We came out of the F1 triple header with the F1 Drivers Championship race as tight as ever, Max Verstappen leading Lewis Hamilton by 5 points (and a massive gap to the rest). We now head to Russia, where Hamilton can lean on a dominant record of 4 wins in 7 attempts to give him confidence. The results in Italy were not great, with Hamilton and Verstappen taking each other out, and Sainz and Ocon finishing well clear of the top 3/6 hopes I had for them. Still, can’t complain about a magical Danny Ricciardo win!
F1 Russian GP Betting Tips
The Track
The Russian GP has been held at Sochi Autodrom since 2014, and in those 7 years the Mercedes team has won every single race! It is a 5.8km circuit built at the Winter Olympic venue, and is a reasonably tight street circuit.
Betting Tips
The weather could play a major role this weekend, with significant rain forecast throughout the weekend. Thanks to the combination of the dominant record of Mercedes, as well a three place grid penalty, we can currently get odds of $4 on Verstappen to win, as opposed to just $1.72 for Hamilton. However, I’m going to look one rung lower down, with Valterri Bottas owning a stellar record at the circuit of two wins and having never qualified outside the top 4. I’m going to invest in his $4.50 odds with speculation that Verstappen could take a further grid penalty thanks to an engine upgrade.
I’ll also go back to what we saw 3 races ago in Belgium, when George Russel emerged from a very wet weekend with a 2nd place in qualifying. We can get $21 for a podium finish, but I’m going to settle for $8 to finish in the top 6.
My podium hope will instead be on Lando Norris, who finished 2nd behind his teammate in Italy, and continues to improve his reputation as an outstanding driver. He’s paying $3, and I suspect he could thrive in the wet conditions.
