Lewis Hamilton on Saturday rocketed to pole position at what could be a title-deciding US Grand Prix before enthusing about space travel and the possibility of one day going into orbit.
“I would go immediately. I would go tomorrow,” the Briton, who is on the brink of securing his fourth Formula One world championship, told reporters when asked about a space trip.
“No, I really, really would love to go. I know someone that has gone up. It was quite expensive, so I don’t know how that’s going to happen. If I win the lottery then definitely, I’m going to go,” said Hamilton, whose private worth is estimated to be in the many tens of millions.
Joking aside, the self-confessed “space geek” who visited NASA’s Houston training facility earlier in the week has been operating on another plane for some time already on the racetrack.
Since the August break, he has won four of five races while yesterday’s pole was his 11th out of 17 this year.
At the same time, Ferrari’s challenge has imploded and Sebastian Vettel, his closest rival, is now 59 points behind with 100 left to play for. After yesterday, there will be only 75.
Hamilton smashed the Circuit of the Americas track record on his way to an unprecedented 72nd career pole and 117th front row start.
His pole position time last year was one minute, 34.999 seconds, a track record at the time. This year, he came close to breaking the 1.32 barrier with a time of one minute, 33.108 seconds.
Yesterday’s race was the sixth in Austin, and Hamilton has won four of the previous five.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Hamilton had made clear just how much it mattered to him to stand on top of the podium again in a country that has become his second home.
If he does, he can secure the title should Vettel finish outside the top five — a definite possibility given the German’s two retirements in the last three races, but one Hamilton felt was unlikely.
“It’s a bit like a game of chess,” he said. “Obviously right now it’s check, but there’s still a long, long way to go. There’s still 100 points available. Sebastian and his team are going to be working as hard as they can, as are we. Who knows?”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but