Source

Lights out, away we go.

If you followed the pre-season testing, you'll have heard that last season's Constructors Champions, Mercedes, were struggling with porpoising - a beautifully made up word which means that the car "bounces" at high speed. Fans will have been concerned but will have consoled themselves in the knowledge that every year, they say that their car's "behind" and then go on to win the 1st race and world title.

There was also much excitement about Red Bull and a rejuvenated Ferrari - the prancing horse posting impressive times and consistency throughout pre-season. There was much to be learned and much to be sceptical about.

After Race 1, we now know that this is going to be a close and hard fought season.

Qualifying

As pre-season form suggested, it was Ferarri and Red Bull leading the way with them sharing the front 2 rows of the grid. Lewis Hamilton did well to qualify in 5th with team mate George Russell a disappointing 9th.

The Ferrari engine in the Alfa Romeo launched Bottas to 6th and Kevin Magnussen (who is only driving because Mazepin has been booted from the team (he thinks it's because of his dad but it's actually because he's really, really shit 🤫)) into 7th. The Haas cars have surprised many but having written off the last 2 years to focus on making this year's car, I'm surprised that so many people were surprised!!

Race Summary

It was a race which Ferrari played just about as perfectly as they could have done with Max Verstappen's Red Bull not quite quick enough to catch up with Charles Leclerc out in front. Pit stops aside, the Monégasque leading for the entire race.

With 8 laps to go, Pierre Gasly's car caught fire which initiated a safety car, giving Verstappen one last chance to overtake... he never came close though and for all the world, it appeared that the final race positions would be the same as those in qualifying (which incidentally, would have given me positions 1-4 + Magnussen + Haas so I would have been laughing).

But that didn't happen and things quickly unravelled for Red Bull. It's common for cars to have reliability issues in the 1st race after so much change but I don't think anybody expected Max Verstappen and then Sergio Perez to retire their cars. Null points for Red Bull.

The meant a nice 1-2 for Ferrari and a surprising podium for Lewis Hamilton. His team mate George Russell lifting himself to 4th place ahead of Kevin Magnussen.

Source

Race 1 Points

In a bold move in the 1st race, @gabikay chose to play his "Mega Driver" on Lewis Hamilton (102 points) to get a total score of 213 points. @the-gorilla wasn't far behind with a score of 193, followed by @esteban85 with a score of 178.

Congratulations @gabikay, please reply to this post to claim your 5 Steem Prize 🏆

Overall Rankings

It's the 3 users who played last season who have set the early pace - last season's experience perhaps giving them a slight advantage in these early weeks.

Po.	Player	Points
1st	@gabikay	213
2nd	@the-gorilla	193
3rd	@esteban85	178
4th	@dave25	174
-	@fuentesjo3006	174
6th	@titopx	163
7th	@eve73	145
8th	@weasell	127
9th	@frafiomatale	119
10th	@chrislybear	100
11th	@wentv	81

Late Entries Welcome

It's a long season with another 22 races expected. With weekly prizes up for grabs, there's plenty of Steem still to be won so please read this post for more information on how to join.

Please Share Your Thoughts

I'm always interested in reading your views about Fantasy Sports or Sport in general either in the comments or via your own post, remembering to post in World of Xpilar and using the tag #woxsports or #woxfantasysports.

This is a sub-profile of @the-gorilla