One British Formula One world champion led another in first practice for the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix yesterday, with Lewis Hamilton just ahead of successor Jenson Button.
Spanish rookie Jaime Alguersuari, driving a Toro Rosso, had the honor of setting the first competitive timed lap at the lavish new Yas Marina circuit in an incident-free opening session.
McLaren’s Hamilton and Brawn’s Button traded fastest laps toward the end of the session, with the outgoing champion coming out on top with a best of 1 minute, 43.939 seconds.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Button, looking forward to his first race of the year with no pressure after he secured the title at the previous race in Brazil, was 0.096 seconds slower.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel was third on the timesheets ahead of Brawn’s Rubens Barrichello. The two are fighting for second place overall in the championship.
With track temperatures of 35ºC and a new but dusty surface, the leading drivers sat out the first half hour before taking to the track.
“It is a cool track, it’s going to be good to race on and from a driver’s perspective, it sure is fun,” said Germany’s Nico Rosberg, preparing for his last race for Williams. “Obviously as the track surface is completely new, it was quite dirty, so you have to be a little careful to find your way to begin with.”
“It will be interesting to see how the track changes with the cooler temperatures which we will get a chance to see this afternoon,” Rosberg said. “Obviously this will be more reflective of the conditions we will encounter for qualifying and the race.”
Today’s floodlit race will be the first to start in daylight and end after dark. The anti-clockwise layout also has the novel features of a hotel built across the track and a pit lane exit through a tunnel.
“I haven’t pushed really hard through the narrow pitlane exit just yet, but because it is covered under the tunnel, it is a completely unique experience unlike anywhere else in the world,” Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima said.
FRUSTRATION: Alcaraz made several unforced errors over four sets against Bosnian Damir Dzumhur, who had never made it past the third round in a major competition Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz reached the fourth round of the French Open after laboring past Damir Dzumhur 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the Friday night session. The second-seeded Spaniard had never before played Dzumhur, a 33-year-old Bosnian who had never been past the third round at any major tournament. “I suffered quite a lot today,” Alcaraz said. “The first two sets was under control, then he started to play more deeply and more aggressively. It was really difficult for me.” Dzumhur hurt his left knee in a fall in the second round, and had treatment on Friday on his right leg during the
‘DREAM’: The 5-0 victory was PSG’s first Champions League title, and the biggest final win by any team in the 70-year history of the top-flight European competition Paris Saint-Germain won the Champions League for the first time as Luis Enrique’s brilliant young side outclassed Inter on Saturday in the most one-sided final ever with teenager Desire Doue scoring twice in an astonishing 5-0 victory. Doue supplied the pass for Achraf Hakimi to give PSG an early lead and the 19-year-old went from provider to finisher as his deflected shot doubled the advantage in the 20th minute. Doue scored again just after the hour mark, ending any doubt about the outcome before Khvicha Kvaratskhelia ran away to get the fourth and substitute Senny Mayulu, another teenager, made it five. Inter were
The Greek basketball league finals between Panathinaikos and Olympiakos were suspended by the government on Monday following on-court scuffles involving rival security teams. The best-of-five series is at 1-1. The third game, scheduled for today, has been postponed. The owners of both clubs were summoned to meet with the country’s sports minister. They “will be asked to provide explicit guarantees that this situation will be brought to an end. If not, this year’s championship will be definitively canceled,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said. “There can be no tolerance for such pathological phenomena of violence and delinquency.” In online posts, the owners of Panathinaikos and
The Edmonton Oilers on Thursday defeated the Dallas Stars 6-3 to book their place in the Stanley Cup Finals, setting up a repeat of last year’s NHL showpiece against reigning champions the Florida Panthers. The Oilers, bidding to become the first Canadian team to win the NHL’s championship series since the 1993 Montreal Canadiens, head to Florida for Game 1 of the best-of-seven series set for Wednesday. Florida, who are to play in the NHL showpiece for the third straight season, won last year’s title 4-3 to extend Canada’s decades-long Stanley Cup drought. Connor McDavid led Edmonton back to the championship series on
RSS