We had a first on Sunday, as Fernando Alonso took his second victory of the season, beating his rivals to that particular milestone, and with the win the main man in the Ferrari team firmly announced himself as one of the front-runners for the title.
This in itself is a pretty amazing achievement given that the team boss was talking about a suspension rebuild after the very first race of the season, and the men in red have been working harder than anyone to improve what was considered a disastrously poor car just a couple of months ago.
Valencia was eventful, and I think it’s fair to say that the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel was the fastest car on the track that day, but reliability cost the young man the win and Alonso was well-placed to take advantage of Vettel and Romain Grosjean’s misfortune. Vettel was favourite to take the championship this year, but has slipped to third at 3/1 with Bodog, and if he were to lose it on a dodgy alternator, or gearbox that would hardly encourage him to stay with the team. The news broke recently that he has a conditional pre-contract with Ferrari for 2014, and if Red Bull are to convince him to stay a while longer they’ll need to up their game.
Alonso is now 11/5 favourite to win the title with BlueSquare, and they have him at 5/1 to win the British Grand Prix in a couple of weeks. The home drivers will get a boost from the fans for sure, which maybe explains why Lewis Hamilton is 4/1 with Ladbrokes ahead of Alonso, and Vettel being 3/1 with BetFred and favourite across the board can only be down to his amazing pace in Spain. In the early stage of the race he was over a second a lap faster than the man in second, and if his team can replicate that at Silverstone he’ll be tough to beat.
Hamilton is second favourite for the drivers title, at 3/1 with Bet365, and his team are 7/4 with BlueSquare for the constructors behind favourites Red Bull, an 8/11 shot with SkyBet. Ferrari are fourth in line at 28/1 with 888Sport, an indication of how well Alonso is driving. His team-mate is struggling to get anything out of a difficult car, but the Spaniard has won twice with it. These are ominous signs for his rivals, and if Fernando Alonso has an improving car for the rest of the year he may well take back his crown.
Image credit: Presidenf1
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