Hello there again, the season may be over but this little corner of the internet hasn't gone into shut-down mode. Especially considering there is a small matter of the championship winners to be officially announced - out there in the real world there would also be a trophy presentation and a rather large party, frequented by all sorts of posh famous folk. In this little corner of the internet things do work a little differently, there will be no party, sadly, and a rather disappointing shortage of glamorous women - the world of amateur internet reporting clearly isn't that alluring. Although I am assured there are more reasons for the situation in that element of life, this probably is one of them. Anyway in lieu of any trophies or parties or posh nibbles (I've even ran out of prawn crackers) it is time to unveil the winners from the first ever bonus points championship and the other titles on offer.
So the unveiling ceremony doesn't have the same effect in written format without an sparkly attired assistant and all sorts of special effects, but I'd decided to try and unleash some suspense into the mix - although the final standings have been published. Also the winners have been tweeted via the blog's twitter account, they haven't acknowledged their awards or stated how pleased they are about it either, so the element of surprise is a little compromised really.
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| Using F1Total2011 in rFactor at Montreal |
The 2011 Official Blog Penalties championship
And the winner is: Lewis Hamilton
Taking the penalties championship with a grand total of 6 penalties including three drive through penalties (two of which were for hitting Massa), two post race time penalties and one 3 place grid drop from India. Hamilton fought off a late championship charge from Pastor Maldonado who violated all sorts of blue flag rules in Abu Dhabi to finish the season on 5 penalties. The championship highlighted the impact of lack of experience in F1, with 4 of the top 5 finishers being 2011 rookies, including an impressive effort for a late entry from Bruno Senna.
So Hamilton's grumpiest season may not have worked out in terms of real points or championship positions, and it did result in a lot of contact mainly with a Red car driven by a Brazilian. There was a hint of positivity to a year of anger, damage and a rather interesting speech in Monaco, in the end that tirade has resulted in a veritable bounty of penalties. All of which have earned Lewis the 2011 penalties championship award, I would send him a trophy but I can't afford one and he might get a little mad if I sent out to him anyway.
The 2011 Official Dubious Dealings Championship
Moving swiftly on now, well I wouldn't say swiftly as I did need to break for some tea, taking care of priorities and all, but nevertheless time to progress onto the next item of business. This award is effectively the second booby prize of the season - which is devoid of any actual boobies, I already mentioned there was no glamorous assistant and there not surprisingly not applicants for the position. Even if such things were present at this not so fancy ceremony I wouldn't be sending them out as prizes. But I digress once more which is a sort of a pattern for the the blog over the year, this championship is designed to recognise the things that have annoyed the blog over the season and turned into a table of digression. Covering the moments and actions that the FIA decided not to penalise, simply because of the excuse it isn't within their power or something, but this championship was declared a draw after qualifying in Brazil.
And the winners are: Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher
Hamilton was in charge of this championship, mostly for ranting about things in the early stage of the season, and the rather constant affliction of blaming everyone else for his errors, which spread to the team earning Whitmarsh a penalty point after the crash in Spa. His advantage started to get eroded by Schumacher when he started to stop playing in the final part of qualifying which earns an automatic penalty point, and then the two ended up tying at the end of Brazil. So a second title for Hamilton both of them in the booby prize category and the first time Schumacher has won anything for quite a while, shame it's for being the joint biggest prat of the season. Both sneaking one point ahead of Eurosport and their massacred attempt at GP2 coverage.
This would be the point where I would ask the sound tech at the back of the auditorium for a grand and spectacular drum roll, but I don't have either a tech or a drum roll... or even any fancy text. However that rather underwhelming introduction does mean the main event is upon us - I know there is a shortage of titles to hand out.
The Official Overall Blog Bonus Points Championship
Ah here it is the ultimate championship of the year, the alternative to that thing the FIA run every season, which Vettel made a mockery off by completely dominating. That sort of thing doesn't happen here, things are very different indeed. In a season of 19 races a total of 62 competitors scored points in 2011, far more then the little championship that the drivers seem to care so much about, and we entered the finale with a five way battle for the lead. But there can only be one winner of the 2011 bonus points championship, well actually there can be several, but one overall winner...
The overall championship winner is: Jenson Button
Claimed for some truly brilliant performances, Canada was a perfect example of why Jenson has claimed the title this season, demonstrating a true speciality for coping with changeable weather conditions and giving his supposedly faster team-mate a good kicking. Button sneaked the championship by one point from the ruler of the questionable overtaking zones - Mark Webber, famed for moves in Eau Rouge and that waste of tarmac that is Singapore's turn ten.
But things are not over, there are many other sub-categories of the season that can be awarded after all with 62 competitors I may as well dish out some more awards to pad this little text based ceremony out. The first of these is the constructors bonus point champion...
Constructors Sub-championship winner is: McLaren and Red Bull Racing
Tied in 16th place overall with 16 points each the top two teams in that other championship thing are co-champions in the more important bonus points championship. McLaren gained points across their season for their rate of improvement starting with a relatively poor car in the opening races of the season to end with a car that could challenge the pace of their co-champions. The Red Bull team, well their points are self explanatory really, they have been utterly dominant with the fastest car all year.
Next up is something to recognise the non-sporting related entities, the objects, people and pets that the FIA don't want to give points to for some reason
Non-racing entities sub-championship winner is: Rain
Ah yes a victory for the weather that brought so much intrigue to the races it intervened on - although it did get one penalty point for going a little too far in Canada. It was the rain that converted Silverstone into a track of two halves and turned the Hungarian GP into something well worth watching (helping Hamilton to his penalties title in the process of that one). The rain could have managed to climb higher in the table than joint 20th with Maldonado and HRT if it decided to show up in Brazil and not confuse the radar system.
And finally the last award on today's schedule is the nations cup award for the highest placed country in the table, and this award is a fairly obvious victory considering most of the nations only scored one point and only two were able to break free from the bottom joint 48th place. With a margin of two points over second place Hungary...
The Nations Cup Sub-Championship winner is: Canada
Well there you go, a complete round up of the points championships for 2011, as for next year the tables are wiped clean for a fresh start, and there may be some modifications to the scoring system to incorporate 'feats' for a special bonus points score. But that all needs ironing out before anything gets put into practice. This also isn't the end of the blog activity for the year I have some more posts planned soon so until then farewell for now...
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