Candian Grand Prix Preview - Qualifying

As if it wasn’t open enough already, this F1 season just gets closer and closer. With 6 different winners in the bag and several classy names not already on the roll of honour, the practice times here at Montreal seem to suggest that any one of 14 drivers have the realistic pace to take pole or win the race, which makes qualifying wide open.

One second covered the first 16 cars in practice while the top seven (1) Vettel 2) Alonso 3) Hamilton 4) Webber 5) Maldonado 6) Massa 7) Schumacher 8)are separated by just three tenths, a different world compared to the domination of last season by Red Bull.

Lewis Hamilton is favourite based on his excellent pole record this season (he has three so far this year) and he’s been quick all season, although he seems short with so little separating the top drivers. Sebastian Vettel may well have topped his time in the opening session had he not run into traffic on his fast lap, while he was literally just a couple of hundred tenths of Hamilton in the second practice session, with his team making several preparations for wet weather that never really came despite a greasy track. He took pole here last year and seems big at 9/2 with Bet Victor for pole.

I can’t let Nico Rosberg go unbacked at 10’s for this despite the fact that he failed to set a time after stopping out on the track with clutch problems on his first lap, as Michael Schumacher came seventh despite not going hard for a late time and Nico Rosberg has 59 points to his name so far, including a Pole to win display in China. They’ve been poor since but looked in great health around Monaco, where Rosberg was stuck behind Vettel and Schumacher had a grid demotion, and in practice they’ve looked good enough to suggest that quotes of 10/1 being banded about are a bit disrespectful.

Of the others, Pastor Maldonado looks too good to be true at 50’s, and gets a measure of support on the each/way front. His Williams car is much better over a longer race distance (especially on tracks with long flowing corners and straights), but he posed a real threat in qualifying for Spain when following up a second in third Practice with a pole in qualifying, and he needs respecting here, with 50/1 quotes for the race also looking too big, while you can get 4/6 on him to make it into Q3 today.

Advice – Qualifiying

1 pt Sebastian Vettel (9/2 Bet Victor)

1 pt Nico Rosberg (8/1 Bwin)

0.5 pts each/way Pastor Maldonado (50/1 Betfred)

3 pts Pastor Maldonado to make through to Q3 (4/6 Ladbrokes)

Advice – Race

1 pt each/way Pastor Maldonado (50/1 Betfred)