It's always interesting, as the season goes on, to have a look at the new drivers on the grid and how they performed. Obviously this tends to take place after the first race, the Season mid-point, and at the end of the F1 calendar. The rookies this year are Maldonado, D'Ambrosio, Perez, and Di Resta.
Maldonado was the only one who failed to bring the car home resulting from a transmission problem on the Williams which saw him go out on Lap 9.
D'Ambrosio finished in last spot, but brought the car home in one piece albeit 4 laps behind, which is always a good start, but had an uneventful race overall. Not a lot else could have been expected from the Virgin cars so a Well done to Jerome on his debut. He was classified ahead of Timo but this was not on performance rather due to Glock being in the pits for a very long time due to problems refitting a loose front wheel. Glock brought the car home but was listed as unclassified, being 9 laps down.
Di Resta ended up claiming a point on foot of the disqualification of the Sauber cars and ran line astern with his teammate in 11th and 12th after their second pitstop. The question has been asked as to whether team orders played a part of that, however after the final stops, and with nothing left to fight for it would have been unwise to upset the status quo. Things might develop later in the season but it has to be said that Sutil did well last year and were Di Resta to compete with Adrian over the season it would lay down a decent marker by which he could be judged.
And finally, Perez! What can I say about that performance - regardless of disqualification - One stop! Fastest lap of the Race on Lap 40! Beat his teammate!- Sergio deserves all the exclamation marks. No question but that was the performance of the Weekend and I for one am looking forward to seeing him perform at Sepang.
