By Antony Jordan
Formula One lands in North America this weekend as Montreal hosts the 2017 Canadian Grand Prix where Mercedes are looking to bounce back after a horror show in the French principality of Monaco two weeks ago. The Ferrari cars of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen showed their dominance over the Silver Arrows on the streets of Monte Carlo with a comfortable 1-2 victory ahead of the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo as Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton could finish only fourth and seventh respectively.
The Prancing Horse now leads both the drivers and constructors championships, but will they continue to extend these leads this weekend or can Bottas and Hamilton strike back on one of the fastest and toughest circuits on the F1 calendar? We preview this weekend’s action with online sportsbook Bet365.com to bring you our best F1 2017 picks from the Canadian Grand Prix.
Race Winner Odds:
Lewis Hamilton – 2.00
Sebastian Vettel – 2.62
Valtteri Bottas – 6.50
Kimi Raikkonen – 8.00
Max Verstappen – 67.00
Daniel Ricciardo – 67.00
Visit Bet365.com to view the full 2017 Canadian Grand Prix Race Winner odds.
Hamilton comes into this race as favourite to take the chequered flag for a number of reasons that include his love for the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve that has seen him stand on the top step of the podium on five occasions since his first victory here in 2007. He is by some distance the most dominant driver on the grid around this street circuit with only Ricciardo, Vettel, Raikkonen and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso securing a single win apiece since 2005. Add to this a fine performance in the first free practice session of the weekend that saw him take the top spot ahead of Vettel and a second place finish in the standings for the second practice session behind the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen.
On top of this, the Mercedes is working a lot better in Canada than it did in Monaco where they struggled to keep the heat in the tyres and, as a result, were unable to match the perfectly switched on Ferrari cars. This issue has not been affecting the cars of Hamilton and Bottas so far this weekend and now they’re looking to continue to see Ferrari fail in Canada.
The last triumph around the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve for one of the Prancing Horse cars came in 2004 as Michael Schumacher secured the final of his seven wins in Montreal with a fourth successive taking of the chequered flag. Both Vettel and Fernando Alonso have taken second places finishes at this track in recent years and with the swing in momentum this year will 2017 be the year that Ferrari ends their winless run around these Canadian streets?
Of all the drivers on the grid we can only the battle for victory in the 2017 Canadian Grand Prix boiling down to a fight between Hamilton and Vettel, assuming that there are no technical, mechanical or racing incidents. Both drivers offer plenty of value to take the chequered flag this Sunday but, going on what we have seen so far, it looks as if the five time winner around this track will be adding to his victories in Canada.
Of the two drivers, Hamilton has shown to be the quicker over three hours of practice and he will certainly be motivated to win after one of the worst weekends he has had since moving to Mercedes in 2013. When his car is performing at its optimum it is difficult to stop Hamilton from taking the flag and although we see Vettel pushing the Briton close this weekend we cannot see him stopping the three time world champion from winning his third Canadian Grand Prix in succession.