Alonso overpriced for another podium finish

In one of the most fiercely contested Formula One seasons in history, Lewis Hamilton makes little appeal at around 5-2 to win the Singapore Grand Prix when Fernando Alonso is trading at around 5-1 for a victory and 5-4 for a podium finish.

Hamilton and his McLaren colleague, Jenson Button, have won the last three Formula One races between them but the jury is out as to whether the Woking-based team can continue their winning run as the championship moves to Asia.

Hamilton is a fair favourite - after all, he has won one of the four Singapore Grand Prix editions since it returned to the Formula One calendar in 2008 after 35 years off it - but one has to question whether the Briton deserves to be much shorter than Alonso in the various betting markets.

For while the Formula One circuit is abuzz with talk about Hamilton and how well he and his McLaren team are going right now, it is easy to forget that Alonso leads this season`s championship by 37 points with seven rounds remaining and he likes Singapore`s Marina Bay track.

Alonso, then driving for Renault, won the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix from 15th place on the grid. In 2010, by then competing for Ferrari, the Spaniard qualified fastest and just held off Sebastian Vettel to take out the event for the second time. Quite simply, no driver has a better Singapore Grand Prix record than Alonso, who placed third for Renault in 2009 and came home fourth for Ferrari in 2011.

And no-one has been more consistent than Alonso in recent times. Ferrari did not get off to the best starts in 2012, with the honourable exception being the Malaysian Grand Prix that the Spaniard. But on the European swing of this year`s championship, taking in eight races, the two-time world title winner`s form figures read 2-3-1-2-1-5-0-3 for two victories and six podium finishes. And the reason that Alonso retired in Belgium was no fault of his own.

There was little to choose between the race speed of the Ferrari and McLaren cars during the Italian Grand Prix at Monza and, if Alonso had qualified fastest like he looked like he would in the first two sessions, everyone would be talking about him rather than Hamilton in the build-up to the one and only night race on the Formula One calendar.

Alonso is definitely overpriced at around 5-1 to win the Singapore Grand Prix for the third time in five years but the better value - and the safer bet because it is possible that McLaren will carry on in Asia from where it left off in Europe - is backing the Spaniard to make the top three.

Odds-against quotes about Alonso earning his eighth podium placing of the year are a few rolls on the generous side based on his 2012 form and Singapore Grand Prix statistics. Anything better than 4-5 represents a value investment.

If one does not want to bet on the Singapore Grand Prix until the grid is formed then it is worth noting that the pole sitter has won the last three editions of the race.

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21/09/2012     © Frixo 2026