Celebrating a century of classic Class acts - Class of the Field feature passes a milestone
Published by Christine
Prolific feature writer Adam pointed out on Twitter that his Class of the Field column reached the grand old age of 100 recently. We're rubbish at keeping track of such things, but felt such a milestone couldn't pass without a spot of celebration. Class of the Field started even before we had a feature section and Adam has been a stalwart writer on Sidepodcast even when we have let our attention drift.
Adam's articles highlight the best drives of any given race weekend, and as such are a great way to focus in on some of the drivers that have missed out on the headlines. Race winners always get the plaudits, but there are plenty of names up and down the field who deserve a bit of recognition, and Adam makes sure to do his bit to get their achievements noted. It's a real treat and something to look forward to after each race weekend.
To celebrate 100 Class of the Field columns, I've gathered together a handful of must read articles, and hope that we'll see plenty more in the races to come!
Grosjean struggled through the first two laps as the incident with Di Resta had a surprisingly big effect on the handling of his Lotus. He had fallen right into the middle of the pack by the end of the second lap and had to make up a lot of time once he was out again.
Despite being some of the best drivers on the planet, at times some guys are one track short of an A side and do something that they regret, be it for the rest of the weekend or even the rest of the season. And don’t think that this section is full of rookies who don't know where their front wing is; this selection includes 4 world titles, 48 wins and 276 starts.
Not to call out the Finn but Räikkönen is absolutely nowhere compared to Alonso this season and Kimi’s haphazard drive to eighth only served to emphasise how good Fernando Alonso’s drive was.
One for the future: The star of the show was the rookie Verstappen, who had a points finish cruelly taken away from him by yet another Renault power unit failure. And while the result would have been impressive, it was the manner of Verstappen's drive that impressed.
Magnussen was imperious and defiant, making his Renault as wide as it could be, defending in a car with a poor chassis and a power deficit on a circuit with several long straights. The only time the Dane conceded position was after an aggressive overtake by Daniel Ricciardo on lap 30 but Magnussen put in a great move to repass going into turn four.
Sainz was the only man who dared to try slicks at the start. He narrowly missed out on Q3 by six hundredths and perhaps felt the need to try something different to get the edge on his teammate and challenge for more than a point or two. It had looked a terrible decision as everyone powered past into turn one before he spun at turn two. But the track was always going to come to him.
