{"id":720426,"date":"2026-06-07T05:35:32","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T05:35:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/720426\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T05:35:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T05:35:32","slug":"the-best-bets-for-the-f1-monaco-grand-prix-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/720426\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Bets for the F1 Monaco Grand Prix 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Formula 1<\/a> Louis Vuitton Grand Prix de Monaco brings F1 to Circuit de Monaco, a 3.337-kilometer street circuit that runs 78 laps through Monte Carlo. The track has changed far less than the cars around it, so past Monaco results still hold up more than they would at a venue with a major layout change.<\/p>\n

The circuit rewards low-speed rotation, traction, tire warmup, braking confidence, and precision near the barriers. Overtaking remains unusually difficult, which makes qualifying position and pit strategy more important than raw pace.<\/p>\n

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Recent Monaco results follow the same pattern. Lando Norris<\/a> took the 2025 race, Charles Leclerc<\/a> converted pole into a home victory in 2024, Max Verstappen<\/a> prevailed in 2023 and 2021, Sergio Perez broke through in 2022, and Lewis Hamilton<\/a> claimed the race in 2019 and 2016. The common thread: Elite single-lap execution, patience in traffic, tire control and mistake avoidance. Monaco can compress car-performance gaps, but it rarely forgives poor track position.<\/p>\n

Active Aero and Overtake Mode are less important here than at long-straight venues, but energy deployment still matters out of slow corners and through short acceleration zones. The regulation refinements also reduced maximum permitted recharge from 8MJ to 7MJ, raised peak \u201csuperclip\u201d power from 250 kW to 350 kW, capped race boost at +150 kW, and limited MGU-K deployment outside key acceleration zones. At Monaco, those changes should put added weight on drivability, rear traction, battery use in traffic, and how well cars deploy power without unsettling the rear axle.<\/p>\n

Practice, Qualifying and Weather<\/p>\n

Ferrari set the early pace Friday, with Charles Leclerc leading FP1 ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. Hamilton then topped FP2 ahead of Leclerc and Verstappen, while Kimi Antonelli moved Mercedes to the front in FP3 ahead of Leclerc and Hamilton.<\/p>\n

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Qualifying shifted the weekend toward Antonelli. He took pole with a 1:12.051, beating Verstappen by 0.043 seconds. Hamilton qualified third, Leclerc fourth and Isack Hadjar fifth, with George Russell<\/a> sixth. Gabriel Bortoleto\u2019s Q1 crash brought out a red flag, and Leclerc clipped the wall late in Q3 while pushing for pole.<\/p>\n

Weather looks unlikely to disrupt the race. Sunday\u2019s forecast for Monte Carlo shows mostly sunny to partly sunny conditions around the 3 p.m. local start, with temperatures around 74 degrees. That points more toward tire-temperature and track-evolution management than wet-weather randomness.<\/p>\n

Starting Grid<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing<\/p>\n

Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing<\/p>\n

Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls<\/p>\n

Alexander Albon, Williams<\/p>\n

Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls<\/p>\n

Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team<\/p>\n

Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team<\/p>\n

Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac<\/p>\n

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin<\/p>\n

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin<\/p>\n

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\"Nicolas<\/p>\n

Nicolas Economou&sol;NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n

5 Best Bets for the 2026 Monaco GPLewis Hamilton Podium Finish (-350)<\/p>\n

Hamilton backed up Ferrari\u2019s strong Friday by finishing second in FP1, 0.226 seconds behind Leclerc, then leading FP2 with a 1:13.026 as Ferrari went 1-2 again. He remained in the mix on Saturday with P3 in final practice, 0.331 seconds off Antonelli, and qualified third at 1:12.279, 0.228 off pole and 0.072 ahead of Leclerc. While the financial reward is barely worthwhile here, Hamilton has positive history, a favorable starting spot on the grid, a teammate close by to help, and nothing to lose.<\/p>\n

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Matchup: Oscar Piastri over Lando Norris (-225)<\/p>\n

Piastri starts seventh, while Norris is just one spot behind in grid placement after an electrical issue limited him to eight laps in FP2 and a lock-up hurt his final qualifying run. In the same car at Monaco, that one grid spot and stronger weekend make Piastri the safer bankroll bet.<\/p>\n

Winning Margin: Under 6 Seconds (-140)<\/p>\n

For as much as I’d rather this be under 10 seconds with a little weaker payout, it’s called “gambling” and not “guaranteed” for a reason. It hit in two of the last five Monaco races, with Norris winning by 3.131 seconds in 2025 and Perez by 1.154 in 2022, while 2024 and 2021 both landed inside nine seconds. This year\u2019s front four is compressed enough to support another tight finish: Antonelli edged out Verstappen to secure pole by only 0.043 seconds, Hamilton starts third after Ferrari led FP2, and the top four all showed winning-level pace at different points of the weekend.<\/p>\n

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Lance Stroll Not to Be Classified (+165)<\/p>\n

Stroll fits the not-classified profile better than most backenders. Aston Martin came out of practice as the slowest team, with both drivers fighting inconsistent downshifts, and Stroll starts last after Aston Martin lost both cars in Q1. From the back on a narrow street circuit with little passing, his race likely requires riskier strategy, blue-flag traffic, and survival in a car that already looked iffy.<\/p>\n

George Russell Fastest Lap (+850)<\/p>\n

Russell is a better long shot for an aggressive fastest-lap play than Verstappen (+330), though there’s an argument for the Dutchman. Russell starts sixth, which gives Mercedes more room to gamble with pit timing if the front five stretch out, and the car already showed elite pace with Antonelli on pole. Russell’s situation presents a better fit for a late-tire run if the gaps open, and that’s the true nature of this flier bet.<\/p>\n

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This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Jun 6, 2026, where it first appeared in the Sports Betting<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Formula 1 Louis Vuitton Grand Prix de Monaco brings F1 to Circuit de Monaco, a 3.337-kilometer street…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":720427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[585,49,48,3025,255891,578,930,576,577,3024,25251,3023,591,932,1885,3837,2191,82],"class_list":["post-720426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-aston-martin","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-circuit-de-monaco","tag-f1","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-george-russell","tag-kimi-antonelli","tag-lance-stroll","tag-lando-norris","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-monaco","tag-sergio-perez","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=720426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/720427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}