"Cato Batista" 13/10/2014 2:52:34 ID #682

Ladies and Gentlemen,

One mistake in the first corner by ROS open the door for HAM to win his 4th successive GP, ninth of the year, eighth Mercedes one-two.  Good action on the opening couple of laps and then it was mostly processional.  Driver skill can’t make much difference in circuits made only by slow corners and long straights, that invariably results in poor racing (remember Indy?) No coincidence that 7 of the 11 teams finished the race with their cars in tandem.

But I guess we shouldn’t complain because the featureless track has brought a truckload of points in record numbers. Rodrigo won his second of the year with a fantastic 1-2-3-4-5, he was the only one to bet on MAG in 5th place to break the 15 point-tie with Manbos, Lou and I. Our already high mark of 64 triples in the Spanish GP was smashed with 79 correct driver/positions: 21 firsts, 21 seconds, 19 thirds, 11 fourths and 6 sixths. It was an all-you-can-eat feast with up to 9 of us recording 1-2-3-4 (same as the Black Horse), in fact 18 of us score double digits, only Uwe & Alberto (6 & 7 points) were not invited to the banquet today. Our average was 11.2 points, 1.2 points higher than our previous best. Note that 20 of 24 in our expert panel left KVY out of their selections. And when predicting ALO’s race, all but five members thought he was not finishing in the top 6, the other nineteen’s money  was distributed like this: 10 picks for 4th, 6 for 6th, 2 in 4rd and 1 in 3rd.

 

http://f1.manbos.com/userbets.asp?t=2014&gpn=Russia&nevent=race

There is little change atop of the standings but the battle for the top 10 from the 5th place and down is like a wild game of Snakes & Ladders.  I’m still holding the lead as the fight between Lou and Manbos for third place is now catching up to second place Santiago (163-153-147-146).  It gets better now. Climbing up the ladder are Rodrigo (5th/139), Fredrik (7th/135), Joe (9th/132) and Ian (22th/116). Going down the snake are Hector (8th/135), Ricky (10th/132), Alberto (21st/119) and Uwe (last/113) plus rookies Iain & Lorenzo (out of the top 10 after early promise). Rocco stays put (6th/136). Here comes the best part: the dreaded last place has a new name. After Matias’ demise from the Championship Standings last race for failing to submit past the permitted amount, Uwe is now holding the red lantern. Ian in his third CFA year, is not only leaving the basement but he is quickly catching Alberto.

http://f1.manbos.com/rankingyear.asp?t=2014

There are 3 GPs left in the season. Take note - USA 31 Oct-02 Nov; one week later Brasil 07-09 Nov and 2 weeks later the grand finale in Abu Dhabi 21-23 Nov and it’s ridiculously absurd double point race.

I’ll be in attendance at the Circuit of the Americas sharing the USA GP experience with other dear CFA colleagues. Hopefully then ALO will end the mystery and will tell us where he is finally going next year!

Talk to you soon