This weekend’s F1 action takes us to the land of the brave and to the land of the world’s most humble man. Yep we’re in the US of A – Austin, Texas to be precise (cracking city Austin, in fairness).
Lewis Hamilton has reigned supreme on the Circuit of the Americas winning four of the previous five races and the Billion Dollar bellend himself goes into the weekend knowing that he can potentially win the championship if he were to remove all of us his jewellery and outscore his good mate Sebastian Vettel by 16 points and his teammate Valtteri Bottas by 3.
Hamilton goes into Friday practice with a price of 5/6 to win the Grand Prix, which on first look may sound quite a generous price. But, when factoring in that he doesn’t need to win the remaining races, it is a bit off-putting. If Vettel were to lunge his car up the inside he wouldn’t need to be overly defensive.
Additionally, Hamilton has been on a fortunate run in the last few races, while it has eluded Vettel – even if a lot of it has been brought upon the German by himself. So, the karma-believers may reckon Hamilton is due some misfortune.
For that reason, we wouldn’t be too keen on anyone in the outright market. If you are insistent on having a bet on Hamilton, the Overall Qualification winner at 8/13 is where the value could be as he has 10/16 pole positions this season.
Max Verstappen has been the form driver the last two races after finally getting over the gremlins that have been holding him back all year. He comes in off a second place in Japan, to back up his win in Malaysia to an American circuit where he was running well last year until he had to retire with an engine failure.
Our NAP of the weekend would be Max Verstappen to score a podium finish at 6/4. We don’t believe he will have enough to win this weekend, but he’ll be hungry for yet another podium.
If you are looking for a bigger price, we’d point you towards fans favourite Fernando Alonso.
Alonso gained many new American fans this year when he competed in the Indy500 and will be looking to entertain them again, as he did last season finishing a season’s best fifth place with a few last lap overtakes.
While he has no chance in winning the race itself, the 7/2 punt for an Alonso Top 6 finish is worth a bet, while a Fastest Lap at 50/1 would our big priced tip for the weekend.
The lights are green on F1 punts at PaddyPower.com* All odds correct at time of posting.