Sao Paulo hosts the 21st and penultimate race of the F1 season, and for the third time this year, a 100km Sprint on Saturday will determine the grid positions for Sunday’s 71-lap Brazilian Grand Prix at the iconic Interlagos Circuit.
With his victory in Mexico last time out, Max Verstappen became the first driver to win 14 races in a single season albeit there’s a few more races now than in previous years. Verstappen and his Red Bull car have been imperious since the French Grand Prix back in July and it’s hard to see anyone stopping Red Bull’s party at the top of the leaderboards.
Will Verstappen Make it Win Number 15?
The Red Bull world champ is a strong favourite at odds of just 4/7 to extend the record further in this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix. The fact that he has won eight of the last nine races shows just how dominant the Dutchman has been this year.
Verstappen won both the previous sprints in Italy and Austria this season, so it makes sense that bookmakers have faith in him to do so again with Betfred offering best odds of 8/13 on him winning Saturday’s sprint race (7.30pm) and thus taking pole position for Sunday’s race which is scheduled for lights out 6pm UK time.
High Chance Of Rain
The weather, which is predicted to be cloudy with showers of varied intensity throughout the weekend, could well have an impact on the result. There is a high chance of thunderstorms on Friday and Saturday and there is now a 74% probability of afternoon thunderstorms on Sunday.
Although Verstappen is pretty good at driving in the rain, his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez has an even better record on wet surfaces having notched up two wins and two second places in the four races where wet weather tyres were used.
Battle For Second Place
Unlike last year, both championships are now more than decided so there is little more than pride and a few points at stake for most of the drivers at this late stage of the season. However the battle for second place is still on.
Third placed Leclerc sits just five points behind Sergio Perez in 2nd place but Perez comes to Brazil in excellent form after finishing third last time out in front of his adoring home fans in Mexico.
With Red Bull looking to secure the 1-2 in the Drivers Championship, Sergio Perez looks a solid each way bet at a stand out price of 12/1 with BetVictor in the outright race winner market.
High Winning Margin
The Winning Margin market is our best bet of the entire weekend. This three-way market has under five seconds at 7/4, between five and 10 seconds is 9/2 and ten seconds or more is a 5/4 chance.
Verstappen has won by more than 10 seconds in the French, Spanish, Azerbaijan, Belgian, Japanese, and Mexican Grand Prix this season and yet another winning margin of over ten seconds can be backed at 5/4 with Paddy Power which looks a strong bet for Sunday’s race.
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Brazil Grand Prix - Winning Margin
Max can take his seventh wide margin win
At 5/4 a £10 bet would return £22.50
2022 Brazilian Grand Prix
November 13, 2022
6:00 pm GMT
Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton, who is still looking for his first victory is the second favourite with most bookmakers, has been made an honorary citizen of Brazil.
The seven time world champion overcame two penalties to score a sensational win here last year but despite finishing second to Verstappen in his last two races, we don’t see Hamilton breaking his duck this weekend although the Mercedes team may do well in the practice sessions.
* Betting odds correct at the time of publication. All odds are subject to changes.
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