Welcome all to Week Forty-Two. This week we have Formula One in Abu Dhabi and Sprint Cup from Texas, so no avoiding the dreaded NASCAR. Please pick ten drivers up to a maximum of seven in any one event in a comment on this post before 6 AM BST Friday 2nd November (2 AM ET) (essentially late Thursday night).
Deadline News
The clocks in Britain went back an hour to GMT (winter time) on Saturday night, so for overseas players the deadline is now an hour later. I believe the switch from DST in the USA takes place in the forthcoming weekend, so if I have this figured correctly, that will put the deadline back to 1 AM ET for next week.
Drewe’s Performance Charts
Do visit Drewe’s fine charts and tables to see such as the Full Year Difference Chart and Form Guide, which Drewe is updating every week.
Click to open Performance Charts in new window.
Scores
Results – Top Tens
| Formula 1 | MotoGP | WEC | NASCAR | ||||
| Delhi | Australia | Shanghai | Martinsville | ||||
| 1 | Vettel | Stoner | #7 Toyota | Johnson | |||
| 2 | Alonso | Lorenzo | #2 Audi | Kyle B. | |||
| 3 | Webber | Crutchlow | #1 Audi | Kahne | |||
| 4 | Hamilton | Dovizioso | #13 Rebellion | Almirola | |||
| 5 | Button | Bautista | #22 JRM | Bowyer | |||
| 6 | Massa | Bradl | #21 Strakka | Keselowski | |||
| 7 | Räikkönen | Rossi | #25 ADR-Delta | Gordon | |||
| 8 | Hulkenberg | Hayden | #44 Starworks | Vickers | |||
| 9 | Grosjean | Abraham | #24 Oak | Labonte | |||
| 10 | Senna | Espargaro | #49 Pecom | Biffle |
Another dominating performance by Vettel in India. Alonso managed to scrape second as Webber lost his DRS again.
It was an exciting lap-and-a-half at Phillip Island in the MotoGP. Lorenzo nabbed the lead at the start, but lost it to Pedrosa within a few turns. Stoner blasted by Lorenzo into the first corner of the next lap, and was almost immediately on Pedrosa’s tail. Dani went slightly wide of the racing line but still tried to turn in as usual resulting in a tumble (19th). Jorge Lorenzo’s second-place gave him the title.
In the WEC at Shanghai, it was much the same story as last time, with Toyota building enough of a lead to allow the extra splash-and-dash they needed towards the end. For a change, the #2 Audi beat the #1, but for the latter, third was plenty to win the inaugural FIA World Endurance Championship. Strakka had contact with the #1 Audi necessitating a delay to fix damaged bodywork. The #12 Rebellion gearbox failed with seven minutes to go (under ACO rules dropping them behind all those still running to 25th).
At the paper-clip Martinsville half-mile circuit, Johnson qualified on pole, was near the sharp end all the race, and took the victory. Keselowski recovered well from a starting position of thirty-second, on a track at which passing is hard, to finish sixth. Hamlin had severe electrical problems, at one point grinding to a halt, ending up 33rd.
Player Scores
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You might want to try full-screen (F11), or click here to open table-image in a new window. |
Non-entries get 302 according to the 90% rule.
Well done me for winning the week, helped by picking all four winners. Also a mention in dispatches for Gavin who had a strong week with his four F1 choices finishing 1-2-3-4.
Yet again, one of our bankers, this time Pedrosa, failed. There was the most variety of choices in Formula One, but we all had Vettel, and every other driver picked finished top-seven, so it did not have a large effect on relative scoring.
Leaderboard
| Pos | Pre | +/- | Name | Prior | Wk 41 | Total | Differences | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Sebastian | 10982 | 392 | 11374 | 0 | - | |
| 2 | 3 | +1 | RubberGoat | 10794 | 383 | 11177 | 197 | 197 |
| 3 | 2 | -1 | iomracer | 10799 | 353 | 11152 | 222 | 25 |
| 4 | 4 | Maverick | 10761 | 352 | 11113 | 261 | 39 | |
| 5 | 5 | Chris W. | 10679 | 370 | 11049 | 325 | 64 | |
| 6 | 6 | Pat W. | 10631 | 361 | 10992 | 382 | 57 | |
| 7 | 7 | Drewe | 10550 | 373 | 10923 | 451 | 69 | |
| 8 | 8 | The Speedgeek | 10322 | 335 | 10657 | 717 | 266 | |
| 9 | 9 | Jackie | 9653 | 302 | 9955 | 1419 | 702 | |
| 10 | 10 | Matt | 9224 | 302 | 9526 | 1548 | 429 | |
| 11 | 11 | Ryan | 8728 | 302 | 9030 | 2344 | 496 | |
| 12 | 12 | Jay | 8514 | 302 | 8816 | 2558 | 214 | |
| 13 | 13 | James | 8445 | 302 | 8747 | 2627 | 69 | |
| 14 | 14 | New players | 8426 | 302 | 8728 | 2646 | 19 | |
RubberGoat gains a position for the second week running, this time past iomracer for second-place. (It is only three weeks ago that iomracer took third-place from Gavin.)
This Week
Roster
· Formula 1 – Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi
· NASCAR – Texas, USA
The deadline is 6 AM BST Friday 2nd November (2 AM ET). Also remember the countdown widget rounds up on days.
Pick ten drivers up to a maximum of seven in any one event.
The points system is
50-40-35-32-30-28-26-24-22-20-19-18-17-16-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-2-2-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1.
Click to open guide/links to this week’s events in new window.

Congrats Sebastian, almost a 200 point lead now. I feel like most will pick the same F1 drivers plus Johnson and Keselowski, so the difference this week could come down to the third NASCAR pick. I know I should do a stretch pick, to try and get back past RubberGoat. But it’s hard not to pick the top 3 in NASCAR standings:
NASCAR:
1) Jimmy Johnson
2) Brad Keselowski
3) Clint Bowyer
F1:
4) Sebastian Vettel
5) Fernando Alonso
6) Felipe Massa
7) Kimi Raikkonen
8) Lewis Hamilton
9) Jenson Button
10) Mark Webber
Comment by iomracer — October 29, 2012 @ 10:40 pm
NASCAR (Going to take a punt and weight more here)
Johnson
Hamlin
Gordon (Jeff)
Biffle
Stewart
F1
Vettel
Webber
Hamilton
Button
Alonso
Comment by Drewe — October 30, 2012 @ 3:54 am
Also punting, but not as far as Drewe. Picking early due to possible power outages from Frankenstorm Sandy… 3 inches of snow overnight here in West Virginia.
NASCAR:
Johnson
Keselowski
Biffle
Bowyer
F1:
Vettel
Webber
Hamilton
Alonso
Raikkonen
Massa
I fear not taking Button may be a bad move… I may change it up after I have a chance to look at the numbers a bit more.
Comment by Chris W — October 30, 2012 @ 3:33 pm
Don’t seem to be having much luck at the moment. Very similar picks to Sebastian the last few weeks and yet it’s always been one of my differences that has gone AWOL for some random reason.
Was thinking, we really should have Macua F3 GP on the schedule as a one off.
NASCAR
Kenseth
Hamlin
Johnson
F1
Massa
Alonso
Hamilton
Vettel
Webber
Button
Raikkonen
Comment by Mav — October 30, 2012 @ 9:14 pm
I usually do my picks on a Tuesday, and post them on Wednesday. I eventually decided to take Hamlin over Biffle, but the ten that gave me were the ten Maverick posted, so I may as well go for Biffle.
Formula One:
Fernando Alonso
Sebastian Vettel
Kimi Räikkönen
Jenson Button
Lewis Hamilton
Felipe Massa
Mark Webber
NASCAR:
Jimmie Johnson
Matt Kenseth
Greg Biffle
Comment by Sebastian X — October 31, 2012 @ 6:10 pm
Well, that’s Hamlin’s race ruined again then!
Comment by Mav — November 1, 2012 @ 11:35 am
Late entry – been really busy this week!
F1:
1) Alonso
2) Vettel
3) Webber
4) Hamilton
5) Button
6) Raikkonen
7) Massa
NASCAR:
8) Jimmie Johnson
9) Brad Keselowski
10) Clint Bowyer
Comment by rubbergoat — November 1, 2012 @ 4:03 pm
F1
Vettel
Webber
Alonso
Button
Hamilton
Raikkonen
Grosjean (let’s make this race exciting)
NASCAR
Keselowski
Johnson
Hamlin
Comment by Pat W — November 1, 2012 @ 8:07 pm
Seb – I’m swapping Bowyer out for Hamlin. This makes the difference between me an Rubbergoat – the only way to get back to 2nd.
Comment by iomracer — November 2, 2012 @ 2:45 am
Going to change again. Stretching a bit more – no to Bowyer, no to Hamlin, yes to Jeff gordon. So my three NASCAR picks are now: Jimmy Johnson, Brad Keselowski, and Jeff Gordon.
Comment by iomracer — November 2, 2012 @ 2:48 am
I see Sebastian has already picked 2 of the 3 Cup guys I was going to go with. Oh, well. It’s not like I’m going to make up 700 points in 4 weeks, anyway.
F1:
Vettel
Webber
Alonso
Massa
Button
Hamilton
Hulkenberg
NASCAR:
Jeff Gordon
Matt Kenseth
Biff Riffle
Comment by The Speedgeek — November 2, 2012 @ 3:15 am