Charles Leclerc favored in PointsBet 2022 Monaco odds

Charles Leclerc is a slight PointsBet Sportsbook odds favorite to win the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix and snap Max Verstappen’s current three-race winning streak.

All eyes were on Leclerc last year when he won the pole for the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix and then immediately crashed to end the session while several drivers were on their fastest lap. He’ll be looking for redemption this year, and with a line of +110, he is almost even money to do so. The 2021 race was Leclerc’s best effort in Monte Carlo by a wide margin, although in three starts, he has still failed to finish a Monaco GP.

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 $1.10 for the race. For bettors more comfortable with fractional odds, a bet of +300 is the same as 3/1.

Leclerc shows a minus line of -115 to win the pole, compared to Verstappen at +185, which makes him a prohibitive favorite.

For the race, Verstappen is only slightly behind Leclerc by 30 points with a line of +140. When he has made it to the checkers, Verstappen has been unstoppable in 2022 with four wins, including the last three in the Romagna GP, the Miami GP and the Spanish GP. Verstappen is also the defending winner of this race after starting on the outside of the front row last year.

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Three drivers are tied for the third ranking with odds of +1600.

Perhaps the most surprising of this trio is Lewis Hamilton, who has struggled along with Mercedes to find speed in 2022. Last week in Catalunya, Spain, he got off to a tough start after making contact with Kevin Magnussen on the opening lap and getting forced into the pits. He lost a little more than a minute in the incident, but was able to climb all the way to fifth at the checkers and even shave a few seconds off the leader’s time.

George Russell also put in an impressive performance for Mercedes in Spain. He kept the Red Bull team at bay for much of the opening race before slotting into third at the checkers. For Russell to cover this line, however, he will need a career performance on the narrow Monte Carlo circuit. In two previous starts, he has a best finish of 14th in last year’s race. He has not yet completed the full distance on this course.

Carlos Sainz Jr. finished second to Verstappen last year, which was his first top-five on the circuit. He came close in 2017 and 2019, however, with sixth-place finishes.

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Spanish GP Odds
Miami GP Odds
Saudi Arabian GP odds
Australian GP odds
Romagna GP Odds

Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.

Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.

On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.

One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.

After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.

The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.

“It was good racing; it was fun,” Deegan said at about the 27-minute mark in the video above. “I just had some fun doing it.”

Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.

Lawrence defends Deegan — *Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports*

“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.

“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”

As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.

But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.

“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.

“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”

Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.

“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.

“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”

The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.

Charles Leclerc favored in PointsBet odds for 2022 Monaco Grand Prix at almost even money

Hunter Lawrence defends Haiden Deegan after controversial block pass at Detroit

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