Who will win at Suzuka? Make your predictions

Predictions Championship

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Five drivers on the grid have won the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka before.

Michael Schumacher has six victories from eight pole positions at the track – but arrives at this weekend’s race with a ten-place grid penalty.

The only other active driver with multiple wins at this circuit is Sebastian Vettel, winner in 2009 and 2010. Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button have each won once. Button also has a penalty, and will be docked five places on the grid.

Alonso is a two-time Japanese Grand Prix winner, having also won at Fuji in 2008. Lewis Hamilton won there in 2007 but is yet to record a victory at Suzuka.

But who’s your tip for victory in this weekend’s race? If you can predict the pole sitter and top five finishers you could be in with a chance of winning one of several great F1 prizes.

How to enter

To enter, predict the pole sitter and the top five finishers in the race. You can also enter a prediction for the pole position lap time – this may be used as a tie-breaker.

Enter your pole position lap time prediction as follows: MM:SS.ccc

For example, for a lap of one minute, 23.456 seconds you would enter 01:23.456

You need to log in using an F1 Fanatic account to make your prediction.

If you haven’t got one yet the sign-up process is quick, simple and entirely free: sign up here now.

After entering your prediction, you will receive an email confirming your entry. If this does not happen, or you are concerned your prediction has not been received, please get in touch using the contact form.

Enter your predictions

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2012 F1 Fanatic Predictions Championship overall prizes

Grand prize: Two grandstands tickets to the 2013 British Grand Prix

The person who scores the most points over the whole season will win two grandstand tickets to the 2013 British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

The grand prize winner will receive tickets to all three days of the event with reserved seating for the race.

Second place prize: An F1 painting of your choice

The second place finisher will win a Formula 1 painting by Rob Ijbema.

You get to choose which F1 driver, present or past, will feature in the painting.

Or you can pick one of the other motor racing paintings on Rob’s site:

Runner-up prize: Racecar Engineering subscriptions

The five players with the next highest scores (positions three to seven) will each win a year’s subscription to Racecar Engineering magazine.

Racecar Engineering is the world’s leading motorsport technology magazine. Every issue is packed with in-depth features, interviews and analysis from Formula One, Le Mans and all forms racing and rallying.

Runner-up prize: Autocourse calendars

The five players with the next highest scores (positions eight to 12) will each win a 2013 Autocourse calendar.

The Autocourse Grand Prix calendar contains images taken during the season of all the major players competing in the Formula One World Championship.

The images are high resolution and taken by one of the world’s leading Grand Prix photographers, the calendar is printed on art quality paper and comes with a stiffened backing board and shrink wrapped for protection.

2012 F1 Fanatic Predictions Championship race prizes

Race winner’s prize: Autocourse eBooks

The highest scorer in each race will win an Autocourse eBook. The 1971 edition will be the first prize up for grabs, and later players will have the chance to win 1972 to 1976 editions.

The Autocourse eBooks are faithful reproductions of the original annuals in digital form. The colour, clarity of images and text have been improved to modern standards, but the content remains in original format.

Autocourse has become the definitive record of Formula One racing the world over and early editions are collector’s items, which regularly trade for hundreds of pounds.

  • The 1971 Autocourse eBook is available from www.autocourse.com for £19.99 with free postage/packing to UK customers.

First runner-up prize: Grand Prix Heroes DVD

The second-placed player in each race will win their choice of one of Duke Video’s new Grand Prix Heroes DVDs (pictured top).

Videos are available on such famous F1 figures as Niki Lauda, James Hunt, Mika Hakkinen, Jackie Stewart, Mario Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi, Jody Scheckter, Ronnie Peterson, Peter Revson and Frank Williams.

Second runner-up prize: F1 posters by PJ Tierney

The third-placed player in each race will win one of PJ Tierney’s excellent unofficial Formula 1 posters.

You can view PJ’s posters along with his other work on his website:

Rules

Competition terms and conditions

1. Maximum one entry per household.
2. The competition is not open to employees, friends or family of F1 Fanatic, Silverstone Circuit, Car-a-Day, Icon Publishing or Chelsea Magazines.
3. Predictions will be promoted on the front page of F1 Fanatic before closing prior to the start of qualifying.
4. In each round players are invited to predict (a) who will be on pole position and (b) what the top five finishers will be (five different drivers).
5. Players score points in each round as follows:
a. Correctly naming the pole sitter: 2 points
b. Correctly naming one/two/three/four/five driver/s who finish in the top five: 1/2/3/5/8 points
c. Correctly predicting where one/two/three/four/five driver/s finish: 2/6/14/24/40 points
6. Whoever scores the most points in every race counting towards the Formula 1 World Championship wins the grand prize.
7. In the event of a tie on points the winner will be determined by who is closest to predicting the pole position time correctly. If that fails to produce a winner the editor will choose a means of deciding who has won.
8. Predictions must be entered using the form above. If you have trouble submitting your entry via the form please contact F1 Fanatic via email and send your prediction using the contact form.
9. In the event of a dispute the editor’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
10. No cash alternative is offered for any of the prizes.
11. Grand Prix tickets: Children must be accompanied by an adult. Accommodation and transport to the venue not included.
12. Players who have won prizes will be notified by email within seven days of each Grand Prix. Grand Prix tickets will be despatched once they are available.

2012 Japanese Grand Prix

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    Image © Mercedes/Hoch Zwei

    Author information

    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    31 comments on “Who will win at Suzuka? Make your predictions”

    1. Hamilton is my favorite even though Vettel is usually superb here. but I’ll wait until the end of FP3.

    2. I guess there’s no harm in filling in a prediction earlier if you can always revise it.

      1. But you pretty much have to do it today because qualifying is so early tomorrow compared to most races…

    3. Time to put Webber back in the top for the predictions; I’ll put him second behind Hamilton and ahead Vettel. The Lotus is looking a bit quicker again, so Romain Grosjean can help out his team mate by finishing fourth ahead of Alonso in fifth.

      1. Where do you think Räikkönen will finish, then? Grosjean finishing ahead of Alonso won’t be that much use to him if he finishes behind Alonso.

        1. @estesark, there’s too few places in the top 5 to fit in all the good drivers. I’d put Raikkonen sixth.

      2. @adrianmorse
        I put the same top 3, but then I thought about possible team orders at Red Bull, so now I’m thinking Vettel 2nd Webber 3rd might be a safer bet…

    4. Seb to win..Jenson 2nd..Hamilton 3rd…Webber 4th and Alonso 5th

    5. 1)Vettel 2)Alonso 3)Button 4)Raikkonen 5)Massa

      1. Where’s Hamilton? Retired?

        1. or 6th place.

          1. Don’t you think that’s highly unlikely, though? I think, going on both his recent form and the car’s, he’s going to be somewhere in the top three without a doubt. The only reason for anything below that would likely be a mechanical or opperational calamity.

      2. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
        5th October 2012, 12:23

        @oskar
        I don’t understand how you came to that conclusion. Massa finishing in front of Hamilton? Really?

        1. He is entitled to his opinion. Why you question his prediction? Because your favorite driver wasn’t in the top 6?? Give me a break!!

        2. you must look very foolish right now

    6. 1 Alonso
      2 Button
      3 Hamilton
      4 Vettel
      5 Massa

    7. This is seriously hard to predict (guess?). It looks so close at the top, and no doubt another different driver will top P3. Singapore showed that one guy topping all three practice sessions is no guarantee of that same person being the fastest in qualifying. I think McLaren are really confident at the moment, and were probably hiding a significant amount of pace last time out, so I’d guess they’re doing the same here as well. Still, I can’t help but feel this is a Red Bull pole. I hope it isn’t; I’d love to see Lewis get a third on the trot, but it seems to me that he’ll be edged out by either Webber or Vettel — maybe both. I’m gonna go with my heart and not my head on this one, though. Lewis for pole and the win.

      1st Lewis Hamilton
      2nd Sebastian Vettel
      3rd Jenson Button
      4th Mark Webber
      5th Fernando Alonso

      1. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
        5th October 2012, 12:25

        Sounds about right. The only question mark is Hamilton, as Suzuka has been his best GP in recent years.

        1. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
          5th October 2012, 12:26

          *Hasn’t been his best GP

        2. @tmcs88, Only last year, really. In 2009 he was pretty good, but the battle with Trulli for second ended when his KERS failed. In 2010 he qualified 3rd, was moved back with a gearbox penalty, moved up to fourth and catching Alonso when his gearbox failed again. In 2011 he had disastrous tyre degradation and poor race pace (still fast in qualifying, had he been paying attention on his last Q3 run, instead of being jumped by Webber and Schumacher at the hairpin).

          1. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
            5th October 2012, 15:06

            The points that you’ve made chime well with my perspective. It appears as though Suzuka might be a bogey track for Hamilton (like Jenson and Silverstone), not from a lack of effort on his part, but as a result of good old fashioned bad luck and poor strategic decisions. Hopefully his past woes at this track won’t play on his mind and hinder his performance throughout the GP, as it’s a pivotal race in the season for him. It’s of paramount importance that he scores big points (preferably winning) in all remaining GP’s to stand a chance of nabbing the WDC, if he DNF’s this weekend, it’s over.

    8. Such faith in Jenson today. Is everyone predicting him for a podium taking into account he has to take a five-place grid penalty? Not that I think it’s impossible. With good race pace and strategy he can come a long way, especially if does what Alonso so frequently manages: start at the end of the top 10, then cross the line around fifth after the first lap. If he’s 8th or 9nth after the first lap, however, it would impress and surprise me greatly if he manages to make it P3 without incident of others (which is always possible, of course).

      1. I’m expecting him to qualify third, start eighth, and work his way up to fourth. The podium might be just out of reach.

    9. Going for Vettel to win from pole like he tends to do around here, ahead of a flying Kobayashi and then Hamilton and Webber ahead of a brilliant drive from Schumacher…

      1. I agree with the first part, but I doubt Schumacher & Koboyashi will be able to perform such heroics (sadly).

    10. 1. Hamilton
      2. Vettel
      3. Alonso
      4. Raikkonen
      5. Hulk

      I want a long awaited podium of Alonos-Vettel- Hamilton. I think given their car performances, it is likely we will see this one here.

    11. 1. Webber
      2. Hamilton
      3. Alonso
      4. Vettel
      5. Hulk
      Now bring the champagne in!!!

    12. 1.vettel
      2.raikkonen
      3.massa
      4.Grosjean
      5.webber
      Alonso to retire

      1. I think hamilton will retire again. Sorry hammy’s fans

    13. 1. Vettel
      2.Webber
      3. Button
      4. Alonso
      5. Raikkonen

    14. new pole ,,,…Octane Management filed for bankruptcy Sept. 24 and a creditor’s list shows debts over $5 million…..F1 gp in Canada 2013????

    Comments are closed.