Sunday, 17 March 2013

Australian Grand Prix 2013 Preview


It’s cliché to say it, but it feels like only yesterday Sebastian Vettel clinched one of the most dramatic and hotly contested Formula 1 titles of recent times in Brazil and we’re ready to start all over again in Melbourne. Plenty has been and gone in the interim, and with the first race of the season coming in just a few hours and the latter parts of qualifying still to be run following torrential rain, it’s hard to make a confident prediction, but judged upon what we saw in the three practices, Lotus’s car looks in fine nick and crucially, well able to get the best out of the Pirelli tyres in the recent cooler conditions that have seen some struggle to get the best out of their cars so far. Romain Grosjean was fastest in the final practice session before the track got soaked, while he was also 5th in the second session. His team mate Kimi Rakkonen should also be a big threat too and makes appeal, although Grosjean tends to be overprices due to his patchy finishing record last season and would make appeal at 11/10 for a top 6 finish. The bet of the race though, assuming that conditions stay relatively dry, is the 4/5 that Lotus have a double points finish.


Barring that curtailed final practice, any dry racing’s been dominated by the Red Bulls so far and the 4/5 on Vettel for pole is absolutely fair based on last season, although the 11/8 for the race would seem to be better value given how evenly the teams have been on race pace in testing. Should we get wet weather, look no further than Fernando Alonso (above), who was near unbeatable in wet conditions last season – his winning drive in Malaysia was nothing short of special while he was second on the grid at a deluged Silverstone and also in Brazil.



Advice - Dry

4 pts Lotus double points finish (4/5 general)

Advice – Wet

1 pt Fernando Alonso (9/2 general)

1 pt Fernando Alonso for pole (6/1 general) 

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