One Formula One driver’s merry-go-round is another’s roller-coaster, at least for McLaren’s world champions Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton.
Button felt he had stepped back on board the former with second place at the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday, while Hamilton, winner of the previous race in Belgium, plunged where he had hoped to soar after retiring on the first lap.
Both remain firmly in contention, even if Hamilton ceded the overall lead to Red Bull’s Mark Webber, as the championship boils down to five drivers fighting an epic battle over the five remaining races with five points between the top two.
“Every race we go to now people are going to be looking at qualifying, the end result of the race and trying to understand which direction it’s going to go,” Button said.
“It’s pretty complicated, exciting, good for the sport. We’re all out there to win this championship, but the people who don’t win it are going to get a lot of respect this year for being part of that challenge — hopefully I won’t be one of them,” the 30-year-old added.
Button finds himself in a very different position to last year, when he won six of the first seven races with Brawn and clung on to take the championship.
Last season he would not have been able to fight back had anyone been able to overtake him in the standings but this year is very different.
While Hamilton left Monza kicking himself at his mistake, his relaxed team mate could only sympathize while enjoying his own good fortune.
“I don’t feel like I’m under any pressure at all, it’s quite weird,” Button said.
“I’m just going to every race enjoying it,” he said.
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