Sebastian Vettel showed set the fastest time in yesterday’s Italian Grand Prix practice.
The Red Bull driver set a quickest lap of 1 minute, 22.839 seconds around the Monza circuit to deny local favorite Fernando Alonso the day’s best time. The Ferrari driver was less than one-tenth of a second off the pace.
Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa was third ahead of McLaren pair Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button following the afternoon session.
Vettel finished outside of the points at the Belgian Grand Prix after crashing into Button following a mistake that also ended the British driver’s race.
A healthy turnout of fans turned out for the session, with a banner in Italian also welcoming the return of former Ferrari great Michael Schumacher to the temple of Italian motorsport.
“Michael we always wish you well,” it read.
Schumacher, now with Mercedes at the age of 41 and after three years out, was 10th fastest while teammate Nico Rosberg was fifth.
Button was fastest in the opening practice session.
Both McLaren and Red Bull are expected to challenge for victory at the low-downforce, high-speed track after Hamilton led Mark Webber in a 1-2 finish at the Belgian Grand Prix’s Spa circuit, which holds similar characteristics to Monza.
Hamilton leads Webber by three points going into tomorrow’s 53-lap race, while third-place Vettel is 31 points behind the leader.
Vettel, Button and Alonso are separated by only 10 points.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later