Chinese Grand Prix: Shanghai Round-Up

"It's very close to call and a very open championship." ...Fernando Alonso

Before the Grand Prix things were looking perfectly set up for a closely fought race, but in the end Alonso made the victory look easy.  During the closing stages as he cruised away from the chasing pack he even had to be told by his team not to push, to which Fernando replied, rather ominously for his championship rivals, "I'm not pushing."

Onto my tips, and retirements were my undoing this week, as Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber's DNFs meant losses straight away for a big chunk of my tips.  Of my remaining tips a few of them did okay, but not enough to record a profit.

Here's the round-up of exactly how things turned out...

Pre-Qualifying Tips:

Race Winner (eachway): 
10 points eachway* (20 points total) on Mark Webber at 9.0 - LOSS
Fuel problems during qualifying meant that Webber's car was unable to provide the required FIA fuel sample and he therefore started from the back of the grid, effectively ruining any chance he had of victory.

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

Podium Finish:
15 points on Lewis Hamilton at 3.0 (Price Boost) - WIN 45 points
It was touch and go there at the end, and you could hear the panic in Lewis' voice as he cut through the traffic and shouted over the radio, "Blue flag!" but in the end he just managed to hang on to the final podium position by 0.203 of a second.

The Chinese Grand Prix: Shanghai Post-Qualifying Tips

"...it should be interesting for the fans." ...Jenson Button

With the grid for tomorrow's race settled, my selection of pre-qualifying tips are standing in varying degrees of potential.  Lewis Hamilton for a podium and Nico Rosberg for a top six finish are looking particularly strong, but Mark Webber's fuel problems in qualifying mean his chances of an eachway victory look to be seriously diminished.

An interesting qualifying approach by Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button means we'll see a mix of strategies in tomorrow's Grand Prix, which should make for an intriguing race.  It also makes for an interesting spread of bets in the race winner market with SkyBet's odds suggesting any number of drivers are in with a shot of the race victory.

There are a lot of ifs and buts to consider, but I'll see how I go with my post-qualifying tips...

Race Winner:
10 points eachway* (20 points total) on Kimi Raikkonen at 4.5
The odds suggest that the Chinese Grand Prix is looking very open and you could make a case for a number of drivers' chances.  Hamilton, Alonso, Raikkonen and Vettel are all priced as realistic possibilities for the race victory, while Nico Rosberg's odds of 15.0 also make him an appealing bet.

Overall though, I'm torn between Lewis and Kimi, and although in the post qualifying press conference Kimi was playing down the Lotus' pace, he showed in Melbourne that the Lotus can manage its tyres well if we get cooler conditions.  It's a tricky one to predict, and temperature and tyres could be a factor, so I'm going to go for Kimi Raikkonen but with so many contenders and variables, I'm going to make it an eachway bet to minimise my risk.

The Chinese Grand Prix: Shanghai Pre-Qualifying Tips

Formula 1 Tips For The Chinese Grand Prix

Before every Grand Prix I place a few hypothetical pre and post qualifying bets using the odds available from SkyBet.com and then compare which set of tips perform best.

So far this season my pre-qualifying tips have out-performed my post-qualifying tips, so I'll see if I can continue that trend at the Chinese Grand Prix...

Race Winner (eachway): 
10 points eachway* (20 points total) on Mark Webber at 9.0
Mark is currently second in the championship and Red Bull have the fastest car on the grid, so Webber looks like a reasonable eachway bet at odds of 9.0 for the race victory.

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

Podium Finish:
15 points on Lewis Hamilton at 3.0 (Price Boost)
Mercedes have performed better than expected so far this season, and Lewis has a consistent record at Shanghai (3rd, 1st and 2nd over the last 3 years), so I'm tempted by SkyBet's price boost from 2.88 to 3.0 for Hamilton to finish on the podium.