[Official] Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Predictions Contest 2021 - Final Round - Final Standings

[Born Racer]

A wholehearted congratulations to our new triple world champion, smellysocks. After back-to-back victories in 2018 and 2019, he sealed the title in this most competitive of seasons by a mere ten points, extending his advantage over Born Racer Fan in the end by six.

He wins this year's prize, a t-shirt commending his win and denigrating the t-shirt itself. Darn - postage to Canada. I hope I don't go too low on the t-shirt quality!

Congratulations too to crmalcolm, who finishes the season with a second win and jumps from 10th to 8th place in the championship standings, while round runner-up TrapezeArtist pulls clear of steve_r in the end and ahead of BTCC frog to finish the season 4th.

We will be back in 2022, potentially with some rule tweaks (and I promise to be more reliable on this front than Mr Masi ). There may be some polls on that front coming in the next few months for all those who competed in 2021, so watch this space (from time to time).


What happened in Abu Dhabi?

I was the only person to predict Verstappen as the race winner.

ascarrracinguk, despite not putting any race predictions, was the only person to get any points for qualifying, with 3 for Verstappen and 2 for Hamilton. Understandably, no-one got Norris in 3rd.

The only person to plump for Tsunoda as a top 10 finisher was BTCC frog, albeit gaining a mere point for it, after he was positioned in that final points-paying slot.

crmalcolm's win included exact finishing positions guessed for Bottas (6th), Norris (7th) and Ocon (9th). Apart from me (Verstappen in 1st place) and wolfhound (Hamilton in 2nd), nobody got any exact finishing positions predicted.

BTCC frog and ascarracinguk both correctly surmised the Grand Prix would score a 1 in the poll.

smellysocks was right to predict Räikkönen as formula1.com Driver of the Day on his final outing.

crmalcolm, Aysedasi and gert all got Sainz as high as 5th place, the highest anyone went for with him.


What happened this season

As previously mentioned, but it's worth recognising, smellysocks became a triple world champion.

10 out of 16 (62.5%) people to take part became race winners.

Born Racer Fan finished runner-up despite not winning a round.


Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Results

1. Verstappen
2. Hamilton
3. Sainz
4. Tsunoda
5. Gasly
6. Bottas
7. Norris
8. Alonso
9. Ocon
10. Leclerc

Qualifying
1. Verstappen
2. Hamilton
3. Norris

Fastest lap: Verstappen
Fastest pit stop: Red Bull
Weather: Dry
formula1.com Driver of the Day: Räikkönen
Driver of the Grand Prix: Verstappen
Team of the Grand Prix: Red Bull
Rate the Grand Prix: 1


Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Predictions Contest Results

1. crmalcolm 93
2. TrapezeArtist 85
3. smellysocks 83
4. Born Racer 77
= Born Racer Fan 77
6. Aysedasi 67
7. wolfhound 66
8. gert 65
9. steve_r 59
10. BTCC frog 56
11. chunterer 51
12. ascarracinguk 15


Final championship standings after 22 rounds

1. smellysocks 1797
2. Born Racer Fan 1787
3. Born Racer 1768
4. TrapezeArtist 1739
5. BTCC frog 1727
6. steve_r 1693
7. wolfhound 1623
8. crmalcolm 1519
9. gert 1507
10. chunterer 1483
11. Aysedasi 1408
12. mj088 789
13. Skam85 750
14. Gnussi 252
15. Teretonga 135
16. ascarracinguk 15
16. SallyRay 3


Number of wins this season

wolfhound - 4
smellysocks - 4

chunterer - 3
BTCC frog - 3
smellysocks - 3

TrapezeArtist - 2
Born Racer - 2
crmalcolm - 2

Aysedasi - 1
mj088 - 1


Winners by event

Bahrain: smellysocks
Made in Italy and Emilia-Romagna: wolfhound
Portugal: Born Racer
Spain: TrapezeArtist
Monaco: Aysedasi
Azerbaijan: BTCC frog
France: wolfhound
Styria: mj088
Austria: chunterer
Britain: chunterer
Hungary: crmalcolm
Belgium: smellysocks
The Netherlands: BTCC frog
Italy: chunterer
Russia: TrapezeArtist
Turkey: wolfhound
United States: wolfhound
Mexico: BTCC frog
São Paulo: Born Racer
Qatar: smellysocks
Saudi Arabia: smellysocks
Abu Dhabi: crmalcolm

See you next season, thanks for taking part and happy holidays.

[Aysedasi]

Big thanks from me for doing this BR, it's really been fun on my first real participation. Significant room for improvement from me for 2022 but I'll take 11th! And a Monaco victory, although very surprising, was a good reward to have.

With revised cars and a number of the younger drivers showing some real promise, we can only hope that things will be a little less Max/Lewis focussed next season!

[crmalcolm]

Many Thanks for running this - enjoyable as always.

[steve_r]

Thanks. It's been fun, despite the fact that I have proven to be no Nostradamus.

[BTCC frog]

Thanks a lot for running this competition, Born Racer. It's been a fun sidenote to the actual championship this year. I'll be back again next year and this time I will bring home that t-shirt. This year I'm blaming the loss entirely on Lance Stroll losing tenth in Jeddah Congratulations to smellysocks for the championship.

Also, crmalcolm, please can you now reveal to us the formula used to get your predictions?

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by BTCC frog

Also, crmalcolm, please can you now reveal to us the formula used to get your predictions?

No problem.
One season, I made a selection at the start of the year and used the same every round (form is temporary, class is permanent theory).
Another season, I used the result of the previous round as my next entry (go with form theory).
This year was an averaged last 5 round calculation (hybrid of the previous seasons).

The conclusion - sport doesn't follow rules (excuse the Masi reference).

[BTCC frog]

I went back through all my predictions to discover the championship if they'd all been correct:

1. Lewis Hamilton 457 (+69.5)
2. Max Verstappen 453 (+58.5)
3. Valtteri Bottas 306 (+80)
4. Sergio Perez 284 (+84)
5. Lando Norris 191 (+31)
6. Charles Leclerc 155 (-4)
7. Carlos Sainz 141 (-23.5)
8. Pierre Gasly 99 (-11)
9. Daniel Ricciardo 82 (-35)
10. Fernando Alonso 44 (-37)
11. Esteban Ocon 21 (-53)
12. Yuki Tsunoda 12 (-20)
13. Sebastian Vettel 11 (-32)
14. Lance Stroll 5 (-29)
15. Antonio Giovinazzi 0 (-3)
16. Kimi Raikkonen 0 (-10)
17. George Russell 0 (-16)
18. Nicholas Latifi 0 (-7)
19. Mick Schumacher 0
20. Nikita Mazepin 0
21. Robert Kubica 0

In case any of you are worrying for my sanity, it only takes half an hour I would be interest to see the results of some of you if you want to find it. Obviously the top drivers will always score better, and the bottom drivers worse, but my conclusion is that I backed Bottas, Perez and Norris too much, and didn't back Sainz, Ricciardo or Ocon enough.

[gert]

Thanks for running this Born Racer !

I'm happy to finish more or less mid-pack after hanging around at the back for a looong time.

[TrapezeArtist]

Well done smellysocks, for preventing it looking like a family affair.

[wolfhound]

Thank you Born racer for running a very well organized competition. It was a bit of fun to lighten up all the madness of this years F1.

[smellysocks]

It wasn't easy at all this year TrapezeArtist.

'Team Born Racer' was relentless.

I finally got a couple of wins at the end which kept me just far enough ahead of them, and yourself and BTCC frog.

Thanks to Born Racer for running a good show and making my triple crown possible! A great group of competitors all.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by smellysocks

It wasn't easy at all this year TrapezeArtist.

'Team Born Racer' was relentless.

I finally got a couple of wins at the end which kept me just far enough ahead of them, and yourself and BTCC frog.

Thanks to Born Racer for running a good show and making my triple crown possible! A great group of competitors all.

Congrats smellysocks!