Infinite Improbability Drive of the Race - 2012 Aus GP

[Wizzie]

based on the assumption that, at any moment in time, there is a non-zero probability that even the slowest, most inexperienced and least reliable of underdogs might win the race. That under every rock, there might be a gold nugget. This is the award for that first podium that we all celebrate, for the overtake no-one was expecting, for Nico Rosberg's first win. This is the award, in short, for the driver or team that makes you go "Woah! Where did THAT come from?!".

Just remember: this is a feel-good award, that will focus on nothing but track action.
Usual rules: everyone gets two votes. First vote is worth 10 points, the second 6.

My nominations:

1. Sauber: The Kobayashi of old finished in P6 while Perez held on to score some points
2. Fernando Alonso: Managed to haul that crapbox of a car to places it never had any right to be in

[sswishbone]

1) Sauber: - Put the disappointment of qualifying behind them with excellent race day pace
2) Alonso: - How he pulled that thing round I don't know

[Ferrim]

If there is a race on which someone can earn IIDOTR and ROTR at the same time, it's this one. Maldonado has been amazing and rejectful at the same time.

Also want to nominate Alonso for his great race overall.

Sauber were good but their qualifying result didn't show their true pace, I was expecting to see both in the points or thereabouts.

[DonTirri]

1: Maldonado. Crash or not, nobody saw that coming.
2: Saubers. Especially Perez who would've been 7th without the last lap hijinks.

[RealRacingRoots]

1: Maldonado. Crash or not, nobody saw that coming.
2: Saubers. Especially Perez who would've been 7th without the last lap hijinks.

I agree with this.

And Sauber is third in the constructors championship as well!

[DOSBoot]

1. Alonso: As bad as Ferrari were in qualifying, I wasn't expeting him to get this high.

2. Raikkonen: 18th to 7th. Not bad after a two year hiatus.

[East Londoner]

Alonso- Wrestled a car that had no right to be that far up the field to a haul of points.

Raikkonen - After being knocked out in Q1, solid race and undoubtably would have been further up the field if it wasn't for Saturday.

[the Masked Lapwing]

1. Sauber
2. Maldonado (for 57-and-a-half laps, anyway.)

[LionZoo]

1. Maldonado
2. Pirelli tires - The spread between the prime and options seemed surprisingly well balanced and both tires appeared to be viable strategies. After years of one compound clearly being preferred at any given race weekend, this is definitely a nice change.

[Sunshine_Baby_[IT]]

If there is a race on which someone can earn IIDOTR and ROTR at the same time, it's this one. Maldonado has been amazing and rejectful at the same time.

I agree with you.

[tommykl]

1. Sauber
2. Pastor Maldonado

[Shizuka]

When should I count the points for this round? Saturday? I did this in the final rounds of 2011.

But anyway,

1. Alonso
He's clearly putting the Ferrari where it doesn't belong!

2. that certain 2007 World Champion
Scored 6 points while his team-mate retired. Oh, and he did it from 17th.

[WIDD]

Di Resta getting a point right at the end has to be contender surely?

But I'll go for Raikonnen, closely followed by Alonso. I think a lot of people seemed to be extremely pessimistic about Kimi's first race back and he did pretty well. Surely he'll only improve from here. I want to see what he could've done if he'd qualified in a reasonable position, and I'm missing Malaysia next week unfortunately.

[QuickYoda41]

1. Maldonado
2. Ricciardo - nice recovery from first corner crash

[tristan1117]

1. Sauber
2. Maldonado'h

[FullMetalJack]

1. Sauber - They're 3rd in the Constructors Championship!!! I didn't notice them at all before the race started, they looked completely anonymous.
2. Alonso - Shown why he really is one of the very best, I doubt Vettel would have even dragged that shitbox to 5th.

[Nuppiz]

1. Sauber, especially Perez after starting from last in the grid.
2. Räikkönen - it's not often that someone goes up 10 places in today's F1 races.

[Shadaza]

1-Alonso, I believe that was one of the finest drives of his career.
2-Maldonado, No one saw that coming, if he can keep it up it will make this season exciting!

[Paul Hayes]

2-Maldonado, No one saw that coming, if he can keep it up it will make this season exciting!

If he can keep it on the road until the end, too!

[Priceless]

My nominations:

Sauber F1 - that was a shining performance, especially from Perez who went from the back of the pack and ran as high as 2nd for a while.

Pastor Maldonado - as some have said already here, no one saw that coming. A brilliant drive, up to that last-lap crash. A shame that the result didn't come, it was more points than Williams managed to score for the whole of 2011...

Honorable mentions:

Fernando Alonso - managed to drag that crapbox of a Ferrari to 5th. Masterfully handled the pressure Maldonado put on him on the closing stages of the race.

Kimi Räikkönen - performed well, managing a good race from a lowly starting position and tangling with Perez and Kobayashi at the end.

EDIT: Portuguese keyboards can do umlauts so there they are

[Popi_Larrauri]

1) Maldonado: unforeseeable now matter how, the speed the aggression and the maturity (oh! the irony!) was there for the mayor part of the race.

2) Perez: 15 position climb. In a car that seems to me not particularly faster than the rest.

3) Grosjean: Evaluating him by himself, he did an amazing drive.


Edit: Honorable mention: The Finger Kid: We had ruled him out already after qualifying for the whole year... and he arrived reached home 2°

[dr-baker]

1. Maldonado
2. Sauber

[Dan B]

Marussia: They beat Caterham and HRT; and didn't I see Glock running ahead of Senna and Ricciardo a few times? Sure they finished last but they did finish ahead of some other drivers. Good job for them!
Perez: I thought he would at least be 15th or further down. Surprised to see him in the ponts.

[big_sly_doc]

My nominees are...

Fernando Alonso - how he dragged that sh!tbox so far up the field I will never know!

Sergio Perez - very impressive race by the Mexican.

Kimi Raikkonen - fantastic race shows he has lost none of his race craft and skill - how fantastic it is to have him back!

Pastor Maldonado - sh!tbox or not, hassling a double world champion in a Ferrari is no mean feat.

Much as it pains me to say it, I think I'm going to have to go for Fernando Alonso

[JeremyMcClean]

Fernando Alonso - What the bloody heck happened? Did he have a jet engine at the back of the car?

Sauber - They seem to be very good at Melbourne...

Kimi Raikkonen - Did better than I thought he would.

Pastor Maldonado - Oh god why....

Mark Webber - For not being crap in the home race.

[AdrianSutil]

Pastor Maldonado: Im not his biggest fan, but I was gutted when he crashed. Solid drive throughout.

Sauber: 3rd in constructors?! Great drive by two aggresive people.

[BlindCaveSalamander]

1. Sauber - A superb opening performance from both drivers
2. Raikkonen - Showed he was not rusty in the slightest

[Warren Hughes]

IIDOTR would have been a walkover for the Reverend but sadly the last lap turned his IID into an R. My votes go to

1) Sauber - I wasn't expecting them to be this competitive. 6th and 8th are great results even if they were a bit fortunate in the way they got them.
2) Marussia - Am I the first to nominate them? Am I the only one pleasantly surprised by their massive speed advantage over HRT and their clear reliability advantage over Caterham? After no pre-season testing?

[beetleman64]

1. Alonso - It's a dog of a car, as one Felipe Massa has proved, yet Alonso got that thing to 5th! Amazing, amazing drive.
2. Maldonado - I think he was at fault against Grosjean, and that crash was silly, but it was still a very strong drive throughout.

I also need to give an honourable mention to Sauber, who recovered from a poor qualifying to get a double points finish, and Marussia for both qualifying both cars and getting one to the finish (and the other classified).

[RAK]

1) Sauber: Exceptional work from Kobayashi to get sixth; Perez made the one-stop strategy work - from the back of the grid!

2) Fernando Alonso: Pulling that car to a place which it doesn't really deserve.

Honourable Mention: Daniel Ricciardo: Wasn't expecting any points from the Toro Rossos, to be frank.

[This]

Sauber, and especially Perez (because we expect these things from Kobayashi)
Maldonado's pace (but his racecraft is still questionable)
Alonso, driving a vehicle that is an insult to enzo ferrari

[Barbazza]

1) Alonso - How he got that crapbox on the tail of the Red Bulls, I'll never know
2) Sauber - Great job guys, in the points pretty much all race
3) Di Resta - I didn't see that point coming!

Honourable mentions to Maldonado for 99% of the race (shame about the other 1%) and Button - less improbable, but those 2 starts were both superb.

[CoopsII]

Alonso, driving a vehicle that is an insult to enzo ferrari

Is it though? Perhaps Massa has simply lost the plot.

I'll give mine to Maldonado, I never saw that coming and neither did he that spin.

[AndreaModa]

2) Marussia - Am I the first to nominate them? Am I the only one pleasantly surprised by their massive speed advantage over HRT and their clear reliability advantage over Caterham? After no pre-season testing?

No!!

1. Whilst I'd like it to be Marussia, it just has to be Maldonado, couldn't believe it when he binned it! Really really great to see both him and Williams up there and challenging. How important that missed opportunity will prove to be as the season progresses will be interesting though.

2. Marussia obviously! I mean come on, I know I'm probably the most vocal supporter of them here, but to go from having a single day of 100km of track running prior to the weekend to getting both cars classified at the end of the race (even if Pic was 5 laps down) was a monumental achievement, particularly as both Caterham's packed up mid-way through the race, and neither HRTs qualified. That 14th place could prove very valuable and matches their best ever result. The only annoying thing was that Rosberg and Maldonado didn't end their races a couple of laps earlier so it could have been even better!

[Stramala]

1ST Fernando Alonso
For me, there is no doubt he is the greatest driver in F1 right now. Better than Vettel. If the Ferrari tech department could pull their heads out of their asses for once and built a frontrunning car, the other drivers would wet themselves at the sight of a scarlet Ferrari in their mirrors, instead of laughing hysterically and then pulling away as they are doing now.

2ND Sauber
Hopefully a sign of things to come. After quali I thought they had a bit more in the tank, but not for 6th and 7th - which would have happened without the last lap chaos.

[Peter]

No!!

1. Whilst I'd like it to be Marussia, it just has to be Maldonado, couldn't believe it when he binned it! Really really great to see both him and Williams up there and challenging. How important that missed opportunity will prove to be as the season progresses will be interesting though.

2. Marussia obviously! I mean come on, I know I'm probably the most vocal supporter of them here, but to go from having a single day of 100km of track running prior to the weekend to getting both cars classified at the end of the race (even if Pic was 5 laps down) was a monumental achievement, particularly as both Caterham's packed up mid-way through the race, and neither HRTs qualified. That 14th place could prove very valuable and matches their best ever result. The only annoying thing was that Rosberg and Maldonado didn't end their races a couple of laps earlier so it could have been even better!

While my Marussia supporting counterpart is celebrating, I am just hoping HRT can turn themselves around and bite back. But only 2 seconds off without power steering, or proper hydraulics, says something about what may be hiding underneath the F112 in speed.

My nomination for IIDOTR has to be Maldonado. His race pace was fantastic, he drove fast, and consistently today, and even though he threw it away on the final lap, my respect for him as a driver has shot up now. Fantastic job nearly giving Alonso a run for his money. It's a shame Senna got hit at the start, otherwise he probably would have been able to bring home a few points.

[eagleash]

Maldonaldo

Alonso

Hon. mench. for Button who never looked in any trouble throughout. & also for Red Bull/Vettel for getting Seb out ahead of Lewis during the safety car. Both commentators thought the SC had fallen just right for McLaren.
Edit: Kimi too. After a terrible practice I thought the disinterested RAIK would be the one to show up today.

[Bleu]

1) Sergio Perez

Does the 1-stopper again and it works, although final lap clash puts him a bit down.

2) Fernando Alonso

He's a double WDC, but still 5th place in that Ferrari seems very good result.

[Boomstick]

1. Maldonaldo (How to make me go from happy to sad as a Williams fan in one lap!) or even Williams. The car actually seems to work! Hell a Ferrari going at it with a Williams...for a top 6 slot! Like old times!

2. Perez, Tho I wont give it to sauber, since the cars looked slow and crap all weekend. They just didn't seem to get the power down and didn't look too happy on high speed corners

[WaffleCat]

1.Sauber-Kobayashi of old for one part,but that amazing one-stopper that they pulled off Perez was just superb.

2.Virgi.....Marussia,scuse me.They avoided that 107% rule with very little testing and had a very reliable car.Good job.

3.Maldonado.I mean,he was quick all weekend,harassing a double world champion....and bathplugged it up on the last lap.