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Reuters
22 minutes ago
- Reuters
McLaren must also deal with disappointment amid runaway success
LONDON, Aug 4 (Reuters) - McLaren boss Zak Brown is preparing to deal with disappointment at the end of the Formula One season, even as the team enjoy one of their most dominant years and a 200th grand prix win at the weekend. As the title battle between Oscar Piastri and teammate Lando Norris heats up, the McLaren pair separated by just nine points after Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix, the American conceded he was thinking also about how to handle the aftermath. Red Bull's reigning champion Max Verstappen, the McLaren drivers' closest rival, is now 97 points off the pace and told reporters at the weekend that he may not win again this year given his car's issues. Even before the weekend, both Piastri and Norris cast caution aside and called it a two-horse race. One of them will surely end the year celebrating a dream come true. The other will rue what might have been, with a new engine era next season shaking everything up again and chances potentially disappearing. Losing always hurts, doubly so when it is to a teammate with the same car, and Brown said McLaren would have to deal with the situation sensitively when -- although he still insisted on saying if -- the time came. "Eventually... we'll just sit down and actually have a conversation and go 'right, one of you is going to win and it's going to be the best day of your life. One of you is going to lose. How do you want us to handle that?'," he told a select group of reporters. "We'll actually sit down and go 'Right, you want us to jump up and down and celebrate? This guy won'. So we're fully aware and sensitive to 'how do you celebrate that situation?'." Australian Piastri has won six races to Norris's five but the Briton has momentum going into the August break, with three wins from his last four starts. The pair have had seven one-two finishes from 14 races, including the last four, and have left rivals trailing. McLaren are so far ahead in the constructors' standings -- 299 points over Ferrari -- that the crown is a given. Much has been made of the potential for a falling out between friends, for clashes on track given what is at stake, but Brown was sanguine and said the relationship was only growing stronger. When Norris ran into the back of Piastri as he challenged for the lead in Canada in June, the Briton defused the situation by immediately taking responsibility. Piastri locked up behind Norris in Hungary on Sunday, in what could have been a repeat of that Montreal accident, but no contact was made. Brown said there was no 'elephant in the room' at McLaren, with the drivers having complete transparency on strategy and how the team go about racing, and he expected more close calls in future. "There's competitiveness brewing... as the championship builds, I'm sure that tension will grow," said the boss. "We're fully anticipating them 'swapping paint' again at some point, I'm very confident it won't be deliberate, which is where you then get into the problems. "They will have racing incidents in their further time here at McLaren, we know that and they know that, so we're not afraid of that. "I'm positive they're never going to run each other off the track, and that's where you get into bad blood. So they're free to race... there are rules around our racing, which is respect your teammate, they know that."
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Chelsea poised to recoup £65m after breakthrough day of sales - with three players on the brink of exits to Premier League clubs
Chelsea have had a day of breakthroughs in sales with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Lesley Ugochukwu and Armando Broja all closing in on permanent departures to fellow Premier League clubs. Everton entered into talks over Dewsbury-Hall with a deal worth an initial £25million plus add-ons quickly worked on. The 26-year-old midfielder cost £30m when Chelsea signed him from Leicester City last year as he became a squad player under Enzo Maresca, starting twice in the top flight. Ugochukwu, 21, and Broja, 23, are also on the verge of signing for Burnley, sources close to the newly-promoted club have said. Their exact fees have not yet been confirmed, but they are believed to be around the £20million mark for each. Both players are understood to have agreed five-year deals with Scott Parker 's side. Chelsea are continuing to work on other outgoings, with Borussia Dortmund in talks over bringing back Carney Chukwuemeka after the 21-year-old spent the second half of last season on loan there. Tyrique George could yet join Chukwuemeka in Germany after an enquiry from RB Leipzig, while fellow 19-year-old Marc Guiu is expected in the North East to finalise a loan to Sunderland barring any late hiccups. Chelsea's players returned to Cobham for pre-season training on Monday after a three-week break following the Club World Cup. Sources have said that those actively up for sale, such as Raheem Sterling and Ben Chilwell, are expected to continue to work separately to Maresca's main group as Chelsea work on finding new clubs for those deemed surplus to requirements.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
How ‘warrior' Mohammed Siraj set the tone to announce a new era for India
Mohammed Siraj woke up on a drizzly morning in south London realising that the time was now. India were up against it and heading towards a fifth Test defeat against England and subsequently a 3-1 series loss. A scoreline that would not reflect the fierce battle between the two sides over 25 days, with each Test meandering to a climax over its full duration. Siraj had bowled 1,088 balls by this stage. Yet as much as his physical endurance, his composure was tested, too. That misfield on day four at The Oval, stumbling and staggering into the boundary after clutching Harry Brook for, what would have been, a match-turning score of 19. A mistake that cost India 92 runs before the most dramatic of six-run victories. 'When he woke up in the morning, he believed he could do it,' former India wicket-keeper and Sky Sports pundit Dinesh Karthik confirmed. 'Then he took a screenshot of something from Google that said, 'believe'. He put it out there because he wanted to get it done.' And believe he did. England started the day needing just 35 runs in their pursuit of 374. Prasidh Krishna coughed up eight runs from the rest of his over, finished overnight after the bad light and rain scuppered a premature conclusion to this enthralling Test. Siraj then dialled up the pace and added some menacing swing, too, with Jamie Smith bamboozled immediately. A couple of near misses followed a delicate nick back to Dhruv Jurel with his third ball, sparking bedlam. Siraj wheeled away, arms outstretched, but the chaotic celebrations were temporarily cut short due to umpire Kumar Dharmasena's bizarre move to verify that the catch was clean. Of course, it was, and Siraj had duly delivered the belief India needed to hunt down another three wickets for victory and a drawn series. The rest of the match-winning spell, ending at 3-9 from just 25 balls, saw Jamie Overton trapped lbw, before Gus Atkinson finally departed, despite a gritty effort to shield the one-armed, heroic Chris Woakes from this devilish Indian pace attack. His stumps rearranged to put the exclamation mark on this iconic win. While Jasprit Bumrah remains the finest bowler in the world, with his ailing body unable to allow more than three appearances in this epic series, Siraj has underlined his importance, confirming the duo, whenever they do line up together, as one of the great fast bowling pairs in the game. Cricket, a sport riddled by the quirks of trends and numbers, shows us that India win just 41.67 percent of the games he plays, but that rises to 71.43 percent without him, according to cricket statistician Ric Finlay. While Siraj's inclusion ensures a 53.66 percent win rate and just 40.00 percent without him. Naturally, it is daft to suggest India are better off without Bumrah, but there is something about Siraj and the emotional impact that numbers cannot measure with this fiery seamer and unique character. "You don't seem to look at the bowlers as much,' Karthik remarked when highlighting how batters usually get the credit. 'Not just today, but Siraj walked in today trying to be the man. He has bowled like an absolute warrior; he's done the donkey's work too. He's hit 90mph, I couldn't be more proud of him as a bowler." It is that energy and the ability to dig deep when others wilt. Take the wicket of Atkinson to clinch the match, clattering the stumps in this most chaotic of finales. It was clocked at 143kmph, according to CricViz, his fifth-quickest ball of the series. That, after 1,111 balls in this series, shows remarkable strength. As proven with others, such as Ben Stokes, and the aforementioned Bumrah, who, despite their brilliance, have been unable to hold up to this relentless pace of five Tests and 25 sapping days of play crammed into 46 days. 'He's a captain's dream,' concluded the gleeful India skipper Shubman Gill. 'Coming in for five matches, giving absolutely everything. Every team wants a player like him, and we're very lucky to have him.' If Bumrah is India's talisman, then Siraj has elevated himself to be his partner in crime and a sensational stand-in when needed. An intimidating presence for the opposition and an able supporter of his teammates when tensions spill over in highly-charged moments, as proven during the antics at Lord's after Zak Crawley's theatrics to delay play on day three. He is also the ultimate counter-puncher, as proven by the final delivery on day three at the Oval to rearrange Crawley's stumps. If Test cricket is about momentum, then Siraj can swing it as much as the ball. 'I've always had great admiration and respect for Siraj as a competitor,' Ben Stokes conceded following the fifth Test. 'He keeps coming and coming and coming. 'You know he'll always be in a fight with you. He's an example of what it means. I have respect for how he goes about his cricket and how he takes it on.' The tourists had a mindset throughout the series that they were 'not given a chance,' according to KL Rahul, with key figures Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma absent. But the India opener insists that the fifth Test victory is 'where the change begins' and that 'it means absolutely everything.' If that is the case, then Siraj's impact might just be felt for many years to come.
