It turned out to be a very important day in the 2021 season for Predicament Predictions. Up until now, many of the races have had quite a close field spread in terms of points. We have had races where the person who finished last was not all that far off the winner. It's proven that consistency and posting every weekend are essential at the very least to winning this competition.
Then comes along a race like Zandvoort. We get another VER-HAM-BOT podium, and suddenly everything is turned on its head. We had
three participants:
mario,
Ducktanian and
yannicksamlad all take home 20+ points without using their double scores.
dr-baker used his double points, but like Londoner in Hungary, we have to ask "at what cost?"
Well let's see, shall we?
Results1. dr-baker 26**2. yannicksamlad 25
3. mario 244. Ducktanian 21
5. Enforcer 19
- Londoner 19
- Fetzie 19
8. CaptainGetz12 18
- RAK 18
- Hermann95 18*
11. Bleu 17
12. IceG 16.5***
13. pi314159 16
14. UncreativeUsername37 15
- Klon 15
- Aislabie 15
- Aerond 15*
18. You-Gee-Eee-Day 13.5* ***
19. tommykl 13
- Batty 13
21. Miguel98 12
22. Rob Dylan 10
- Frogfoot9013 10
*were late, and so don’t get points for pole
**used double points
***half-points for the Mazepin ROTR guessSo as you can see, two victories in a row for
dr-baker. "Good job", we might say. But in reality,
baker is probably feeling a little ambivalent considering the potential points haul from the race we got. As I say, the points field spread between the winners and those who finished last (read: me) is really big, and has led to a huge amount of shake-up in the championship. Let's look below at that:
Standings1. dr-baker 204.52. Aislabie 203
3. CaptainGetz12 1994. Fetzie 197
5. Ducktanian 194
6. mario 193.5
7. UncreativeUsername37 192.5
8. RAK 189
9. Enforcer 185.5
10. Bleu 181
11. Londoner 178
12. Hermann95 177.5
13. Aerond 166
14. Miguel98 165
15. tommykl 161
16. pi314159 159
17. Klon 152
18. Batty 139.5
19. Rob Dylan 139
20. Frogfoot9013 135.25
21. tBone 128
22. yannicksamlad 116.5
23. CarloSpace 110.5
24. IceG 94.5
25. You-Gee-Eee-Day 90
26. Pacific Edge 83
27. This Could Be You 60
28. takagi_for_the_win 45
29. WaffleCat 26
30. rachel1990 26
31. noiceinmydrink 23
32. Freeze-O-Kimi 17
33. Pilot 16
34. Gertrand Bachot 11
35. dj_vicious 9
36. Pieman 8
37. Spooder918 7
And there you have it.
dr-baker, for the first time since the Portuguese Grand Prix earlier this year, takes the championship lead from
Aislabie, who held it for a mighty nine consecutive rounds. However, that championship lead is certainly not secure for the doctor. Every single contender in the top 9 are within 20 points of the lead: a strong race win, in other words. And with 9 or 10 rounds left, there is absolutely plenty of time for another driver, say
mario, to take advantage of their own future double points haul and change the championship again.
However, the important thing is this:
Aislabie held the championship lead with an early double points extravaganza result in Spain. Now,
dr-baker has used his double points too, and the two are on even footing from here to the end.
mario and
RAK, the two world champions on the grid, have not used theirs, and they have a similar gap to close to the front as baker did going into this round. Likewise we have outside candidates like
Enforcer and
Bleu who still haven't truly shown their hand.
While you're all still reeling from the championship implications, just get ready for the Italian GP results next week
Guess who has a full-time job now and forgets about these things 
