Japan 2014 (Round 15) - F1 Prediction League

Suzuka, Japan. One of the best tracks on the calendar - it's always a joy to watch cars attack here, around the S's, the Degners and the Spoon curbs.

For updates on the team hiring situation see the previous post (results from Singapore).

The battle for the championship will be intense here - Rosberg needs to stop Hamilton's momentum (just like at Monaco) but Suzuka has never been his best track. In 2013, he qualified 6th compared to Hamilton's 3rd and in 2012, he qualified 14th compared to Schumacher's 12th. Arguably he needs to be on pole to put doubts in Hamilton's mind but that's going to be very difficult to do.

There are many other thoughts - who will be second best...Red Bull? Williams? Ferrari? Any could feature around the technically demanding Suzuka.

The current championship standings are:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Random

Thanks to everyone who has helped so far on random this year - please feel free to post suggestions here for other races. Nat helped with the random this time.

Category 1: Team matchups
In qualifying, which team in the following pairings will have the highest classified car (before any penalties)? 2 points for each correct answer
Red Bull vs Williams
Ferrari vs McLaren
Toro Rosso vs Force India
Lotus vs Sauber
Caterham v Marussia

Category 2: Teammate matchup accumulator
Pick a selection of drivers to beat their teammate in the race (points in brackets for each driver). This is an accumulator, so you need all your picks to win for the accumulator to come off. If any of your drivers does not beat their teammate, you score 0 points. In the event of a retirement, then if your driver was ahead (incorporating strategy) at the time of retirement then you score half the points for that driver.
Rosberg (2) vs Hamilton (2)
Ricciardo (1) vs Vettel (3)
Bottas (2) vs Massa (2)
Button (1) vs Magnussen (3)
Alonso (1) vs Kimi (3)
Vergne (2) vs Kvyat (2)
Hulkenberg (2) vs Perez (2)
Sutil (1) vs Gutierrez (3)
Grosjean (2) vs Maldonado (2)
Bianchi (1) vs Chilton (3)
Kobayashi (1) vs Ericsson (3)

Category 3: Points finishes
Pick one team to have both drivers finish in the top 10 - the following points will be scored for the team picks:
1 - Mercedes, Red Bull
2 - Ferrari, Williams
3 - McLaren
4 - Force India, Toro Rosso
5 - Other (Sauber, Lotus, Marussia, Caterham)

Question 4: Yes or No!
Answer yes or no for each of the following questions and receive 2 points for each correct answer.
a) Will Mercedes GP top every session (FP1, FP2, FP3, Q1, Q2, Q3, R)?
b) Will anyone find themselves in the gravel in the slipper Degner curves in either qualifying or the race


Tie-break

Which Samurai (Alonso or Kobayashi) will beat their teammate by the largest margin in qualifying and by how much?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Template

Hamilton, Rosberg and Mercedes banned.

Feel free to post picks in the following format:

Qualifying: 
Race: 
Constructors:
Random:
Category 1 - Choice 1, Choice 2, ...
Category 2 - Choice 1, Choice 2, ...
Category 3 - Constructor
Category 4 - Y/N, Y/N

Tie-break: Alonso/Kobayashi, time: X.XXX seconds

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sukuza should be spectacular - I have a feeling there are plenty more twists left this season.

As always picks are due before Free Practice 1 which is 0200 GMT/1000 JST.