Alonso and Hamilton F1 Odds Ahead of Hungarian Grand Prix

Written by George Misken
Saturday, 30 July 2011 11:09

Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton are at odds ahead of Sunday's F1 Hungarian Grand Prix so lets review the F1 betting odds.

On Friday, Lewis Hamilton's McLaren set the pace during the first practice sessions, leaving Fernando Alonso trailing in second place, 0.241 seconds behind the winner of the German Grand Prix. The British madman and the passionate Spaniard are followed by Jenson Button, Mark Webber, and Formula One Championship leader Sebastian Vettel.

Things look much different on Saturday at the end of the final practice session. Sebastian Vettel leads stopping the clock at 1:21.168, with Alonso second at three tenths, Jenson Button third, Mark Webber fourth and Felipe Massa fifth. Lewis Hamilton finishes his final practice session in seventh place, after wrecking his best chances by going wide into the first turn of his last lap.

With such dramatic scenario ahead of Sunday's race, betting on F1 could prove to be a lottery in this Hungarian Grand Prix. Nevertheless, lets now see the Formula One Odds ahead of qualifying: Vettel 6/4, Alonso 9/4, Hamilton 3/1, Webber 13/2, Button 16/1, Massa 33/1.

We have at least 4 drivers with enough incentive to guarantee a nail-biting race. Sebastian Vettel will look to return to a win at the Hungarian Grand Prix after finishing fourth at his home Grand Prix. Vettel still enjoys a 77-point advantage over team-mate Mark Webber in the F1 drivers' championship. However, he needs to do all in his power (and wheels) to avoid seeing his lead further eroded in the space of a fortnight.

Lewis Hamilton's seventh place in the final practice session is no indication of trouble, not yet at least."I think all big teams have been hiding something," says BBC F1 analyst Anthony Hamilton. With such tight race on Sunday and McLaren's natural inclination to secrecy, we can expect the young British driver to come back into the leading party and head off for a new duel with Fernando Alonso.

Fernando Alonso, runner up the F1 odds, celebrated his thirtieth birthday Friday. Sunday will be his thirtieth race behind the wheels of a Ferrari. “In Hungary we have seen some boring races in the past. This year this thing cannot happen,” Alonso said Friday at the end of the practice session. “We finished the planned work programme and that is a positive start to a race weekend. We saw that McLaren looks very strong, as indeed it was last weekend. Now we must try and improve the car, especially in the third sector of the track, where we seem to be suffering more than most.”

Today's practice sessions clearly shows Ferrari has been working hard in the last 24 hours. The Hungary Grand prix F1 usually means well for the most loved Italian sports car.

Aussie Mark Webber comes to Budapest with hopes to duplicate his winning performance 12 months ago. He is 77 points behind his team mate Sebastian Vettel, and his good performance could help protect Vettel's lead should anything go wrong for the German. He is fourth in Formula One Odds, a good judgement in my view.

Jenson Button's hope reside in his experience at the Hungarian Grand prix. Budapest was his first career Grand Prix win in 2006 for Honda. Fifth in the drivers’ championship, McLaren's second driver must start producing podium finishes to help his team In the chase to the constructors’ title.

Ferrari's second drive Felipe Massa is first of the F1 Betting longshots. The Brasilian's main concern ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix is tyre degradation. "We got through a lot of work, especially in terms of comparing the two Pirelli tyres," Massa said on Friday. "The first signs are that degradation is significant, both on the prime and the option, which will be a decisive factor when it comes to strategy. I think we will witness a very close contest between the usual three teams, Red Bull, McLaren and ourselves. It will be not be easy to get a useful grid position, but it will be very important to do so, because I think that, despite everything, overtaking at this track will still be very difficult."