[Official] Driver of the race- Bahrain Grand Prix

[andy666]

Was great to see Kimi chasing Seb , I thought both of them had a great drive today but i could not decide between them so i went for Romain .

[bjohnsonsmith]

Kimi; he showed everyone he's lost nothing of his talent.

[steve_r]

I gave it to Vettle, but it could have been Raikonnon or maybe Di Resta.

[blaffer]

Pic.
He was the first to retire in this damned race. Well done Charles.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by steve_r

I gave it to Vettle, but it could have been Raikonnon or maybe Di Resta.

Di Resta had the best overtaking move - going past two at once.

[GTRMagic]

Potsie's points accumulation plan... the RBR strategy for #2 is for Mr Webber to finish 4th in every race of the season... by their calcs, he will be WDC! ... without having podiumed or having won a race

[Born Racer]

Perhaps it's a bit harsh for Vettel to have so few votes, but Raikkonen got the more popular vote after a very good job and a nice reminder of his form (not that I voted for Vettel).

[Razzzor]

Great to see Kimi back up there, and Grosjean. Ultimately the Lotus was faster than Red Bull though - being that the 2 drivers were only several seconds apart. Vettel meanwhile was nearly 40 seconds ahead of Webber and over a second a lap faster at points. He also had crap tyres but still held off Kimi, so Vettel was slightly better on the day. But Kimi, Grosjean and Di Resta all drove great races. That first stint was great watching the Lotus' come through the field - it was as if they were in a different race! Strange that Kimi didn't make the top 10 shootout.

[wnut]

Kimi has exceeded all my expectations! Well done!

11 to 2, would possibly have won with team orders!

[dsg]

Kimi because he is not english.

[Mr V]

Vettel, had it covered throughout.

[F1Pete]

Kimi...no doubt about it.

[stripedcat]

Kimi - this time he had the right strategy. Impressive drive from 11th to 2nd.

I'll give Alonso my runner-up award as driving the under performing Ferrari up to 7th was impressive.

Special mentions to Di Resta and Grosjean as well.

Vettel did drive well, it is just I think the others did better than the machinery was capable of.

[The Original Instag8or]

IwouldhavetoniminateKimiasdriveroftheraceashisrunfromdeepinthepacktosecondwasrelentless.

[IceMan_PJN]

I voted for Hamilton, just because I feel horrible for him. He's a great driver and has a great car, but McLaren still manage to keep him from doing well. He's hindered by horrible luck and still fights for championships anyway. McLaren might just as well start mounting a giant carbon-fiber middle finger to the nose of his car, although carbon-fiber would be too light so I guess make that out of lead. Sure, they've screwed up one of Button's pit stops so far this season, and he suffered a DNF at the end of the day in Bahrain, but Lewis has had I believe five ruined stops in just four races and a gearbox penalty.

The two Lotus cars really surprised me, though. Seeing Vettel win isn't a big shock, but it's still a good drive on is part.

[chunterer]

Di Resta. Superbly controlled drive on that strategy.

Kimi should've won and he knows it. Great drive and nice to see the old flamboyantcy in the car is still very much evident!!

[gomick]

I went di Resta, impressive in that car. Could've gone Kimi or Sebby, but there cars have shown that they are at the pointy end since the start of the season... Good to see Grosjean get the podium which he has been promising since Albert Park too!

[Hesketh]

Kimi R. (Somebody has really voted for Webber?)

[Razzzor]

Originally Posted by IceMan_PJN

I voted for Hamilton, just because I feel horrible for him. He's a great driver and has a great car, but McLaren still manage to keep him from doing well. He's hindered by horrible luck and still fights for championships anyway. McLaren might just as well start mounting a giant carbon-fiber middle finger to the nose of his car, although carbon-fiber would be too light so I guess make that out of lead. Sure, they've screwed up one of Button's pit stops so far this season, and he suffered a DNF at the end of the day in Bahrain, but Lewis has had I believe five ruined stops in just four races and a gearbox penalty.

The two Lotus cars really surprised me, though. Seeing Vettel win isn't a big shock, but it's still a good drive on is part.

Well Hamilton's had 3 podiums. It's not comparable to the amount of bad luck Schumacher has had this season.

4th on the grid at aussie - DNF after 10 laps
3rd on the grid at malaysia - Grosjean ruins his race on the first lap
2nd on the grid at china - DNF after 12 laps
Bahrain weekend completely ruined due to the DRS in quali AND had to change the gearbox. Lucky to get a point.

No one has had worse luck than that this season. He's yet to have a proper clean race weekend, so the season doesn't even start for him until Europe really.

Actually, if he'd finished where he started for those first 3 races, he'd have been leading the points standings (equal with Hamilton).

And to be honest, he was faster than Rosberg at Bahrain for most of the race - still only 9-10secs behind coming up to the final pit stop. It wasn't until that last stint that he seemed to slow up and lost several seconds more by the end of the race. So assuming he had qualified properly and beaten Rosberg to 5th... he'd be leading the championship by 2 points now. If he'd finished behind Rosberg in 6th, he'd still be equal leading the points with Vettel. Instead where is he? Dead last in points (of the main teams). Of course he probably wouldn't have finished in those positions, but it's interesting...

I think he was one of the guys that used to say you create your own luck to some degree. Wonder if he still believes that one.

[safc_fan89]

Raikkonen. Had more fresh tyres than others but the job still needed doing. Good to see he hasn't lost any of his speed, I hope he can keep it up.

[garcon]

Originally Posted by The Original Instag8or

IwouldhavetoniminateKimiasdriveroftheraceashisrunfromdeepinthepacktosecondwasrelentless.

Dodgy space bar?

[F1Pete]

I know hindsight is 20/20, but after Kimi failed to pass Vettel on his attempt, why didn't Kimi go into the pits earlier than Vettel? I was hoping he was going to and when he finally did, he was following the Redbull. I knew he was not going to get past SV after that.

Does anyone think Kimi could have passed him in the pits? At the time I thought so, but when Kimi came out of the pits he started lagging and the commentators were saying he was managing his tires. So, who knows what could have, would have, should have happened.

[chillibowl]

kimi for me although i felt he may have been over cautious during the last stint i cant blame him for that after China and the nightmares hes probably been having about it all week. great run up to second and happy to see him back back up on the podium. great day for Renault...just dont know if that reinforces their current role or makes them feel that they want to be more involved again.

also a mention to Alonso who seemed to have a greater understanding of the track and his surroundings than any of the other drivers...if Ferrari get their car sorted the other drivers should be very worried.

[beau1]

I went for Romain as I think he's surprised a lot of people this season by being so close to Kimi, we gave him lots of criticism in 2008 so its good to see that he's proving the critics wrong.

I would have given it to Kimi if he'd gone through with that attempted pass on Vettel, which he could have done and had enough room.

Vettel was a close third as he demonstrated once again how much better he is than Webber.

Schumacher, Di Resta and Hamilton get honourable mentions for making the best out of either bad luck or alternative strategies.

[Knowlesy]

Grosjean.