PWP: Tricky conditions lead to a low-scoring round

The summer break ended for everyone at Grove when we started preparing for the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix, and that included our secretive in-house expert known only as The Strategist, who aimed to recover ground in Pit Wall Predictions, presented by Gulf.

Like many players on this wet return to running, The Strategist struggled to make all the right calls, with the changeable weather leading to an unpredictable race.

Two players secured top marks of 25 points, but this was a low-scoring round for most, with 10 points being the most common score we saw.

As we head to Monza, two players share the P1 spot on our leaderboard with 255 points, just 100 shy of 2022's winning tally.

Check out how your score compared to everyone else's, including The Strategist, by reading on below.

The tyre whisperer triumphantly returned in Zandvoort, with Alex driving a set of Pirelli's soft tyres an incredible 44 laps in defiance of the early-race showers, making the correct answer 'Lap 31+'.

Only 1% of players went for this option, so pat yourself on the back if you were part of the few who got this right, especially with 58% following The Strategist's selection of Lap 11-20.

Unfortunately, a hydraulics issue meant Logan couldn't follow Alex's long soft-tyre stint, and only one FW45 made it to the pits in Zandvoort.

The Strategist did predict a lengthier stint for Sarge, with a selection of Lap 21-30, so they might've scored here had reliability not intervened.

Instead, just 0.3% of players added five points to their weekly total with their choice of 'No Stop Made'.

As we know, Albono was the only one of our drivers to make a pit stop, so he represents the correct answer for this question, which 68% of players chose.

Alex's trend of being the first stopper of our pair was something that The Strategist highlighted, and they also picked up five points for this question.

An almighty run on the soft tyres that had Alex extend and extend through the race while others pitted meant he reached P5 when he first changed tyres.

Possibly thanks to his Saturday heroics, 9% predicted a 'P1-P5' answer for this question, but not The Strategist, who went for 'P11-P15' here.

Field spread played its part in the race's dry spell following the first Safety Car appearance, and Pierre Gasly was well ahead of Alex when we pitted our No23.

The Strategist was ultimately wrong to think Alex would be battling hard when he boxed, making this another incorrect answer, but 4% did call it right with their '7.6+ secs' choice.

That hydraulics issue and running slicks during the first wet period meant Logan didn't visit the pit lane in Zandvoort this time.

One VSC appearance amid the rain-induced craziness meant this question scored 57% of players five points.

That majority seemingly ignored The Strategist's suggestion of zero VSC periods and instead picked up on their insight that 2022's race featured one VSC slowdown — something repeated this year.

A similar amount of players (58%) thought there'd also be one Safety Car, including The Strategist, but this proved the wrong choice for 2023.

Two full Safety Car appearances meant only 16% scored five points for the final question we posed you this week.

Not the happy comeback The Strategist hoped for, especially after an equally tricky Belgian GP before the summer break.

Fortunately for them and any other players who struggled in Zandvoort, the Italian GP is this weekend, and predictions will open ahead of the weekend to claw back points.