Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel won the European Grand Prix yesterday, while McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton doubled his championship lead by finishing runner-up for the third year in a row.
Formula One world champion Jenson Button finished third for McLaren after an afternoon full of incident, controversy and uncertainty at a street circuit that has offered few thrills in the past.
Hamilton, who had started the day three points clear of his teammate, now has 127 points to Button’s 121 after nine races, with Vettel on 115 after chalking up his second win of the season.
While Vettel thrust himself back into the thick of the title chase by leading from pole to the checkered flag, teammate Mark Webber provided the day’s big drama when he walked away unscathed from a massive crash.
The Australian’s car was launched vertically into the air after slamming into the back of Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus, the Red Bull twisting in the air and landing upside down on the nose and roll bar.
“Motor racing has just seen one of its luckiest days. That could have been a very, very bad incident,” said David Coulthard, the former Red Bull driver turned BBC television pundit.
The safety car was deployed for four laps after Webber’s accident, triggering a drive-through penalty for Hamilton, who was judged to have illegally overtaken as it exited the pit lane.
To the fury of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who was immediately behind and found himself held up by the safety car, Hamilton had built up a sufficient margin that he was able to take his penalty and still retain position.
The drive-through, on the 27th of 57 laps, still took the sting out of what might have been an enthralling battle at the front.
Tallon Griekspoor on Friday stunned top seed Alexander Zverev 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/4) in the second round at Indian Wells, avenging a devastating loss to the German at Roland Garros last year. Zverev, the world No. 2 who is heading the field of the prestigious ATP Masters event with No. 1 Jannik Sinner serving a three-month drugs ban, is the first Indian Wells men’s top seed to lose his opening match since Andy Murray in 2017. It was a cherished win for Griekspoor, who had lost five straight matches — including four last year — to the German. That included a five-setter
Five-time champion Novak Djokovic on Saturday tumbled out of the Indian Wells ATP Masters, falling in his first match to lucky loser Botic van de Zandschulp as two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz advanced. “No excuses for a poor performance,” 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic said after 37 unforced errors in a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 defeat. “It doesn’t feel great when you play this way on the court,” he said. “But congratulations to my opponent — just a bad day in the office, I guess, for me.” Djokovic is just the latest in Van de Zandschulp’s string of superstar victims. He
Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday held their nerve to beat Liverpool 4-1 on penalties and reach the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals after their tie finished one-apiece on aggregate, while Bayern Munich saw off Bayer 04 Leverkusen to complete a 5-0 win over both legs. Lamine Yamal and Raphinha fired Barcelona into the next round as the Catalans bested SL Benfica 3-1, and Inter booked a last-eight meeting with Bayern by seeing off Feyenoord 2-1. At Anfield, Ousmane Dembele netted the only goal of the night as PSG bounced back from Liverpool’s late winner last week to force the tie to extra-time and penalties. Maligned
The Taoyuan Pauian Pilots last night lost their East Asia Super League (EASL) championship game against Japan’s Hiroshima Dragonflies 72-68. They on Friday secured Taiwan’s first-ever spot in an EASL final with a 71-64 comeback victory over Japan’s Ryukyu Golden Kings. In what the EASL official Web site described as an “upset,” Pilots forward Lu Chun-hsiang on Friday asserted his stardom in Macau by scoring a game-high 24 points, with four players in both teams reaching double figures. The win was also the first time a Taiwanese franchise has defeated a Japanese team in the EASL Final Four. “I was moved
RSS