12 Jun 2019
This weekend’s season finale sees the drivers head to the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi with a fast-becoming iconic twilight race in store for the 20 drivers who have now ticked off 20 races on the F1 calendar.
Being the fifth consecutive year that Abu Dhabi has played host to the finale, although the major championship connotations have been decided there are still some battles to be done. No doubt, Lewis Hamilton will also be keen to end an incredible season in style with back-to-back wins. The Brit will sport a gold helmet this weekend to mark the occasion.
In-form Max Verstappen will no doubt fancy himself for victory after a strong showing of late. Here we bring you all the odds and insight as he’s still in with a chance of leapfrogging both Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen in the driver’s standings…
Dynamic Duo
Mercedes’ pedigree on this circuit in recent years in unquestionable and they come into this weekend in high spirits after wrapping up the constructor’s championship last time out.
Specifically, they’ll be looking to achieve a never seen before fifth consecutive front row lockout in qualifying and fourth consecutive one two finish on the same circuit.
For Bottas, although he still hasn’t won this season, his last win came in Abu Dhabi and some might wonder whether Hamilton might gift his opponent the win if the opportunity arises as a thank you for his services as teammate in this year’s campaign. Bottas comes in at betting odds of 3/1 to win.
As such a dominant force this season though and with Mercedes’ track record, Hamilton also looks a strong candidate to take the checkered flag at Formula One betting odds of 5/2.
Double Trouble
Since its 2009 debut as the season ending circuit Hamilton has won three of the last nine races but matching that stride for stride is Sebastian Vettel – incredibly, the pair have also led 66% of the laps between them over that same time period.
The circuit will hold fond memories for the German who clinched the world title here in 2010, but it’s worth noting that all of his previous three victories were in a Red Bull car. Taking that one step further, Ferrari have a quite torrid record on the circuit with no win or pole in the last nine races - they’ve only ever led 11 laps here too.
Seeing Red
With a record like that and after both Ferrari drivers only managed third and sixth respectively last time out, we fancy an angry Max Verstappen to spoil a potential Mercedes’ party at odds of 16/5 to win.
Taken out by lapped driver Ocon in Brazil last time around where he looked assured of a race win, he still managed to claw himself back to within less than 1.5 seconds of Lewis Hamilton to record his third consecutive top two finish.
If it wasn’t for that collision, it would have surely been another dominant performance from Verstappen who enjoyed a 17 second margin of victory in Mexico.
If the dutchman can get it right in qualifying he’ll become the youngest ever pole-sitter in F1 and no doubt he’ll be keen to throw everything at this one with a chance of leapfrogging both Bottas (3 points ahead) and Raikkonen (17 points ahead) in the driver’s standings.
At longer odds but with undoubted racing pedigree, his teammate Daniel Ricciardo is also worth a punt for the win at betting odds of 10/1. The Aussie will be making his 150th Grand Prix start and 100th and final for Red Bull. He’ll want to go out with a bang here.
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