Grand Prix Rejects

1. Alpine. That's more like it, from being arguably the 9th fastest team at Imola to in the mix with McLaren and Ferrari.

2. Mick Schumacher. A terrific duel with Latifi in the closing laps.

1.- Alpine
2.- Mick Schumacher

1. Alpine: What looked like a car that really had to fight to score any points at all secured a brilliant finish today.

2. Mick Schumacher: Not last in the Haas! Also a good battle with Nicky poo himself.

I'll also vote for Alpine and their drivers, an amazing race after a pretty difficult start to their season. Honorable mention to Mick Schumacher for actually finishing ahead of someone other than Mazepin (I didn't expect that).

A bit of a boring selection, but not many shocks in the race.

1) Alpine: Two decent points-scoring finishes after a sluggish start.

2) Mick Schumacher: Finished ahead of Latifi on merit in a car that is anything but the class of the field.

1. Alpine. A great performance by a car we had pretty much written off by this point in the season.

2. Fastest Lap Point rule. The rule I'm on the fence about actually made a snore-fest of a race somewhat interesting at the end. I do think they should open it up to the entire field. Might as well let all the teams scramble and mix up running qualifying laps at the end.

Not a lot of choice for this weekend

1- Alpine- A much better weekend from the team and a double points finish

2- Mick Scumacher- A much stronger weekend from the German who beat his teammate by over a minute (even before Mazipin's penalty) and was racing and beating a Willams. A good showing

HM- Lando Norris for coming a strong 5th and remaining 3rd in the driver's championship.

Mick Schumacher for fighting so hard to get a seat next year in a team that's not Haas. And Lando Norris for keeping his third position in the championship standing.

Nothing new to say here.

How I wish I could have nominated Bottas...

Anyway, Alpine is the only one sort of deserving it in a race without too many surprises.

Nominations probably as predictable as a DRS overtake:

2. Alpine - Decent race pace, decent points haul.

1. Schumacher - Made a nice little race of it

After such a dull race, the nominee is easy to me:

- Alpine: Pretty good race for both drivers, matching the pace of Ferrari and Mclaren. Special kudos to Alonso's final part of the race, climbing to 8th with some good overtaking.

1. Alpine - Seem to have found quite a bit pace, at least around Algarve. Double points finish and solid pace, I did not expect that.
2. Mick Schumacher - Destroyed his team-mate and finished ahead of a Williams.

Honorable mention to this:



Phenomenal banter.

Alpine: actually had a good race, and were in a good place when it mattered.

Schumacher: Kept that awful Haas in touch with something that resembles civilization

Ricciardo: Did well to bounce back after a bad qualy.

HM: My cat who was sitting on the arm of the chair watching the racing

Alpine or maybe more specifically Ocon (he's not supposed to be faster than Alonso after all) are the only candidates even approaching IIDotR.

1) Alpine. Had pace at Portimao, and made a good showing to get both cars in the points.

2) Sergio Perez. Now that's more like it, he can get his Red Bull in the top 4.

Honourable Mentions:
Mick Schumacher (Finishing ahead of a Williams is good race practice, even if it was Latifi making a mistake that got him the position in the end)
Lando Norris (Held 5th with hardly a challenge, he'll make Bottas and Perez fight for 4th in the standings for a good few more races)

IIDOTR Winner: Esteban Ocon: Much better from Alpine this time out, but I'm giving it to Ocon specifically, because let's face it, you expect that sort of drive from a double world champion and Ocon still beat him.
Runner Up: Mick Schumacher: Not exactly much choice here, so I'll give it to Schumacher for actually overtaking someone other than Mazepin.

HM: Norris and Riccardo both did well, but not exceptionally so (Norris in 5th is the area I expect him to be spending a lot of the season)

Mick Schumacher So glad to see him drive so well today , and overtake a Williams even with a Haas , after an awful weekend last time out. And even more glad to see him destroy Mazepin too.

Danny Ric I thought he did fairly well to dig himself back into contention after an total mess in qualifying - made some decent passes and drove fairly cleanly. Clearly still learning the ropes with the McLaren but I'm optimistic he'll join Lando towards the sharp end in time.

[HM] Fernando Alonso , good to see him and Alpine coming back towards the front of the midfield again after a horrible few races , and enjoyed him having some battles.

1. Esteban Ocon - just for not being Mr Anonymous for a change. Let's see how long he keeps it up.

2. Mick Schumacher - finished ahead of a Williams! Sound the horns! Well, it was Latifi but still...

1. Mick Schumacher - Dude finished ahead of a Williams on merit and was fighting with them for a long time.

2. Fernando Alonso - I thought after a Q2 exit, he wouldn't really do much in the race but he made some moves and stuff. I kind of expected it for Ocon.

Alpine for their swift turnaround. They picked up some of the most fortunate points I’ve ever seen at Imola but these were richly deserved

Mick Schumacher: Yes his team-mate seems hellbent on performing worse than Kubica’s 2019 but Mick did the other side that he needs to if he wants a better seat in the future and that’s mix it and beat another car on merit which he did

James1978 wrote:Nothing new to say here.

I was going to write the same.

1. Alpine, didn't expect solid double points from them
2. Gasly, beating a Ferrari in the other Italian team

dj_vicious wrote:
2. Fastest Lap Point rule. The rule I'm on the fence about actually made a snore-fest of a race somewhat interesting at the end. I do think they should open it up to the entire field. Might as well let all the teams scramble and mix up running qualifying laps at the end.

Interesting point - if we are giving points out for fastest lap , or artistic interpretation or whatever, why exclude those outside top 10? What is the justification? If the reason was to avoid people 'artificially' chasing fastest lap, then it seems that attempt has clearly failed , and indeed some people like to see drivers compromise their race performance ("fastest to the finish") to try for a fastest lap . So why can't those outside the top 10 have the chance?

Here it is even more straightforward! Two candidates that outscore all the other nominations, which of the two is your Infinite Improbability Drive of the Race winner? You have 48 hours, get voting!

We've got a winner for IIDOTR, which you can find out here!