BetMGM Monaco Grand Prix Tips
Max Verstappen collected his fifth win in seven races on Sunday, but there is a much more open look to the market than we are used to seeing for this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix.
No event encapsulates the glitz and glamour associated with Formula 1 than the Monaco GP, as the cars wind their way through the streets of the principality, past the casino and the massed luxury yachts in the harbour.
Winning at Monaco is viewed as more special than most other races, rated by drivers as on a par with taking victory in front of a home crowd, and the event forms part of motorsport's unofficial triple crown, along with the Le Mans 24 Hours and Indianapolis 500.
Verstappen took a commanding victory in Monaco last year, his second win at the venue, showing all his mastery as a sudden downpour rendered the track treacherous.
The Red Bull ace had to be at his best again in last week's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, holding off a late charge from Lando Norris's McLaren to claim his 59th F1 win, and Verstappen is unsurprisingly favourite for a third Monaco success.
Tip 1 - CARLOS SAINZ PODIUM FINISH @ 7/4
Much of the attention this weekend will be on Ferrari's Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc.
The local hero is better around the twisty Monte Carlo streets than his results imply, and he is the second-favourite to gain what would be his first F1 victory since 2022.
Ferrari introduced their first major upgrade of the year at Imola last weekend, and while Leclerc finished only seven seconds behind Verstappen in third, team boss Frederic Vasseur felt the team had missed an opportunity for victory in the way they had set the cars up.
Having lost out to McLaren and Red Bull in top speed, Monaco, with no straight to speak of, should suit the car better and that could make a big difference in what is becoming a tight battle at the front.
Leclerc's team-mate Carlos Sainz finished a disappointing fifth at Imola, but the Spaniard has a superb record around Monaco.
Sainz was in third last year when he slid off the wet track on lap 55, ending up eighth, and he had finished right under the wing of winner Sergio Perez in 2022. The Spaniard may well have won that race had a strategy gamble not backfired.
He also finished second in 2021, and the Australian Grand Prix winner looks overpriced to make yet another appearance on the Monaco rostrum this weekend.
Tip 2 - NICO HULKENBERG TOP-10 FINISH @ 7/4
Haas have made a better start to the season than many would have predicted and they are confident of a decent showing in Monaco having made some changes to the cars specifically tailored to the unique demands of the track.
Qualifying is perhaps more important in Monte Carlo than at any other circuit given the virtual impossibility of overtaking a rival on the track, and in Nico Hulkenberg they have the perfect driver to exploit that.
Hulkenberg has started each of the last three races in the top ten, and the German journeyman recorded four top-eight finishes at Monaco between 2012 and 2018, with a best finish of fifth for Force India in 2014.
After a disappointing showing in the season opener in Bahrain, Hulkenberg has finished all of the last six races in the top 11, including three points finishes, and he has scored six of the team's seven points this season.
Another strong qualifying performance would put Hulkenberg in a great position to fight for another top-ten finish.
Tip 3 - OVER 17.5 CLASSIFIED FINISHERS @ Evens
Despite the demands of the tricky Monaco circuit, it tends to be a race that sees a lot of finishers.
The last five runnings of the race have seen 19, 17, 18, 19 and 19 cars classified as having completed the race, and that is despite heavy rain making the track even more treacherous than usual in each of the last two years.
The current crop of F1 cars are more robust than their predecessors, both physically and in terms of reliability, so with average speeds so low at Monaco, minor scrapes don't tend to do terminal damage.
Another factor is that with overtaking so difficult, drivers tend to settle into a rhythm of following the car ahead, and driving well within the limits of themselves and their machines.
Wild lunges borne of impatience tend to come in the closing laps, but the good news in terms of the bet is that a driver needs only to complete 90 per cent of the race distance to be classified as a finisher.
All of this year's races have seen at least 17 finishers and 18 or more cars to complete looks a bet at Evens.