Las Vegas Grand Prix betting tips and F1 predictions: Fernando Alonso can make his experience count

Where to watch the Las Vegas Grand Prix

Practice one & two
Sky Sports F1, 4.30am & 8am Friday

Practice three & qualifying
Sky Sports F1, 4.30am & 8am Saturday

Race
Sky Sports F1, 6am Sunday

Best bets

Fernando Alonso podium finish
1pt 9-1 general

Fernando Alonso top-six finish
2pts 13-10 BoyleSports

Las Vegas Grand Prix race predictions

In terms of race winner, this season has been anything but unpredictable, but this weekend will see an event with the potential to produce fireworks.

Las Vegas hosted two Formula 1 races in the early 80s, but while those were run around an improvised go kart-type track in the car park of Caesar's Palace, the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix is on a different scale entirely.

At over 6km, the circuit is the third longest on the calendar and features high-speed blasts past some of Sin City's best-known landmarks, with the famous Strip forming the back straight.

Befitting the occasion it promises to be a race of extremes. With the action continuing past midnight local time, very low temperatures are expected with a chance of rain in practice and qualifying. The track surface will give up precious little grip, but despite that, average speeds are anticipated to be among the highest on the calendar.

With 17 wins already to his name this season, Max Verstappen has proved there is little that can catch him out, but the fact that his Red Bull team's sole failure to win this season came in a night race on an unconventional circuit will give his rivals some hope that he may be beatable.

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz won that race in Singapore, but with a number of Ferrari-powered cars suffering reliability issues lately, they don't look worth supporting.

Mercedes should be able to bounce back from a disastrous Brazilian Grand Prix, but at the prices Fernando Alonso could be of most interest from a punting perspective.

After a superb start to the season, Aston Martin seemed to get less competitive with each upgrade they introduced. However, after going back to basics in Brazil they enjoyed their strongest race since Australia in April.

Alonso needed all his cunning and race-craft to wrestle back third place from Sergio Perez's Red Bull on the final lap at Interlagos, and that's the kind of driver to have on your side for a tricky test such as Vegas.

The Spanish two-time world champion has eight podiums to his name this season and looks value to add a ninth.

Sign up to emails from Racing Post Sport and get all the latest news and tips

Today's top sports betting stories

Follow us on Twitter @racingpostsport