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Brazilian GP
Rich Cree, readaBet.com
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2003-04-06
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MONTOYA TO SHINE IN BRAZIL |
The third race of the 2003 FIA Formula 1 World Championship will be held in Brazil this weekend and is the last of the season opening flyaway events before the European season kicks off.
The Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo is very demanding of car and driver for a number of reasons; it is extremely bumpy, low grip and is run in an anti-clockwise direction. This generally leads to a high drop out rate in the race allowing slower cars to feature in the points scoring positions.
Last year saw a lights to flag, dream debut victory for the Ferrari F202 signalling the start of a monotonous reign of dominance for the Italians. Thankfully this season their grip on the F1 championship seems to have diminished significantly, certainly never write the Schumacher/Ferrari combo off but its fair to say the result is less of a foregone conclusion.
So looking through the field and their performances in the opening races, a few things stand out. Raikkonen claimed his debut victory in Malaysia looking every bit a future champion, Montoya has been driving really well, Ralf Schumacher is having a total nightmare, Michael Schumacher’s tendency to crack under any sort of pressure is bursting through and two teams in BAR and Renault are looking to breakthrough into the top echelons.
So what can we expect this weekend?
Qualifying is a real lottery at the moment so I consider it a poor market to gamble on, although if you really must, go for local(ish) talent Montoya at 8/1. He is likely to run a low fuel car in qualifying to try and avoid the first lap chaos which spoiled his race in Malaysia.
The race itself will as always depend a lot upon tyres and weather conditions. Schumacher is of course still favourite at 11/10 with Skybet, with team mate Rubens at 11/2 with Paddy Power. Schumacher has still been fast this season and is very capable of winning in Brazil, but he is a driver who suffers when in a less than dominant position, undoubtedly by now he has let the thought into his head that things will continue badly until the new F203GA arrives in a couple of races time, hence I personally don’t rate him as the likely race winner. Rubens has an appalling record at his home GP, and hasn’t really looked like doing much so far this year so don’t rate his chances too highly either.
Next up are the Mclaren duo of Coulthard (7/1 with Globet) and Raikkonen (7/1 with SportingOdds). It will be interesting to see if Kimi can carry on where he left off in Malaysia; confidence certainly is not an issue. Coulthard will also be desperate to re-establish himself to the front of the team before Kimi gets too much momentum behind him.
The Williams pairing of Montoya and Ralf Schumacher are next in the betting. Montoya goes well at this circuit and has been driving well, whilst Ralf is at a serious low point right now, seeming to be unable to adapt to the new qualifying, and incapable of making up positions on the track during the races. |
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