Australian Grand Prix updateThe first race of the season is always a bit of a learning experience and the same can be said with this update. Rather than just posting the scores, I wanted to break it down into a few sections, including the scores, the joker situation, highlighting someone who had a particularly bad/unlucky race and, of course, post the overall standings. Hopefully this isn't too terrible!
The champagne moment The first round of the new F1 season is in the books and so we have our first scoring update of the season. Nico Rosberg - the man only Icemanjee1 had the faith to select over Hamilton or Vettel - took victory on the track but it was
Jezza13 who won round one here, amassing 115 points to best both
Mayhem and
TypingChicane by ten points. What probably made the difference were the points finishes by both Nico Hulkenberg and Romain Grosjean, the latter particularly important as Jezza13 was one of only two people (the other being TypingChicane) to select both Grosjean himself and the new Haas F1 team. If Haas are to be regular points scorers then those two could be the two to beat as the rest of us all went for Renault, who themselves briefly flirted with a top-10 finish before fading away as the race wore on. Schumacher forever#1 took the final step on the podium, narrowly missing out on joining the fun on the second step:
Jezza13 - 115Mayhem and TypingChicane - 105Schumacher forever#1 - 101
Because we can't all be winners Elsewhere, Ferrari's strong start might be worrying the two participants - Coulthard's Chin and Mayhem - who opted not to select Kimi Raikkonen, instead picking his Finnish compatriot Valtteri Bottas. Whilst Kimi's DNF coupled with Bottas' recovery drive saw them gain four points on the rest this weekend, Kimi surely looks to have been the better selection for the season as a whole. Driver group 4 - Hulkenberg, Perez, Verstappen and Sainz - looks like it will be particularly competitive. Surprisingly(?) nobody selected Sainz, so it was mainly Max Verstappen who threatened a decent points haul before his race turned into a "all hail the mods joke", allowing a composed drive by Nico Hulkenberg to help him establish an early lead in that category. That also translated as good news for those who picked Force India over Toro Rosso in Team group 3. As we all went for Ricciardo over Kvyat the jokers in that category are going to be key, whilst McLaren failing to score a point (I wonder how often I'll be typing that line in these updates?) means nobody picked up any points from Driver group 5. Only 15 points separated Mayhem/TypingChicane in joint second right the way down to Black_Flag_11 so hopefully we'll have battles up and down the standings not just at each race, but across the season as a whole. Here's how those of us not spraying the champagne did:
Icemanjee1 - 100
Fountoukos13 and Theferret - 99
Coulthard’s Chin and Hamilton_Jar - 97
Exediron, Herb and Jenson's Understeer - 91
Black_Flag_11 - 90
Remmiarth - 62
Jokers updateOnly one person was bold enough to deploy a joker at the first race of the weekend. Fountoukos13, perhaps banking on the sort of race that led to Nasr securing a debut points finish in 2015, used their Driver group 6 joker on Felipe 'Fred' Nasr. It was a move that never even threatened to work once the racing got underway as Nasr trailed home in 15th with only Pascal Wehrlein's Manor behind him on the track. With Romain Grosjean finishing in 6th, it could be that we've all already missed the best result to capitalise on as far as the joker for Driver group 6 goes. Bahrain is up next; will anyone follow Fountoukos13's lead and play an early joker or will we see people holding onto them for later in the year?
Spare a thought for... Remmirath. Their 62 points weren't even half of what the top 3 scored, and that is in spite of being one of the few to plump for Grosjean. Being the only player to opt for Ferrari over Mercedes accounted for a large chunk of the points they missed out on. The one positive there is a Vettel - Raikkonen one-two would instantly give them at least 26 points over everybody except Black_Flag_11, who would only drop 16 points back thanks to joining Remmirath as the only other person to select Vettel. Look for Remmirath to do very well in the weekends Ferrari secure a strong result.
Overall standings after AustraliaJezza13 - 115
Mayhem and TypingChicane - 105
Schumacher forever#1 - 101
Icemanjee1 - 100
Fountoukos13 and Theferret - 99
Coulthard’s Chin and Hamilton_Jar - 97
Exediron, Herb and Jenson's Understeer - 91
Black_Flag_11 - 90
Remmiarth - 62
Obviously these are a reflection of the result for the race itself so there isn't much more to say here other than to congratulate Jezza13 on jumping out into an early lead. A sign of things to come or a false dawn? Let's find out in two weeks time!
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Big thumbs up for that.
![:]](./images/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif "Grin"){kind=icon}