Pole monopoliser Vettel should strike in Spanish Grand Prix

This year’s race will be the 23rd Spanish Grand Prix contested on the Circuit de Catalunya and in the 22 renewals that have preceded it 17 have gone the way of the driver who started the race in pole position, with two of the five who failed to turn pole to victory forced to retire from the race. With such a high pole-to-win conversion ratio, consistently paciest qualifier Sebastian Vettel could be set to notch his third win of the campaign at 2/1 in Coral’s Spanish Grand Prix betting.

The Spanish GP circuit is well known for having very few points at which overtaking is possible, an observation borne out by the high pole-to-win conversion record in F1 races at the track and with Vettel having claimed pole in three of the four races so far this season he stands an excellent chances of setting himself up for a race win with a qualifying success.

The only race in which Vettel has failed to pole this term was in China where a braking issue led to him being unable to post a time in the third and final qualifying session. Coral make him 11/8 to be fastest qualifier and his employer Red Bull are 19/20 to win qualifying, with Mark Webber also having qualified fastest here in 2010 and 2011.

In the four years in which he has raced at Circuit De Catalunya the German has found just one driver too good in qualifying on three occasions, failing to log a time in Q3 way on the way to a seventh place grid position in 2012.

Even if the supremely gifted Red Bull man fails to better his best previous qualifying result at the track all is not lost as he is one of the few drivers in recent years to overhaul the pre-race leader in Barcelona, when passing team mate Mark Webber on his way to victory in 2011.