MorrisF1

This morning I mentioned elsewhere the Ladbrokes (exchange) odds of 2.2 on both Force Indias to score. Naturally, this led the gods to show ill-favour to them, causing a collision and preventing an otherwise certain win. As for the Vettel bet, he came close, but no cigar. I’m a little surprised the hedge at evens wasn’t matched, to be honest. Off the line it was formation flying at the sharp end. Alonso made many passes (a feat not to be repeated due to a farcical power difference between the McLaren and every other car) and the Force Indias slid back a little. Ocon also made contact with Perez here, in the chaos and tumult of the start, just before Eau Rouge. The top two appeared to be in a league of their own, and the Force Indias started making up a little ground. Verstappen was going well, and then his engine conked out. All the top chaps changed to soft tyres for the second stint, and about two-thirds into the race commentary suggested Hamilton’s rear right tyre h

I’m beginning to get quite aggravated. Last race a rare safety car (first on a first lap in Hungary in over three decades) and an inexplicably lenient call on Sainz meant some tips didn’t come off, here Raikkonen was plagued by a serious vibration throughout qualifying and made a mistake on his final lap (the other three drivers all improved markedly on their last lap). He’d been faster than Vettel all weekend and, if not better than Hamilton (the final distance between Hamilton and Vettel was not insurmountable) certainly in with a good chance of being best of the rest. Good and bad luck interferes a lot with F1, and whilst I had some good a few races ago, the last two or three have been plagued with misfortune. Raikkonen really should’ve been 2 nd , with an outside shot of pole. Rant over, qualifying threw up some surprises. Williams were dire. Whilst most expected Sauber to be slowest (and they were), both Williams left in Q1 (Stroll was unable to do a second

A minor piece of housekeeping, but with offering more tips ahead of race weekends I’m going to start recording them. My focus will still be on the weekend tips, but given the last two race weekends have seen very green early bets but very red weekend bets, it’s producing a rather misleading picture and I want to correct that. I’ll continue to always offer at least one race bet per weekend in a pre-race article, and early bets will continue to be subject to value (I won’t always offer them). During the break it was announced that Perez will continue driving for Force India in 2018 and Raikkonen likewise for Ferrari. Not hugely surprised and expect Bottas to get a multi-year deal at Mercedes. The most interesting question right now is whether or not Kubica will come back. My own guess is he’ll replace Palmer (and that Leclerc will join Sauber). More interesting is whether Alonso will leave the sport (I’d guess that he will if McLaren stick with Honda). Vandoorne has also been