Switzerland’s Sebastien Buemi on Saturday became the first driver to win three Formula E races in a row, while fans also witnessed another milestone with a “race” between two driverless cars on the streets of Buenos Aires.
Buemi, the reigning champion and a former Formula One driver, has now won all three races this season for the Renault e.dams team, with Buenos Aires following wins in Hong Kong and Morocco.
He leads the standings, 29 points ahead of Brazilian Lucas Di Grassi, with the next race in Mexico City on April 1.
Renault e.dams have now won half of all Formula E races that have taken place.
Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne was second in Saturday’s race for the Chinese Techeetah team, with Di Grassi, who started on pole position, third for Team Abt Schaeffler Audi Sport.
Buenos Aires also saw the first demonstration run of two driverless Roborace development electric cars running on the track together at speeds of up to 185kph, but mostly slower.
The cars used sensors and onboard systems to navigate the street circuit while communicating with each other to avoid contact, but one of the two still crashed into barriers.
“This is an historic moment for Roborace and for the future of autonomous vehicle development,” Roborace chief executive Denis Sverdlov said in a statement. “Seeing these two cars interacting at speed on a race track shows how fast the technology is progressing and how important a platform Roborace is for further development.”
Formula E organizers ultimately hope to have up to 10 driverless cars racing together, run by teams who write their own software, around city tracks as a support event to their series.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite