Season 1 Hivedrive Grand Prix

Season 1 Hivedrive Grand Prix
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The Hive during Lap 1
Date	7 - 8 March 2020
Location	Hivedrive
Course Length	13.20 m
Distance	11 laps, 144.75 m
Hidden Marble	Roldo
Link	Qualifiers: Marbula One: 2020 Hivedrive GP Qualifying (S1Q4) - Marble Race by Jelle's Marble Runs Race: Marbula One: 2020 Hivedrive GP (S1R4) - Marble Race by Jelle's Marble Runs
Pole position
Racer	Snowflake - Snowballs
Time	23.99
Fastest lap
Racer	Smoggy - Hazers
Time	28.40 (lap 11)
Podium
First	Pulsar - Team Galactic
Second	Rapidly - Savage Speeders
Third	Wospy - Midnight Wisps
Race Statistics
Yellow Flags	0
Red Flags	0
Top 5 Overtakes	37
Lead Changes	4
Marble of the Day	Pulsar - Team Galactic

The Season 1 Hivedrive Grand Prix was the fourth race of Marbula One Season 1, held on 7 - 8 March 2020.

Qualifying

Summary

Mimo of Team Momo was the first to go in this qualifying session. Despite their best hopes, they couldn't make up for Momo's poor performance at the previous Grand Prix. They set the session's worst qualifying lap at almost 30.00s. Wospy of the Midnight Wisps, on the other hand, performed exceptionally this time, signifying that they had recovered from the injuries they received at the second GP. In fact, they set a convincing qualifying lap of 25.80s.

Hive of the hosting Hornets performed very poorly this time, confirming their worries about the "hosts' curse" that had seemingly plagued every host team to date in the season. They had to settle on a qualifying lap of 28.00s flat. Likewise, Rojo Dos of the Rojo Rollers did not make it very well. Their qualifying lap of 29.65s would have them start from the back row of the grid, just ahead of Mimo.

Meanwhile, Yellup of Mellow Yellow had a great performance this time, and became the first marble to have beaten Wospy's time with a qualifying lap of 25.48 seconds. They were later followed by Orangin of the O'rangers, who managed to make up for their disappointing performance at the second GP. They set an outstanding qualifying lap of 24.23s. However, it was Snowflake of the Snowballs who went on to achieve pole position, finishing approximately a quarter of a second faster than Orangin. Slipping just under the margin of 24s, they set the single best qualifying lap in this session, creating the biggest ever qualifying lap gap between the pole position and the back of the grid, with +05.98s.

Anarchy of the Balls of Chaos could not match up to the best of their teammate, Clutter, who won the previous GP, in this qualifying session. They set a time just over the margin of 29s. Similarly, the winner of the O'raceway GP two weeks earlier, Billy of the Green Ducks, surprisingly failed to show their best shape as they did in the O'raceway. They entered the pit lane during their qualifying run, resulting in a disappointing qualifying lap of 27.54s.

Going last in this session was Smoggy of the Hazers. Unfortunately, they were unable to beat Snowflake's time in this session. The team started in P5, only their 2nd-lowest qualification result of the season to date.

Results

Pos.	Marble	Team	Time	Delta
1	Snowflake	Snowballs	23.99	-
2	Orangin	O'rangers	24.23	+00.24
3	Yellup	Mellow Yellow	25.48	+01.49
4	Wospy	Midnight Wisps	25.80	+01.81
5	Smoggy	Hazers	26.01	+02.02
6	Rezzy	Raspberry Racers	26.03	+02.04
7	Rapidly	Savage Speeders	26.07	+02.08
8	Bolt	Thunderbolts	26.31	+02.32
9	Pulsar	Team Galactic	27.31	+03.32
10	Limelime	Limers	27.32	+03.33
11	Billy	Green Ducks	27.54	+03.55
12	Mary	Team Primary	27.80	+03.81
13	Hive	Hornets	28.00	+04.01
14	Anarchy	Balls of Chaos	29.01	+05.02
15	Rojo Dos	Rojo Rollers	29.65	+05.66
16	Mimo	Team Momo	29.97	+05.98

Race

Summary

Immediately after the race start, pole-sitter Snowflake lost the lead to Orangin at the very first turn of the race. Snowflake would end up losing many more positions during the rest of the first lap, and they would never be seen in the top 5 again after a bad jump off the conveyor belt starting the second lap. At the conclusion of the first lap, Orangin led with Wospy, Yellup, and Rapidly not far behind.

A trend throughout this race was that once the leading marble was overtaken, they would never regain that top spot for the rest of the race. Orangin was the first marble to fall victim to this when they were overtaken by Wospy in the hive on lap 2. Limelime managed to overtake both Pulsar and Rapidly to reach fourth place during the second lap, but they too ended up losing out in the hive and would be overtaken by both of the aforementioned opponents. The third lap began with Wospy, Yellup, and Orangin all locked in a dead heat coming off the conveyor belt, and Wospy did manage to maintain the lead coming off. This wouldn't last for long, however, as Yellup would make a move in the first sector to take the lead early in lap 3. Pulsar, who had started the race in ninth, had now made their way up into third place. Yellup maintained the lead for all of lap 4 while Wospy held second before taking a trip in the pit lane and giving up the spot to Pulsar. Smoggy also made their first appearance in the top five since the start of the race when a bad second sector by Orangin opened up the opportunity.

Lap 5 saw Yellup still maintaining their lead while Wospy made a move in the hive to retake second place from Pulsar only to give it back up down the straightaway to end the lap. Rapidly got a good jump off of the belt to start lap 6 which moved them into third, and a gamble in the hive allowed them to move into second. Smoggy had a rough run through the hive which resulted in them falling all the way back into eighth place, and Wospy was able to overtake Pulsar for third just before they crossed the finish line. The start of lap 7 saw Yellup being in danger of losing the lead for the first time with Rapidly closing down their lead. A disastrous run through the hive allowed Rapidly to overtake them for first place, the first lead change in over four laps of racing. Pulsar also used the hive to their advantage as they took third position back from Wospy. Yellup's poor lap resulted in them taking the pit lane, and both Pulsar and Wospy were able to pass them at the end of the lap although the latter would lose third place after some difficulty mounting the conveyor belt. Wospy was quickly able to retake the position by shoving Yellup onto the curb inside the hairpin, but Rapidly and Pulsar were beginning to separate themselves from the rest of the pack. The top four stayed the same through the hive, but Smoggy was able to get back into the top five by overtaking Orangin.

Rapidly began the ninth lap of the race with a lead measuring over a second, but this quickly started to come down as Pulsar closed the gap through the first sector. This, combined with a couple jarring glances off the hive walls for Rapidly, would pave way for the fourth and final lead change of the race as Pulsar streaked on by through the hive to take the top spot; this would end up being the final position change in the top three as well. Pulsar maintained the lead throughout all of the penultimate lap, but Rapidly wasn't about to give up on the race just yet. They blocked Wospy on the pit lane attenuator and then daringly sped through the pit lane to close Pulsar's lead to under four tenths going into the final lap. Pulsar, however, would not give Rapidly the opportunity to pass them in the final lap, and the stellar marble crossed the finish line to take the Grand Prix. Rapidly finished about three quarters of a second back, and Wospy managed to redeem their disaster at the O'raceway by taking third. The final notable move in the race was a clever maneuver by Smoggy where they rode on top of the curb around the penultimate turn and then shot down in front of Yellup to not only steal fourth place but also set the fastest lap of the race. Pulsar's win in the race gave Team Galactic their second race win of the tournament while Rapidly earned their second silver of the season to jump to the top of the racer standings halfway through the season.

Results

Pos.	Marble	Team	Laps	Time	Delta	Grid	Points
1	Pulsar	Team Galactic	11	5:33.27	-	9	25
2	Rapidly	Savage Speeders	11	5:34.04	+00.77	7	18
3	Wospy	Midnight Wisps	11	5:34.44	+01.17	4	15
4	Smoggy	Hazers	11	5:35.09	+01.82	5	13*
5	Yellup	Mellow Yellow	11	5:35.23	+01.96	3	10
6	Rezzy	Raspberry Racers	11	5:36.72	+03.45	6	8
7	Hive	Hornets	11	5:38.23	+4.96	13	6
8	Orangin	O'rangers	11	5:38.26	+04.99	2	4
9	Mimo	Team Momo	11	5:39.78	+06.51	16	2
10	Rojo Dos	Rojo Rollers	11	5:41.49	+08.22	15	1
11	Limelime	Limers	11	5:42.11	+08.84	10	0
12	Bolt	Thunderbolts	11	5:43.33	+10.06	8
13	Billy	Green Ducks	11	5:43.47	+10.20	11
14	Snowflake	Snowballs	11	5:44.21	+10.94	1
15	Anarchy	Balls of Chaos	11	5:45.76	+12.49	14
16	Mary	Team Primary	10	+1 lap		12

*Earned 1 bonus point for the fastest lap.

Lap Leaders

Lap 1 Orangin - O'rangers Lap 2 Wospy - Midnight Wisps Lap 3 Yellup - Mellow Yellow Lap 4 Yellup - Mellow Yellow Lap 5 Yellup - Mellow Yellow Lap 6 Yellup - Mellow Yellow

Lap 7 Rapidly - Savage Speeders Lap 8 Rapidly - Savage Speeders Lap 9 Pulsar - Team Galactic Lap 10 Pulsar - Team Galactic Winner Pulsar - Team Galactic

Standings After Event

Team Standings

	Rank	Team	G	S	B	Total	FLs	Points
00	1st	Hazers	0	1	2	3	1	61
02	2nd	Team Galactic	2	0	0	2	0	56
00	3rd	Savage Speeders	0	2	0	2	1	55
02	4th	Green Ducks	1	0	0	1	1	42
00	5th	Team Primary	0	1	0	1	0	30
00	6th	Balls of Chaos	1	0	0	1	0	26
00	7th	Snowballs	0	0	1	1	0	25
00	8th	O'rangers	0	0	0	0	1	23
01	9th	Raspberry Racers	0	0	0	0	0	18
02	10th	Mellow Yellow	0	0	0	0	0	18
04	11th	Midnight Wisps	0	0	1	1	0	16
03	12th	Limers	0	0	0	0	0	13
02	13th	Thunderbolts	0	0	0	0	0	10
00	14th	Hornets	0	0	0	0	0	8
02	15th	Rojo Rollers	0	0	0	0	0	5
00	16th	Team Momo	0	0	0	0	0	2

Individual Standings

	Rank	Marble (Team)	G	S	B	Total	FLs	GPs	Points
07	1st	Rapidly (SAV)	0	2	0	2	0	2 of 4	36
01	2nd	Hazy (HAZ)	0	1	1	2	0	2 of 4	33
01	3rd	Starry (GAL)	1	0	0	1	0	2 of 4	31
01	4th	Prim (PRM)	0	1	0	1	0	2 of 4	30
06	5th	Smoggy (HAZ)	0	0	1	1	1	2 of 4	28
02	6th	Billy (GDK)	1	0	0	1	1	2 of 4	26
02	7th	Clutter (BOC)	1	0	0	1	0	2 of 4	25
18	8th	Pulsar (GAL)	1	0	0	1	0	2 of 4	25
03	9th	Clementin (ORA)	0	0	0	0	1	2 of 4	19
03		Speedy (SAV)	0	0	0	0	1	2 of 4	19
02	11th	Snowy (SNO)	0	0	1	1	0	2 of 4	17
02	12th	Mallard (GDK)	0	0	0	0	0	2 of 4	16
02	13th	Yellup (MYL)	0	0	0	0	0	2 of 4	16
18	14th	Wospy (MNW)	0	0	1	1	0	2 of 4	15
03	15th	Limelime (LMR)	0	0	0	0	0	2 of 4	12
01	16th	Rezzy (RSP)	0	0	0	0	0	2 of 4	12
04	17th	Bolt (TBL)	0	0	0	0	0	2 of 4	10
04	18th	Snowflake (SNO)	0	0	0	0	0	2 of 4	8
00	19th	Hive (HOR)	0	0	0	0	0	2 of 4	8
04	20th	Razzy (RSP)	0	0	0	0	0	2 of 4	6
09	21st	Orangin (ORA)	0	0	0	0	0	2 of 4	4
03		Rojo Uno (ROJ)	0	0	0	0	0	2 of 4	4
01	23rd	Mimo (MOM)	0	0	0	0	0	2 of 4	2
04	24th	Yellow (MYL)	0	0	0	0	0	2 of 4	2
03	25th	Wispy (MNW)	0	0	0	0	0	2 of 4	1
02	26th	Rojo Dos (ROJ)	0	0	0	0	0	2 of 4	1
06	27th	Anarchy (BOC)	0	0	0	0	0	2 of 4	1
05	28th	Sublime (LMR)	0	0	0	0	0	2 of 4	1
01	29th	Vespa (HOR)	0	0	0	0	0	2 of 4	0
03	30th	Momo (MOM)	0	0	0	0	0	2 of 4	0
02	31st	Shock (TBO)	0	0	0	0	0	2 of 4	0
01	32nd	Mary (PRM)	0	0	0	0	0	2 of 4	0

Trivia

• With their 14th place finish, Snowflake became the first polesitter to score 0 points in a Grand Prix.