After eight races of the Formula 1 season, the Red Bull Ring hosts its second race on the bounce this weekend, the Austrian Grand Prix.
The final of three successive weeks of competition, this summer’s opening trilogy comes to an end in Spielberg, with Red Bull looking to extend their 40-point lead over Mercedes on home terrain.
Having put together four wins in a row, the Milton Keynes outfit are again favourites to come out on top in Round 9, but the question is, by how much might Mercedes be trailing come Silverstone later this month? Currently, Red Bull are 4/7 with Betfred and 8/15 with MansionBet to take the chequered flag, whilst Mercedes come in at 7/4 with SkyBet, to be the winning team in Austria.
Max Verstappen meanwhile, broke new ground last weekend after finally winning back-to-back races. Accordingly, the Dutchman is now offered at shorter odds than last time out to win the Austrian GP, at around 4/6 with both William Hill and Betfred. Slightly further down the field, Lando Norris’ 2021 season is yet to hit any real forks in the road, and after a third P5 finish on the bounce, the Bristolian could be ready to grab another triple this weekend.
With podium finishes at Imola and Monte Carlo already this term, Norris’ McLaren kept pace well with the leaders in the Styrian GP and could be poised for a top-three result. And at 4/1 with UniBet, the Briton could reward his backers.
Another driver to have caught the eye of late is Pierre Gasly. Though the Frenchman’s lot was ultimately an unhappy one during week one in Spielberg, the AlphaTauri man was just over 0.2 of a second off the front row in qualifying, finishing sixth fastest. Forced to retire shortly after a collision with Charles Leclerc during race day itself, Gasly will be eyeing at the very least a repeat of Q3, and then come lights out on Sunday. A podium may look rather far-fetched this weekend perhaps, but his 8/1 price with all the major bookies still offers tempting value.
