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Bahraini Grand Prix
1. Sebastian Vettel
2. Kimi Raikkonen
3. Max Verstappen

Bahrain 2018,

1. Vettel
2. Raikkonen
3. Ricciardo

Mod Onyx wrote:

P-F1 Mod wrote:

Mod Onyx wrote:Melbourne

Hamilton
Verstappen
Vettel

And so, the gauntlet is laid down. Of course, looking at our team names, we probably both moderately injured ourselves on it and backed out!

Hopefully this time will be better.

Bahrain

Ham
Bot
Ric

Ham related change as well.

Bot
Ric
Vet

Bahrain:

1. Verstappen
2. Bottas
3. Vettel

Race No 2.

1. Vettel
2. Raikkonen
3. Hamilton

Deadline is in 3 hours and 33 minutes: nobody's locked in yet, but I'm recording all the entries now, so please post something to let me know if you change them again before the deadline! Otherwise I might not notice an edit later when I'm doing the scores.

Edit

Vettel
Bottas
Raikkonen

bahrain gp 2018

1. Sebastian Vettel
2. Valtteri Bottas
3. Kimi Raikkonen

Exediron wrote:1. Verstappen

Source: https://imgur.com/gallery/E8819KF

If the Ferrari 1-2 holds together for the race, we have an interesting four-way battle to pick up the resulting first Perfect Podium of the young season:

Black_Flag_11 has Bottas as the third driver on the podium, and will surely be hoping for a boring, processional race where the top three finish where they start.
cm97 has Ricciardo, and needs only for the Smiling Assassin to jump the one they call Robottas at any point in the race. A strong possibility, one would have to say.
Jezza13 has Hamilton, and will have to hope his alternative strategy works a treat and he cuts through all the way to the podium.
Remmirath has Verstappen, and will pretty much be hoping for a terrible collision somewhere towards the end of the race.

In terms of the teams; since all of the above named people are on different teams, whichever one nails the Perfect Podium will likely vault their team into the lead.

If the Perfect Podiums all fall through, then Jalopy Racing, Bwoah Steering Wheel and Sand Bag'n are currently looking the best, all having Vettel for the win with both entries.

Background image sourced from http://www.musco.com/project-showcase/bic/


BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX RESULTS

In a race defined by strategy and reliability, only the advance knowledge that Lewis Hamilton was going to have a gearbox penalty prevented what would likely have been another clean wipe of scoring. As it was, quite a few people switched their predictions to place a red car atop the podium, meaning that instead of mostly zeroes we instead have a majority of entrants scoring points.

The selections after race winner Sebastian Vettel proved more varied, and determined the pecking order of those who managed to put together some points this round. A number of competitors predicted Kimi Raikkonen to finish second in a Ferrari 1-2, and so it looked for a time - but a botched pit stop put paid to any chance of that prediction yielding the coveted Perfect Podium for anyone.

There was also a moment of tension late when it appeared that Vettel's tyre gamble might not pay off and Valtteri Bottas would take the win, thus handily eliminating almost everyone's points. While certain people who had Vettel in second may have been wishing for this to happen, it did not - and it was instead those who predicted the Finn in silver to finish second who came away with the win. Congratulations to coulthards chin, Herb, Icemanjee1 and robins13!

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First Place - 8 points
coulthards chin, Herb, Icemanjee1, robins13

Second Place - 6 points
Jezza13

Third Place - 5 points
Black_Flag_11, cm97, Jenson's Understeer, Mayhem, Mod Titanium, Remmirath

The Rest
Flash2k11, TheDamus, TypingChicane - 3 points
CarlPotter - 1 point
Bentrovato, Exediron, Lotus49, Mod Blue, Mod Onyx, P-F1 Mod - 0 points

DNS
Espo, Multi69

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Individual Standings - Round Two



The four drivers who won the round jump to the top of the leader board, with no points already on the board from the first round.

Team Standings - Round Two



With almost every team scoring points this round, we suddenly have some team placements to report!

Reigning champions Jalopy Racing have got off to the dream start, leading the championship in the first actual scoring round - this pairing was the closest in the field last year, and so far they seem to have taken up where they left off. The newly re-branded Bwoah Steering Wheel team is right behind, joined by last year's disappointments Sand Bag'n - have they finally decided to take the sand bags off their car after over a year of testing?

A little farther back in the fledgling midfield, Lotus-CC Racind and Drive Sauber have a slim advantage of two points over The Also Rans, with No Limit Excedrin Racing and Management in Crisis a further point back - the latter two teams will be happy not to have emerged scoreless due to a split strategy, but may be left ruing the decision to not double down on Vettel for the win.

At the back, the second mod team of Crisis in Management seems to be suffering from a crisis of scoring. They are the only team to emerge from Bahrain still without a point on the board.

CHAMPIONSHIP PICTURE

With four individuals currently tied at the top of the standings, there is no championship leader as yet. All four (and those behind as well, since nobody is out of Perfect Podium range yet!) will be eager to put some ground between themselves and the chasing pack in a week's time.

But although the championship is yet young, it's already clear that this will not be a straightforward year. Frequent DNFs, grid penalties and safety cars have seen the first two rounds a bit mixed up, and the true pace of the front runners is still something of a mystery. Have Red Bull shown their hand yet, or will they finally emerge as contenders the first time both cars run clean?

China - and maybe some answers! - is right around the corner.

I had too much faith in Merc... Thank you Titanium for doing right by the team though. Nice to see we - sorry, YOU - are leading the mod charge.

That said, even if we combine the teams' scores we're all last, so...

China:

VET
HAM
RAI

Phew. Lucky I managed to check in on things.

China:

HAM
VET
BOT

China

1. Hamilton
2. Vettel
3. Verstappen

China

1. Hamilton
2. Bottas
3. Vettel

P-F1 Mod wrote:......Thank you Titanium for doing right by the team though. Nice to see we - sorry, YOU - are leading the mod charge....

well someone's gotta carry you

CHINA
1- Lewis
2- valteri
3- Sebastian

China

1. HAM
2. VET
3. BOT

China

1. Hamilton
2. Bottas
3. Vettel

Getting an early pick in so I don’t miss it like the last race.

China

Hamilton
Bottas
Vettel

China

Ham
Bot
Vet

China:

Hamilton
Vettel
Raikkonen

China

The Ham
Bottas
Vettel

No-so bold banker prediction...

2018 CHINESE GRAND PRIX
Podium Prediction

1. Hamilton
2. Bottas
3. Verstappen

I don't see any way around a Hamilton victory this time out. It should all come down to filling in the pieces for that elusive Perfect Podium!

China:

1. Vettel
2. Hamilton
3. Raikkonen

China:

1. Hamilton
2. Verstappen
3. Vettel

China banker picks

Hamilton
Bottas
Vettel

China:

1. Vettel
2. Hamilton
3. Raikonnen

Time to get some points!

HAM
BOT
VET

China:

1. Hammo
2. Bottas
3. Vettel

Jenson's Understeer wrote:China:

1. Vettel
2. Hamilton
3. Raikkonen

I'm relatively happy with this, but I will adjust P3 as I think Merc's party mode will lead to a 1-2 in quali before Vettel gets them both in the race:

1. Vettel
2. Hamilton
3. Bottas

China
1. Hamilton
2. Vettel
3. Raikkonen

china 2018

1. Lewis Hamilton
2. Sebastian Vettel
3. Kimi Raikkonen

Tweaking this a bit - Merc doesn't look to have the sort of advantage that would have me feeling comfortable putting Bottas on the podium.

2018 CHINESE GRAND PRIX
Revised Podium Prediction

1. Hamilton
2. Verstappen
3. Vettel

Once again No Limit Excedrin Racing is splitting strategy in terms of where we think RBR's pace is at. Hopefully I won't end up with the Kimi strategy this time...

EDIT: Revised with 31 minutes to go... Ricciardo isn't looking confidence-inspiring so far.

Chinese Grand Prix
1. Lewis Hamilton
2. Kimi Raikkonen
3. Max Verstappen

I feel a bit shaky about this prediction (and leaving both Vettel and Bottas off), but there it is!

I have no idea

1. Hamilton
2. Vettel
3. Raikkonen

With only three people picking a Ferrari to win, this is going to be a pretty empty place if FP3 turns out to be the real pace!

Background image sourced from http://www.latimes.com/sports/more/la-s ... story.html


CHINESE GRAND PRIX RESULTS

Well, that was quite a race! Anyone who could have predicted that result would be able to rightly call themselves the Nostradamus of F1!

Nobody get any big ideas about changing your username, however, because nobody did correctly predict the race. Daniel Ricciardo wasn't even featured on anyone's podium, let alone on the top step, and the general sentiment was that Lewis Hamilton would be unstoppable. That turned out to be completely the opposite of the truth - Hamilton never even featured in the fight for the win - and as a result any chance of a competitor nailing the win, let alone the Perfect Podium, was right out the window before the race had even got underway.

For the first twenty-odd laps it looked like the three entrants who picked Vettel to win were going to be sitting pretty. Then Ferrari decided they'd had enough of winning races by canny strategy calls, and they fell back on their old ways: they promptly threw the race away through a dodgy call on Vettel, and then doubled down on it by leaving Kimi out past the point of any sanity. By this point, it was clear that nobody was going to get the five points for a win - there were only two predictions for the race winner, and neither of them was named Valtteri Bottas.

In the end, the winner was decided by who had Bottas on their podium - albeit who had him in second, not first. A whopping eight contestants collect the three points for placing Bottas second, and share the win as a result.

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First Place - 3 points
coulthards chin, robins13, Jezza13, Mayhem, Mod Onyx, Bentrovato, Mod Blue, Espo

Second Place - 1 point
Flash2k11, P-F1 Mod, Icemanjee1, cm97, Black_Flag_11, CarlPotter

The Rest - 0 points
Remmirath, TypingChicane, Exediron, Herb, Mod Titanium, TheDamus, Lotus49, Jenson's Understeer

DNS
Multi69

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Individual Standings - Round Three



In the individual standings, we've narrowed the leaders down to just two: 2016 champion robins13 is back on ominous form with a second victory in succession, while returning entrant coulthards chin is looking strong as well. They sit tied together on 11 points.

The field has separated out a little below them, but not much: it's only two points back to Icemanjee1 and Jezza13, and only one from there to Herb and Mayhem.

Only two entrants have yet to score a point, and they'll surely be eager to do so in Baku so they can stop being the albatross around their respective teammates' necks.

Team Standings - Round Three



The bags are well and truly off at team Sand Bag'n - with both their drivers in the top six, they've established an early lead: 19 points and the most wins puts them ahead of defending champions Jalopy Racing, who are looking strong as well with the expected balanced scoring from their successful lineup. A little further back Bwoah Steering Wheel - having profited, fittingly enough, from a double score on Raikkonen in third - is hanging onto the battle for the lead as well.

In fourth place, Lotus-CC Racing could be part of the fight as well - if one half of the team can manage to score a point. Whatever might be going on behind closed doors at the rebranded McLotus team is best left to the imagination.

It's all very tight behind those four, with the final five teams separated by just three points between them. 2015 champions No Limit Excedrin Racing have fallen to the back of the field, a position which they insist they're not accustomed to, despite spending much of the last three years trying to claw their way out of exactly that position.

CHAMPIONSHIP PICTURE

It's early days yet, but those who remember his dominant run from 2016 will have to be nervous now that robins13 seems to be back at it. In the teams championship it looks tight as well, but Jalopy Racing will have the looming knowledge hanging over their heads that no championship team has ever successfully defended their title.

With the standings so tight, everyone will be as desperate for points in Baku as Max Verstappen for an overtake. But they will also have to be careful that it doesn't all end just the same way...

I have a point... Probably a typo in the spreadsheet We're still not in last though, and if the mod teams keep this climb going we'll be unstoppable!