Saturday's qualifying for the F1 Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve brought the rain and a very slick track ahead of Sunday's race (2 p.m., ABC).
For Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez, it was another qualifying effort to forget. Both failed to get out of Q2 for the second race weekend in a row. Despite being the sixth and second favorite, respectively, to win the race pre-qualifying, neither driver was able to find the grip or post a fast-enough lap to qualify for Q3.
For the fifth time this season, and the third race in a row, Max Verstappen qualified on pole at the Canadian GP. The betting favorite to win (-400) the race posted another magnificent effort at qualifying on Saturday, and he looks to win his fourth straight race this season.
Nico Hulkenberg put in a strong lap time and caught a great break right before the red flag, qualifying on the front row of the grid in P2. Fernando Alonso continues his resurgent season just a shade slower than the Haas and will start P3 on the grid.
Right behind him are the two Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton two tenths of a second faster than his teammate, George Russell.
So where you should look to place your F1 Canadian GP bets? Let's look at some options.
F1 Picks for Canadian GP
Red Bull Wire-to-Wire Win
Verstappen, who's currently the overwhelming (-4000) favorite to win the 2023 F1 drivers championship, is on a tear, and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. He has earned pole position once again and was the fastest on the track in qualifying during Q1 and Q3.
Not only has the Red Bull Racing team won all seven races to start the 2023 season, they have earned six pole positions and have finished No. 1/No. 2 four times. I see Max being able to take advantage of the RB19's speed on the straights and his driving ability to stay out in front of the pack exactly like he has the past two races.
I am not in the business of recommending heavy favorites at -400 for Max Verstappen to win the Canadian Grand Prix, but I like an alternate route to cash in on the phenom’s success.
Verstappen has led the last 154 laps this season, including every single lap during the prior two races.
Look for Verstappen to lead every lap of this race and take home his fourth straight victory. The Red Bull Racing team has had its race strategy dialed in all season, and I like their No. 1 driver to continue the early theme of the 2023 season: Red Bull domination.
The Pick: Number of Race Leaders – 1 (+175 on bet365, 1 unit)
Mercedes Podium Finish
Up until the Spanish Grand Prix, Mercedes was off to a disappointing start to their 2023 campaign. Able to turn it around, Lewis Hamilton took home second place and George Russell finished third two weeks ago in Barcelona.
Hamilton and Lewis both made it to Q3 on Saturday, and they qualified P4 and P5 respectively.
Looking at the forecast for Sunday afternoon in Montreal, there is only a 14% chance of precipitation and 0.00 inches of rain expected. This means that the track conditions will be completely different compared to qualifying on Saturday afternoon.
The times posted in Free Practice 3 as well as qualifying were all during wet track conditions, and it shouldn’t has as much influence on the race as is usually the case.
If we look at the times posted during the FP2 session on Friday, the top two lap times were posted by the Mercedes duo. Lewis Hamilton ran a hair faster than his teammate with a 1:13.718 while Russell was right behind him with a 1:13.745.
Look for Hamilton to secure a second consecutive podium finish in Canada, starting in fourth on the grid. I like his chances to jump ahead of the Haas early in this race and finish on podium.
If you are looking for a dart throw and think the teammates can pull off another 2-3 finish, I do not hate betting the Double Podium Finish for team Mercedes, as well.
