Well, it was a dramatic switch away from what has been a troubled start to the 2017 F1 season for former World Champion Fernando Alonso. He was given permission by his McLaren-Honda team to go and try his hand in the Indy 500 which happens this weekend at the famous Brickyard. The Spaniard was initially running at around 16/1 in the early betting market, but he has impressed in qualifying and is looking like a serious threat for the race.
Alonso is now just in to 13/2 at Ladbrokes to win the Indy 500 this weekend, which puts him as the second favourite. Alonso put himself in the top nine contenders to earn the pole position for the race but landed the fifth fastest there so that is where he will go off from. In the outright betting market for the Indy 500 at Ladbrokes, only four-time Indycar champion Scott Dixon is shorter priced than Alonso in the market at a price of 6/1.
There is a bit of a precedence in F1 drivers going over the Indy 500 and making a good impression. Juan Pablo Montoya won the thing back in 1999 and the Colombian is running at 12/1 while another former F1 contender is Takuma Sato at 11/1. F1 legends Jim Clark and Graham Hill both won the race and got to enjoy themselves on Victory Lane and then in 1993 many will remember Nigel Mansell’s effort when he was in contention for first place, but had to settle for third.
So Alonso has turned up and seems to mean business. Will he be tasting that famous bottle of milk in celebration on the weekend? This could propel him further away from F1 if he lands the victory here and the Spaniard has talked about landing the Triple Crown of motorsport which is the Monaco Grand Prix, the Indy 500 and Le Mans 24 and only Graham Hill has managed to avoid that. So will Alonso take one step further towards that at the Brickyard on the weekend?
Indy 500 Outright Winner Odds
Scott Dixon 6/1, Fernando Alonso 13/2, Will Power 9/1, Helio Castroneves 10/1, Takuma Sato 11/1, Josef Newgarden 12/1, Juan Pablo Montoya 12/1, Marco Andretti 12/1, Ryan Hunter-Reay 12/1, Simon Pagenaud 12/1, Tony Kanaan 12/1, Ed Carpenter 14/1, James Hinchcliffe 20/1, Alexander Rossi 25/1, J R Hildebrand 33/1, bar 40/1.
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