LAS VEGAS: Max Verstappen, needing just three points over Lando Norris at the Las Vegas Grand Prix to seal a fourth consecutive Formula 1 championship, is suddenly in jeopardy of being denied the crown Saturday night.
The most jarring sign of trouble came in Thursday night’s second practice when the Dutchman was a dismal 17th on the speed chart compared to Norris, who was among the top three fastest drivers in both sessions.
Red Bull apparently brought the wrong rear wing to Las Vegas and GPS data showed its two cars to be significantly slower on the straights than both McLaren and Mercedes, which led both practice sessions with Lewis Hamilton. Red Bull said it doesn’t have a replacement rear wing in Las Vegas to fix the issue and little chance of getting two flown in from England in time.
Verstappen, however, proved two weeks ago in Brazil that adversity is nothing he can’t overcome. He started 17th on a wet and rainy circuit and still managed to win his first race since June by nearly 20 seconds.
Verstappen, whose eight wins this season are his fewest since 2020, has not won back-to-back races since Canada and Spain in June. But the Brazil win widened his lead over Norris in the standings to 62 points and the championship is his barring a complete collapse over the final three races.
He is not sure what to expect Saturday night.
“I just want to focus on the weekend and try to have a good performance. Brazil was a very welcome victory for us after a while, but this is again very different,” said Verstappen, who won the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix last year.
Prior to discovering the rear wing issue, Verstappen felt decent about his chances in Las Vegas.
“Three races left, you’re getting close to the end of the season and it’s looking good in the championship, but we still need to score a lot of points so we’ll just focus on that,” he said. “Once we are doing that then you get closer to the end result.”
Norris not giving up
Norris was admittedly downtrodden after Brazil, where he started on the pole but finished sixth and lost ground to Verstappen after first cutting the lead to 44 points by winning the sprint race.
“This was almost a defining moment for the championship. It was a defining moment for the championship. The doors are almost shut,” Norris said. “For a week, I was pretty down because I had that realization of things pretty much out of my control now, not within reach necessarily. That’s a tough realization when your hopes and belief are so high. For it to get knocked down so much all of a sudden was pretty demoralizing.”
Even so, Norris is convinced he will one day be F1 world champion.
“I have what it takes,” Norris said. “I think it’s the first time in the last six years of F1 when we’ve had a chance to fight at the front. This is our, and my, first opportunity to do so, and my first opportunity to see where I stand. I definitely was not at the level I needed to be at the beginning of the year.
“I still need to make tweaks and I still need to improve on things, that’s clear. I’m not completely satisfied with how I’ve done and I definitely know I need to make improvements,” he added. “But, for the first time, I’m confident to say I have what I think I need to fight for a championship.”
Norris has the first three wins of his career this season and has McLaren currently atop the constructor championship standings. He knows he’s got more work to do to be champion, especially against Verstappen.
“It doesn’t mean I’m complete, it doesn’t mean I’m perfect. When you’re competing against drivers who are close to that, like Max, you have to be close to perfect if you want to challenge him,” Norris said.
Constructor championship
McLaren is still clinging to a 36-point lead over Ferrari in the battle for the constructor championship, a title worth a bonus estimated to be $150 million.
McLaren last won that title in 1998, while Ferrari last won in 2008. Red Bull has won the last two titles. Ferrari could chip away at McLaren’s lead at Las Vegas.
“Ferrari have been strong for a long time,” said Norris. “They have two very good drivers, they’re a very good team, they’ve clearly improved their car a good amount and found a better direction to head down. We do know that Vegas is probably a track that will suit the Ferraris a bit more, it suited them well last year, but Qatar we know maybe will be more favorable to us.”
Carlos Sainz Jr., in his final three races for Ferrari before he is replaced by Hamilton and moves to Williams, wants to close his tenure by helping the team win the constructors title.
“I would love to win the championship for Ferrari this year,” Sainz said. “I think it would be a great way to sign off the season.”
He predicted that McLaren will be stronger in the final two races of the year, at Qatar and Abu Dhabi. But at Las Vegas? Sainz expects he and teammate Charles Leclerc to be stronger.
“This (track) is more Ferrari than McLaren, but at the same time, the temperature is not, so we’ll see how it pans out,” Sainz said of temperatures expected to be in the 40s Fahrenheit (5-10 degrees Celsius) on Saturday night.
Red Bull brings wrong rear wing to Las Vegas in mistake that could stall Verstappen’s title chances
https://arab.news/ytvfz
Red Bull brings wrong rear wing to Las Vegas in mistake that could stall Verstappen’s title chances
- The most jarring sign of trouble came in Thursday night’s second practice when the Dutchman was a dismal 17th on the speed chart compared to Norris
- Red Bull apparently brought the wrong rear wing to Las Vegas and GPS data showed its two cars to be significantly slower on the straights than both McLaren and Mercedes
Pistons top Timberwolves despite Edwards’s 53 points
- In San Antonio, Nikola Jokic scored 46 points and pulled down 10 rebounds for the Denver Nuggets to beat the Spurs
- The Golden State Warriors shook off the absence of superstar Stephen Curry to beat the Memphis Grizzlies 121-113
Edwards, who had voiced frustration after averaging just 16.3 points over the last three games in the face of strong double team defense, found plenty of ways to score.
He connected on 16 of his 31 shots from the field, including 10 of 15 from three-point range, and made 11 of his 12 free-throw attempts.
But he had little scoring support and the Timberwolves trailed virtually all the way against a Pistons team powered by Cunningham, who notched his season high in points and added six rebounds and nine assists.
Unlike Edwards, Cunningham had plenty of support. Malik Beasley added 23 points off the bench for the Pistons, Tobias Harris scored 16 points and grabbed 11 rebounds and Ausar Thompson finished with 10 points, 10 rebounds and six steals.
In San Antonio, Nikola Jokic scored 46 points and pulled down 10 rebounds for the Denver Nuggets, who spoiled Victor Wembanyama’s 21st birthday with a 122-111 overtime victory over the Spurs.
Wembanyama scored 20 points and grabbed 23 rebounds with three assists and four blocked shots.
But the French star — whose late-game heroics sealed the Spurs’ win over the Nuggets in Denver on Friday — was scoreless in overtime.
Harrison Barnes scored 22 points for San Antonio and Devin Vassell added 19. Vassell tied it at 108-108 with a put-back basket with 14 seconds left in regulation.
Jokic missed a potential game-winner but dominated with nine points in the extra session, when the Nuggets out-scored the Spurs 14-3 to pull away.
The Serbian star, who claimed a third NBA Most Valuable Player award last season, added 10 assists, two steals and a pair of blocked shots.
In Brooklyn, Joel Embiid scored 28 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to power the Philadelphia 76ers in a 123-94 victory over the short-handed Nets.
Tyrese Maxey finished with 18 points while Paul George and Caleb Martin scored 17 apiece for the Sixers, who led by 64-47 at halftime.
The Portland Trail Blazers, led by 28 points from Anfernee Simons, snatched a 105-102 victory over the Bucks in Milwaukee.
Simons came through in the clutch, converting a three-point play with 23.5 seconds left to put the Trail Blazers up by one.
After former Blazer Damian Lillard turned the ball over Simons made a pair of free-throws with 5.4 to play to seal the win.
Giannis Antetokounmpo led Milwaukee with 31 points and 11 rebounds. Lillard scored 16 but missed a potential game-tying three-pointer in the final second.
The Golden State Warriors, fueled by 24 points from Andrew Wiggins and 17 from Dennis Schroder, shook off the absence of superstar Stephen Curry to beat the Memphis Grizzlies 121-113.
With Curry resting because of knee tendinitis, the Warriors saw Jonathan Kuminga depart with a sprained right ankle late in the first half.
The close game got testy late, with Golden State star Draymond Green assessed a flagrant foul and a technical foul in the fourth quarter.
In Chicago, Coby White made nine three-pointers on the way to 33 points and Nikola Vucevic added 22 points and 12 rebounds for the Bulls in a 139-126 victory over the New York Knicks.
Karl-Anthony Towns scored 44 points and grabbed 16 rebounds and Jalen Brunson added 33 for the Knicks, but New York dropped their second straight a day after the Oklahoma City Thunder halted their nine-game winning streak.
It was an emotional night for the Bulls, who honored Derrick Rose at halftime — three months after the former NBA MVP and Bulls star announced his retirement.
Naomi Osaka retires injured from Auckland Classic final
- Four-time Grand Slam champion called for the physio after taking the opening set 6-4
- Osaka did not divulge details of what forced her withdrawal in a short courtside interview
AUCKLAND: Naomi Osaka retired from the final of the Auckland Classic with an abdominal injury Sunday, a blow to the Japanese star just a week before the start of the Australian Open.
Playing in her first WTA final for three years, against Denmark’s Clara Tauson, the four-time Grand Slam champion called for the physio after taking the opening set 6-4 and pulled out shortly afterwards.
Osaka’s sudden withdrawal came as a shock after playing with no apparent problem in the 35-minute opening set, unleashing some powerful groundstrokes to break her opponent in the third and fifth games.
At the changeover, the 27-year-old stood and performed a series of stretches during a medical timeout.
After consulting with the trainer she shook the hand of Tauson, who picked up a third career title and her first since 2021.
Osaka didn’t divulge details of what forced her withdrawal in a short courtside interview.
However, in a statement, the WTA said she retired “due to an abdominal injury.”
“I just want to thank everyone for welcoming me to such a beautiful city and I had a lot of fun playing here and I’m really sorry about how it ended,” Osaka said.
“I hope you did enjoy the tennis that we did play and I’m just really grateful to be here.”
It was an anti-climactic finish to the week for Osaka, who was chasing her first title since winning the 2021 Australian Open.
Her most recent final appearance was at the Miami Open the following year, before taking a 15-month break and giving birth to her first child midway through 2023.
She returned to tennis 12 months ago and has climbed to 57th in the world rankings.
Australia win riveting fifth India Test to take series 3-1
- Australia win Border-Gavaskar series, book place in World Test Championship final
- Scott Boland takes 10 wickets in match to ensure India’s collapse in both innings
SYDNEY: Australia clinched a knife-edge fifth Test against India in Sydney by six wickets to seal a riveting series 3-1 Sunday and book their place in the World Test Championship final.
India were dismissed 45 minutes into the morning session of day three for 157, adding just 16 to their overnight 141-6 with the irrepressible Scott Boland ending with 6-45 and 10 wickets for the match.
Set 162 to win, the hosts reached the target before tea against an attack missing injured strike bowler Jasprit Bumrah to regain the Border-Gavaskar trophy for the first time since 2014-15.
Australia lost three wickets before lunch to leave the Test finely-poised, including Steve Smith who agonizingly fell just one short of becoming only the 15th player and fourth Australian to reach 10,000 Test runs.
But Usman Khawaja hit a composed 41 before Travis Head (34 not out) and debutant Beau Webster (39 not out) steered them home.
Victory was enough to ensure they will defend their World Test Championship title in the June final at Lord’s against South Africa.
It culminated a thrilling tour full of twists and turns that saw record crowds and some spectacular individual performances.
The five-Test series witnessed the emergence of exciting young talent in the form of Australian opener Sam Konstas and Indian all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy.
At the same time, aging veterans, notably Rohit Sharma, showed that the clock is ticking on their careers.
India won the first match in Perth convincingly before Australia bounced back in the day-night affair at Adelaide.
The rain-hit Brisbane clash ended in a draw before the hosts took all the momentum into Sydney with a pulsating day-five win in Melbourne.
Indian pace spearhead and skipper Bumrah, who has been dealing with a back issue, batted briefly when his team resumed after bowling just one over and leaving the field on Saturday.
But in a huge setback the 31-year-old did not appear again, leaving Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna to lead the bowling attack, with Virat Kohli in charge.
It appeared to be a difficult run chase on a deteriorating surface offering plenty for the bowlers, but Konstas and Khawaja had other ideas.
They raced to 35 off the first three overs, with teenager Konstas hitting out.
It proved his downfall, unnecessarily lashing at a good length ball from Prasidh only to sky it to Washington Sundar at mid-off, out for 22.
Prasidh then knocked over Marnus Labuschagne for six, caught by Yashasvi Jaiswal at slip, with the same pair removing Smith on four, fending off a rising ball.
Veteran Khawaja, who had a poor series, produced some cracking boundaries on his way to 41, but he mistimed a pull shot off Siraj with wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant collecting the edge.
It gave India a glimmer of hope before Head and Webster took the game away.
India resumed after a counter-attacking 61 from Pant helped build their second-innings lead.
Ravindra Jadeja began on eight and Sundar on six after they dismissed Australia for 181 in reply to their first-innings 185.
Jadeja crunched an early boundary off Pat Cummins, but he was out two balls later, getting a faint nick to wicketkeeper Alex Carey, adding just five to his overnight score.
The Australian skipper struck again to bowl Sundar for 12.
That brought Bumrah to the crease and he could only watch as Siraj edged Boland to Khawaja at slip to give the big Australian his fifth wicket.
Boland, whose line and length were impeccable all series, then bowled Bumrah to end the innings.
Matsuyama maintains one-shot lead over Morikawa on low-scoring day at Sentry
- Japan’s Matsuyama, the 2021 Masters champion, got things going with a run of four straight birdies from the third through the sixth
- Sunday promised to be another Matsuyama-Morikawa duel
LOS ANGELES: Hideki Matsuyama piled up 11 birdies in an 11-under par 62 on Saturday to set the 54-hole tournament record at 27-under and maintain a one-shot lead over Collin Morikawa at The Sentry tournament at Kapalua, Hawaii.
Morikawa also posted a 62, his featuring nine birdies and an eagle.
With the winds that so often buffet the Plantation Course again largely absent, five players posted rounds of 10-under or better.
Matsuyama’s gave him a 54-hole score of 192 — one stroke better than the previous 54-hole tournament record.
Japan’s Matsuyama, the 2021 Masters champion, got things going with a run of four straight birdies from the third through the sixth. He rolled in a 58-foot birdie putt at the par-five ninth to make the turn level with Morikawa.
After birdies at the 10th and 12th he took the lead for good with a three-foot birdie at the 14th. That launched a run of three straight birdies, and Matsuyama kept the momentum with an unlikely par at 17 after his tee shot wound up on the wrong side of the cart path.
He closed with a birdie at the par-five 18th, where he muscled his second shot to the edge of the green and two-putted to maintain his advantage on Morikawa.
“Collin played well and I just kind of followed him, so good day,” said Matsuyama, who is closing in on his 20th professional win and his 11th on the PGA Tour.
Morikawa hit 12 of 15 fairways and every green in regulation. He kept the pressure on Matsuyama all the way, starting with an eight-foot birdie at the fist.
After birdies at the third and fourth he curled in a 26-foot eagle putt at the fifth and was six-under for the day after a birdie at the ninth.
He added birdies at 11 and 12, and another pair at 15 and 16 before closing with a birdie at 18.
“Today was really, really good,” said Morikawa, whose six PGA Tour titles include the 2020 PGA Championship and the 2021 British Open. “Couple shots out there (were) a little squirrely, but for the most part the irons were center face — knew where they were going.”
His most recent win was the 2023 Zozo Championship in Japan, where he ended a near two-year title drought, and Morikawa was delighted that work he’d put in during the off-season was paying off in the opening tournament of the season.
“It’s nice to have it click together,” he said. “It doesn’t mean you’re immediately going to finish top 10, top five, have a chance to win. But it’s nice to be able to put it all together and shoot some scores in a tournament setting.”
Sunday promised to be another Matsuyama-Morikawa duel. Belgian Thomas Detry was four shots behind Morikawa after a 65 for 197.
South Korean Im Sungjae carded an impressive 62 to claim solo fourth on 198 while England’s Harry Hall posted a 66 for 199.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler wasn’t among the 60-strong field after hurting his hand in a Christmas Day cooking accident.
Barcelona cruise into Copa del Rey last 16 after another setback to register Olmo
- The league and the federation said on Saturday that the players can’t be registered again after already having been dropped because of the missed deadline
- Atletico Madrid advanced past third-division club Marbella thanks to a 16th-minute winner by Antoine Griezmann
MADRID: Barcelona endured another setback while trying to register Dani Olmo and cruised past fourth-division club Barbastro 4-0 in the Copa del Rey on Saturday.
After the Spanish league and national federation again denied Barcelona’s request to register Olmo and Pau Víctor for the rest of the season, Hansi Flick’s team routed Barbastro in the round of 32. Robert Lewandowski scored twice and Eric García and Pablo Torre added goals.
It was Barcelona’s first win after consecutive losses in La Liga to end last year.
Another setback would have added to the embarrassment of not being able to register Olmo and Victor because of a missed deadline to comply with the league’s financial fair-play rules.
The players were only registered through the end of 2024 and Barcelona failed to reinstate them to the squad because it couldn’t clear enough salary cap space.
Barcelona eventually were able to meet the financial fair-play rules but the league and the federation said on Saturday that the players can’t be registered again after already having been dropped because of the missed deadline.
The club is expected to resort to the courts to try to register the players.
Barcelona eliminated Barbastro at the same stage of the Copa last season.
Saturday’s match was delayed for a few minutes early in the second half after Barbastro player Jaime Ara injured his head in a collision with Barcelona defender Iñigo Martínez. Ara was carried off the field on a stretcher.
Garcia put Barcelona ahead in the 21st minute, Lewandowski scored before and after halftime, and Torre capped the victory in the 56th.
Atletico advance
Atletico Madrid advanced past third-division club Marbella thanks to a 16th-minute winner by Antoine Griezmann.
It was the 13th win in a row for Diego Simeone’s team across all competitions, tying the club’s record.
Sevilla eliminated
Sevilla were ousted by second-division club Almeria 4-1 despite taking the lead five minutes into the match through Isaac Romero.
Marko Milovanovic equalized for Almeria and Luis Suárez scored a hat trick to send the hosts through.
Athletic survive
Defending champion Athletic Bilbao needed penalty kicks to get past fourth-division club Logrones.
Athletic won 4-3 in the shootout after a 0-0 draw in regulation and extra time.
Other results
Osasuna advanced by beating Tenerife 2-1 and Real Betis eliminated Huesca 1-0 thanks to a first-half goal by Isco.
