Who were the top 10 drivers of 2011? - PARTE 1

Who were the top 10 drivers of 2011?

10. Michael Schumacher (WDC: 8th, Best finish: 5th in Canada)

It was a close call between Schumacher, the two Toro Rosso drivers and Heikki Kovalainen for the first place in the top 10, but the seven times world champion just edged it.

On the whole the second season of his comeback was much stronger than his first. Although it would be wrong to say he is anywhere as good as he was in his first career. Over a single lap he is still lacking raw pace compared to team mate Nico Rosberg.

However his race pace has generally been very strong, and very close to Nico’s, in some races better. In the majority of races this year Schumacher has always gained places off the line, and often made up for a disappointing qualifying performance immediately.

No doubt his best race came in the wet at Canada. There was evidence of his old self as he pulled off quality overtaking move after another. At the last safety car period he was up for second place. If it wasn’t for one of the most powerful DRS zones of the season he would have had a podium.

He was very strong in Monza where he overtook Hamilton straight after the early safety car period for third, and then held him off for nearly 30 laps. He finished in a fine fifth place.

His drive through the field in Spa was one of the performances of the season. He started 24th but got all the way back up to fifth ahead of Rosberg, who had originally led the race.

He still made a few silly errors when overtaking including moves on Vitaly Petrov, Kamui Kobayashi, and Sergio Perez in Turkey, Silverstone and Singapore respectively. However even at his peak, Schumacher got himself involved in collisions from time to time.

In the end when you consider the disparity between their qualifying performances and the errors mentioned above, Schumacher did well to finish eighth in the standings, just 13 points behind his German counterpart.

9. Mark Webber (WDC: 3rd, Best finish: 1st in Brazil)

Whatever way you look at it, it’s been a horrible season for the likeable Australian. Being thrashed 16-3 in qualifying and 11-1 in terms of race victories by Vettel doesn’t make for very enjoyable reading. Even that race victory was inherited due to Sebastian’s gearbox issues.

Even more disappointing for Webber was that in what was the best car all year he could only finish in the top two three times out of 19. In the years when Schumacher was dominating in the Ferrari, Rubens Barrichello was able to make it a 1-2 more often than not.

Whilst Vettel has managed to extract everything out of the RB7 (and quite possibly more), Mark has come nowhere near to achieving that.

The main problem has been with the Pirelli tyres. He's simply struggled to make them last as long as all his key rivals have been able to. This along with a number of poor race getaways have put him on the back foot all season.

There have been some strong drives though. He recovered brilliantly from a botched start in Spa to finish second. That race included the daredevil, hands over your eyes move on Alonso through Eau Rouge. Again in Malaysia he did well to finish third despite problems with KERS for most of the race, which resulted in another of his bad starts.

His drive from 18th place in China to third was one of the performances of the season. If the race had lasted a few laps longer, it’s very conceivable he would have overtaken both his teammate and Hamilton to win the race.

8. Paul Di Resta (WDC: 13th, Best Finish: 6th in Singapore)

Considering a lack of recent single seater racing experience Di Resta was fast straight out of the box in 2011, demonstrating an abundance of natural racing talent.

Although there were a few mishaps during the year, Paul has shown that he has an incredible amount of potential, and is a star of the future. His peak performances have been very high. He enjoyed eight points finishes during the season, which is strong for a rookie in a midfield car. If certain races had turned out differently he could have had a few more to add to that tally.

His best moments included Silverstone where he produced an astonishing lap to line-up sixth on the grid. He delivered one of the drives of the season in Singapore to finish in sixth, by making full use of his strategy starting on the prime tyres.

His performance in Hungary, despite the difficult conditions, was also very strong. He did brilliantly to finish as 'best of the rest' behind the top three teams in seventh.

To be competitive alongside Sutil was very commendable, as the German is one of the most underrated drivers in the field. The main downside to Paul’s season were a few mistakes whilst going wheel to wheel with other cars. He had a slight tangle with Sebastian Buemi at Silverstone, and broke his front wing whilst overtaking Nick Heidfeld in Montreal. This was a huge shame as he was in fifth at the time and could have been in contention for a podium there.

7. Kamui Kobayashi (WDC: 12th, Best finish: 5th in Monaco)

When these top 10 lists are compiled it’s only natural that it’s the second half of the season that will dominate the mind, and heavily influence the final order.

Because Sauber fell back down the field in the second half of the season Kamui didn’t have many chances to shine in the latter races. He kind of became a forgotten man.

However in the first half of the season his performances were strong, consistent and attracted lavish praise. If you include his eighth place in Melbourne (when Sauber were disqualified for a technical infringement) he scored points in each of the first seven races of the season.

Considering the fact that Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and Lotus Renault were clearly the best five cars at this point of the season, Kobayashi did brilliantly to consistently score points.

His finest moment was running in second just behind Vettel in the wet at Montreal, but slipped back as the track conditions improved.

Another strong point for Kamui was qualifying seventh in Japan. That showed that he does possess strong raw pace and not just strong race craft. Just a shame his anti-stall kicked in on race day and he couldn’t convert his grid slot into good points.

Of all the runners outside of the top four teams he finished in the points the most times (ten, again including the disqualification in Australia). However he finishes just behind Sutil in this list, as Adrian managed to get a bigger bite of the points. Four of Kamui’s points finishes were in 10th place - the final points paying position.

6. Adrian Sutil (WDC: 9th, Best finish: 6th in Germany and Brazil)

Sutil’s strong season appears to have gone unnoticed, as the media have tended to be more interested in his team mate Paul Di Resta. After the drivers from the top four teams the German driver was the best of the midfield group in the championships.

Beating his very talented rookie teammate was always going to be critical for the future of Sutil’s career, and that’s what he managed to do.

In qualifying he beat Di Resta 10-9 and points wise out-scored him comfortably by 42 points to 27. Achieving that was no mean feat as Di Resta endured a very impressive debut season. Sutil’s best two races of the season came at the Nurburgring and Interlagos. At both those events he punched above the car’s weight to finish ahead of Rosberg’s Mercedes.

Throughout his career Adrian has been involved in far too many incidents. Like 2010, he has improved enormously in this area, and is now a more reliable racing driver.

Considering the Force India was on average only the sixth or seventh quickest car in the field, Sutil did well to finish in the points nine times, and in four of those races he finished in the top seven. There is no doubt Sutil deserves a midfield car at the very least in 2012.

(fonte: TheF1times)

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