For the third straight year, Lewis Hamilton’s title-winning carnival will be live from Interlagos, Brazil after wrapping up the Drivers’ Championship at the circuit of the Americas last time out.
The six-time World Champion won here last year after a shunt from Esteban Ocon had Red Bull’s Max Verstappen facing the wrong way, with former Ferrari man Kimi Raikkonen coming home third.
Our Formula One betting expert previews the penultimate race of the season.
The Contenders
Despite their success here last season, the Mercedes owed a lot to Sebastian Ocon’s intervention and only just held on anyway. With just two races to go, Valtteri Bottas will be hoping to build on his win in Austin by reducing that gap to Hamilton even further. He’s out-qualified his team-mate seven times this season and is 8/5 to do so again in Brazil.
Sebastian Vettel is the only driver on the grid to have won at Interlagos more than twice and having not been on the top step of the podium since Singapore, the four-time world champion will be looking to finish the campaign on a high. Qualifying hasn’t been his strong suit so far, with just two pole positions this season, but he should be competitive on Sunday. He’s available at around 6/1 to win at the weekend. Teammate Charles Leclerc will start from the pit lane this weekend after changing his engine following the GP in Austin.
Arguably the biggest performance of Max Verstappen’s career so far came at a wet Interlagos in 2016. After a spin put him 16th with 16 laps to go, the Dutchman charged through the field to somehow finish on the podium. Last season too, he pushed Hamilton close despite his incident with Ocon. Verstappen carries great pace around this track and should surely be in contention come the closing stages on Sunday. He’s 11/4 to win the race.
The Rest
Williams look to have recruited a new driver and some new funding ahead of next season, and frankly, they must be counting down the days already. It’s been a horror season in which they’ve gathered just one point. At 16/1, George Russell is well priced to be the first retirement of the race in Brazil.
After finishing eighth in Mexico and sixth in Austin, Daniel Ricciardo’s debut season at Renault has finally started to yield some positive results. He’s currently ninth in the Drivers’ standings but could climb a place higher with two positive results to finish the season. He’s got an extremely outside chance of finishing on the podium here at 50/1.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.