Bahrain Grand Prix: Sakhir Round-Up

"The pace was phenomenal, the car was great.  I could push every single lap and look after the tyres." ...Sebastian Vettel

We had an exciting first few opening laps as Vettel battled with Alonso and Rosberg, but once Alonso encoutered DRS problems it became a fairly straight forward victory for Vettel and he found himself in the happy position during his final stint of being told by his team he could take it easy.

Onto my tips and I had more losses than wins this race.  This is how my tips got on...

Post-Qualifying Tips:

Race Winner:
10 points eachway* (20 points total) on Nico Rosberg at 8.0 - LOSS
Nico fought hard during the opening laps to keep Sebastian Vettel behind him, but it was clear that there was only going to be one inevitable conclusion.  Once Vettel made his way past, Rosberg was unable to make his rear tyres last as well as other drivers and quickly fell back down the running order and eventually finished in 9th position.

Podium: 
20 points on Sebastian Vettel at 1.44 - WIN 29 points
I proved to be too conservative with this bet as after some exciting battles with Alonso and Rosberg on the opening laps, Vettel then took the lead and made it look easy as he cruised to his second victory of the season with a comfortable 9.1 second margin.

The Bahrain Grand Prix: Sakhir Post-Qualifying Tips

Formula 1 Tips For The Bahrain Grand Prix

Qualifying threw up a few surprises with Nico Rosberg taking pole by over quarter of a second.  Vettel and Alonso line up behind him with Raikkonen and Hamilton back in 8th and 9th, so it promises to be another interesting Grand Prix tomorrow.

Here are my tips...

Race Winner:
10 points eachway* (20 points total) on Nico Rosberg at 8.0
At each of the previous five Bahrain Grand Prix, Nico has finished the race in the position he's started from so he'll be hoping to continue that trend in tomorrow's race.  Although Nico's results so far this season haven't been quite what he would have hoped, that's largely been down to reliability issues (and team orders) rather than a lack of pace.  His impressive qualifying lap suggests the potential is there, but the Mercedes' race pace wasn't quite a match for it's one lap speed at China, so with Vettel and Alonso behind Rosberg on the grid I'm going to minimise the risk by making this an eachway bet.

* SkyBet pay 1/5 the odds for first 3 places.

Podium: 
20 points on Sebastian Vettel at 1.44
Considering that Lewis Hamilton was the fourth fastest driver during qualifying I was tempted to go for a speculative bet on Lewis at odds of 8.0 to make up places during the race and record his third consecutive podium.  In the end though, given the fact that he doesn't appear to be overly happy with his car, I think a podium might just be a bit too much to ask for Lewis, so I've decided to play it cautious and go for a fairly safe bet on Sebastian Vettel.

The Bahrain Grand Prix: Sakhir Pre-Qualifying Tips

Formula 1 Tips For The Bahrain Grand Prix

There's been a lot of talk about the Pirelli tyres so far this season and some criticism of the fact that the current tyres don't allow the drivers to push 100% for the entire race, and that somehow that devalues the racing.  However, at the Chinese Grand Prix the top five places were Alonso, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Vettel and Button ... all former world champions.

This season the opening three Grand Prix have been won by Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso.  I think it's fair to say that those victories owed more to the fact that Raikkonen, Vettel and Alonso are all brilliant drivers, rather than any random lottery caused by the tyres.  You're never going to produce a tyre which keeps everyone on the grid happy, but the results so far this season would suggest that whatever the tyres, the cream will always rise to the top.

Anyway, onto my pre-qualifying tips for the Bahrain Grand Prix...

Race Winner:
10 points eachway* (20 points total) on Lewis Hamilton at 11.0 (Price Boost)
Mercedes and Hamilton in particular have been close but not quite there all season.  A race victory in Bahrain might just be beyond them just yet, but with two podiums behind him Lewis nevertheless looks a decent eachway bet.

* SkyBet pay 1/5 the odds for first 3 places.