A 29-point haul in Hungary has fired ZanteX into the lead of the F1 Fanatic Predictions’ Championship.
But that wasn’t the biggest single score this weekend – 12 players all scored 31 points meaning the pole position tie-breaker had to be used to pick our first and second place prize winners.
That proved incredibly close too, with the two best predictions each within one tenth of a second of the pole position time.
So I think we can say without a doubt that this week’s winners earned their prizes! Congratulations to first placed prize winner nwsmithex and runner-up psilent.
And commiserations to the ten others who matched their scores but weren’t close enough on the tie-breaker: TJ Breen, Tom Hitchings, Chubbfw31, MoszeUsz, Devil4Racing, Edward Knight, Kosmit, LucaBadoerFan, Ayrton and lucamus.
All these players correctly predicted Sebastian Vettel as the pole sitter and a top four of Mark Webber, Fernando Alonso, Vettel and Felipe Massa.
Had any of them put Vitaly Petrov in fifth place they would have had a maximum score of 50 points. There were eight people who correctly predicted where Petrov would finish.
With several players picking up big points the championship order has been shaken up. Five of this week’s top points-scorers now feature among the top ten. Check out the standings in full below.
View the F1 Fanatic Predictions Championship standings in full
Due to a styling problem the entire table may not be visible on the page. Use the scroll bar at the bottom to reveal it all. Apologies for the fault which will be fixed.
The prizes
This year we’re giving away a pair of prizes every race weekend.
On top of that at the end of the year the top 12 finishers all get prizes – and whoever scores the highest overall will be going to the 2011 British Grand Prix. Here are the prizes in full:
Grand prize: Two grandstands tickets to the 2011 British Grand Prix
The person who scores the most points in the 2010 F1 Fanatic Predictions Championship will win grandstand tickets to the 2011 British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
This is the first time we’ve offered F1 race tickets as a prize at F1 Fanatic and I hope you all agree it’s a fitting reward for the F1 expert who can best predict who will be on top in 2010.
The grand prize winner will receive tickets to all three days of the 2011 British Grand Prix with reserved grandstand seating for the race.
Second place prize: An F1 painting of your choice
The second place finisher in the championship will win an F1 painting by Rob Ijbema.
You get to choose which F1 driver, present or past, will feature in the painting. Or you can pick one of the other motor racing paintings on Rob’s site Car-a-day.
Runners-up prizes: Autocourse 2010-2011
The ten players who finish in third to 12th positions in the championship will win a copy of the 2010-2011 edition of Autocourse.
The highly respected journal of Formula 1 and other major international four-wheeled racing series is published at the end of every season.
This year the publication marks its 60th anniversary edition.
NB. 2009 edition cover used for illustration
Race winners prize: The Lotus Story DVD Box Set
Duke Video are supplying the prize for the player who gets the highest score in each round.
With the Lotus name returning to F1 in 2010 what better prize than a DVD box set showing the history of this great team. This four-disc set “The Lotus Story” chronicles Lotus’s participation in F1 from the company’s beginning in 1948 up to its F1 withdrawal in 1994. (Please note this DVD is in PAL format).
Duke are also offering a special promotion exclusive to all F1 Fanatic readers – whenever you order from them you can get 15% off using the promotional code F1Fanatic at the checkout.
Race runners-up prize: Two F1 T-shirts
The second place finisher in each race will win a race winner’s T-shirt and Official F1 Fanatic T-shirt from Unlap.
This prize is supplied by Unlap.
How to enter
Entries will open in the week before every race. You have until the start of free practice three on Saturday to make your predictions.
You can post your predictions for the first race now below or wait until nearer the deadline. A reminder will be posted on the site after free practice two on Friday.
Each player may predict the pole sitter, the pole position lap time and the top five finishers in the race. See below for the rules in full.
Enter your pole position lap time prediction in the following format: MM:SS.ccc – e.g. for a lap of one minute, 25.386 seconds enter 01:25.386
Please try to pick an original and distinctive user name – something a bit more descriptive than just a first name and use the same name for every race you enter.
Competition terms and conditions
1. Maximum one entry per household.
2. The competition is not open to employees, friends or family of F1 Fanatic, Silverstone Circuit, Duke Video, Motorsport in Print, Car-a-Day or Icon Publishing Ltd.
3. Predictions will open up to one week before the start of final practice on the Saturday of a Grand Prix weekend and will be promoted on the front page of F1 Fanatic before closing prior to the start of final practice.
4. In each round players are invited to predict (a) who will be on pole position and (b) what the top five finishers will be (five different drivers).
5. Players accumulate points in each round as follows:
a. Correctly naming the pole sitter: 2 points
b. Correctly naming one/two/three/four/five driver/s who finish in the top five: 1/2/3/5/8 points
c. Correctly predicting where one/two/three/four/five driver/s finish: 2/6/14/24/40 points
6. Whoever scores the most points over the 19 races from round one (Bahrain) to 19 (Abu Dhabi) wins the grand prize.
7. In the event of a tie on points the winner will be determined by who came closest to predicting the pole position time correctly. If that fails to produce a winner the editor will choose a means of deciding who has won.
8. Predictions must be entered using the form below. If you have trouble submitting your entry via the form please email competition@f1fanatic.co.uk
9. Once a prediction has been made it cannot be altered.
10. In the event of a dispute the editor’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
11. No cash alternative is offered for any of the prizes.
12. Grand Prix tickets: Children must be accompanied by an adult. Accommodation and transport to the venue not included. Event date TBC.
13. Players who have won prizes will be notified by email within seven days of each Grand Prix. Lotus DVDs and F1 paintings will be despatched within 28 days of that email being sent. Grand Prix tickets will be despatched once they are available. Autocourse books will be despatched once they are published.
Don’t miss a single round of the F1 Fanatic Predictions Championship. Subscribe to F1 Fanatic using RSS, email or Twitter: Click here for more information.
gwenouille
4th August 2010, 0:08
Waw, I gain about 200 places with my season high 19 points !
All hope is not lost !
Joey-Poey
4th August 2010, 0:15
Before Hamilton retired, I was set to have 4 correct drivers :C
tobinen
4th August 2010, 10:53
I had all 5, but Vettel’s drive through cost me, and I think Hamilton would’ve stayed in front of Massa had he kept going. Oh well!
Well done ZanteX
mateuss
4th August 2010, 10:57
Before he retired, and before Vettel was given the penalty I was set to have 50 points, imagine my disappointment.
BNK
4th August 2010, 12:19
same here :( …if massa got back in front of hamilton i would have had a perfect score!
matt90
4th August 2010, 13:33
I was set a much better score as well. Got 3 instead.
macahan
5th August 2010, 4:24
Hey Keith.. Just a FYI you can not submit your predictions from a Blackberry even with Javascript enabled :(
Between Q2 and Q3 all I had available both in Silverstone and for Hungary was my Blackberry. Wasn’t sure until I checked the predictions today. You can fill it out and once you hit submit the page refreshes and you can enter prediction. Tried it three times and ended up just hoping it maybe worked. Nope. Got 0 for both races. Would picked pole and winner and 4th place right for Hungary and Pole, winner and 3rd or 5th place for Silverstone.
No biggie. Just saying it don’t work from a crackberry ;)
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
5th August 2010, 8:12
Thanks for letting me know macahan.
hamilzors
4th August 2010, 0:33
I’m afraid the way points are assigned spoil the championship a lot, those on top are not really the best ones to predict results but the lucky ones who get one or two avalaches of points, then you live happily everafter with just a few points.
More points should be assigned if one understand who is in the first positions, and many less to exactly where does a driver end (which is based mostly on luck).
Also to skim between good and bad predicters, one or more question should be asked about the outcome of the race (because the race is not only the first 5 who arrive) like “Will Buemi beat Alguersuari? 5 points” or “Who will qualify better between Schumacher and Rosberg? 3 points” or “Will a Toro Rosso end in the first 10 positions?” This reduces the amount of pure luck needed.
Patrickl
5th August 2010, 12:27
It’s a gamble anyway. How can you seriously claim to know who’s going to finish where based on the friday performance?
I think it’s great fun anyway.
Scalextric
4th August 2010, 0:34
My 2nd highest score and I dropped a spot! High scoring round…
scunnyman (@scunnyman)
4th August 2010, 0:46
Well done ZanteX, the Prediction Championship is hotting up just as much as the real thing.
Now what do we do for the next month???????
How about points for predicting the outcome of WMSC meeting 8th September? ha! ha!
Cyclops
4th August 2010, 9:04
1 point in front of me, be damned scunnyman ;P
sumedh
4th August 2010, 1:08
Aaah, dropped from 21st to 29th!! I had Vettel for 1st and Webber for 3rd, I would have been so happy if the race ended after the first corner. But the safety car ruined my predictions :(
Also, too much faith in Kubica also proved to be a bad thing :(
Bad weekend overall, hopefully I can turn things around after the summer-break.
Joey-Poey
4th August 2010, 3:27
Yeah, last couple times, Kubica has messed mine up too.
Rahzam
4th August 2010, 7:40
It was not Safety car. It was Vettel sleeping and ruined my score as well. :D
Dane
4th August 2010, 1:22
Yay, im back in the race now :)
Macca (@macca)
4th August 2010, 4:31
Was on my way to a perfect score and then the saftey car came out and wrecked everything.
Ayrton
4th August 2010, 6:42
Steph if you are out there…I am completely surprised by my performance…A haul of 31 points! I think we should keep this competition up :-)… However, I am still placed in 253rd position…so overall you are beating me by some margin! See you for Spa!
Steph90 (@steph90)
4th August 2010, 13:31
I saw. Congratulations.
*sulks off and starts studying up on the cars, drivers and Spa*
:P
Just kidding, nicely done Ayrton. You are going to be very tough to beat. Just forget the earlier scores and start from Hungary as it’s not fair that I was able to build up a points lead when you weren’t even competiting.
Ayrton
4th August 2010, 20:46
You are a truly good sportsman Steph…I look forward to our future competitions…this one was just fluke on my behalf! I am sure you will catch up very soon. Enjoy the summer break, however, I am not sure my life is complete without my fortnightly fix of F1…
Steph90 (@steph90)
5th August 2010, 11:42
I don’t think it was a fluke. I think this season is a nightmare to predict so any high scorers should be feeling pretty pleased with themselves!
I don’t know about being sporting, I support Ferrari afterall ;) Just kidding! Yeah, the other Ferrari fans must hate me…
Hope you enjoy the summer break too! Try youtube every so often for some F1 fix. It’s the best we’ve got at the mo’ but then we have Spa :D
Kosmit
4th August 2010, 7:32
Wow, I got 31 points! And the way I see it, I should get a bonus point for correctly naming the team to finish fifth (I predicted Kubica, no Petrov) ;-)
Edward K
4th August 2010, 8:53
Same here! I got 31 points and predicted Kubica to come fifth!
US Williams Fan
4th August 2010, 7:54
I am in the top 100! This a fine day indeed! :)
Ronman
4th August 2010, 8:00
at least i got pole right. I’m ranked 1040 now, do i still have a chance? :P
IDR (@idr)
4th August 2010, 8:54
Ask Alonso, he will confirm you still have a chance!!!
brianlow
4th August 2010, 8:02
hi, does anyone know why i cant see the results table?
thks
Edward K
4th August 2010, 8:56
Yes!! I’m now in 6th place!!
Keirdre (@keirdre)
4th August 2010, 10:50
Dammit, dropped from 4th to 8th! Shocking.
Nitpicker
4th August 2010, 18:08
My heart bleeds down in 853rd place.
PJA
4th August 2010, 12:50
Although the safety car made the race better to watch it didn’t help my prediction championship.
Before the safety car I thought I was going to get my best result as I had Vettel for the pole and the top five as Vettel, Webber, Alonso, Massa and Hamilton.
Judging by some of the comments quite a few people must have had a similar prediction as well.
qazuhb
4th August 2010, 14:11
I for one made the same prediction. However, had it become true, there would had been a huge amount of people tied… it was rather “logical”, a copy of the starting grid! But my pole time prediction, even as I thought it was wildly fast, turned out to be more than a second slower…
INS
4th August 2010, 14:47
I’m gutted. If Vettel had any guts and overtook Alonso towards the end of the Grand Prix, then my top five predictions would have been right.
Why did I pick the wrong Red Bull for pole?
Oh, for Vettel’s drive-through penalty!
Could have been a perfect weekend for me, predictions-wise.
George
4th August 2010, 17:34
Bah, cant believe I missed this round while I was on holiday
Chubbfw31
4th August 2010, 18:15
In the top 50…yes
joe
4th August 2010, 20:15
such a great compition with so many people taking part each round.
Even as far back as 437th place I can see someone has scored points in every round!
Elliot Horwood
7th August 2010, 22:41
bit annoyed ive missed 3 or 4 as its not been advertised on main site, and when it was it was saturday during FP3 which should be allowed to choose up to qualifying so we can pick during saturday free practice!!!!!!!!!
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR =[
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
7th August 2010, 22:47
It has been on the front page of the site on every Friday and Saturday of a race weekend.