Bahrain Grand Prix Betting

March 13th, 2010 / Lee A Jackson

The first grand Prix of the new 2010 season gets under way on Sunday, with most of the spotlight going to fall on the return of Michael Schumacher. Practice at Bahrain though, put the legendary German driver behind his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg, who was only marginally quicker, but a half a second in terms of Formula One lap times is a great deal. For the expertise of Schumacher, it is everything and even he has admitted after the two practice sessions, that he will need to up his game. All through winter practice, Schumacher has been there or there abouts in the leading pack, and the perfectionist won’t be happy unless he push his car, and himself to the limits. His team mate, Rosberg in fact led the entire field in terms of putting in the fastest lap, edging Britain’s former World Champion Lewis Hamilton. After much scrutiny over some new fangled aerodynamic device, which needed to cleared as being legal (which it has been), the McLaren team looked strong on Friday.

There is still a bit of a cloudy picture to be drawn from these practice sessions, because the amount of fuel on board, and tires will effect lap times. With no refuelling during the races this season, cars will be carrying different fuel loads through the practice. Schumacher will be pushing himself on, and doing everything in his powers to raise his standards to match and beat his team mate. There will time enough for him to get up his short burst speeds over the weekend, as he continues to iron out the creases which have set in during his retirement. The 2010 Formula One season is likely down to the Ferrari’s, the Red Bull’s, the McLarens and the Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button in their McLarens were second and fourth in practice. Jenson Button missed some testing time through the winter sessions because of issues with the set up of his car. After being fairly evenly matched alongside team mate Lewis Hamilton, he has reported being much happier with how things are going. At this time last year, current World Champion Button was about to embark on an incredible run of victories, winning six of the first seven drives.

The Ferrari’s driven by two times World Champion Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa looked the most impressive during the winter testing series, but could only finish ninth and seventh respectively. There was one stand out result during the Bahrain practice, as Adrian Sutil, driving for Force India, recorded the fastest time ahead of Alonso in the morning session of practice. The variable factors of weight from fuel loads will be somewhat diminished as cars will run as lightly as they can for the qualifying sessions. Then all cars will make their way to the starting grid on Sunday with full tanks. The elimination of refuelling, takes away a lot of the strategies teams would make, either preparing their cars for one or two stops. Now the teams will face a new challenge, of finding the best set up of their cars for the full weight of fuel, and later in the race when the load lightens.

2010 Bahrain Grand Prix Outright
Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) – 3/1 at Ladbrokes
Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) – 7/2 at Bet365
Felipe Massa (Ferrari) – 6/1 at SkyBet
Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) – 15/2 at Boylesports
Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) – 9/1 at ExtraBet
Jenson Button (McLaren) – 12/1 at ExtraBet
Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) – 12/1 at BetFred
Mark Webber (Red Bull) – 18/1 at SportingBet

2010 Drivers Champions Outright
Fernando Alonso – 11/4 at SkyBet
Lewis Hamilton – 7/2 at Bet365
Sebastian Vettel – 11/2 at BetFred
Michael Schumacher – 6/1 at Boylesports
Felipe Massa – 10/1 at Bwin
Jenson Button – 13/1 at ExtraBet
Mark Webber – 20/1 at SkyBet
Nico Rosberg – 22/1 at BetFred