Malaysia GP Betting Preview - Battle of the big three?

It's not just due to geography that the Malaysia Grand Prix this weekend feels a short hop from the previous round in Singapore. They share sapping heat, and it will be if anything more intense this time given it's run in the day time. We've seen plenty - including in Singapore - that Mercedes struggles relatively when the temperature rises.

Will the Malaysian round be a close
battle of the big three teams?
By Morio (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/
by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

And as a partial consequence this race feels a close call between the 'big three' teams.

Here two years ago Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari flat beat Lewis Hamilton Merc on tyre longevity in the tough conditions. Plus the Scuderia has an updated engine this weekend. With all this the 13/5 for Seb to win looks better value than the evens for Lewis.

Like in Singapore too Red Bull will look to this one with optimism. It looked strong in Hungary on the supersoft tyre in hot conditions and this is what it'll get here. The team of course scored a 1-2 in this race last season, albeit aided by a late engine failure for Lewis. But even so its showing was strong.

On the other hand rain is a Malaysia perennial and plenty is forecast this weekend. This may tilt things back to Mercedes and especially to Lewis, who has won the last however-many wet F1 races. Plus even in the dry the Sepang track doesn't quite flat offend the Merc like Singapore's does - there are long straights and fast sweeps its car will enjoy.

Whatever the weather though 2/1 available for Max Verstappen, and the same for Daniel Ricciardo, to get onto the Malaysia podium looks generous - both are strong wet weather drivers too.

You might even be tempted by the gigantic 25/1 and 20/1 respectively for them to win...

The possibility of rain and that Sepang is tough on equipment could clear out a few finishing slots and let a few place higher than usual. Renault is confident about being best of the rest outside of the big three teams mentioned and Nico Hulkenberg at 15/4 to finish in the top six looks well worth a punt. If it rains during quali he'll likely star therein too.

And with this some of the odds available for certain drivers to score look good value as well - Carlos Sainz is available at evens, Fernando Alonso at 6/5, while Stoffel Vandoorne and Jolyon Palmer both are at 2/1. You can also get 4/6 on fewer than 15.5 finishers.

All odds quoted in this article were accurate on the Oddschecker website at 1930 GMT on Wednesday 27 September 2017.