Max Verstappen won the Belgian Grand Prix sprint race yesterday to get Red Bull’s post Christian Horner-era off to a flying start.
The world champion beat McLaren pole-sitter Oscar Piastri on Laurent Mekies’ first race weekend as team principal since replacing sacked Horner a fortnight ago.
Lando Norris in the other McLaren was third.
Photo: EPA
“It worked out really well, I knew it was going to be tough keeping them [the McLarens] behind,” Verstappen said.
“I couldn’t afford to make any big mistakes. It’s a sprint win but it still counts,” added the Dutchman after his 12th career sprint win.
Piastri enjoyed a smooth getaway, but Verstappen made his decisive pass down the Kemmel straight on the first of the 15-lap dash.
Piastri extended his lead in the driver’s championship by one point to nine over Norris, with Verstappen 68 points adrift of the Australian.
The main race is to take place today.
For the first time in almost 36 years, a Parisian derby will be played in French soccer’s top flight when reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain FC take on the nouveau riche Paris Football Club (PFC) today. Not one of the players involved in today’s match — PFC’s 38-year-old third-choice goalkeeper Remy Riou is almost certainly not going to be involved — was born the last time there was a Parisian derby in Ligue 1. That was on Feb. 25, 1990, when Moroccan midfielder Aziz Bouderbala scored a brace as Racing Paris 1 beat PSG 2-1 at the Parc des Princes home that
BOUNCING BACK: Antetokounmpo had just returned from an eight-game injury absence last month, leading the Milwaukee Bucks to their third win in four games Giannis Antetokounmpo threw down the game-winning dunk with 4.7 seconds remaining to lift the Milwaukee Bucks to a 122-121 victory over the Charlotte Hornets and grab a slice of NBA history on Friday. The Bucks trailed by as many as 16 on their home floor, but Antetokounmpo scored 12 of his 30 points in the final quarter to help seal the win in a frantic finish that saw five lead changes in the final 45.7 seconds. The two-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) added 10 rebounds and five assists. It was his 158th regular-season game with at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and
Stan Wawrinka’s 40-year-old legs did not let him down over three-plus hours in his first singles match of a farewell tour yesterday. Three-time Grand Slam singles champion Wawrinka beat Arthur Rinderknech of France, who is ranked 29th to Wawrinka’s 157th, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5). The match went 3 hours, 16 minutes. Wawrinka last month announced that this year would be his last on the ATP tour. “Today was a tough battle ... it’s amazing to come here for the first time, to have so much support,” Wawrinka said yesterday. “Twenty years on tour, you kind of always play in the same place
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