2011 Formula One Predictions

[Root]

The round 4 entry form is now up and ready for your Turkish GP picks. The deadline is still nearly two weeks away; midnight on Thursday the 5th of May.

A couple of notes for individual players:
Greatkingrat, your predictions from round 2 were carried over for round 3, so make sure to submit new ones this time around.
Mullardo, I forgot to tell you that I am fine - thanks for asking - but just what is your keyword? Hopefully you will settle on something a bit shorter!

[palkanetoijala31]

Im glad to see that my Lewis hamilton gamble worked this time i think with Turkey next its either him or Massa with his record there.

[Root]

Reminder: the Turkish GP deadline is midnight tomorrow, so get your picks in!

[Root]

The Turkish GP is over, and congratulations go to scrxisi as the winner of this round. The standings are closing up nicely, with two players in joint second place and another two in joint seventh. The full results and standings are to be found here.

The Spanish GP entry form is live as of today, Friday the 13th (gasp).

[Root]

Reminder: just over 24 hours left to get your entries in for the Spanish Grand Prix.

[Root]

The Spanish GP results are now available. My school-friend Matt beat us all this time, pipping this forum's Matt into first place by one point. He moves into the overall lead, though, displacing Neil for the first time this season. I'm still last, just to, er, prove I'm not cheating... yeah.

It was a great race, wasn't it? There were four different drivers who seemed like they could win it, namely Webber, Alonso, Vettel and Hamilton in that order. If the DRS zone had been a bit longer Hamilton could probably have passed Vettel at the end.

The Monaco GP entry form is up now too. The first and second practice sessions of the Monaco Grand Prix are on a Thursday, not a Friday as is common, but instead of making the deadline even earlier, I've decided to extend it to the end of Friday, seeing as nothing is happening on that day. That means you can watch the Thursday practices before making your prediction if you want to.

Someone make a post after me so I don't feel like I'm talking to myself in this thread

[palkanetoijala31]

Shame i didnt swap Jenson and Vettel around i have had the 1st five in correct order.

[tubeguru]

Balls - I forgot practice is on a Thursday at Monaco and was unable to submit yesterday because of work.

Am I screwed, or would you allow a special dispensation? I haven't seen any of the results of practice, or seen anything on the news if that helps.

[al]

Read Ollie's last post and you'll see that you are OK!

[tubeguru]

Good job I er, didn't read that then isn't it?

[Root]

It's precisely for that reason that I extended rather than brought forward the deadline So you're all right Neil. As are the other three who haven't entered this round yet, provided they do so by midnight tonight.

[tubeguru]

OK, I've entered. This is a tricky race to predict.

[Root]

Well, that was dramatic, wasn't it? Just a shame the three-way scrap for the lead didn't materialise at the end due to the second safety car and red flags. Vettel marches on, ho hum... the McLarens seemed to be the fastest cars over the weekend but I just couldn't understand some of their decisions, namely not letting Lewis get in a "banker" lap early in qualy 3, pitting Jenson when they did, and putting him onto the super soft tyres, thus forcing him to stop again. Lewis was absolutely crazy in the race though, obviously frustrated, and gathering two penalties for himself.

Speaking of which, I've now been able to calculate the results for this round, because the 20-second penalty he picked up for his crash with Maldonado did not affect his ranking, and neither did Kamui Kobayashi's reprimand for his collision with Adrian Sutil.

I've finally won a round More interestingly (to me at least), my weird relationship with Michael Schumacher continues: I've picked him in my top ten for three races this year, including this one, and he has not scored a point in any of them. Conversely, he has scored points in all the races I have not picked him. I don't have the data for last year's predictions game, but I noticed the same thing happening back then on a number of occasions. Not sure what I should do!

The next round is the Canadian GP, one of my favourites, in a fortnight's time. The entry form is available if you want it, and remember that the deadline is back to the normal Thursday again. By the by, two people, Tubeguru and Greatkingrat, entered their Monaco picks after first and second practice - which was permitted - a mere 36 seconds apart, and they finished second and fourth. They were second and third in the standings, which suggests that no real advantage was gained by entering later (though Neil did say he hadn't seen the practice results). So I think that if anyone misses the Thursday deadline in future, I'll still accept their picks, so long as they enter by the end of Friday, and so long as it only happens once or twice in the whole season.

PS: Mullardo, you didn't enter this round, and your picks were already carried over for the last round, so you didn't score. Make sure to enter next time if you don't want to fall behind

[Root]

Last day to enter for the Canadian GP, people! Entry form link is in my signature.

[Root]

That was quite a race, wasn't it? After an age where it seemed like the race was going to be called off, it turned into a classic. I audibly celebrated when Vettel slipped up on the last lap, letting Jensen through for a thoroughly deserved victory. It seems like the rumours of McLaren running a wet set-up were true, which makes me wonder what Lewis could have achieved if he had stayed in the race.

By the way, which drivers do you refer to by first names, and which by last or full names only? I have Lewis, Jenson and Heikki, but that's about it. I suppose those are the three drivers I support most.

The topsy-turvy race result made for a very low-scoring round; the lowest of the season so far, in fact. Palkanetoijala and I share the top step of the podium with 114 points each, while the leading overall player scrxisi managed only 87 points and last place. He keeps the lead, but only by six points from tubeguru. The standings have tightened a lot over the last two rounds.

The next round is the European Grand Snoozefest in Valencia, and the entry form is ready for your picks. A couple of points of order, though:

• When the race looked like it would not reach the 75% distance, Sam raised the question of whether we would score full points if the drivers only picked up half points. According to Matt S, the old Motorsport.com Pick 6 competition still awarded full points in that scenario, but we discussed it and the decision is that half points in a race will lead to half points in the prediction game.
• I've been thinking about the WDC predictions we all made at the start of the season. I feel that 250 points, even if divided by two or more players, would be too great an advantage given that the top seven players are currently separated by only 37 points. Thus I've decided that the WDC bonus is reduced to 100 points, divided by the number of correct players.

If there are any objections - and I imagine those who have chosen Sebastian Vettel might have a strong personal interest on the second point - I'll be willing to listen to them and consider things again, but there won't be a vote.