Formula 1 Japan Grand Prix 2024 Betting tips - Red Bull back on top

The Australian Grand Prix gave us an unexpected result with Carlos Sainz getting his third Formula 1 victory of his career with his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc completing a perfect weekend for the Italian manufacturer with a 1-2 finish for Scuderi. 

Suzuka will be a different story with the universe rebalancing again for Red Bull as they will likely control the Japanese Grand Prix from start to finish. 

The Suzuka circuit will revert back to a similar style of track to the opening two races in Bahrain and Saudi with high speed straight that can clock up to 335 km/h and plenty of high-speed corners that show no mercy of the drivers make even the slightest mistake. There is not a lot of heavy braking and the cars are at full gas for most of their lap. This obviously punishes the tyres and we will see which teams have truly improved on their degradation issues from last season. 

Max Verstappen claimed pole in 2023 with a lap time of 1.28.877, just under half of a second quicker than his pole position time in 2022. There is nothing to say that Verstappen will not break that barrier again in 2024 and is sure to be the fastest driver again in Japan this season. 

The Austrian manufacturer and their world champion Max Verstappen have dominated in Japan the past two seasons, claiming pole and winning the race on both occasions. Sergio Perez completed a Red Bull one-two in 2022, but had reliability issues in 2023 and retired from the race.

Australia was obviously disappointing for both Verstappen and Perez and they will look to regain their authority over the rest of the field in Japan. The conditions are perfect for the RB20 and despite Perez having difficulty at Albert Park, the Mexican will slot in right behind his teammate Max Verstappen to complete their third one-two of the season.

The race for third place will be an interesting one at the Japan GP, with Ferrari having the ascendancy over the rest of the field throughout the first three race weekends. Mercedes have struggled with downforce in high-speed corners this season and that will be a major issue for them again at Suzuka, while I also see Aston Martin having issues with tyre degradation due to the high-speed nature of the track, which they showed in the opening two races of the season.

The fight will be between Ferrari and the McLarens for the minor positions and it will come down to who has the better strategy and which driver can take care of the tyres the best throughout the race, without putting themselves into any vulnerable positions. 

Expect both teams to have both cars in the top six if nothing unexpected takes place.