Kimi Raikkonen was voted Driver of the Weekend for the first race of 2013 after winning from seventh on the grid in Australia.
Raikkonen took over half of the votes in a poll of F1 Fanatic readers.
Adrian Sutil came second in the poll after leading 11 laps of the race. Third was Jules Bianchi, who impressed a significant number of readers on his debut.
1. Kimi Raikkonen
Started: 7th
Finished: 1st
Raikkonen was voted Driver of the Weekend twice last year. Here’s why F1 Fanatic readers picked him as the top driver in Melbourne:
I voted for Kimi Raikkonen as I think he managed to make a two-stop strategy work in the race and didn’t make any mistakes other than in qualifying, which I think he made up for with his overtakes at the start of the race.
@Wigster
It’s Raikkonen, he was unstoppable in yesterday’s race. He overtook people when he had to, he conserved the tyres when he had to and he pushed the car when he had. He got everything perfectly right. If he drives so good all season and if the car will remain competitive, then he can become world champion this season.
@Osvaldas31
I went for Raikkonen.
He drove extremely well, and if he had qualified better, it would have been the perfect weekend.
Congratulations to Bianchi and Sutil, too. They were nearly perfect!
Vassilis (@bjbill)
2. Adrian Sutil
Sutil made his F1 comeback in Australia following a one-year absence. He was voted Driver of the Weekend in the last race he started before his return.
But there was a strong split between readers who felt he impressed in Australia, and those who believed his prominence in the race was because he had the luck of the draw on strategy:
I went for Sutil. Most people are saying it was just down to strategy. I couldn’t disagree more!
When the front runners made their stops and switched their worn out Super Soft tyres for Mediums he was still on the Medium tyres he started on. Instead of being easy prey from DRS and fresher tyres on his pursuers cars he actually managed to break Vettel’s DRS range. That was what impressed me most about his performance.
Given he’s been away for a year and that he doesn’t have the mileage in the car that Di Resta does, I’d say that’s a stellar performance.
I wasn’t so sure he would be able to get a decent enough performance in this soon.
@Force-Maikel
He looked really pumped to be back in F1 and knew that this was his last season to make a good impression.
Sutil was fast, stayed out of trouble and raced with the like of Vettel, Alonso and Hamilton like he had been doing it for a while. Unfortunately he couldn’t make the Super Softs work for him, or else it looked like his first ever career podium.
Raikkonen and Alonso were pretty good too but Sutil was definitely the star of race day.
@Todfod
I don’t understand why Sutil is getting so many votes. Out-qualified by di Resta and team orders helped him finish 3.5 seconds ahead of his team mate.
Sure, he did get some valuable screen time for Force India by leading the race, but that was only because he started with mediums and he was always going to drop back. Sutil and di Resta performed more or less as well, so it’s hard to see why one has 17% and other 1% of votes.
@Hotbottoms
3. Jules Bianchi
He may not have figured in the battle for points but F1 newcomer Jules Bianchi impressed several of you with his speed in the Marussia:
Driving for Marussia on your debut, you’re hardly going to be able to do anything special but he did.
While almost all the other rookies made mistakes he didn’t, even in the wet sessions.
You’d expect him to be a bit rusty at the start but he got up to 12th at one point. He was only lapped once was way ahead of the other ‘B class’ cars and set a brilliant fastest lap.
Also he only had two days in his car before the weekend.
TommyB (@Tommyb89)
Bianchi performed admirably. Raikkonen was also excellent, but I went with Bianchi in the end, since it was his debut!
Nickrbtson (@pwaa)
For me it was Raikkonen and Bianchi. But like many, I picked Bianchi.
What a talent he has!, made Chilton look like he was not even trying.
Lucas Wilson (@full-throttle-f1)
2013 Malaysian Grand Prix polls
The Rate the Race and Driver of the Weekend polls for the Malaysian Grand Prix are still open – add your votes here:
2013 Australian Grand Prix
Image © Lotus/LAT, Force India, Marussia
Traverse (@)
29th March 2013, 13:41
The Ice(cream)man cometh! Well done Kimi, fully deserved. It was unexpected and blew the notion that Vettel would have an easy weekend.
PhilEReid (@philereid)
29th March 2013, 13:56
Have to say I agree with the driver’s in the top three, but I’d personally put Bianchi ahead of Sutil just because of the sheer domination of his team mate and the other rookies on his début. Sutil impressed, especially on his first stint, holding back the faster cars and then in fact pulling away. But Raikkonen definitely impressed the most.
Motor_mad (@)
29th March 2013, 14:03
I also don’t understand why Sutil is up there. Maybe it’s the fact he led the race. He would’ve been beaten by PDR if it wasn’t for the team orders. Kimi and Bianchi both did a great job that weekend.
Traverse (@)
29th March 2013, 14:30
Sutil only had a good race because the team short fueled him, which enabled him to gain a false position early on. The team then gave Di Resta the old “multi 21” treatment (an order he should’ve ignored), which in turn made Sutil’s performance look far better than it actually was.
Joe Papp (@joepa)
29th March 2013, 17:13
And your proof of this, @hellotraverse, is…?
Traverse (@)
29th March 2013, 17:54
@joepa
Whoops! You’re right. The short fueling part of my comment was meant for a different driver. My comment should read: Sutil only had a good race because he failed to make it to Q3, which gave him the advantage of starting the race with the medium tyre, this enabled him to gain a false position early on when the drivers that started on the super softs pitted. The team then gave Di Resta the old “multi 21″ treatment (an order he should’ve ignored), which in turn made Sutil’s performance look far better than it actually was.
Traverse (@)
29th March 2013, 18:02
@joepa
Di Resta actually had a better race weekend than Sutil. He not only qualified ahead of Sutil, but would’ve finished ahead of the German if it wasn’t for yet more stupid team orders. I guess nobody likes Di Resta enough to give him the credit he deserves. *SIGH*
D (@f190)
29th March 2013, 20:38
Does Di Resta every have a good weekend ? I’ve not seen one outsanding drive from him. He complains more than Button, and thats a lot !
David-A (@david-a)
29th March 2013, 23:36
@f190 – Well, outside of either Singapore race, I can’t think of an outstanding drive from him.
Dejan Milosavljevic (@kimster381)
29th March 2013, 15:27
Leave him alone …
D (@f190)
29th March 2013, 18:51
Thats getting too old now !
aka_robyn (@)
29th March 2013, 21:13
Every joke about Raikkonen is getting too old now!
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
29th March 2013, 23:15
Not too old, just far too overused! Old jokes are good if used sparingly ;)
PhilEReid (@philereid)
29th March 2013, 23:48
Agreed, overused, but will probably go down as a great moment in F1 (or at least an amusing one).
D (@f190)
30th March 2013, 0:31
Yeah, it was funny at the time and still is when watching the race highlights. BUT, it doesn’t need to be brought up every time someone mentions Raikkonen ! It’s starting to make me feel a little queasy every time I hear it ! Please just drop it now :)
Aish Heydrich (@aish)
30th March 2013, 8:18
So basically we are going to leave this joke alone?
Dejan Milosavljevic (@kimster381)
31st March 2013, 0:44
@f190 Yes yes yes,thats getting old,you don’t have to remind us every 10 seconds … :)
TMF (@)
29th March 2013, 15:59
Bianchi is still an unknown to me – he has way more experience in F1 than Chilton, so it’s hard to compare them right now. But it still looks quite impressive what he’s doing.
Force Maikel (@force-maikel)
29th March 2013, 20:12
Thanks @keithcollantine for the mention. I saw this new article and thought to myself: “maybe my comment made the article” and it did :-)
Michael Brown (@)
29th March 2013, 20:49
Once again this is treated as Driver of the Race.
Traverse (@)
30th March 2013, 0:02
You only get points for the race; ultimately practice sessions and qualifying are irrelevant.
Michael Brown (@)
30th March 2013, 0:57
I remember when Vettel led all practice sessions and converted a pole to a win in Bahrain 2012. Voters instead chose Kimi who failed at his one chance to overtake Vettel.
beneboy (@beneboy)
30th March 2013, 1:59
Bahrain 2012, isn’t that the race where Vettel started 1st and finished 1st while Kimi started 11th and finished 2nd, beating the other Red Bull, both McLarens and both Ferraris as well as taking his first podium since returning to F1 ?
Can’t imagine why Kimi would have won that DOTW poll…
tmekt (@tmekt)
30th March 2013, 15:57
All the work done over the weekend in the end aims for a good result in the race so the ones who are able to deliver in the race have usually done the best job on the basis of the whole weekend also. The race result is the place where all the factors (P-sessions, quali etc.) culminate into something concrete.
I still didn’t vote for Kimi because his qualification effort was far from flawless (and he admitted this himself as well) but he is just as good a choice as anyone else.