"Cato Batista" 11/07/2011 20:39:04 ID #82
Ladies and Gentlemen:
All Ferrari needed was a blink from Red Bull to snatch their first victory of the season. Alonso had the fastest car out there today, but it seems a bit early for team orders as Red Bull told Webber not to attack Vettel. The extreme difficult conditions at the beginning of the race once more brought out the best driving skills from all the drivers and the battles for position on the closing laps were the top show of the day.
Our predictions were all over the place, same as our results. In the middle of this confusion Maria struck gold with four 3-point positions (2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th) and 14 big points to climb several places on the championship, her first GP victory of 2011, our 8th different winner in 9 races. Tim came second with 11 points and 3 golds (3rd-4th-5th) to continue his surprising assault on the charts; Ricky scored a notable 1st-2nd-3rd to end up next with 9, same points as Alberto, Ian & Lou, these last 3 with two 3-pointers each. With most scores around 7 points (seven colleagues) or even lower (I’m talking several 4 and 5 points) our average was only 7.2, but the most affected were those on top of the table.
For the first time this year we were all not predicting another VET victory (he still had 11 of 21 votes), WEB had a lot support (8) but only 3 hit the target with ALO’s first (Lou, Ricky & Rodrigo), and to proof our expertise 8 of you forecasted VET in second. We actually scored in every position, the best were 6 votes for WEB in 3rd and MAS in 5th. We had a total of 28 correct driver-positions (only 22% accuracy).
The Championship is now red-hot like we’d never seen it before. It’s incredible- there are 18 members within 11 points! Uwe continues in the lead but this time he has to share the privilege with two others, Tim and remarkable rookie Manbos, the first time ever we have a newcomer at the front of the standings (no, I’m not happy either...) This trio has 83 points, 4 a of current Champ Fernando and Erik; Lou (78) has slipped a couple a places lately but hasn’t lost touch with the leaders. Another one who like Erik is quietly getting closer and closer to the top is QF-leader Joe (77). Then comes 9 colleagues in 3 triple ties: Ricardo, Carlos and now Maria (76), Ian, Curro & Rocco (75) and then Santiago, Matias & Ricky (73). Rodrigo and I next (72), Alberto (70), Sebastian (66) and now very solo in the basement Fredrik (61).
We never had a more competitive season. A year ago it was the complete opposite picture, Fredrik running away in the lead with Tim languishing in the bottom (with Ricky as partner). But as we know, all it takes is one good race...and the next one is in two weeks at the Nurburgring for the German GP.
Is this our best CFA year ever? I’ll think so, our participation level continues at 100%, that‘s 189 out of 189 entries!
Will talk to you again on Thursday July 21st – can’t wait!
Cheers
Cato