Charles Leclerc is PointsBet 2022 Saudi Arabian GP favorite

On the heels of his win in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix win, Charles Leclerc is this week’s odds favorite at PointsBet Sportsbook to take the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, which is the second running of this race.

On Thursday, Leclerc showed odds of +140 for the Grand Prix and had a line of +130 to win Saturday’s pole. Leclerc won both the pole and race in Bahrain as Ferrari surged to a 1-2 finish. Leclerc was listed at +260 for that race.

One way to view American Odds is to move the decimal point two positions to the left. That will let a bettor know what they will make on a $1 bet, so the return on investment this week for Leclerc is $1.40 for the race and $1.30 if he wins the pole. For bettors more comfortable with fractional odds, a bet of +300 is the same as 3/1.

Leclerc’s race line is only marginally better than the 2021 Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen, who was posted Thursday at +150. Fuel pump issues for both Red Bull Racing cars forced their retirement in the closing laps in Bahrain, but Verstappen was second in last year’s edition of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after leading the most laps of 31.

Leclerc’s Ferrari teammate, Carlos Sainz, Jr. is the third ranked driver this week with a line of +450. No one else is under 10/1. Sainz finished second last week and had four podiums in 2021, but he is still seeking his first career F1 win.

Last year, Lewis Hamilton was heavily favored to win the inaugural race on the Jeddah Circuit with a line of -200, which meant the only way to make a successful bet was to find someone willing to take the opposite side. The traders were proved correct as Hamilton earned the victory over Verstappen. Hamilton finished third last week in Bahrain, but he has complained this season that the Mercedes lacks pace. The sportsbook traders seem to be listening.

Rounding out the top five at PointsBet for the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix is Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez with a line of +1800. Perez retired early from last year’s edition of this race when he was involved in a Lap 14 accident with George Russell and Nikita Mazepin.

One of the more interesting dark horses this week is Kevin Magnussen, who earned the first top-five for Haas F1 since he gave them two such finishes in 2016. Last year, the best finish for this car was 14th in the Grand Prix of Monaco with Mazepin behind the wheel and it is taking a while for the traders to catch up to his potential. Magnussen was posted at +10000 (100/1) on Thursday.

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INDIANAPOLIS — The first Indy 500 victory for Josef Newgarden also was the richest in race history from a record 2023 purse of just more than $17 million.

The two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion, who continued his celebration Monday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earned $3.666 million for winning the 107th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The purse and winner’s share both are the largest in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

It’s the second consecutive year that the Indy 500 purse set a record after the 2022 Indy 500 became the first to crack the $16 million mark (nearly doubling the 2021 purse that offered a purse of $8,854,565 after a crowd limited to 135,000 because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The average payout for IndyCar drivers was $500,600 (exceeding last year’s average of $485,000).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske, whose team also fields Newgarden’s No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet, had made raising purses a priority since buying the track in 2020. But Penske but was unable to post big money purses until the race returned to full capacity grandstands last year.

The largest Indy 500 purse before this year was $14.4 million for the 2008 Indy 500 won by Scott Dixon (whose share was $2,988,065). Ericsson’s haul made him the second Indy 500 winner to top $3 million (2009 winner Helio Castroneves won $3,048,005.

Runner-up Marcus Ericsson won $1.043 million after falling short by 0.0974 seconds in the fourth-closest finish in Indy 500 history.

The 107th Indy 500 drew a crowd of at least 330,000 that was the largest since the sellout for the 100th running in 2016, and the second-largest in more than two decades, according to track officials.

“This is the greatest race in the world, and it was an especially monumental Month of May featuring packed grandstands and intense on-track action,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said in a release. “Now, we have the best end card possible for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500: a record-breaking purse for the history books.”

Benjamin Pedersen was named the Indy 500 rookie of the year, earning a $50,000 bonus.

The race’s purse is determined through contingency and special awards from IMS and IndyCar. The awards were presented Monday night in the annual Indy 500 Victory Celebration at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis.

The payouts for the 107th Indy 500:

1. Josef Newgarden, $3,666,000
2. Marcus Ericsson, $1,043,000
3. Santino Ferrucci, $481,800
4. Alex Palou, $801,500
5. Alexander Rossi, $574,000
6. Scott Dixon, $582,000
7. Takuma Sato, $217,300
8. Conor Daly, $512,000
9. Colton Herta, $506,500
10. Rinus VeeKay, $556,500
11. Ryan Hunter‐Reay, $145,500
12. Callum Ilott, $495,500
13. Devlin DeFrancesco, $482,000
14. Scott McLaughlin, $485,000
15. Helio Castroneves, $481,500
16. Tony Kanaan, $105,000
17. Marco Andretti, $102,000
18. Jack Harvey, $472,000
19. Christian Lundgaard, $467,500
20. Ed Carpenter, $102,000
21. Benjamin Pedersen (R), $215,300
22. Graham Rahal, $565,500*
23. Will Power, $488,000
24. Pato O’Ward, $516,500
25. Simon Pagenaud, $465,500
26. Agustín Canapino (R), $156,300
27. Felix Rosenqvist, $278,300
28. Kyle Kirkwood, $465,500
29. David Malukas, $462,000
30. Romain Grosjean, $462,000
31. Sting Ray Robb (R), $463,000
32. RC Enerson (R), $103,000
33. Katherine Legge, $102,000

*–Broken down between two teams, $460,000 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, $105,500 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports

Charles Leclerc favored in PointsBet odds for 2022 Saudi Arabian GP

Winner Josef Newgarden earns $3.666 million from a record Indy 500 purse of $17 million

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