Kimi Raikkonen value to outshine Ferrari teammate Vettel

Japanese Grand Prix qualifying
Channel 4 & Sky Sports F1, 7am Saturday

Lewis Hamilton has taken a stranglehold on the world championship with five wins in the last six races and the Mercedes driver is in good shape to tighten his grip further in this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix.

The Briton was in imperious form as he dominated practice, almost half a second clear of his teammate Valtteri Bottas in both Friday sessions.

For the second straight year, Ferrari's title challenge seems to have fallen away since the circus left Europe. Sebastian Vettel finds himself 50 points adrift of Hamilton with five races remaining.

The red cars were almost a second off Hamilton's lap times in practice at Suzuka, and while that probably makes the performance gap look worse than it really is, bookmakers look justified in making Hamilton a warm odds-on favourite to take pole position.

Hamilton was pipped to pole by Bottas in Russia last weekend, but the Finn has always gone particuarly well at that track.

The value bet, though, could be for Vettel to be outdone by his Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

The veteran is having a solid season, and although Ferrari are replacing him with Charles Leclerc next year, Raikkonen has secured his F1 future with Sauber.

Vettel has a tendency to let his head drop when things aren't going his way and Raikkonen, who has out-qualified the German twice in the last five races, looks overpriced to do so again.

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