Report cards of the 2011 European Grand Prix

While waiting for the return of the Legitimate Owner of the column, here are the report cards of the European GP, ​​the most soporific race of 2011 and probably not only, won by a now overflowing Sebastian Vettel.

RIDERS

Sebastian Vettel: 10st
Simply perfect. This race will have been boring for many, the Red Bull will be the best car, but Seb wins easily and might not even be seen for the next three races. Pole, fastest lap, win, lead from start to finish. What more could you expect? A Lucan?

Fernando Alonso: 9.5th
The half point less than Vettel is for the final result, but Fernando shows off a Lady Race, with a capital S. He is the only earthling to remain clinging to the ET train. Hats off, even if the favorable tracks for Ferrari should now be over.

Mark Webber: 7.5
His Red Bull is not as reliable as last year's. This time he has to give up the fight with Alonso due to the broken gearbox in the low gears, and this earns him half a point more for the management of the car which, all things considered, he manages to bring to the podium in third place. However, he doesn't look like the Webber of 2010.

Lewis Hamilton: 7
After two races full of controversy, one arrives without accidents or unpleasant episodes. As always, Lewis puts his heart into it, but this time the McLaren is unexpectedly underperforming, and being told to slow down so as not to melt the tires couldn't have been nice.

Felipe Massa: 7
What to say. He gets off to a flying start, stays close to his team leader as long as he can and then, for the umpteenth time this year, a change of tires from a production car ruins the rest of the race. He seems a little dull for some time, but it is also true that he is often penalized by stops. Courage!

Jenson Button: 6.5nd
A totally different race for the winner from Canada. We wouldn't want to say rags to riches, it would be an exaggeration, but sixth starts and ends sixth, with the addition of problems to KERS. He ran without infamy and without praise, with a single (big) gap on Rosberg at the end of the finishing straight. The only starting point and the only REAL overtaking of the race.

Nico Rosberg: 6.5th
Good start, but has to succumb to Button's attack. The successful strategy (at least on him) of the Mercedes wall contributed to him maintaining seventh place. Really, it couldn't have been more than that. On the other hand, when you reach one minute and thirty-eight seconds, some questions arise spontaneously.

Jaime Alguersuari: 7.5
And the good Jaime, by virtue of a good two-stop strategy against the three of the competition, quietly climbs from 18th to eighth position, bringing his teammate Buemi into line. For once the roles are reversed. Excellent home match.

Adrian Sutil: 6.5
A few precious points, not only for Force India, but above all for him and the cyclone that involved him. He has good pace in the first stint (he manages to keep up with the Mercedes immediately in front), and on a clear track he manages to show some good laps. However, Alguersuari and his shock strategy prevailed and took eighth place from him.

Nick Heidfeld: 5.5
It is difficult to comment on this step backwards by Renault, especially in view of the ban on blower exhausts. Nick takes home a paltry point, but the company's ambitions at the beginning of the year were very different. We'll see at Silverstone if returning to a track worthy of the name will change the values.

Sergio Perez: 6
Encouraging after the blow in Monte Carlo. An honest eleventh place with an attempt to challenge the Pirellis with just one stop. It's true that he doesn't finish in the points, but he's definitely more consistent than his teammate Kobayashi and, considering the two races he missed, that's not bad.

Rubens Barrichello: 5
There are those who go down and there are those who go up and from a few points picked up in Canada, the Brazilian melts in the heat of Valencia, remaining quite clearly cut off from the points zone. Impalpable, also due to Williams who seems to have worked only on the miniaturized gearbox this year. There is also the rest, however.

Sebastien Buemi: 5
For the second time out of two the Swiss finishes behind his Spanish partner. Unlike Jaime, he runs on the three stops and the tactic rewards his teammate. He gains four positions compared to the start, Jaime nine. It doesn't seem like it can do better than this, but it still doesn't shine.

Paul Di Resta: 5
Another of those riders who remained bottled up this weekend, with no possibility of overtaking or intimidating anyone. The tires don't smile too much for him either and he resigns himself to being stuck in the sad little train of Valencia.

Vitaly Petrov: 4.5
He starts with hard tires. We don't know if it's just for this reason but at the start it remains stationary while at least 5 or 6 cars pass by. The rest of the race is a wandering around the back positions always chasing. When there is a collision (this time with Schumacher), half the time he is involved too.

Kamui Kobayashi: 5
This time the Japanese did not stand out for his usual comeback and his usual determination to overtake and make room for himself. Indeed, a very colorless race, despite him trying the two-stop tactic which caused problems with the tyres. Too bad, it'll be for the next one.

Michael Schumacher: 5
Mercedes is what it (not) is, but this time our driver didn't show off one of his usual starts (in the 2010/2011 seasons) and had the usual close encounter with Petrov, for whom he takes full responsibility with great fairness. play. Race compromised first by yet another foolish strategy and then by himself, overtaking with the broken wing aside.

Pastor Maldonado: 5
Certainly things aren't any better for Pastor, who manages to worsen his starting position in the race. He has neither good tires in the first stint nor a high-performance car, despite the updates. Let's hope that something improves at Williams as soon as possible... It's a bit sad to see such a name in difficulty.

Kovalainen, Trulli, Glock, D'Ambrosio, Liuzzi, Karthikeyan: 6 consolations
What can we say about these six brave heroes who set out knowing full well what awaits them? They are framed only during the dubbing and swearing of the various Alonsos and Webbers. For the rest they appear to be spectators of a scene in which they are only sad extras.

TEAMS

Red Bull: 8
Not a very high rating. Formidable with Vettel, always anxious with Webber. But let's not bring up conspiracies: last year they all happened to Seb and yet he won the World Cup anyway.

Mclaren: 5.5
reversal of trend, perhaps also due to the penalizing track. A completely different story compared to Canada, but we could find our way back from Silverstone.

Ferrari: 7.5
It could be a full 8 if, as usual, something doesn't happen to Felipe's car. Good result taking advantage of a friendly track. Now may be the worst part of the year.

Mercedes: 4
The total helplessness of the team in the face of a similar result is incredible. The W02 seems to be even worse than the W01, and the only way out for Rosberg and Schumacher is to hope for rain.

Lotus-Renault: 5
Worrying trend reversal, the absence of Kubica is felt at every race and the R31, as a very promising car, is moving further and further away from the top positions. Such a pity.

Sauber: 5.5
The car manages the tires very well, so much so that Kobayashi and Perez can play strategically, but the rest of the car is not at its best and it shows. Step back.

Toro Rosso: 6
A vote of encouragement for having shown, in the race, a different pace compared to the tests. Alguersuari and Buemi recover positions, but we need to be more incisive also in qualifying and stay at least in Q2.

Williams 4.5
The miniaturized gearbox seems to be the only positive note of the team, even if it is precisely this that betrays Maldonado in practice. For the rest, very few ideas for a glorious team that we hope can return to the glories of the past.

Force India: 6
Weekend without infamy and without praise. The Q3 result was good for Sutil and his race was also good, but the car still remains in the 'middle' group between the Tops and the Flops of the World Championship.

Team Lotus: 5
Trulli's power steering problems continue, while overall the car remains exactly where it was last year, despite the optimistic outlook at the beginning of the year. First of all, as always.

Virgin: 5
Nothing new on the Virgin front: never included except for the dubbing, exactly like its companions at the back of the line-up.

Hrt: 5
After a troubled start to the season it seems he has found at least a bit of reliability. Both cars still at the finish line, but three laps of separation on a minute and forty per lap is really too much.

EXTRA

Direction of the event: 4
It will be a soporific race, but it seems to match little or nothing of what happens on the track.

Valencia track: 3
Not even KERS and DRS can do anything when the battlefield is of this magnitude. And from next year off to Barcelona to keep this mess going.

Alessandra Leoni / Alessandro Secchi
F1Grandprix.it