Max Verstappen of Red Bull has completed a Formula 1 double, yesterday taking the pole for the Chinese Grand Prix just hours after winning the first F1 sprint of the season.
Teammate Sergio Perez is to start alongside Verstappen today on the front row, with Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin and Lando Norris of McLaren on the second row.
The three-time defending F1 champion is unassailable — the sport’s best driver in the quickest car.
Photo: AFP
The Dutchman has won 22 of the past 26 GPs and three of the first four this season. Only a brake failure in Australia probably kept him from sweeping all four races.
This season he has won every pole and his start from that spot today is to be the 37th of his career. It is the 100th pole for Red Bull as a team as Verstappen chases his 58th victory.
Qualifying was run under dry conditions and similar weather is expected today.
Photo: Reuters
Verstappen leads the F1 season standings with 85 points, 15 clear of teammate Perez and 21 clear of Charles Leclerc of Ferrari.
Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes, who dominated the sport before Verstappen, is without a win in 49 races — the last in 2021.
He is to start 18th on the grid after finishing second in the sprint.
The track, which is about 40km northwest of central Shanghai, has been a mystery for teams to solve. This is the first F1 race in China in five years, scratched from the calendar by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The biggest unknown is the racing surface, which has had a thin “seal coating” applied — described as liquid asphalt.
Tire supplier Pirelli said it had not been fully aware of the changes.
In steady rain on Friday, Verstappen said driving in those conditions was like “driving on ice.”
Adding to the intrigue, two small grass fires broke out on at the edge of the track in Friday practice. The circuit was built on a marshy area and a methane gas leak is suspected.
Shanghai-born Zhou Guanyu, the only Chinese to drive in F1, was slow in qualifying and is to start 16th on the grid for Sauber.
Taiwan’s participation in the Olympic Games has been a story of politics as much as sports, with the name it has competed under since 1984 — Chinese Taipei — drawing as much attention as its athletes. However, with the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad set to begin in Paris on Friday, the exploits of Taiwan’s athletes past and present who have won 36 medals since the country’s debut in Melbourne in 1956 deserve a nod. Many of Taiwan’s medal winners have gained considerable name recognition, but only two have achieved legendary status — Maysang Kalimud and Chi Cheng, the only medal winners
Shohei Ohtani on Sunday hit a 473-foot (144m) home run as the Los Angeles Dodgers went deep six times in a 9-6 victory over the Boston Red Sox. Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernandez, Gavin Lux, Austin Barnes and Jason Heyward also connected as Los Angeles swept the three-game series. “Going into the break, we weren’t playing good baseball, and then to come out fresh against a really good ball club and to play the way we did — the offense came to life,” Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said. It was the 25th time the Dodgers launched at least six homers in a game
Canada women’s soccer coach Bev Priestman on Wednesday said she would step away from the team’s opening game against New Zealand at the Paris Olympics in the wake of a drone scandal. New Zealand complained to the International Olympic Committee’s integrity unit after it said drones were flown over closed practice sessions earlier in the week. As of press time last night, Canada, the defending Olympic champions, were set to open the Paris Games against New Zealand in Saint-Etienne. In the fallout of the complaint, two staff members — assistant coach Jasmine Mander and analyst Joseph Lombardi — were sent home, the
Conventional wisdom dictates that the average retirement age for elite female players in the intense and physically demanding sport of badminton is well under 30 years old. Five female shuttlers are set to turn that on its head when they make their fourth Olympic appearances at the Paris Games, a feat never accomplished before. Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying, 30, Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon, 29, Belgium’s Lianne Tan, 33, and Hong Kong’s Tse Ying Suet and Canada’s Michelle Li, both 32, are to compete for Olympic glory at Porte de La Chapelle Arena from Saturday to Aug. 5. “These achievements get missed because they’re women,” said