So, the sixth round of the season, and we have another new winner! It’s all up in the air, a bit like the F1 cars in Monaco…
Let’s be honest, picks at Monaco are at least half luck, and certainly no more than half skill. Accidents, safety cars and kamikaze drivers can make even the best picks on paper look positively awful, and to be fair, that’s what happened to everyone in Monaco. With a top score of 46 points (sallys), I think it’s fair to say we all want to put this one behind us and think about making this a non-championship race next year!
Sally’s picks of Alonso, Button and Webber (second, third and fourth respectively) was enough to win, with scores of 45 (schueyfan), 44 (martin_d) and 43 (steph90) close behind. A special mention to Steph, who was extremely hard done-by in the race, her results single-handedly wrecked by Lewis Hamilton, who helped wreck Massa’s race early on—one of her picks— and then entangled himself with Pastor Maldonado later on in the race, a move that dropped her from first to fourth in the race in an instant. This cost her not only the race win, but also a commanding championship lead and her Forza Ferrari team a comfortable Constructors’ Championship lead. Monaco is cruel indeed.
So, a few notes, as always:
- A maximum possible score was, by my reckoning, 67: Alonso, Button, Webber, Kobycrashi, Sutil, Heidfeld, Barrichello. I know what you’re thinking, “Why didn’t I pick them?” Well, that’s the nature of Monaco… a safety car a could of laps either side and the results would have been very different.
- The Most Valuable Pick, a 6.00 points, was Adrian Sutil. At 5.56 points, Kobayashi was also a mammoth pick. Between them, they returned 16 points for a spend of just 2.8 points, now that is a bargain!
- The most-picked driver was Lewis Hamilton (10), so I’m guessing many of you were shouting at your screens a lot during the race. Next was Webber (9) and then Michael Schumacher (8), so good to see some of you taking some of my subtle hint on board. Sadly, for you and me, he didn’t score.
So, enough of that, here’s the full results from the Monaco Grand Prix:
| Rank | Name | Score | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | sallys | 46 | 25 |
| 2 | schueyfan | 45 | 18 |
| 3 | martin_d | 44 | 15 |
| 4 | steph90 | 43 | 12 |
| 5 | monza972 | 40 | 10 |
| 6 | schumistar | 38 | 8 |
| 7 | ferrari_fuhrer | 38 | 6 |
| 8 | sasjag | 37 | 4 |
| 9 | pmhorrocks | 35 | 2 |
| 10= | wilkie84 | 35 | 0.5 |
| 10= | lizzy91 | 35 | 0.5 |
| 12 | forzavale | 34 | 0 |
| 13 | paprys91 | 34 | 0 |
| 14 | alexs | 18.5* | 0 |
| 15 | marcsmeed | 16.5* | 0 |
| 16 | jkblues | 0* | 0 |
One small note on tenth place: I initially had lizzy91 down in tenth place—again!—but on discovery that she beat wilkie84 in a tie-break that went all the way down to Sergio Perez, who didn’t start, I discarded this pick. A driver has to start the race to qualify in the results – I have amended the rules to show this (rule 8.4), and the points are shared accordingly. Of course, if David had bothered to use all his picks—on anyone—he would have finished tenth anyway…
It’s Canada up next, don’t forget to get your picks in early – you can always change them, up until an hour before Free Practice 1.