2010 F1 Race Rankings

I’m an active follower of Formula Ones and I’ll be giving my opinions on various topics relating to the sport. Every Saturday and Sunday when there is a race weekend I will be giving my personal opinions of what happened. In the Race Reports I’ll be listing the Top-10 Drivers, the receiver of the Golden Pineapple Award (coined by Keke Rosberg and meaning the highest position of the race with no points – this season 11th), the list of most important retirements or Drop-outs, and Back of the lot news where I’ll update everyone on the progress among the three new teams of the season: Lotus, Virgin and Hispania Racing.

Here’s my ranking of what were the best races of the season

1. Australian Grand Prix – A fantastic race with many over-takes and surprises, mainly due to wet conditions. Jenson Button took his first win of the season which no doubt shut his critics up for at least a couple of races.
2. Chinese Grand Prix (Shanghai) – Driven in extremely varied conditions. Despite starting from the front of the lot, the Red Bulls fell victim to poor tyre choices as did many other teams. The winner was Jenson Button who roughed the difficult weather with slick-tyres. With team-mate Hamilton catching up towards the end the team took a double victory. Also other drivers who were more conservative with their tyre choices got to bask in the glory of driving in the Top-10, albeit momentarily. 2 safety cars were deployed, one due to Liuzzi’s crash and again when Alguersuari’s broken front wing left debris on the track.
3. Belgian Grand Prix – Although Lewis Hamilton lead the race from start-to-finish there were plenty of events on track and no less than three safety car sessions. The changing weather, driving blunders and “bizarre” accidents made this a really exciting race to watch.
4. Malaysian Grand Prix – Despite the fiasco that the race turned into last year the Malaysian GP was free of rain and was still fairly exciting with the Ferraris and McLarens starting from the back. Red Bull took their first double-victory.
5. Singapore Grand Prix – Fernando Alonso lead the race from start-to-finish unchallenged. Plenty of on-track crashes and two safety car sessions kept the drivers on their toes, the new teams provided some excitement and Robert Kubica performed several impressive overtakes.
6. Japanese Grand Prix – An exciting start with Red Bull taking a double victory and Sebastian Vettel leading for much of the race and until the end. Kamui Kobayashi made several daring overtakes providing some genuine excitement for the Japanese F1 fans.
7. European GP (Valencia) – An exciting start and a dramatic crash between Mark Webber and Heikki Kovalainen brought the Safety Car onto the track. This would have dramatic effects on the final standings as several penalties were handed after the race. Sebastian Vettel dominated the race from start to finish with Kamui Kobayashi providing much-needed excitement towards the end of the race.
8. Brazilian Grand Prix – There was major confusion on track due to so many drivers getting lapped though only one retiree (and one driver not qualified). After over-taking first time pole-starter, Nico Hülkenberg, at the start – Sebastian Vettel lead team Red Bull to a double victory and secured the Constructors’ Championship.
9. Canadian Grand Prix – After an exciting start, the race then calmed down to a more normal pace for an F1 race. Superior tyre-strategy brought McLaren a double victory, with Lewis Hamilton taking top-spot on the podium.
10. British Grand Prix – Mark Webber lead the race from start-to-finish. The most excitement was provided by Sebastian Vettel, who after dropping to the back of the lot during the first lap was able to rise up to seventh position by the end of the race.
11. Barcelona Grand Prix – A rather uneventful race with only a hand full of over-takes and most of the action taking place on the pit-lane. However, Hamilton’s rather dramatic crash towards the end and Vettel being able to rough it out with failing breaks was still fairly exciting to watch. Mark Webber lead the race from start to finish.
12. Monaco Grand Prix – Although the Monaco GP wasn’t short on happenings and retirements, it was unfortunately short on genuine excitement. Red Bull took another fantastic double-victory in a relatively static race and Williams suffered two rough accidents where the participants thankfully walked away unscathed. Trulli and Chandhok were responsible for the final fantastic crash where no-one was hurt but which lead to the race being finished behind the Safety Car.
13. Korean Grand Prix – A race driven for much of the first half behind the safety car was only exciting for the crashes and Vettel’s engine failure which permitted Fernando Alonso to take victory and the lead in the drivers’ championship.
14. Hungarian Grand Prix – A largely static race only saw excitement at the very beginning when a Safety Car session caused major havoc on the pit-lane. After the Safety Car session Mark Webber drove to victory unchallenged.
15. Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – After Alonso fell back it was only a matter of waiting to see if Sebastian Vettel would win – and of course he did. =) Also, apart from Schumacher’s rather terrifying crash with Liuzzi, the race was largely static.
16. Turkish Grand Prix – The Red Bulls and McLarens took the lead early and though some overtaking took place the race was very short on happening. Mark Webber was close to leading the race from start to finish but a collision with his team-mate dropped him to 3rd position. The McLaren’s took another double victory with Lewis Hamilton being the number-1 guy this time around.
17. German Grand Prix – Ferrari lead the race after the first turn, finishing with a double victory where Felipe Massa was forced to allow Fernando Alonso to over-take him to keep him in the championship race. The top-10 standings were decided by pit-stops and generally there was only over-taking in the middle-to-back lot which meant the race was rather short on excitement.
18. Monza Grand Prix – With most drivers only making one pit-stop there was very little excitement on track, though some commendable overtaking attempts. Fernando Alonso took the victory through a well-timed pit-stop.
19. Bahrain Grand Prix – Though a good indicator for where the teams stood at the beginning of the season, the starting race of the season was short on exciting events. The most dramatic was probably Sebastian Vettel losing a near perfect victory to engine trouble. Ferrari started the season with a double victory.