Lewis Hamilton will start favourite to win the season-opening Australian Grand Prix after posting yet another pole position around the Melbourne street circuit at Albert Park – his fourth in four years.
But he might not have everything his own way after Ferrari’s former world champion Sebastian Vettel pulled out a blistering lap of his own in the final seconds of the qualifying to snare second spot on the 20 car grid.
The Ferraris had shown themselves to be more competitive in winter testing than they had been in 2016, and both Vettel and his team mate Kimi Raikkonen (another former world champion) are well placed to take the challenge up to Hamilton and his Mercedes team-mate Bottas, who was third fastest.
At $4.60 on Betfair fixed odds, Vettel might be the value investment, while those looking for a more enticing wager could be tempted by the $11 available with both Sportsbet and Bet 365 on Bottas should anything happen to Hamilton’s car.
Bottas in for the Fight
Certainly, the Finn is up for the challenge.
”Third is not ideal – I think in general I’m not happy for the result,” said Bottas, whose previous best qualifying in Australia was sixth.
” I didn’t quite get any perfect laps in, so I’m not that satisfied. But tomorrow is the day that matters – it seems that we have been quite strong on the practice starts, so hopefully we can keep that going tomorrow.”
Hamilton is Expecting a Fierce Contest
” As you can see it’s going to be a close race between us (Mercedes and Ferrari) this year I think.”
Vettel too sounded in confident enough mood. The German is a four-time world title winner and has won in Melbourne before, so he too took plenty of confidence from his strong qualifying run.
”We are working well as a team. I wasn’t entirely happy with my final lap, and tomorrow I hope we can do something.
“We are fired up about tomorrow’s race. The confidence was there from testing and it has been a big winter for us.”
Ricciardo’s Nightmare
Any patriotic punters who splurged on Daniel Ricciardo to fly the flag for Australia will need an enormous amount of luck to pick up any returns after the West Australian skidded off at high speed and crashed into the wall in the final qualifying session.
Ricciardo and his team-mate Max Verstappen had not enjoyed the easiest of weekends, but this was a body blow to the ever smiling Ricciardo’s hopes of winning his first ever home Grand Prix. He can now be backed at odds of $151 with Sportsbet.
Former world champion Fernando Alonso has not got warm in the past few seasons since his move to McLaren and the formerly great team continues to struggle.
But at least the Spaniard could smile a little after the first qualifying session of the season when he qualified in 13th position. He will be desperate to at least finish this time, and if his car can hold together, he certainly knows how to reach the chequered flag so his price of $2.20 with Bet 365 to complete the race might be worth a look.
Betfair:
Bet on Henrik Stenson to become the BMW PGA Championship Winner.
Paddypower:
Back Australia to take the Ashes home with them.
Betway:
Back Rafael Nadal to become the Mens French Open Winner.
Coral:
Back One For Arthur to win the Grand National.
Bet365:
Back Mexico to win the Confederations Cup.
