Singapore GP Betting Preview - Red devil?

You'll likely have seen those cartoons that feature the shoulder angel and shoulder devil. Where they pop up in turn on the protagonist's respective shoulders - the angel imploring the said protagonist to stay on the right track; the devil trying to lead them astray. For the Singapore round this weekend, who prevails will likely be a matter of angel Ferrari versus devil Ferrari.

Which way will Ferrari's Singapore weekend go?
Photo: Octane Photography

Ferrari should win in Singapore. It's pretty persistently had the quickest car in various circumstances recently, plus for its chief rival Mercedes this one self-admittedly is a bogey circuit - a point backed up by history.

But as we know things have had a maddening tendency to not be nearly so simple. Ferrari's had a habit of falling into mantraps - sometimes mantraps it's set itself. And this venue has more mantraps set than most - a Monaco for the new millennium with added stamina required. Two hours in intense humidity with constant acrobatic turns and near at hand walls to punish even small errors.

Still Sebastian Vettel to take pole and win seems a reasonable starting point of our expectations this weekend, and you can back him at evens to prevail on Saturday and at 11/8 to do so on Sunday. Seb's a local specialist as well and has won here four times and taken the same number of poles.

It's a long lap here too plus Vettel may be revved up to produce a qualifying special - he took pole by over three tenths last year. With this you also can back a pole winning margin of over two tenths at 11/8.

It's likely best to keep your money away from Lewis Hamilton. Even if Ferrari does falter it's possible he won't even be next up to take advantage (while he did something like this last year it was when three cars ahead of him were wiped out at turn one), and as ever Lewis's odds look relatively tight.

Odds for the win that look bloated though are the 9/1 for the other Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen and similar goes for the 15/2 for him to get the pole.

Fernando Alonso tends to go well at this track
Photo: Octane Photography

As noted Ferrari will likely lead the way on pace this weekend plus Raikkonen's been in good form in recent months. Monza last time out made us wonder the extent that he's going to compromise himself to aid his team-mate's title chances - it also shed light on that as per his contract if he qualifies on pole then team orders won't be applied against him. In Alastair Cook style he may find extra performance now that he's demob happy. Even if you don't fancy him to go all the way to first place the evens for Raikkonen to finish on the podium looks good too.

You can also hedge your Scuderia bets by backing a Ferrari win at 11/10 and a Ferrari pole at 8/11.

Singapore rounds tend to be circled on the calendar as a rare opportunity for Red Bull to triumph, the twisty, downforce-requiring circuit suiting its car. The murmurs emanating from the team lately suggest however it doesn't expect to get among the leaders this time, more that it'll be a little closer to them than usual. With this you might still fancy a punt on Max Verstappen sneaking onto the podium, at 5/6.

Every Singapore Grand Prix has featured a safety car and the odds for another this time are appropriately slight - 1/9. You may still fancy backing it though, it should be free money.

As for the rest, the Spanish pair of Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz have good records here and you can back Alonso for a top six finish at 5/2 and Sainz to do so at 11/4. Their odds for a points finish are both 7/10. Attrition tends to be high at the demanding (for cars and drivers) Singapore track which also may help clear out places ahead for the likes of these two.

With this there also are some tempting odds for more unusual suspects to sneak into a points finish. Charles Leclerc can be backed to do so at 13/8 and as a long range punt what about backing Stoffel Vandoorne to score at a whole 10/1? He'll be another demob happy and McLaren won't feel its Renault power disadvantage as keenly here as elsewhere.

All odds quoted in this article were accurate on the Oddschecker website at 1330 GMT on Wednesday 12 September 2018.