Qatar Grand Prix practice predictions, free tip & analysis

Free F1 tips, best bets and analysis for Qatar Grand Prix practice day at Losail International circuit on Friday

Where to watch

Sky Sports F1, 10.30am & 2pm Friday

Best bet

Valtteri Bottas fastest in practice one
1pt 11-4 bet365

Preview

Lewis Hamilton produced arguably the best drive of his career to win in Brazil last week, and bookmakers rate the Mercedes man odds-on to follow up in this week’s Qatar Grand Prix.

Hamilton qualified fastest in Sao Paulo but was disqualified for a technical infringement. After climbing from 20th to fifth in the sprint qualifying race, Hamilton was docked another five places on the grand prix starting grid for an engine change.

But the power boost from that fresh motor proved more than enough to offset starting tenth as he won his 101st race, cutting Max Verstappen’s championship lead to 14 points with three races remaining.

That means Hamilton will guarantee himself an unprecedented eighth world drivers’ title if he can win the last three races of the season, starting in Qatar this weekend.

The Losail circuit has never hosted F1 before – it is best known for staging the traditional MotoGP season-opener.

With several medium-to-fast corners overtaking is likely to be difficult, despite the 1.1km straight. However, the extremely abrasive surface could lead to differing strategies.

Some drivers may opt to nurse their tyres in order to avoid losing track position, while others could make an extra pitstop and drive more aggressively in the race.

As the teams have no data on the circuit, practice could be busy.

Mercedes have tended to hold back less in practices than their arch-rivals Red Bull. The Silver Arrows have topped the opening session at the last eight grand prix weekends, despite being outpaced by Red Bull for most of the rest of the events in Mexico and Austin.

Hamilton heads the market to go quickest in the first hour at Losail, but his teammate Valtteri Bottas looks better value.

Bottas and Hamilton have shared the honours evenly during those eight practice sessions, with the Finn topping the times in Belgium, Russia, Texas and Mexico.

Bottas also tends to adapt quickly to new tracks having set the pace in the first practice sessions at the Algarve circuit and Tuscany last season, as well as at the Nurburgring, which was making its reappearance after seven years off the calendar.

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