I fail to see how Perez can get a 9, Hulk & Webber retired in front off him and Alonso effectively took himself and Button out of the equation. I appreciate you can only race what's in front of you but he would have been fortunate to have been 8th or 9th under normal conditions. I think it was solid drive at best and as a McLaren fan I was happy for his race result. It's seems that if you have been poor and then deliver a normal expected drive you become driver of the day.
Perez drove a great race. Looked after his tyres, yet was controlled and precise with his overtakes. Worthy of a 9 in my book.
What a joke those ratings are, Alonso a 7? didn't even score a point in the 2nd fastest car all due to his own mistakes. As for Perez, drove a solid race and his double overtaking of 2 superior cars was the best of the race IMO. As for Kimi v Grosjean, lol 8 each, some seriously biased reporting there.
I thought Perez was awesome. His first stint was excellent and made some incisive and opportunistic overtakes. He really could've done no more. He also outqualified Button by over 3/10ths and Hulkenberg was already behind him when he retired.
Autosport reasoning: Alonso - It's difficult to judge Alonso's speed given his qualifying pace was defined by opting to start on the slower medium compound, and in the race light wing damage caused by Webber, followed by his own error in sliding into Button later on the first lap, hobbled his Ferrari. To his credit, he kept his head down and came close to nabbing a point, but hit a brick wall when he caught Ricciardo and was unable to get past. Button - Came into the weekend talking up a change of set-up philosophy that might offer the McLaren a boost in competitiveness. It didn't really deliver, but the team did extract a decent level of performance from the car and Button would surely have been in the mix for a top-six finish had he not been clattered by Alonso on the opening lap, which gave him a slow puncture and forced an early pitstop. From there, he had no chance. Perez - This was surely Perez's most convincing weekend as a McLaren driver. With both him and team-mate Button qualifying on the mediums, Perez was three tenths faster and went on to drive an extremely good race. There were no mistakes, his speed was consistently good, his pacing during that long first stint excellent and thanks to an excellent piece of opportunism as he happened upon the ailing Raikkonen, he managed to get ahead of Hamilton to bag his best finish of the season.
Do you know what he said about the Lotuses BLS? Did he dock Webber points for this? The three way contact between Raikkonen, Webber and Alonso was just a racing incident in my opinion.
Grosjean - It's difficult to judge whether Grosjean should have escaped Q1. On the slower-compound tyre, the team misjudged where the cut-off time was, but Grosjean threw away at least a couple of tenths on his key lap, which represented half of the deficit. He excelled in the race. Nobody made the softs last as long off the start and his pace was consistent on his long second stint. Also showed good awareness to run wide to avoid contact with Raikkonen late on. Kimi - Admitted struggling to get the car to handle as he wanted thanks to the camber limits, but made some progress and qualified well. His race turned into a gamble on tyre life, which ultimately backfired although he didn't help his cause by racing team-mate Grosjean, risking contact as he struggled with a lack of rear grip. What really cost him was having to make his first stop early in search of cool air for his overheating brakes. Webber - An excellent qualifying lap on the medium compound potentially set him up for a run at victory. A poor start, then sliding into Raikkonen and clipping Alonso at the first corner meant that once the soft runners had got out of the way, Webber was not as far up the road as he should have been. After that, drove well and would have been a worthy second had his alternator lasted, even though he didn't have Vettel's pace.
Did Chilton get an 8 for being over a second behind his teammate in qualifying? Or for ending Van Der Garde's race?
So he still gets a 7, despite an indifferent quali, hitting Button and Webber (or got hit depending on view), and then not being able to get past a Torro Rosso to come home 11th? If that had been, say, Massa, would probably have only given him a 5.
He beat Bianchi in the race. Surely worth an 11 for Chilton!? Did Bianchi have any issues in the race though? Does seem unthinkable for him to have beat Bianchi on race pace alone. Did he take out VDG? What I have seen of the incident suggest a racing accident at worst, VDG just had a good whinge down the radio to absolve himself of any blame, as racing drivers do!
Raikkonen's review is just a list of excuses. I thought Grosjean was probably knocked down for qualifying, but he was only 7/10ths slower than Kimi was on options and would've needed to be within 2/10ths of Kimi to make Q2, Red Bull didn't even risk Webber on primes in Q1. Grosjean was good for a nine at least. In spite of his poor qualifying he still scored more points than Kimi in the same car and should've rated higher as a result. I also thought Kimi should've done better in quali, his fastest lap was in Q2. If Grosjean had started a race like that they would've said it was poor reflexes/spacial awareness for the first contact, and probably said he attracts too much trouble. Not that I think Alonso was in any way to blame for it, but they definitely see incidents differently based on who's involved.
Chilton should not be given an 8 for just doing what a competitive driver should be doing, like beating their team-mate every so often. It's only now he's beginning to be competitive after spending most of the year trailing far behind Bianchi and living up to his reputation as a pay driver.
That was my view on Perez! On a separate note my respect for Vettel went up massively in this race. Not only did he race well (which is pretty normal) but his celebration after the race was fantastic, charismatic and fitting of a champion - bowing to the Red Bull was quite touching. Sort of made me feel more in touch with the sport!
