Brought to you by TJ13 Courtroom Reporter & Crime Analyst: Adam Macdonald.

Wow.  What a weekend that was for all concerned with the Formula One world.  On the predictions side, Vettel’s gearbox threw a spanner in the works as well as needing one to fix it, whilst Hamilton and Webber’s recovery saved some weekends.

A few optimistic Brits (myself included) decided this would be the weekend for a McLaren resurgence, in addition to Paul Di Resta joining weight watchers on the Saturday, it left for a difficult weekend in ‘TheJudge13 All Star F1 racers’ league.

On the Up

MC74 benefitted greatly from the final safety car which allowed Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso into 2^nd and 3^rd respectively as they had predicted.  39% accuracy meant an improvement of 6 places, up to 10^th place in the league.

This was much the same for Karbry Racing who also picked up points for Lewis on pole and a Daniel Ricciardo 8^th place.  An inspired decision meant an 8 place gain and into the top 20 (16^th place).

However, the most improved was the South African registered team _H__ . The ever reliable Alonso was predicted for 3^rd, with Nico taking the win.  Did he/she know something about Vettel’s gearbox that we all didn’t?  A 12 place gain means the team is into the top half of the table.

One to Forget

4 big slides down the table this week.  The Fastest Frenchie, Quemerford and Percy’s Plodders slipped 9, 10 and 10 places respectively.  All had bad weekends for different reasons, but in fairness it was an extremely difficult one to predict.  Just 6 points for Quemerford!

I BeN SuLLeY x dropped 11 places to 24^th place in the league.  Perhaps he/she is a Ferrari fan, as there were 2 of the prancing horses on the podium.  The other was Vettel, which meant a very poor weekend overall.  Only 12 points gained, so Germany cannot come soon enough for a recovery!

The only way is up

Congratulations to Huppy who has moved away from the foot of the table.  jjpm is the replacement at the bottom, having made the decision for Esteban Gutierrez to claim the fastest lap.  An unfortunate one, as Sauber can barely afford the petrol for a lap at the moment, let alone one on full throttle.

Better luck next week!

Nobody saw it coming

Over the recent years, the rule changes to make races more exciting have (in general) been for the better – DRS, KERS, etc.  However, this week’s change, to introduce exploding tyres made the race seem more like Mario Kart being played on a Nintendo 64 in the late 1990s.

The 3 safety car periods, as well as the Vettel retirement, really shook up the field.

Food for thought

The new found pace of the Mercedes GP drivers was plain to see.   Was this a one off due to the cool breeze through Northamptonshire countryside or have they genuinely sorted out the tyre degradation issues that have troubled them for the best part of 2 and a half years?

Furthermore, will the now imminent departure of Mark Webber affect performances of those potentially in line for the 2014 RB seat?

Remember when…

In this section there will be a question each week to test your memory from GPs gone by. The idea is not to look it up but see if you can remember it first!

Where and when was the last British GP held, that was not at Silverstone?  Furthermore, who won it and in what car?

(Answer will be posted in the next Predictor summary)

Last question’s answer

The question was: Sunday saw only the second time Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton have been on the podium together.  When and where was the first time?

Answer: The inaugural Austin GP in 2012 was, amazingly, the first time the trio had been on the podium.  Pretty incredible considering they are regarded as the three best drivers in F1.

3 teams, 3 nationalities and 3 crazy hats.