MorrisF1

Quick rundown on the results of previous tips, assuming £10 stakes per time:  EPL*: 2 tips, both losses = -£20 Serie A: 1 tip, one loss = -£10 La Liga**: 4 tips, two losses, one win = +£7 Ligue 1: 2 tips, two wins = +£42.2 Bundesliga: 2 tips, one loss, one win = -£4.6 Total = +£14.6 *Most bets, right or wrong, are ‘normal’ but I did make an error betting against Manchester United. Think they’ve turned a corner now. **One tip is outstanding at the time of writing, to be played tonight. ( Update : this failed, so it's +£4.6).   So, not fantastic. But could be worse. EPL Note I’m only looking at bets up to 1 September inclusive. I was on the fence about this but decided to back Southampton (at home) at 6 to beat Chelsea. They only conceded a single goal from an improved Manchester United, beat Leicester away, and held Leeds at home. Away this year, Chelsea have narrowly beaten a poor Everton side and got walloped by Leeds. With home advantage, I think 6 is a

Worth noting this was not a classic, though the bet did come off.  Most cars started on the medium with the Ferraris and Verstappen on the soft. From the line, Sainz had a great getaway and Perez left the handbrake on, getting passed by Alonso and Hamilton, in that order. Come the end of the straight Hamilton tried passing the Spaniard but didn’t leave enough space, causing contact. This put Perez back into second, cost Alonso a few places, and meant Hamilton went out on lap 1 (it was his fault, as he acknowledged, but he didn’t get a penalty). This may well have necessitated a full safety car anyway, but it emerged shortly after Latifi (shockingly) spun after getting too close to gravel. Bottas took evasive action but this beached him on the gravel while the gyrating Canadian managed to keep going. Rough luck for the Finn.  This safety car was very handy for Verstappen and Leclerc, both of whom had been making good progress although the Monegasque had some trademark bad luck w

It was mildly surprising that Magnussen failed to escape Q1 due to a scruffy lap but the other departures, Bottas, Tsunoda, Latifi, and Vettel were no real shock. Bottas, as with many others, had a penalty and didn’t put in a final flying lap.  Every Q2 elimination was from a different team, with better performing drivers including Gasly, Zhou, Stroll, and Schumacher, whilst the 11 th fastest chap was Ricciardo. Worth noting Albon was swift throughout and made the final session for the first time this year. The tangled mess of qualifying penalties meant that there would be much rejigging, but on form it seemed Verstappen would be fastest with an actual pole duel fairly closely contested by Sainz and Perez. The Mercedes, meanwhile, seemed quite some way off the pace. Verstappen was duly fastest, but it’s Sainz who will start on pole, qualifying two-tenths ahead of Perez. Leclerc and Ocon were next on the time sheet but actually next on the grid will be Alonso and Hamilton. Behind

The silly season has gotten started early. As I write this, Albon is confirmed for Williams next year. That is not very silly. What is rather silly is the Alonso/Alpine situation. Having apparently lied to the face of the team principal, the team then learned he’d signed up with Aston Martin when it was released to the press. This may also have prevented Alpine having guaranteed dibs on talented youngster Oscar Piastri, with the team stating he’d be driving for them next year and Piastri himself stating he would not. The assumption is that he’s got a great chance of going to McLaren but that requires Ricciardo leaving. This means, almost certainly, a payoff. But he might refuse to go. Update : Ricciardo is leaving at the end of the year. This may also be the final race at Spa, though this is yet to be confirmed. With three races in the US next year and plans for another, this is another wretched moment to go alongside Liberty’s money-grubbing love of sprint race bullshit.   And A

As threatened, here’s another football blog (normal F1 service will resume during the weekend itself). Not sure if I’ll do these again, but we’ll see.   EPL Had an extremely lucky recent set of results and overall this is far and away my greenest league, so I’m overdue some misfortune. As before, bets are with Smarkets unless noted otherwise. I weighed this up a bit before eventually backing Southampton at 4.5 to beat Manchester United. Southampton are at home. To date their results are an away win over Leicester, drawing at home versus Leeds (in light of the Chelsea result this looks more impressive), and getting thrashed away at Spurs. Manchester United surprised most by beating Liverpool at Old Trafford, but before this get a thumping at Brentford, and lost at home to Brighton. Southampton are just above them in the table and have a slightly better goal difference due to scoring more. Home advantage may help them out, the major question is whether Manchester United had a f

Hey, kids. For reasons that are strange and mysterious I decided to have another crack at football betting this season, with tiny stakes, looking at the EPL, Serie A, La Liga, Ligue 1, and the Bundesliga. I won’t bore you with all the numbers but overall so far I’m ahead, with some good EPL results, the statistically improbable feat of getting every single Bundesliga bet wrong, and a fairly mixed bag with Serie A, La Liga, and Ligue 1 (at the time of writing, I’m moderately ahead across those three). So don’t take these betting thoughts with a pinch so much as a boulder of salt. I did have the very lucky outcome of getting all three of Sunday’s EPL matches right, 6 on Leeds winning, 3.3 on Brighton’s away triumph, and 5.5 on the Newcastle/Man City draw. I’ll be surprised Manchester United beat Liverpool today but did back it with a free bet at 5 (unsure if this gets voided or the bet stands with a postponed match if it gets delayed due to fan protests). Mostly I’m betting on