Formula One visits one of the most historic circuits on the calendar this weekend as Monza in the North of the country close to the city of Milan hosts the 2015 Italian GP. Being in the heart of Italy it is unsurprising to see that this race is site of the most fevered support for Ferrari and they have done well in the race down the years with 19 wins in the 84 runnings of the race.
However, they have won just a single race around this circuit in the past nine eight years, when Fernando Alonso claimed pole position, fastest lap and took the chequered flag, as others have surpassed them recently. Coming into the weekend it was expected that this would again happen as Mercedes have won nine of the 11 races this season so far and they have used all of the tokens allowed to develop their engine for this race.
However, despite them having a new engine and dominating the free practice sessions there were problems in the build up to qualifying for Nico Rosberg that saw him change his engine to an older version and this gave hope to the Tifosi, the passionate Ferrari fans in the stands. This hope and optimism was well founded too as after Friday practices seeing Mercedes more than a second clear of the chasing pack the home favourites occupy second and third on the grid lining up just a quarter of a second behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton in the most up-to-date of the Silver Arrows cars.
Surprisingly for the home favourites it is Sebastian Vettel, who has won the races in Malaysia and Hungary, who lines up on the second row of the grid in third besides Rosberg with Kimi Raikkonen besides Hamilton at the front. The odds from online sportsbook Bet365.com reflect these positions on the grid with the reigning F1 champ the 1.28 favourite ahead of Vettel at odds of 7.00 then Raikkonen and Rosberg @ 9.00.
Hamilton clearly deserves to be the favourite with the fastest car, two wins around this circuit over the last three years and six wins in 11 races during the championship so far, but recent races have shown that the Ferrari is one of, if not, the fastest cars off the line and in the current iteration of Formula One track position is everything so can Raikkonen and Vettel pass out of the Mercedes car going into the first corner to take the victory?
It is certainly possible as Vettel has taken three wins at this circuit for Red Bull in 2011 and 2013 as well as for Toro Rosso in 2008 in the wet to take his first ever victory. Ferrari have shown to be very astute when it comes to strategy from the pit wall and with Hamilton offering very little value on this race we feel that the value pick for the race winner is back one of the red cars with the prancing horse badge to take the chequered flag at odds of 4.00 in the Bet365 Sportsbook to send the home fans into joyous celebration.
In addition to this race winner bet, we feel that there is plenty of other value available for the 2015 Italian GP too and we are a big favourite of the Combination Podium Finish market that Bet365 are offering for this race too. With four successive wins in Italy between, as we previously mentioned, we would not be surprised to see Hamilton and Vettel go toe-to-toe and blow-for-blow to take the chequered flag. The drivers who have claimed six world titles between them are smart enough not to take it too far though and we feel that they’ll both occupy a place on the podium come the end of the race – although we’d like Vettel or Raikkonen to take the top step! – and with Bet365.com offering odds of 1.80 for both drivers to finish in the top three we’re having a wager on this outcome too.