Fernando Alonso isn't letting his team's involvement in an ongoing spy scandal get in the way of his quest to win a third-straight Formula One title.
The McLaren driver stayed focused on his task on Saturday, clinching pole position in qualifying for this weekend's Italian Grand Prix.
"All the races are like finals for me," Alonso said. "I want five wins if I can."
Alonso went round the 5.793km circuit in 1 minute, 21.997 seconds for his second pole position of the season -- on the same day that Italian media reported that he submitted evidence relating to the Ferrari spy scandal to Formula One's governing body.
Alonso's rookie teammate Lewis Hamilton, who leads the Spaniard by five points atop the drivers' standings, was second with 1:22.360, giving McLaren the top two starting spots for the fifth time in 13 races.
"It was a good battle we had going on out there," Hamilton said. "It's the fifth time we have the front row locked out. Hopefully we can repeat that tomorrow ... The result today shows just how hard everyone at McLaren and Mercedes-Benz has been working."
Ferrari's Felipe Massa was third with 1:22.549, followed by BMW-Sauber's Nick Heidfeld with 1:23.174.
Massa's Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who was runner-up at Monza last year, could only manage fifth place with 1:23.183, after crashing in Saturday morning's final practice session.
"We've been quick all weekend," said Alonso, who was also the fastest in practice. "Hopefully we can take that through to the race tomorrow. Hopefully, step by step, from here to the end of the championship, we can be ahead of our opponents."
McLaren and Ferrari are embroiled in a bitter dispute over alleged espionage and attempted sabotage, after technical data about the Italian team's cars turned up in the possession of McLaren's chief designer.
The dispute ignited in July when a 780-page technical dossier on Ferrari cars was found at the home of McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan. Coughlan was later suspended, while Ferrari mechanic Nigel Stepney, who allegedly supplied the documents, was fired.
Italian news daily La Repubblica said on Saturday that Alonso had submitted evidence related to the case to the FIA, following its request for cooperation.
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and her Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko finished runners-up in the Wimbledon women's doubles final yesterday, losing 6-3, 2-6, 4-6. The three-set match against Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens of Belgium lasted two hours and 23 minutes. The loss denied 39-year-old Hsieh a chance to claim her 10th Grand Slam title. Although the Taiwanese-Latvian duo trailed 1-3 in the opening set, they rallied with two service breaks to take it 6-3. In the second set, Mertens and Kudermetova raced to a 5-1 lead and wrapped it up 6-2 to even the match. In the final set, Hsieh and
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei and her Latvian partner, Jelena Ostapenko, advanced to the Wimbledon women’s doubles final on Friday, defeating top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in straight sets. The fourth-seeded duo bounced back quickly after losing their opening service game, capitalizing on frequent unforced errors by their opponents to take the first set 7-5. Maintaining their momentum in the second set, Hsieh and Ostapenko broke serve early and held their lead to close out the match 6-4. They are set to face the eighth-seeded pair of Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens
Outside Anfield, the red sea of tributes to Diogo Jota and his brother, Andre Silva, has continued to grow this week, along with questions over whether Liverpool could play at Preston today, their first game since the brothers’ tragic loss. Inside Anfield, and specifically a grieving Liverpool dressing room, there was no major debate over the pre-season friendly. The English Premier League champions intend to honor their teammate in the best way they know how. It would be only 10 days since the deaths of Jota and Silva when Liverpool appear at Deepdale Stadium for what is certain to be a hugely
ON A KNEE: In the MLB’s equivalent of soccer’s penalty-kicks shoot-out, the game was decided by three batters from each side taking three swings each off coaches Kyle Schwarber was nervous. He had played in Game 7 of the MLB World Series and homered for the US in the World Baseball Classic (WBC), but he had never walked up to the plate in an All-Star Game swing-off. No one had. “That’s kind of like the baseball version of a shoot-out,” Schwarber said after homering on all three of his swings, going down to his left knee on the final one, to overcome a two-homer deficit. That held up when Jonathan Aranda fell short on the American League’s final three swings, giving the National League a 4-3 swing-off win after