SofaF1

Another dream front row for Red Bull. Webster taking the top spot this time, then comfortably leading the whole race to deliver a crushing win, probably his best yet. Vettel did well to finish third in the end carrying a few problems around and benefitting from Hamilton’s unfortunate exit 2 laps from the end.

Improvement from Schumacher beating Rosberg this week for the first time.

It seems like everyone came to the start of the European season with their new parts and upgrades but then were completely stunned again by the pace of the Red Bulls, but can they keep going in enough races to win the championships? Who knows, but its pretty close at the top really.

The race might not have been the most exciting although it did have some moments of intrigue, but the results show it really is going to be a close season.  Anyway on to Monaco, the jewel of the F1 crown and they say a win here is worth half a championship…who is going to score it? It would be funny if it was the Hulk.

Erm points … i think most of us scored some. Probably.

The Spanish Grand Prix is coming soon… The European season begins now and that might be interesting…

Yadda, yadda, yadda, we need your predictions for the race and your pole sitter by the time qualifying begins on Saturday.

Go here to register your intent: http://aaserver.co.uk/widgets/poll.cgi?race=5

Red Bull on pole again this week, fourth time out of four, continuing to show superb qualifying pace. Could they continue the results from round 3 in Malaysia?? No, is the short answer, Alonso adopted an interesting tactic to snatch the lead down into the first corner, if you can’t go as fast as the Red Bulls then get up earlier and leave before them, the stewards however didn’t seem to think this was at all like cricket and told him to pop back into the pits if he wouldn’t mind and let everyone else catch up. Early rain saw most people dash in for some grippier tyres but Button and Rosberg hung on for a bit on the slicks until the rain stopped and retained the lead while everyone had to get back on the slicks again. Good call, this put the Red Bulls back down in the pack hampering their progress, but they still managed to finish in sixth and eighth. Hamilton however stopped for the same tyres but managed to make better propgress through the field, even if he did make a bit of a meal about getting past Schumacher. Fourth race, 3 winners different winners, nobody winning from pole and JB rises to the championship lead with his 2 wins with Rosberg just behind him, benefiting from consistant point scoring.

SofaF1 so far…

startledbunny 30

Andy (The Speedgeek) 28

fourstar 27

Lukeh 26

guille2306 25

Igor 22

Nick Ollivere 22

Lou 22

Brawn2bwild 21

GrifF1 21

James 20

Steven Roy 20

the blue pariah 19

Pete 19

Alison 18

Pat W 18

mr. c. 17

dp 16

Rod 16

RocketRedhead 16

RG 15

Alex 15

Christine 15

Bearded Stew 13

baliman 13

Dan Brunell 12

Nick In Dubai 9

RubberGoat 9

Amy 8

psionandy 6

Jordan Allen 4

Red Bull finally delivered a good team result after showing good speed all season so far, cracking pole for Webber, but Vettel just pipped him down into the first corner and held onto the lead till the chequered flag. Disastrous qualifying for Ferrari and McLaren getting caught out in the rain, but Hamilton had a great run off the start to launch his fightback. Alonso retired later with a broken engine after struggling with a shifting problem for most of his race. The Hulk qualified way up in 5th place but slipped back to 10th in the race, but still scoring his first F1 points. Good to see Rosberg on the podium too, taking third after starting an impressive second on the grid, while Schumacher retired early on with a loose wheel nut. Three different winners in three races, but again crucially the weather played a massive part in forming the grid, or at least the teams reactions to it.

It’s been all go all of a sudden here as I’ve had to move the site over to a different blogging platform because Blogger messed us around…

So pick your pole sitter and your top 10 by qualifying start… 7am on Saturday for those of us in the UK.

http://aaserver.co.uk/widgets/poll.cgi?race=4

I have finally fixed the pole so that it brings votes forward for people who haven’t voted… Check out the breakdown page here: http://aaserver.co.uk/widgets/poll.cgi

You can click on the race names at the top to see the detail of what you got and why.

So on to the race this weekend. Lewis must be determined to get back at Button, Alonso at Massa and old man Schumacher is surely hoping to upset Nico or at least Jaime Alguersuari.

There is a strong chance of rain during the race an potentially even a half points result. However we don’t believe in half points. And given Vettel’s reliability problems perhaps he’ll finally get to finish if they don’t expect him to get to the end.

It doesn’t matter what the drivers think they can do it matters what you think they can do so please give us your prediction for pole position and the top 10 finishers in the race:

http://aaserver.co.uk/widgets/poll.cgi?race=3

Everyone seems to be laughing at everyone else who wrote the new F1 season off after the first race. Add in a bit of rain and the whole season has come alive. Now suddenly F1 has gone from the most boring sport in the world to the most exciting and unpredictable.

Another race of pain for Vettel in the Red Bull, qualifying on pole again in Melbourne but unfortunately turfed off the track in the race by some mechanical woe. His team mate Webber, alongside him on the grid had a bit of an interesting race really culminating with a mad charge on Hamilton which hindered them both but not enough to keep them from scoring points. Button cruised on to win but would it have been so easy for him if Vettel was still in the running? Button’s early call on tyres proved pivotal as he got up to speed and looked after them all the way to the end.

Not such a good weekend for Hamilton, ending the race on a angry note as he went hunting down the person who called him in to have is worn out tyres changed.

Right result for Kubica, not really ending up too far behind Button but probably holding the Ferraris up, especially if Alonso could have got past Massa. Alonso had a pretty good race really considering where he was after the start, pointing the wrong way after getting tangled up with Button and Schumacher.

Progress update on the Hulk is not so good, so probably should keep quiet for a while!

So have all the problems with the season gone away now? Well, probably not. We could all see and Martin did mention it just before the Webster tapped Hamilton in the closing stages of the race, the procession had resumed. The Ferraris couldn’t get past Kubica or themselves and whether it was dirty air or tyres Hamilton couldn’t get past the Ferraris.

So as ever the rain did liven things up, but there are still some questions about whether closer car performamnce, which surely the refuelling ban is trying to promote really makes for closer, exciting racing. I’m not convinced so far, however I do think it does throw the door open for some imaginative solutions, it would be great of Hispania added on a McLaren style wind tunnel, reintroduced KERS and found a way to get an adjustable rear wing then they really could be onto something.

Results may be delayed but scores for anyone making Race 2 predictions are available to view where you entered them. Full points review after Malaysia, stay tuned………………..

Ah Albert Park, the traditional start to the season. What will it hold for us this weekend?

Ferrari got their one/two but if Red Bull have fixed their problems perhaps Vettel or even Webber could be up at the front. There is a strong chance of rain and when it rains the McLarens and Mercedes could move closer to the front. Lewis and Schumacher could both lay claims to rain master status. And Jenson has been pretty handy in the wet too.

But what do you think? Let us know in the pole poll. Qualifying starts at 6am UK time tomorrow. So get those votes in asap!

http://aaserver.co.uk/widgets/poll.cgi?race=2

Welcome back to another year of the SofaF1 championship, but before we start a special thanks to Alex for sorting out the superb new hi tech prediction submitter which if you haven’t all seen it already shows your individual scores once the race results have been added in. A great addition for the new season which will provide much more timely information than I have been managing over the last few years!

So how did we all find the first race of the new season? I must say I did enjoy watching qualifying and race after such a seemingly long break.

Plenty of new stuff going on, new drivers, old drivers, new teams, old teams with new colours, in fact the only teams that really look similar to recent years have been Ferrari, McLaren and Williams.

I have heard various moanings already about how boring the race was, I must say though that I didn’t feel like it was too boring when watching, but I can understand what they mean. Essentially all the top ten starters used the soft tyre when qualifying then ran for a bit in the race, switched to the harder compound tyres and then looked after them all the way to the end, giving a much more endurance feel to the race. Even Martin Brundle made several reference to Le Mans similarities during the commentary.

Talking of Martin Brundle, I do like the way he is starting to come up with his own Murrayisms, I should have written it down but (i’m sure I heard this right) he said at one point something like “Three Germans in a line but all in different positions!”

Well, real shame for Vettel, they weren’t dominating, but did seem to have the race sorted. Alonso though showing good pace and claiming to have some more in the bag, seeming to suggest he could have taken Vettel anyway, but judging by the way the car was heating up behind Vettel could he really have passed him? I don’t know but I reckon we are in for a great year finding out.

Bit of a rocky debut for The Hulk, all over the place not long after the start with some wild oversteer but good fun to watch pulling back the places later on. I guess the Mercedes guys will be disappointed with their performance, despite finishing in relatively good positions, they don’t seem to have much for Ferrari really to worry about just yet.

Awesome comeback for Massa too. Really good solid result for him, pretty much held onto Alonso all the way round, it will be interesting to see how close those two are as the season unfolds.

So now we can forget all the winter hype and see how good the cars really are. It looks like Red Bull will be battling the Ferraris, with McLaren and Mercedes hoping to spoil the party, as many people predicted. The race is on…

Round 1 & Championship

Alison 12
guille2306 12
startledbunny 12
Igor 10
Lukeh 10
Nick Ollivere 10
Andy (The Speedgeek) 9
fourstar 9
mr. c. 8
RG 8
dp 7
James 7
Lou 7
Alex 6
Brawn2bwild 6
Steven Roy 6
the blue pariah 6
Bearded Stew 5
Christine 5
GrifF1 5
Pat W 4
Pete 4
Amy 3
Rod 3

With the brand spanking new season almost upon us, we are ready to launch the Pole Poll championship for 2010.

What do you have to do if you want to take part?
For each race, before qualifying starts you have to predict who will be on pole and also the top 10 finishers in the race.

You get 2 points if you get the pole sitter correct. You get 4 points for getting the winner right and you get 2 points for each of the other places you get correct.

Also, if you have a ‘near miss’ eg. the person who you predicted to win comes second, or fifth comes fourth, you get 1 point.

But there is one extra factor.

Before qualifying starts in Bahrain this weekend you need to also predict the top ten finishers in the whole season and who will have the most polls. This works in the same way as though the season was a race except you get double points, rather like ‘playing your joker’. As these points are added at the end of the season, this can become the crucial swing factor in the year.

Also before the season starts we want you to pick a MAIDEN winner (i.e. someone who has never won a F1 race before). If the driver you choose wins a race at any time during this season, you will get a 4 point bonus applied immediately to your score. You can of course say “nobody” if you expect that there will be no maiden winners; in this case, you would get the points at the end of the season, if that proves to be the case.

And that’s it! Except this year we have a fancy new way to enter the competition (and to make things easier for Bearded Stew).

So to enter you need to give your season predictions here: http://aaserver.co.uk/widgets/poll.cgi?race=0

And your race predictions here: http://aaserver.co.uk/widgets/poll.cgi?race=1

Good luck!