[Official] Bahrain Grand Prix - Predictions Contest 2023 - Round 1 of 23 - Results

[Born Racer]

The 2023 season presents 23 rounds of the predictions contest and a host of new rules. Remember you have plenty of opportunities for success and will ultimately drop some scores to determine your championship position. Please see the rules thread for more info.

Round 1 saw fifteen people take part, which was not bad and a promising start compare to last year, but we would love an even bigger field, so do join in if you haven't yet. We welcome rika and TCT, two new competitors this year.

Congratulations to Beau2 on winning our opening round. Last year's 4th-place finisher in the championship took a closely-contested victory, beating Born Racer Fan by a mere 4 points, with Gnussi completing the podium a further point behind.


What happened in Bahrain

First things first - let's start with some of the new rules. The extra two points for guessing the mode of pit stops per driver added strategic interest. I opted for 3 (envisaging a two-stop race by most, but also anticipating a potential SC). In the end, 11 drivers stopped twice, 7 stopped 3 times and Norris stopped 5 times (not including his stop in the pits to retire).

13 out of the 15 entrants successfully picked 2 stops, with just me a wolfhound on an alternative strategy (he picked 1 stop).

As for finishers, only 2 got this right and went for the 16-17 category. Unfortunately, Gnussi's prediction of 15-17 had to be ruled out, as the options are 1-10, 11-15, 16-17, 18-19 and 20.

Note that the fastest lap prediction is now for team, not driver. Most people put a driver. Nonetheless, nobody got this one, as it was Alfa Romeo, with Zhou Guanyu.

9/15 predicted the winner.

This was also the driver who was predicted in his correct position by most people.

Only Born Racer Fan got the podium right.

Stroll was predicted in the top 10 by two thirds.

One third predicted Gasly in the top 10, and all of those 5 competitors put him in 9th.

Congratulations to TCT on being the only one to get Albon in their top 10 (and in his correct position of 10th).

14/15 went for Leclerc in the top 10, so this was the most erroneously predicted top 10 finisher (not surprisingly), but aside from him, Norris was the one you could say was most predicted erroneously. Of course, like Leclerc, he retired due to a car failure, but he didn't look likely to score points and 11/15 chose him.

4/15 got the top 3 in qualifying right.

No-one got that Ferrari would grab fastest pit stop.

Everyone went for the obvious option of dry weather in Bahrain.

7 got Driver of the Day, while 7 also got Driver of the Grand Prix (not all the same 7).

8 put Aston Martin down as Team of the Grand Prix.

10 predicted a Rate the Grand Prix score of 7 or 6 (50% going for each score).

crmalcolm, TCT and Teretonga all got the fewest top 10 finishers, with 6 each.

Nobody got more than 8 of the top 10 finishers in any position.

Beau2 and Born Racer Fan both got the most top 10 finishers in their correct positions (5).



Bahrain Grand Prix Results

1. Verstappen
2. Pérez
3. Alonso
4. Sainz
5. Hamilton
6. Stroll
7. Russell
8. Bottas
9. Gasly
10. Albon

Qualifying
1. Verstappen
2. Pérez
3. Leclerc

Fastest lap: Alfa Romeo
Fastest pit stop: Ferrari
Weather: Dry
formula1.com Driver of the Day: Alonso
Driver of the Grand Prix: Alonso
Team of the Grand Prix: Aston Martin
Rate the Grand Prix: 7 (mode) & 6 (mean, rounded down from 6.40625).
Number of finishers: 17
Number of pit stops: 2


Bahrain Grand Prix Predictions Contest Results and championship standings after Round 1 of 23

1. Beau2 - 111
2. Born Racer Fan - 107
3. Gnussi - 106
4. TrapezeArtist - 103
5. wolfhound - 95
6. Notso Swift - 92
7. BTCC frog - 89
8. Born Racer - 88
9. smellysocks - 87
10. steve_r - 83
11. TCT - 79
12. rika - 74
13. Teretonga - 73
14. crmalcolm - 61
15. Aysedasi - 58

Predictions for Jeddah are now open: https://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=157781

Join us there.

[Aysedasi]

Oh dear, my foolish optimism that something different might happen sees me in my customary position......

[Born Racer]

Don't worry. You will drop your worst scores. It worked for Ayrton.

[Beau2]

Looking forward to doing a Leclerc and coming third in the Championship, or lower after a strong start.