Japan's Other Grand Prix Venues | Japanese Grand Prix

MiniDrivers - 9x15 - 2017 Malaysian GP

2017 Japanese Grand Prix preview

Hello again! It's the 29th time Suzuka hosts an F1 event and it seems that this track is here to stay. So many championships have been decided here and so many legendary memories.

Take a look at Ayrton Senna's pole lap from 1988:

My best memories are the Senna-Prost battles in 1988-1990, Häkkinen-Schumacher in 1998-2000 and also Kimi Räikkönen overtaking Fisichella on the last lap and winning the race in 2005.

 

Then of course three years ago Jules Bianchi had his accident which lead to his death a year later. Very sad stuff. Everybody will be thinking about him I am sure. I hope the safety is better this year.

Jules Bianchi

Let's move on to something less sad...

Lewis Hamilton has won the Japanese GP three times. He won two years ago, the year before that and also the very wet Japanese GP back in 2007 only it was at Fuji, not at Suzuka. This track is more important for Hamilton than Fuji because his idol, Ayrton Senna, secured his championship here more than once. Hamilton will be very hungry for this win.

My guess is if Hamilton's car works he will have a perfect weekend and Valtteri Bottas will be right behind him. 

Here are my predictions:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

Race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
2. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes
3. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

Surprise: Lance Stroll, Williams

Post your own predictions to our F1-4-LIFE PREDICTORS LEAGUE!

The rules:

POINTS:  1st - 3  2nd - 5  3rd - 10 

HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. If you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points same if you get 1 correct. eg. 2nd you get 5 points. If a driver wins the race and you said he would come 2nd or 3rd no points would be awarded. Same if he came in another position, and you predicted that wrong. A table will be posted up every race weekend. The point scoring system will change once the cars become more competitive. Everyone will say a merc 1,2 so it won't be close or fun. 

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick!

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side AE, JT, MW, MH, JI & PM. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway. We may also come up with some other prize if it helps. 

That's it for today and if you want to send me feedback then email me: f14lifeblog@gmail.com

2017 Driver Standings after the Malaysian GP

2017 Constructors Standings after the Malaysian GP

2017 PREDICTORS LEAGUE standings after the Malaysian GP

1. James Redman - 133 points

2. AE (F1-4-LIFE) - 123 points

3. Larry Gallagher - 91 points

4. JT (F1-4-LIFE) - 72 points

5. Vitor Lobo - 55 points

6. Alexandre Langlois - 10 points

7. Leonardo Machado - 3 points

(The ones who have not scored points are not on the list)

Come onboard in the next GP if you want to be a part of our league!

POINTS: 1st - 3
2nd - 5
3rd - 10

+ possible bonus points

HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. For example if you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick!

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side AE, JT, MW, MH, JI & PM. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.

2017 Malaysian Grand Prix review

Before the race even started Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen was forced to go back to the garage for some work on his car. He never started the race! Did they change cars over night? Sebastian Vettel's problems were suddenly on Kimi's car. If they changed the cars they had to change the number on the car, the seat, the camera and the steering wheel. Someone said that it would be too much work but in reality it would be less work than they were forced to do on Vettel's car! Something to think about....

When the race finally started I got really excited when I saw Valtteri Bottas rise from 5th to 2nd but lost it to Max Verstappen a little bit after that. Was also very excited about Verstappen's speed. Looked really good because on lap 4 he already overtook Lewis Hamilton for the race lead. Nobody could challenge him yesterday! He was too fast for the rest.

It seemed that Red Bull was working better than Mercedes because behind the two men in front Daniel Ricciardo also managed to overtake Bottas with his Red Bull and was now in 3rd place.

Vettel got pass Bottas due to Mercedes' pit strategy for the Finn. Just wasn't good enough and the positions stayed like this till the end.

When the race was over we still saw some drama; the most bizarre thing in a long time.... Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel crashed with each other on the cool down lap. Vettel lost a wheel and the back wing and had to stop on the side of the track. Stroll was able to continue to the garage but Vettel had to get back with the help of Pascal Wehrlein's Sauber.




But last thing I wanna say is that I was very happy not only for Max but his family as well. They seemed all so happy. Even his little sister was crying when she was so proud. Also happy birthday Max!! Nice present you got for yourself.

Let's see my predictions and the results!

Pole Position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT

The race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 2nd and Verstappen won.
2. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 5th.
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari - WRONG. He was 4th and Ricciardo was 3rd.

Fastest lap: Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari - WRONG. He didn't even start the race so his teammate Vettel was fastest.

Surprise: Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso - He did pretty good but was the only driver to retire from the race.

POINTS: 1st - 3
2nd - 5
3rd - 10

+ possible bonus points

HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. For example if you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick!

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side AE, JT, MW, MH, JI & PM. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.