Rosberg’s Monaco hat-trick reawakens F1 title race
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Before this year’s race, only three men in Formula One history had won three Monaco Grand Prix in a row.
Graham Hill achieved the feat between 1963 and 1965, Alain Prost topped the podium in 1984, 1985 and 1986, and the great Ayrton Senna won five on the spin from 1989 to 1993.
Now there is a fourth, with Nico Rosberg capitalising on a horrible pit-stop gaff that saw Lewis Hamilton throw away what seemed a certain victory in the principality.
Following Max Verstappen’s crash with Romain Grosjean, Hamilton pitted while the safety car was out and emerged behind both his teammate and Sebastian Vettel.
It was a bizarre decision from Mercedes, and left Hamilton with no chance of reclaiming his lead on a Monaco circuit where overtaking is notoriously difficult.
Rosberg’s win was just the second for a driver who didn’t start on pole in the past 11 years, with Hamilton the other man to win from further back on the grid.
The reigning world champion might be fuming at the result, but it has created some welcome drama in a title race that was in danger of growing stale.
Rosberg has halved the deficit at the top of the Drivers Championship standings to just 10 points following his consecutive wins in Spain and Monaco.
However, now might be the perfect time to take advantage of Rosberg’s odds as he has a couple more of his favoured races coming up.
The next four races are held in Canada, Austria, Great Britain and Germany. Rosberg won both the Austrian and German Grand Prix last season, and claimed victory at Silverstone in 2013.
The Mercedes driver’s current purple patch could then be set to run for a while longer, and he could close the gap on Hamilton further or even overtake his teammate in the overall standings.
Rosberg is 13/8 to top the podium at the Canadian Grand Prix, with Hamilton favourite to bite back with a victory at 8/11.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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