When you look at the 2011 season on paper you would be forgiven for thinking that it wasn’t a very exciting season, due to Sebastian Vettel’s dominance.
However with the introduction of Pirelli’s short life tyres, DRS and the re-introduction of KERS, 2011 saw some breathtaking action.
This year saw more racing between the leading drivers than we have become accustomed to in modern F1. We have also seen great battles for the lead of the race, which has been a rarity in recent times.
So overall, picking the top five moments of the season was very difficult, and some brilliant pieces of racing inevitably had to be left out.
If Pirelli maintain their aggressive approach in 2012, and Red Bull’s rivals can close the gap, then the possibilities for 2012 are potentially mouth-watering.
Here are my top five moments of the season:
1. Jenson Button’s victory against the odds in Canada
This will be a race that will never be forgotten. Not only was it the longest race ever broadcast (thanks to atrocious conditions, it hit four hours from start to finish), but Button emerged as a shock winner, which nobody saw coming.
During his journey to the top step he made an incredible six pit stops including a drive through penalty. He also tangled with his own teammate and Fernando Alonso, and somehow escaped both incidents without race ending damage. It’s hard to recall a race winner having so many incidents, making that many pit stops and having to overtake so many cars to win a race.
The collision with Alonso brought out the safety car which allowed Button to recover to the pits with a puncture, and rejoin the back of the snake. His chance of a big result looked finished at that point, but little did we know that it would be the moment that setup his victory.
With 30 laps to go he was dead last but fought his way quickly through the field. As we have come to expect from Jenson he timed his switch to dry tyres perfectly. The safety car for an incident involving Nick Heidfeld set up the perfect grandstand finish with 10 laps to go.
Button was up to fourth with only the two Red Bulls and Michael Schumacher ahead of him. Importantly he had already got plenty of heat into his dry tyres. After the restart he quickly despatched Mark Webber and Schumacher before hunting down Vettel in a very exciting final few laps.
It all went down to a nerve wracking final lap as Vettel cracked under pressure, making a small error allowing Button through for victory.
This was the perfect F1 race: mixed weather conditions, lots of overtaking, plenty of incidents, underdogs punching above their weight, a titanic battle for the lead in the closing laps, and an unexpected result.
It was a surreal event to watch and it’s still quite hard to believe that the race worked out in the way it did.
2. Varied strategy and Hamilton’s clinical overtaking deliver a thriller in China
China showed how exciting short life tyres could make F1. After seeing Vettel cruise to pole, the race seemed like it would be a foregone conclusion, and in most seasons there is no doubt it would have been.
However a race dominated by tyre strategy turned things on its head, and produced an unexpected action packed race. Vettel and Ferrari went for a two-stop strategy whilst the other front runners went for three.
Throughout the race we had no idea which strategy would prevail in the end. Who had made the right decision? For once strategy made the race interesting, and resulted in plenty of overtaking as everyone’s tyres were in a different state at various stages of the race.
After the second set of stops eventual winner Lewis Hamilton was down in sixth. He quickly despatched the two stopping Alonso to take fifth. He then quickly caught team mate Button who was on the same strategy as him.
He then did an incredible do or die move on him going into turn one, which isn’t a notorious overtaking place. Afterwards he caught Rosberg (also on the three stop option) and overtook on the inside of turn six.
After the final set of pit stops Hamilton just had Felipe Massa and Sebastian to deal with. He made mince meat of Massa, and then quickly gained on Vettel as his tyres were seven laps fresher.
It soon became apparent that it would only be a matter of time before Lewis went ahead. With just four laps to go the inevitable happened, despite Vettel’s best efforts to defend against the charging Brit.
Lewis made full use of the three stop strategy. It was the aggression in his overtaking and the ability to dispatch his rivals so quickly, that allowed him the time to be able to catch Vettel and pass him for victory. This has to go down as by far Lewis’s best ever victory in F1.
If it wasn’t for Lewis’s incredible performance Red Bull’s decision to put the young German on two stops would have paid off.
When Lewis is in this sort of form Formula 1 suddenly becomes very exciting, and he emerges above the rest of the pack. If only he kept his head in the right place and produced results like this consistently.
3. Absorbing three driver battle at the Nurburgring
It’s very rare that you get a close race long battle between the leading three drivers, but that is exactly what happened in the German GP.
The race was a battle between Webber, Hamilton and Alonso where the pendulum kept on swinging from one driver to the other. All three had their chances to win.
Webber was on pole but made one of his customary bad starts and lost out immediately to Hamilton. The pendulum then swung back to Webber on lap 12 when Hamilton made a mistake at the chicane and Webber nipped through on the inside. However Lewis got him back straight away on the pit straight by bravely diving down the inside of the Aussie, not leaving much room between himself and the pit wall.
Webber then got back in front by making use of the undercut at the pit stops. In the second stint he was never able to get far enough ahead of Hamilton to control the race. The Brit was constantly hustling him with Alonso not too far behind.
At the next stop the undercut didn’t help Webber after he emerged back behind Lewis. They battled whilst Lewis tried to get his tyres up to temperature, and he did well to hold on.
Then the pendulum swung in Fernando’s direction as he went ahead of both men after his pit stop. However this was short lived as Lewis went clean right around the outside in turn 2.
At this point Webber began to fall back, but Alonso remained a headache for Lewis for the rest of the race but he held on to take a very hard fought victory.
The race was fascinating as the battle for the lead was intense for the whole duration of the event. You were never sure which way it was going to go as neither Hamilton, Alonso or Webber were ever able to pull out a convincing lead over their rivals.
It was down to one of the drivers to produce a couple of moments of magic to snatch the race, and it was Lewis on this occasion that produced it.
4. Mark Webber’s move on Alonso at Eau Rouge
Webber and Alonso have had some great battles this year, but this piece of racing was by far the bravest of the season. It was one of the moves that made you leap out of your seat.
Alonso had just made a pit stop and emerged right ahead of Webber. The Aussie then got a good slipstream and they were side by side at the bottom of the Eau Rouge. It’s not possible to go through Eau Rouge side by side so somebody had to lift off.
If neither lifted then there would have been the mother of all accidents. It was Webber who had the best line going into the corner, and he kept his foot planted to the throttle forcing the Spaniard to concede.
It was a risk that Webber didn’t need to take as he could have just waited for the long DRS zone at the top of the hill to just breeze past. It just shows how committed and brave a racer Webber is, even in the latter stages of his career at 35 years of age.
Full marks also go to Alonso for knowing where the limit was. There has always been great respect between the pair and that showed on this occasion. You wonder what might have happened had it been Massa and Hamilton in this situation.
It was a move that was up there with the likes of Alonso’s move around the outside of Schumacher at 130R. It’s these types of moves that wow people, because there is so much risk involved if it doesn’t quite work. It’s not the same as getting a move wrong in a slow corner.
5. Vettel’s move on Alonso for the lead at Monza
Vettel had always been renowned and admired for his speed but fans still were unsure of his race craft.
Although the young German has had so many majestic performances in 2011, it was this drive that secured admiration from his remaining critics and elevated him to the elite group of F1 legends.
Vettel took a gamble on a short gear ratio for the weekend. This meant he would have good acceleration out of corners but a lack of straight line speed. The first part of the gamble worked in that he secured pole position.
However he would need to stay in the lead in order to make the strategy work in the race. At the start he lost out to Alonso. After an early safety car period he went about claiming the lead back ASAP.
He got a very strong exit from the first chicane, got the slipstream and went around the outside of Alonso in the Curva Granda. Fernando didn’t leave much room and forced Vettel to put two wheels on the grass. However Sebastian stayed committed and had the inside line for the second chicane.
It was a move that had to be made quickly, otherwise he would have been significantly held up, and exposed to Schumacher and Hamilton whose cars were much quicker in a straight line.
Out of the all the moves we have seen for the lead of the race this year, this was the most breathtaking one. It was a move that had to be made at that moment, when he had the chance, otherwise he probably wouldn’t have won the race.
It also proved to the world that there was more to the new double world champion than just single lap speed, and that he too was capable of stunning overtaking moves.
After pulling off the move he stormed into a dominant lead, and stunned the paddock with his pace, on a circuit where Red Bull had always struggled in the past. It was a statement of intent and forced rivals to head back to the drawing board.
Agree of disagree, you can now share your thoughts and your own top moments of F1 2011 in the comments box below.
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