Sportsbet Blog

The 2009 Bathurst 1000 is here and the betting markets have warmed up with a few of the past Bathurst winners leading the way.

The Ford v Holden rivalry will be massive with the two favourites coming from each manufacture.

Ford drivers Craig Lowndes and Jamie Wincup in Car 888 are favourite for the race with odds of  $2.70 and so they should be. The guys are going for 4 Bathurst wins in a row and look to be the ones to beat again.

They wont be without stiff competition with second favourite Garth Tander and Will Davison in Holden Car 2 looking impressive and in good form coming into the race. Tander claimed poll position in last year race but it was a worst case scenario for Tander who went from 1st to last as he was stranded on the start line. They have odds of $3.25 to win the race.

Mark Skaife along with Greg Murphy in Car 51 are two of the most well know Holden drivers and are back to tackle the mountain. Murphy currently holds the lap record of 2:06.8594 made in 2003 and has won the race 4 times, one less than co-driver Sakife with 5. They will always be in with a shot and with odds of $8.00 its worth a few dollars on.

Motor sports can be a difficult sport to predict especially the V8 Supercars. From Kangaroo’s to flying wheels (see videos below), Bathurst always throws up the unexpected and one small mistake and your bet can be all but gone, thats why there always good odds for the Bathurst 1000.

The weather forecast for Bathurst is fine for the whole weekend with afternoon clouds and a top of 14 for the race on Sunday, so expect some very fast racing.

My tip is for another win to Lowndes and Wincup. They are the perfect team and even when things don’t go there way on the day they still look very threatening.

Take the Kelly brothers Todd and Rick for the place with odds of $3.30 at Betfair, they live for Bathurst and I think they are a good shot for 2nd place.

My prediction for 3rd place is Murph and Skaife. They are a class unit and tactically the best team on the track. At $2.50 for the place there’s plenty of value for the duo.

At Betfair there’s much more than the usual race winner and podium finish markets. They accept bets on Ford v Holden and also who will win the top 10 shootout (pole position). Checkout the Betfair website for the latest odds for the big race.

All eyes are on Giancarlo Fisichella this weekend, an Italian driver in an Italian car on an Italian track. With Ferrari confirming that Fisichella will be finishing the season with the prancing horse is great news for the aging driver as he nears the end of his career after 226 Grand Prix starts. The Monza circuit is well suited to KERS equipped cars and Ferrari rarely performs badly at home.

In fact, the Ferrari team is looking like they may perform quite well this weekend after Kimi Raikkonen finished first in Belgium and Fisichella was able to take his Force India car to second. However, there is much debate over how Fisichella will perform with the first practice session to be his first drive in the F60.

This weekend will mark the sixtieth running of the Italian Grand Prix. The track at Monza is comprised mostly of long straights which are linked by chicanes and will be the perfect setting for those cars equipped with KERS. Around 75% of the track is spent at full throttle and any reliability issues could become a serious problem.

It is a serious possibility that the Renault team can get their cars up near the front as they are dusting of their KERS system for this weekend’s grand prix. Fernando Alonso was able to achieve a pole position in Hungary and even made a challenge for the podium in Belgium. Renault could be a serious contender for the Italian GP.

With Giancarlo Fisichella’s move to Ferrari, the championship battle has been moved out of the spotlight. The battle between Brawn GP and Red Bull is still there, but it is likely that it will be a feature on the middle order on Sunday.

Championship leader, Jenson Button will be enjoying the fact that it is unlikely that his championship rivals will take many points from him here at Monza. However, if he does not produce results himself, it is a possibility that he will have the championship lead taken from him in the coming weeks.

Even if Fisichella hadn’t moved to Ferrari, he would more than likely still be drawing all the attention. After taking pole position in his Force India car at Spa, and then finishing second, he will be expected to repeat this form.

Force India may have another chance to take a win at Monza as their car is well suited to the track. It has now been proven that with a low down-force set-up, the Force India car is dynamite and Monza requires lower down-force than that of Spa. The team has a great chance to be the fastest of the non-KERS cars in Italy.

Betfair has some great odds for this weekend’s grand prix and I would recommend Kimi Raikkonen for a first place finish, paying $6. Another sound bet would be for Giancarlo Fisichella to finish on the podium with odds of $4.80.

The last weekend of August sees us head off to Spa for the F1 Belgian Grand Prix. This comes one week after the recent foray around the streets of Valencia. Funnily enough, it may have been the dullest race of the season that has decided the result of the formula one championship. In Valencia, Red Bull was unable to score any points while Brawn GP took a win plus a few points.

Jenson Button ($2.84 for a podium finish) now leads the championship by 18 points of team-mate Rubens Barichello. To be realistic, Rubens Barichello ($27 for a Qualifying/Winner Double) is unlikely to challenge Button for the championship lead. It was only because of a poor start by Jenson Button coupled with a bit of bad luck that led to a disproportionate gap between the Brawn drivers. Button was only a fraction off of Barichello’s pace and his fastest lap was a few hundredths of a second quicker than Rubens. With the Formula 1 Drivers Championship now Button’s to lose, BetFair is paying odds of $1.59 for Jenson Button to become the 2009 driver’s champion.

The 2009 Belgian GP will be all about carrying last week’s form forward for the boys at Brawn GP. They were able to regain the upper hand over challengers Red Bull in Valencia and will be looking to consolidate their championship lead. Brawn GP is tipped to win the 2009 Constructors Championship and Betfair is paying odds of $1.47. The main challengers for the two Brawn drivers will once again be Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen and Mark Webber. Vettel’s championship race is all but over after using two of his three remaining engines in Valencia. The Spa-Francorchamps circuit is renowned for the stress that it causes on engines with the majority of circuit time being at full-throttle. This will benefit the teams with a more reliable vehicle.

My tip is, Raikkonen and Hamilton ($5.10 for Pole Position) will hold the advantage at Spa as the slow exit from La Source is a perfect place to hunt down opponents for those cars equipped with KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System).The driver’s that are able to get to top speed the quickest will have the advantage with the long, uphill drag to Eau Rouge. This is then followed by the one kilometre long Kemmel straight.

Red Bull ($3.30 for the Constructors Championship) was considering fitting KERS to their cars for this race, but it has now been confirmed that it won’t happen. The hope that they could get it set-up and running nicely on their cars in time was foolish. I would not be surprised to see a podium of KERS users.

For the likes of Mark Webber ($5.50 for a Win), this is a very important race. He will need to take points out of Jenson Button if he wants any chance at winning the 2009 drivers title. I see this as unlikely after last week’s disappointing performance. However, Red Bull has proven that they are fast in the wet and the Spa circuit is notorious for providing poor weather conditions.

There are also a large number of drivers who will be racing for their futures on Sunday. Nico Rosberg has been impressive this season and will be looking to build on his streak of points finishes. Kazuki Nakajima will need to start winning some points if he wants to be driving next year and Kubica has raised his game since BMW announced that they would be pulling out of Formula One. Kubica may be lucky enough to secure himself a drivers’ seat at Renault, Toyota or even Williams next year if he can score some points this weekend. Jarno Trulli has been dumped by Toyota and needs to pull something out of his sleeve if he wishes to continue racing. Fisichella and Heidfeld are two more drivers who are in desperate need of a points finish.

The rookies, Grosjean and Alguersuari both performed reasonable last week and Luca Badoer showed everyone why he hasn’t had a driver’s seat since 1999. There are rumours circling that Ferrari may use their last driver change after the race at a Spa.

My prediction is a podium consisting of Jenson Button in first place, Kimi Raikkonen ($2.52 for a podium finish) in second followed by Lewis Hamilton in third.

After the accident that placed Felipe Massa in hospital, Michael Schumacher was being touted as the driver to replace him at Ferrari while Massa recovers. In the end, Luca Badoer ($34 for a win @ SportingBet.com.au) was selected as the replacement. With all this excitement, people have been talking about little else and there is much anticipation for this weekend’s European F1 Grand Prix to be held around the streets of Valencia.

While the comeback of the retired legend German legend is not going to be happening (at least for now), the matter of the 2009 drivers championship is back into discussion. This years’ battle for the championship has been very interesting up until the month long break and should continue to be very competitive.

The question on many people’s minds is will Brawn GP be able to regain the early season form that seen an amazing debut season start for the team? Without the benefit of any mid-season testing and restricted development time, can Brawn fix up all their bugs in time for the grand prix in Valencia?

Ross Brawn, team principal and technical brain, is convinced that one of the modifications that have been made to the car has been seriously detrimental to the cars ability to get heat in to the tyres. The problems that Brawn GP has faced have seriously hampered the grip level of the vehicle that saw Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello ($34 for a win @ SportingBet.com.au) dominate in the opening rounds.

The Spanish home crowd will be happily cheering as their national hero Fernando Alonso and his team, Renault, have been given the green light to race in Valencia on the weekend. It was a possibility that Renault would not compete after an incident in the Hungarian GP that saw them incorrectly fit a wheel to the Spaniard’s car, which later came off further around the track. Renault was able to win the appeal which they made to the FIA after a ban was imposed.

The race organisers, along with the home fans will most certainly be happy to see that the ban has been lifted. Romain Grosjean will also have a smile on his face as he is set to make his formula one debut after the sacking of Nelson Piquet Jr. after the Hungarian GP.

After taking a win at the Hungaroring before the month long break, McLaren will be looking to continue with the improvement that they have made since the start of the season. Lewis Hamilton is tipped to be the outright winner this weekend with odds of $3.25 at Sporting Bet.

McLaren is believed to have the best KERS system in the field and they were able to use it o great effect in Hungary. KERS is looking to be the main weapon in the arsenal of McLaren this weekend as overtaking opportunities will be few and far between.

Last year’s maiden grand prix in Valencia showed that overtaking was next to impossible. The teams whose drivers are equipped with the KERS system will be looking to use it to maximum effect off the grid to make up a few extra positions.

For those that get caught behind as a result of this will be suffering a major setback as they may find themselves trapped behind another driver slower than them with no passing opportunity.

In my opinion, anyone not running KERS will more than likely be running light, as they will be looking to hold position off of the grid and possibly make a fast getaway to take an early lead.

My prediction for the podium finishers gives first place to Lewis Hamilton ($3.25 for a win), second to Jenson Button ($8 for a win) and third place to Sebastian Vettel ($3.75 for a win @ SportingBet.com.au).

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