Australian Mark Webber left it late to top the times for Red Bull yesterday evening’s final free practice ahead of tonight’s Singapore Grand Prix. The 35-year-old Australian, watched from the pits by his father Alan, clocked a fastest lap time of 1 minute, 46.081 seconds around the floodlit Marina Bay street circuit.
His time was 0.02 seconds faster than second-place rival Briton Jenson Button of McLaren, the 2009 champion, who recovered splendidly from a frustrating Friday to reproduce his best form.
Championship chasing German Sebastian Vettel, in the second Red Bull, was third fastest after failing to find an outstanding clear lap in the closing seconds of the session on soft tires. This left him ahead of his nearest championship rival, two-time champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso of Ferrari, with Briton Lewis Hamilton, the 2008 champion, down in fifth in the second McLaren.
Photo: EPA
Defending title-holder Vettel can clinch the title tonight if he wins and Alonso is off the podium. The session was run in steaming heat with a temperature of 35 ?C and humidity levels of 68 percent.
German Nico Rosberg was sixth fastest ahead of his Mercedes teammate and compatriot, seven-time champion German Michael Schumacher, 42, with Brazilian Felipe Massa eighth in the second Ferrari. Japan’s Kamui Kobayashi was ninth for Sauber ahead of German Adrian Sutil in a Force India car.
The Saubers were fast in the opening laps. before Button went quickest, only to be replaced by a sequence of drivers including Rosberg and Vettel.
Button regained the top spot again, before Webber laid down his marker in the final minutes. Schumacher’s best hopes were dashed when he was blocked by Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado of Williams — not the first time this season that the Latin American has been in similar trouble.
The incident saw the German pit after raising a red-gloved fist at his tormentor.
TIGHT GAME: The Detroit Pistons, the NBA’s second-best team, barely outlasted the Washington Wizards, who fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss Cade Cunningham’s triple double, Daniss Jenkins’ three-pointer at the buzzer and Javonte Green’s overtime dunk lifted Detroit past Washington 137-135 on Monday, stretching the Pistons’ win streak to seven games. In an unexpected thriller, the NBA’s second-best team barely outlasted a Wizards club that fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss. “We knew how big this game was for us,” Jenkins said. “We wasn’t going to let nothing stop us from getting this W.” Cunningham made 14-of-45 shots and 16-of-18 free throws for a career-high 46 points, and added 12 rebounds, 11 assists, five steals and two
LIKE FINE WINE: Thirty-eight-year-old Djokovic won his 101st title of his career in Athens, becoming the oldest tournament winner since Ken Roswell, 44, in 1977 Elena Rybakina on Saturday clinched her biggest title since Wimbledon in 2022, defeating world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 7-6 (7/0) at the WTA Finals in Riyadh. The world No. 6 put on yet another serving masterclass and was at her returning best as she became the first Kazakh and the first player representing an Asian country to lift the WTA Finals singles trophy. Having gone 3-0 in round-robin play, Rybakina earned a record US$5.235 million and would finish the year ranked No. 5 in the world. “It’s been an incredible week, I honestly didn’t expect any result, and to go so far,
EMPTY STANDS: Maccabi fans were banned from attending by police, who cited violence and hate crimes when the team played Ajax in Amsterdam last season Aston Villa beat Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv 2-0 on Thursday in a Europa League game played amid heightened security measures, with more than 700 police officers deployed to deal with possible protests. Morgan Rogers put through Ian Maatsen in first-half stoppage time for the defender to score from a tight angle and Villa doubled the lead on the hour with Donyell Malen hitting the bottom corner from the penalty spot. It was Villa’s third win from games in the competition. The game at Villa Park had become the center of a political debate after Maccabi fans were banned from attending, as
An amateur soccer league organized by farmers, students and factory workers in rural China has unexpectedly drawn millions of fans and inspired big cities to form their own, raising hopes China can grow talent from the ground up and finally become a global force. The nation of 1.4 billion people has about 200 million soccer fans, more than any other country, but it has failed to build world-class teams, partly due to a top-down approach where clubs pick players from a very small pool of prescreened candidates. The professional game is marred by a history of fixed matches, corruption, and dismal performances,
RSS