Silver Arrows to star in sunshine at Monaco Grand Prix

Firmly back on European soil, the Formula One circus rolls into every boy’s dream playground – Monte Carlo.

Fresh off the back of his first win in his home Grand Prix since 2006, Fernando Alonso suggests that despite their lack of race pace yesterday, the Mercedes’ of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton will be the cars to beat on the tight, twisty streets of Monaco.

Whist the Silver Arrows have exceptional speed in a one lap shoot out, their inability to conserve tyres over the duration of a race is cause for concern for the Ross Brawn-led outfit. However, the lack of overtaking opportunities on the streets of the principality may negate the team’s lack of pace in race trim.

As such, both Rosberg and Hamilton start as 7/1 second favourites to take the chequered flag at the historic venue. Victory for the German would represent a step up from last year, where he finished just 0.643 seconds behind pole sitter and winner Mark Webber.

Webber’s victory last year added to suggestions that the Australian has pedigree around the street circuit, having won two of the last three in the principality, and at 12/1 to take victory it would be difficult to overlook putting some each-way money on the Red Bull driver.

Despite closing the gap at the top of the Drivers Championship, Fernando Alonso’s price of 5/2 joint favourite seems to be too short to offer any real value, especially since Ferrari’s struggles at Monaco have seen the Prancing Horse fail to record a race win here since 2001.

Finnish ace Kimi Raikkonen continued his amazing streak of getting his Lotus E21 to the finish line and in a points scoring position in every race this season. Four trips to the podium in five races should be a good indicator for the season, and at 5/1 for the win the Scandinavian master is a good price for an each-way bet.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing