F1 British Grand Prix Betting – Forget Mercedes, Sainz JR the Value

Hamilton Takes Eighth Pole in Nine Races

While Austrian GP winner Nico Rosberg showed great pace in the first two practice sessions at Silverstone, Lewis Hamilton fought back to record the fastest lap in the third and final practice session, and also took pole position in Saturday’s qualification shoot-out.

Predictably second, Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg had dominated his 2014 world champion colleague in recent races, winning three out of the last four, but the German can take heart from his early performances at Silverstone, along with the fact that he overtook Hamilton to take the lead in Austria on the first corner in the last race.

Williams Back on Form

After a poor start to a season in which they were overtaken by Ferrari in terms of performance and results, Williams appear to be getting back to their 2014 form after Felipe Massa qualified third and Valtteri Bottas fourth for the 2015 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. This was after Bottas snared third in the Canadian GP and Massa the same in Austria.

Ferrari off the Pace at Silverstone

Only qualifying sixth at Silverstone was Ferrari’s four-time world champion and one-time 2015 race winner Sebastian Vettel, while under pressure teammate Kimi Raikkonen – who crashed on the first lap in Austria – managed to beat his German colleague by taking P5.

Decent Qualifying for Toro Rosso and Red Bull

Toro Rosso’s Rookie driver pairing of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr outperformed their Renault-powered car by consistently finishing in the top ten during practice at Silverstone, but whilst Sainz Jr qualified eighth on Saturday, Verstappen had a poor qualification session – which he had no explanation for – having to settle for P13.

Of course, unhappy that they can’t compete at the top of the grid anymore, Red Bulls’ Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat still had a decent session on track at Silverstone, qualifying tenth and seventh respectively.

Lotus Fail to Make Q3 at Silverstone

They’d finally been qualifying and finishing in the top ten of races recently, but with no car problems reported, the Lotus tandem of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado could only qualify twelfth and fourteenth respectively for Sunday’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Only Manor Qualify lower than McLaren

They escaped large grid penalties this time, but despite countless upgrades and new parts, McLaren’s woes continued as Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button could only qualify seventeenth and eighteenth respectively at the teams’ home race of Silverstone.

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British Grand Prix Betting Tips

Pole-sitter Hamilton is priced at 4/9 with Paddy Power, while teammate Rosberg is 9/4 with Bet365. Third on the grid, Williams’ Massa is offered at a big 50/1 with Ladbrokes.

All in all, our usual method of choosing Rosberg each-way at 3/1 or bigger and 1/3 odds when Hamilton takes pole isn’t doable at 9/4 and we always avoid Hamilton at short prices.

We think that the Williams car has improved and note that their drivers have secured podiums in the last two races, and Bottas to finish in the top three is a bet we fancy, but the pre-qualifying price of 5/1 is now 2/1 and it feels like we’ve lost the value.

Plus, Vettel is a tempting 5/2 with several firms, while erratic teammate Raikkonen, priced at 11/4 with Bet365, delivered a podium finish last time he was under pressure at Ferrari, so we’ll avoid the podium market too and take a value bet on a points finisher instead.

Both Toro Rosso drivers performed extremely well in practice, but Verstappen had a poor qualification session without reason, while Sainz Jr – who leads his teammate 5-2 in head-to-head race results, with both retiring in Bahrain – backed up his practice finishes of fifth, ninth and sixth to qualify eighth and make the evens offered by Sky Bet about a top ten finish pretty good value.

[quote_center]Advised Bet: Carlos Sainz Jr points finish at evens with SkyBet[/quote_center]

Tune into Sky Sports F1 or BBC1 from 12:15 on Sunday to watch the action unfold