Results - Australian Grand Prix
A broad mixture of scores this week, starting off with a 0 for @Whiskey who didn't make any predictions.
Qualifying was more or less business as usual, with @MUFC the only person to gamble on someone other than Max Verstappen for pole position. Leclerc sadly blew his last qualifying effort leaving him empty-handed, with everyone else bagging 5 points for the usual VER pole. Also resolved on Saturday was this week's bonus question. Not helped by Ricciardo's deleted lap-time seeing him knocked out in Q1, nobody predicted a gap between him and Piastri of anything like the 1.5 seconds that Piastri had out-stripped his compatriot by come the end of Q3, so 2 consolation points go to @OrangeKhrush who predicted the largest margin of anyone.
Onto the race, and wouldn't you know that it took until just the second race after we started predicting "top three without Verstappen" that this ends up being the actual top three in the race. The change in this prediction achieved what we wanted anyway, with a variety of Perez, Norris, Ferrari and Mercedes picks yielding a nice mixture of scores. Nobody predicted Sainz in 1st place, but 2 points each go to @RandoEFC, @Tommy, @Coma and @DeadLinesman for putting him elsewhere in their top three. Everyone predicted a top three finish for Charles Leclerc, with @RandoEFC, @Stan, @Tommy, @nudge, @The Palace Fan and @DeadLinesman all bagging 5 points for putting him in P2, everyone else picking up 2 - the only points of the weekend in @MUFC's case. @Stan, @nudge and @OrangeKhrush all distinguished themselves by rounding off their podium predictions with Lando Norris in 3rd, collecting them another 5 points each. The presence of Perez in everyone's top three prevented anyone from bagging the 20 points for a perfect podium.
Finally, this week's random driver was Oscar Piastri at his home race. Nobody was bold enough to predict a finish as high as 4th for him, but @RandoEFC was closest with 6th place here so picks up an extra 2 points.
Here's what it does for the standings:
Three races in, defending champion @RandoEFC sneaks to the top of the standings with a 1 point lead ahead of previous leader @Tommy. @MUFC's poor weekend and @Whiskey's no-show this weekend see them propping up the standings.
In the Constructors', a mediocre week for Mercedes sees them drop from 1st to 4th. Red Bull raked in the highest points tally this week but it's McLaren who sneak into the top spot in a close battle between them, Red Bull and Aston Martin.
I'm going away tomorrow so I'll be posting the predictions for next weekend's Japanese Grand Prix this afternoon.