F1 Malaysian Grand Prix Winner Odds & Preview

Vettel to strike back at Sepang?

Sports Betting

An hour outside of Kuala Lumpur sits the Sepang International Circuit and for the last time, it will host the Malaysian Grand Prix this weekend. This is one of the most demanding races on the F1 circuit because of the intense head of the tropical sun, humidity and cockpit temperatures for the drivers can get up 50c. It’s a bruising, draining drive over 56 laps of hair-raising action.

The course is good, with technical and sweeping turns and the weather there is just as unpredictable as it gets anywhere. Lewis Hamilton is leading the F1 Drivers Championship at the moment with a 28 point lead over Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. Since the German’s last win in Hungary back at the end of July, momentum has fully shifted over to the British driver who has won three races on the bounce.

With the Belgian, Italian and Singapore titles under his belt from the recent action, he will probably be a little nervous heading to Sepang though. He hasn’t particularly done that well there. He has won the Malaysian Grand Prix just once before, back in 2014 and it has been his title rival Vettel who has proved to be the master there with four previous wins at the race. Vettel is going as 2/1 second favourite at William Hill in Malaysian Grand Prix 2017 betting, but he should be considered.

Not only does he need a big bounce-back performance in this year’s title race, he will be looking to get over the nightmare start at the Singapore Grand Prix back a couple of weeks ago. Vettel had been on pole and with pole favouring a title win at the race over the years, he was in a commanding position. He just had to go straight and hold his line, but instead, he inexplicably spread himself across the track from the start (something he has done before) and ended up a three-way crash with team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen wiping them all out in less than five seconds of the heat.

It was such an odd rush of blood to the head and unnecessary. He just needed to drive after having done all the hard work of securing pole in the first place. Vettel is a price of 5/2 at William Hill to get pole in this one, with Hamilton the favourite at 8/13. Hamilton’s Mercedes is expected to have a bit of an advantage in Malaysia, Japan and the USA, the next three races on the calendar, before the final three races of the season are likely to favour Ferrari.

Vettel is one of the greats in the sport and you can expect a comeback for him at some point. If he were to get his fifth Malaysian Grand Prix win that would be a great boost for him down the final stretch of the Championship season. The Malaysian Grand Prix usually burns up something unexpected.

Malaysian Grand Prix 2017 Winner odds

Lewis Hamilton 5/6, Sebastian Vettel 2/1, Valtteri Bottas 11/2, Daniel Ricciardo 16/1, Max Verstappen 18/1, Kimi Raikkonen 20/1, bar 750/1