2012 Fantasy Formula 1

[Nathan Susanto]

The results are official after the stewards handed Narain Karthikeyan a post-race 20 second penalty for causing an avoidable accident with Sebastian Vettel. The penalty meant Karthikeyan dropped from 21st to 22nd.

The rain fell as was forecast as the cars sat on the starting grid. All cars started the race on inters or wets. Lewis Hamilton beat his teammate Jenson Button into turn one, unlike last week, and the McLarens built up a small lead over the pack until the race was red flagged at the end of lap 8 due to the rain's increased intensity. The race restarted around 50 minutes later behind the safety car and Sergio Perez inherited the lead when Hamilton got held up in the pits. Perez pitted two laps later, allowing Alonso to lead the field. In the latter stages, Perez closed in on Alonso until the Mexican ran wide on lap 50, giving the Ferrari some breathing space. Perez's mistake most probably cost him his maiden F1 victory and it would have been Sauber's second win after they won the 2008 Canadian GP thanks to Robert Kubica. Alonso brought his car home first, closely followed by Perez. Hamilton completed the podium.

There was a strong drive from Bruno Senna who was last after an early accident but crossed the line 6th. The 8 points he received was more than the Williams achieved in the entire 2011. Senna's teammate Pastor Maldonado wasn't so lucky. For the second race in a row, the Venezuelan retired from the race when it looked as if a points finish was on the cards. This time his engine let go with two laps remaining while running in 10th.

Force India was the only team to get both cars into the top-10 as some of the leading drivers fell by the wayside. Button saw his chances of points disappear when he misjudged a move on Karthikeyan. The McLaren front wing was damaged and Button fell to the back of the field. Sebastian Vettel also had a coming together with Karthikeyan when the Red Bull was hunting down Hamilton. Vettel was lapping the HRT but Karthikeyan caught the Red Bull's left rear tire, causing a puncture. Seven B-List drivers scored a top-10 finish, with Jean-Eric Vergne collecting his first F1 points.

[Nathan Susanto]

Congratulations to Dario Ambrozewiez for scoring the most points for the Malaysian GP and taking the overall lead in the process. Dario's lineup of Hamilton, Schumacher, Raikkonen and McLaren was good enough for 136 points, 6 points better than Corey Beaudoin who was one point ahead of Andy Nemecek. The highest possible score was 154 points but no member picked race winner Fernando Alonso and only two members had second-placed Sergio Perez.

Wet races are typically low-scoring and that proved to be the case today. The average score was 104.88 points (105.46 without non-picks), well down from the 112.68 points average recorded last week.

The overall standings post on the opening page has been updated. I'll try to update the drivers/teams stats post in the next day or so. The usage post on the opening page has been updated through Malaysia.

The next race is in China in three weeks. I'll hope to have the Chinese GP Preview ready in a couple of weeks.


Chinese GP Timetable
FP1: Thursday, April 12th at 10 PM ET
FP2: Friday, April 13th at 2 AM ET
FP3: Friday, April 13th at 11 PM ET
Deadline: Saturday, April 14th at 1:55 AM ET
Qualifying: Saturday, April 14th at 2 AM ET
Race : Sunday, April 15th at 3 AM ET

[Nathan Susanto]

Everything on the opening page should be updated now.

Overall Standings and Game Stats post
Points Breakdown post
F1 Fantasy Points and Records post
Usage post
Usage Stats post

[Nathan Susanto]

Organisers of the Bahrain GP are confident of the event going ahead without any problems and are not planning any extra security measures. The Bahrain GP weekend is April 20-22.

http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/story/74497.html


This is the latest photo of the Circuit of the Americas. It was taken Friday (I believe), 237 days before the US GP weekend begins November 16-18.



The start/finish straight runs along the bottom (with the pits complex just above it) with the uphill turn 1 on the right. It runs down towards the "Silverstone Maggotts/Becketts" turns, and at the top of the picture is the turn 11 hairpin. Then, coming back down the picture is the start of the long straight. You can't really make out the "Hockenheimring Motodrom stadium section" which is meant to follow, but you can see the "Istanbul Turn 8", roughly in the centre of the picture. That then leads to the last two corners of the circuit.

I believe Kimi's two years in rallying should help him in these conditions...  

[Robert Flatt]

Organisers of the Bahrain GP are confident of the event going ahead without any problems and are not planning any extra security measures. The Bahrain GP weekend is April 20-22.

http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/story/74497.html


This is the latest photo of the Circuit of the Americas. It was taken Friday (I believe), 237 days before the US GP weekend begins November 16-18.


The start/finish straight runs along the bottom (with the pits complex just above it) with the uphill turn 1 on the right. It runs down towards the "Silverstone Maggotts/Becketts" turns, and at the top of the picture is the turn 11 hairpin. Then, coming back down the picture is the start of the long straight. You can't really make out the "Hockenheimring Motodrom stadium section" which is meant to follow, but you can see the "Istanbul Turn 8", roughly in the centre of the picture. That then leads to the last two corners of the circuit.

I believe Kimi's two years in rallying should help him in these conditions...  

Wow, I don't see that race happening this year. Way too much work to be done.

[Nathan Susanto]

Wow, I don't see that race happening this year. Way too much work to be done.

As a comparison, here's a link to a photo of the Budhh International Circuit about 9 months before the Indian GP...

http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/9788/capturevjw.png


Here's a photo essay of the Circuit of the Americas, published yesterday...

CultureMap Houston: Look at track's progress


Here are the latest official photos from the Circuit of the Americas website...

More March track progress

The latest news I find about the race is posted near the foot of the opening post.


Just a reminder, Red Bull already holds the lap record at the Circuit of the Americas... 

Red Bull Racing takes first lap in Texas (the lap starts at 3:57)

[Nathan Susanto]

More trouble in Bahrain over the weekend. It looks like teams have made back up plans in case the Bahrain GP is canceled.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/04/trouble-on-the-ground-in-bahrain/

[Nathan Susanto]

The Chinese GP Preview, which includes Chinese GP stats and season stats, has been posted on the website. You can remind yourself who you've picked already in the usage post on the opening page.

Good luck.


Chinese GP Timetable
FP1: Thursday, April 12th at 10 PM ET
FP2: Friday, April 13th at 2 AM ET
FP3: Friday, April 13th at 11 PM ET
Deadline: Saturday, April 14th at 1:55 AM ET
Qualifying: Saturday, April 14th at 2 AM ET
Race : Sunday, April 15th at 3 AM ET

[Nathan Susanto]

The Bahrain GP is scheduled for the week following China. I'll try to post updates throughout this week...I'm guessing a definitive decision will come by the weekend. It really should have been scrapped (or never have been on the calendar in the first place) ages ago...

Latest updates:
FOTA relying on FIA for Bahrain decision
Bahrain opposition leader predicts "violence" for GP weekend
Bahrain chief blames 'scaremongering'
Bernie: Teams not worried
Bahrain's Gulf Air facebook page 'hacked'

Lotus sent someone to Bahrain to check on the situation. The report they came back with to the team principals said “We came away from Bahrain feeling a lot more confident that everything is in hand and to be honest if it wasn’t for a few more police you wouldn’t know any difference from the last year we were there.” It appears these quotes were issued by the Bahrain organisers without Lotus's permission, though...

[Gianfranco Lintas]

A
Hamilton
B
DiResta
Raikkonen
T
Sauber

[Andrew Maher]

Chinese Grand Prix

A Hamilton

B Raikkonen

B Schmacher

Team Mclaren

[Dario Ambrozewiez]

Chinese Grand Prix

A Hamilton

B Perez

B Schmacher

Team Redbull

[Dave Berrong]

Vettel
Di Resta
Rosberg
Red Bull

[Mark Yothers]

Chinese Grand Prix

A Hamilton

B Raikkonen

B Petrov

Team Mclaren

[Anders Nilsson]

Hamilton
Schumacher
Perez
Mclaren