yeah, I got the email a little while ago!

 

Let's get those picks/edits in people, only a few hours to go!

 

I see a couple more returnees from last year - we're up to 12 - that's fantastic!

If you made your picks prior to qualification, please check out the qualifying results somewhere because I think you might want to edit a bit.....

Also, the Commish told me he hopes everyone from the US will go to the "My Profile" section and add their state after their city (within the "city" field). There isn't a state field, which works fine for folks from most other countries, but most of those other folks can't tell much about where you're from within the U.S. if you just enter the name of your city.

 

Well, this one was tough to pick, and not just because of all the usual first-race-of-the-season unknowns.....

It was a fun race to watch though - enough action to make it hard to be sure who was where sometimes.

We fared well as a team though with adame at the top of the PickSix list (well done!) and 5 of you in the top ten! Those of you nearer the other end of the order..... Don't worry about it - this was a very low scoring event (even adame has only 30 points!) so it won't take much to catch back up.

Less than a week until the next event - don't forget to put in some early place holder picks just in case something comes up and you can't get near your confuser closer to game time.

 

WOW.........

what a race! Anyone know what the deal with Kovalainen was?

 

You might have to be a tad more specific.

If you mean how did he manage to move from 2nd to 9th late in the race? He made his last pit stop during the safety car period when all the cars were bunched up. He was 2nd when the pit lane opened for refueling and he rejoined 9th.

If you mean why did he let Alonso past just before the last lap of the race?
Here's his explanation "I managed to get past Fernando but then as I tore off a visor strip on the main straight I accidentally hit the pit lane speed limiter button and Fernando managed to get past me again."

 

Sorry, I meant the deal with Alonso........

 

That was a great race. I would never have guessed so few cars would be running at the end. Rosberg really had a great drive and Bourdais first GP was fantastic. It's a shame his motor gave up with less than 3 laps to go but Steve Matchett summed it up perfectly after the engine failure when he said "Welcome to Formula 1, Son". It's a cruel sport sometimes.

I really like D.C. but I have to say that was a sloppy move on his part. He's too experienced to make stupid moves like that.

 

The Ferrari camp must be in a panic right now. There are six cars (three teams) using Ferrari engines and half of them apparently suffered some sort of engine failure (I only remember seeing smoke from one (Bourdais) but formulaone.com lists three engine failures). Add to that Kimi's fuel delivery problem during quali.....and the next practice is only 3 1/2 days from now.....not a lot of time to determine what all went wrong, come up with solutions, and get them all to Sepang.....

 

Hmmm, more to the Ferrari engines mystery. I understand Speed claims there were 4 Ferrari engine-related retirements (vice 3).....and that's with the only other two Ferrari powered cars (Fisichella and Vettel) going out in first lap accidents! Of course engine-related doesn't mean they were all catastrophic, but given the 100% attrition rate their #1 concern right now is obviously "engine-related".....and time is most definitely not on their side.....

 

add to that the fact that the designs for the engine freeze have to be submitted next week, and they are probably pretty worried!

 

I did a quick glance at the scores - nice! This'll be the only time I'm atop the boards for sure.

I wasn't able to see my picks compared to the results - is that true? Or did I just not look around long enough?

Fun race though. Great to see Quick Nick on the podium again. I wonder what the combined age of the top 3 is?

 

If you mean you want to see a screen that shows both your picks and the names of the top 6 drivers in finishing order so you can see where your points came from, that screen doesn't seem to be availabe this year. New system, new views. It's a good question though so I'll ask the Commish if he can add it to the top of the event results matrix right under the P1 ... P6 column headers.

And again, well done adame!

 

Wait a minute - I take it back.

When you look at the event results screen the column headers say only P1 thru P6, but look above the point result matrix and you'll see another, smaller box that shows the drivers' names and positions. It's so obvious; I assume I missed it because I expected to see the drivers' names directly atop the result columns as in previous years.

 

Yep......I found that too.

Here is a link to that page. Just sign in first and then paste this link http://www.picksix.com/Events/EventF1Page.aspx?eid=115

 

Hey, Ferrari claim their various break-downs had to do with the standardized ECU -- you know, the one developed by McLaren -- and not their engines.

"Now we know that there is a conflict we can make sure it does not happen again"

If true, maybe they'll have things in order by the weekend, but that won't stop the back-stabbing and rumor mongering regarding McLaren having a supposed unfair advantage.

 

Thanks!

 

Ok, quali is over.....let's get those picks in (or edit them if you made some placeholder picks).

 

Heads-up - there's post-qualification movement on the starting grid! Check out the provisional grid at formulaone.com - and here's the story explaining the Hamilton and Kovalainen demotions.

 

adame does it again!

You didn't pull the highest score overall this week but you outscored the rest of us NAM'ers and I think you're still first overall! (I say "I think" because it looks like there are a few glitches in the site's new standings section) Well done!

 

NAM is certainly showing it's colors!

 

Wow - thanks...yeah it looks that way. It looks like Massa cost quite a few of us some points.

And we still occupy half of the top 10! Which is pretty cool considering we only have a dozen.

 

I was hoping for rain to see if the McLaren's would eat up Massa again but it seems that the lack of tc is enough of a challenge for him. I'm sure glad none of the other manufacturer's cars were on the racing line during cool down.

 

Yes, despite the nonchalant attitude most drivers give re lost driver aids, I think the lack of TC and EBC (some drivers say the EBC dearth is even more upsetting) may reshuffle the field a bit this year. At the very least, maybe it's affecting some more than others..... Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Massa has driven an F1 car without the now absent driver aids. And he had a bit of a rep for losing places, positions and races for cornering incidents.....and that was WITH TC and EBC.

 

Formula 1 coverage on SPEED from the Bahrain Grand Prix at Sakhir:

Friday, Apr. 4, 2008
7:00 a.m. EST Bahrain Grand Prix Practice (L)
8:30 a.m. EST Inside Grand Prix
Saturday, Apr. 5, 2008
12:30 a.m. EST Formula One Debrief
1:30 a.m. EST Bahrain Grand Prix Practice
7:00 a.m. EST Bahrain Grand Prix Qualifying (L)
Sunday, Apr. 6, 2008
3:00 a.m. EST Inside Grand Prix
3:30 a.m. EST Bahrain Grand Prix Qualifying (re-air)
7:00 a.m. EST Bahrain Grand Prix pre-race show (L)
7:30 a.m. EST Bahrain Grand Prix (L)
1:30 p.m. EST Barhain Grand Prix (re-air)
Wednesday, Apr. 9, 2008
12:00 p.m. EST Inside Grand Prix
12:30 p.m. EST Bahrain Grand Prix (re-air)

Speed's schedule seems even worse this week than usual so I pieced the above together from a few different places - I made a few assumptions - feel free to chime in with corrections.