected because of that.
22. Jean-Eric Vergne. He had such a bad season. He can only do better.
23. Pedro de la Rose. He could have been higher, but he was out-performed by Narain Karthikeyan.
24. Narain Karthikeyan. He is an idol, but for all the wrong reasons….@geo132 Monza city and circuit are in the eastern outskirts of Milan. Approximately around 3-4 minutes by car and 15 minutes by foot. Tickets are expected to be sold in Summer 2013
There is a big chance of going there. Already searching for tickets, prices and supplementary stuff…
Best Driver: Sergio Perez. He drove beautifully. Another solid performance for the Mexican and Ferrari seat comes even closer
Worst Driver: Mark Webber. He was just not fast all weekend long and in the race he manage to bevome even worse.
Best Team: McLaren. They had the best car and had it not been for Button’s retirement we could have the first 1-2 of the season
Worst Team: Red Bull. Two retirements and overall, miserable performance by both drivers
Best Overtake: I loved Perez on Raikkonen and Button on Massa. Both on no-DRS zones.
Best Funny- moment: Rocqueline yell over radio. He is on form at Monza. Anyone remember the “Pole on Monza? It’s Christmas” last year?
Most Surprising Result: Sergio Perez. Without any doubt
Least Surprising Result: HRT’s finishing at the back of the pack.
Special Mention to: Sauber Team. They got a better car than they think. In my opinion is better than the Mercedes and equal to Red Bull at that point.
Race Rating: 8/10