Race favorite Lewis Hamilton set the pace for a dominant Mercedes team in first Spanish Grand Prix practice yesterday, while the pain remained the same for Sebastian Vettel despite a Red Bull chassis switch.
Hamilton’s fastest lap of 1 minute, 27.023 seconds, set six minutes from the end, was 0.868 seconds quicker than McLaren’s Jenson Button, who was best of the rest.
The impressive margin on a sunny morning at the Circuit de Catalunya further underlined the Briton’s status as the man to watch after three wins in a row.
Photo: EPA
Championship leader Nico Rosberg, who is four points clear of teammate Hamilton and had said on Thursday he just needed a “normal weekend” to regain momentum, suffered a cooling issue that cut short his session. He was fifth fastest.
Quadruple world champion Vettel, who had a miserable preseason test in Spain and has had a difficult four grand prix since then, started the first European race weekend of the year with another setback.
The German, winner of the past nine races, was using a different chassis to the one raced so far, but he completed just four laps before pulling over with an electrical problem.
Marshals handed him a fire extinguisher as he inspected the car before hitching a ride back to the paddock on a scooter.
“We had a full electrical shutdown on Seb’s car. We’re not sure what caused it. It cut the radio and everything,” team principal Christian Horner said.
Although the car was returned to the pits, the problem prevented Vettel from taking any further part in the morning session.
His Australian teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who has outqualified Vettel in three of the four races and passed him in the past two after the German was instructed to let the faster car through, was the third fastest driver.
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, the local favorite for his home race after winning last year with plenty of banners in the grandstand urging him on, was fourth on the timesheets.
In a bizarre early incident, a wing mirror on Sergio Perez’s Force India broke off and was left flapping around on a wire. The Mexican completed the lap with it in his hand.
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
INTER AWAIT: Superb saves by PSG ’keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma inspired the victory, as Arsenal were punished for misses, including one by Bukayo Saka Arsenal on Wednesday fell short on the big stage again as their painful UEFA Champions League semi-final exit against Paris Saint-Germain left Mikel Arteta to rue his club’s failure to provide him with enough attacking options. Arteta’s side were unable to reach the Champions League final for the first time in 19 years as PSG clinched a tense 2-1 win at Parc des Princes. Trailing 1-0 from last week’s first leg in London, the Gunners made a blistering start to the second leg, but could not convert their chances as Gianluigi Donnarumma’s superb saves inspired PSG’s 3-1 aggregate victory. Arsenal were punished for
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
THRILLER: Raphinha gave Barca a 3-2 lead with two minutes remaining of regular time, but Francesco Acerbi equalized the game in the second minute of added time Davide Frattesi on Tuesday fired Inter into the UEFA Champions League final with an extra-time winner that gave the Italians a stunning 4-3 triumph over Barcelona, 7-6 on aggregate. Italy midfielder Frattesi won a tie for the ages under a downpour in Milan when he lashed home in the 99th minute, sending a packed and rocking San Siro wild with joy. Simone Inzaghi’s team will face either Arsenal or Paris Saint-Germain at the end of this month in Munich, Germany, where they would feel they have a great chance to be crowned kings of Europe for a fourth time after
RSS