MotoGP Blog

The Jerez round saw the funniest, longest and highest scoring Minellas so far, and a distinct lack of belief in the talent of Stoner at Jerez (MotoGPBlog included). Podium picks were dominated by Rossi, Pedrosa and Lorenzo, with more than half of us choosing the current champion for the top position. Only one tipster got the podium correct : jasidog. Well done sir!

jasidog also had the funniest Minella: that Lorenzo and Pedrosa would have a punch-up. It never came to pass, but was entierly possible. The most complex Minella was entered by pintoffuc - check the entry list to see the full extent of his five-part prediction. Sadly, it was all over by Saturday afternoon as Hayden failed to reach the second row of the grid.

As for the highest scoring Minella, that went to the man who gave his name to it: DaveMinella. Predicting Stoner, Vermeulen, Melandri, Edwards and de Puniet would all improve on last year was a long shot, and deemed worthy of 15 points. Stoner, Melandri, Edwards and de Puniet all bettered their positions in the race - but what of Vermeulen? Placing 10th in ‘08 and ‘09, CV forced me to take into account total race time for each event, and he finished ‘09 a massive 7 seconds faster than ‘09, thereby improving his performance and winning DaveMinella the 15 points. Congrats Dave.

There is now a new name at the top of the leaderboard, rumblestrip (despite being the only other competitor to have Minella success) relegated to second, with consistency paying off for ScottFriday, pintoffuc and GarethCrew.

I’ll be accepting tips for Le Mans next week. Start your research now!

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