F1 Tips: Belgian Grand Prix best bets including a 6/1 Hamilton punt

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30 July 2023

F1 Tips:

Hat Trick – Win/Fastest Qualifier/Fastest Lap (Sunday Race) – Max Verstappen
Points Finish – Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Fernando Alonso and Pierre Gasly
Not To be Classified (Sunday Race) – Lewis Hamilton

*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change

We’re heading to the iconic Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps for the final round of Formula 1 action before the summer break – and it’s also the third Sprint Weekend of the season!

Red Bull head into the Belgian Grand Prix fresh from breaking a 35-year-old record by scoring a 12th victory on the spin to also continue their unbeaten start to the 2023 campaign.

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Max Verstappen cruised to the chequered flag in the Hungarian Grand Prix as team-mate Sergio Perez fought his way through the field to join him on the podium, which means both championships are pretty much sorted with the second half of the campaign still to go.

The big story on the grid appears to be the battle for second as McLaren continued their revival to tee up a fight with the likes of Mercedes, Aston Martin and Ferrari for the title of best of the rest behind the Bulls.

The Belgian Grand Prix should provide a bit more excitement than Hungary – that won’t be too hard – and the circuit is a firm fan favourite that will surely give us plenty of overtakes during the course of the Sprint and the Sunday Race.

I’ve had a look through Paddy Power’s Belgian Grand Prix odds and picked out a couple of best bets. Let’s get to the picks…

Belgian Grand Prix
Qualifying: Friday 4pm
Sprint Shootout: 11am
Sprint: 3:30pm
Race: Sunday 2pm
TV: Sky Sports Main Event/Sky Sports F1

Hat Trick – Win/Fastest Qualifier/Fastest Lap (Sunday Race) – Max Verstappen

It doesn’t take a genius to realise that Max Verstappen is most likely going to take the chequered flag once again.

The Dutchman looks simply unstoppable in the Red Bull rocket ship and put the disappointment of failing to grab pole in Hungary to bed by winning the race by more than 30 seconds.

He has won nine of this season’s 11 races, grabbed seven pole positions and six fastest laps – including the last three in a row – so it’s worth taking a chance at odds-against that he can complete the hat-trick this weekend.

Points Finish – Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Fernando Alonso and Pierre Gasly

As previously mentioned, the battle behind Red Bull is the most intriguing storyline at the moment which means a competitive fight for the top 10.

McLaren’s upgraded MCL60 is working an absolute treat and is the second-best car on the grid right now. Lando Norris has bagged a couple of second-place finishes on the spin, while team-mate Oscar Piastri is also in fine form with a fourth and fifth in the last two races. They form half of my Points Finish acca.

Conversely, Aston Martin’s upgrades haven’t exactly fired but Fernando Alonso is still scoring points – ninth in Hungary was his worst result of the season – so he should place in the top 10 again.

Alpine have failed to make much of an impression in the first half of the season, but I fancy Pierre Gasly to squeeze into the points as the Frenchman has never finished lower than ninth in the Belgian Grand Prix.

*A Points Finish acca with these four bets pays at approximately 3/1 with Paddy Power..

Not To be Classified (Sunday Race) – Lewis Hamilton

A bit of a flyer at a decent price to round off my selections for this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton has an interesting record at Spa with four victories and six more podiums as well as five retirements. A first-lap collision with former team-mate Fernando Alonso prompted an early exit from last year’s race.

Mercedes’ improvement in recent weeks means the seven-time world champion will be competing towards the front of the grid from the off, potentially increasing his chances of getting caught up in another first-lap incident.