Oscar Piastri admits Max Verstappen’s re-emergence in F1 title race is ‘bit of a surprise’
Oscar Piastri has admitted that the late charge into a tense, three-way Formula One title fight by the defending champion, Max Verstappen, has taken him by surprise, a position echoed by the Dutchman.The Australian also confirmed that he and his McLaren teammate, Lando Norris, go into this weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix with a “clean slate”, free to race one another as the pair battle with Verstappen.Norris trails Piastri by just 14 points with five meetings remaining but Verstappen, who was 104 points off after the Dutch Grand Prix in August, has won three of the last four races and is now only 40 points off the lead.After his comprehensive victory at the last round in Austin, Verstappen acknowledged that he was well and truly back in the contest.Piastri, who has not finished in front of Verstappen for the past four rounds and managed no higher than third in that run, said the Dutchman’s resurgence had not been expected.
“The run of form that he has had since Monza has been a bit of a surprise.There were flashes of that performance early in the season but also pretty big dips,” Piastri said.“He has come to the fight quicker than I expected.”However, Piastri insisted he remained confident despite the world champion’s run of form.“The gap has shrunk a bit in the last few races but the focus has always been on going as fast as I can,” he said.
“I’d rather have the lead than be in any other spot.There is no benefit for me in worrying about that or focusing on that.”Verstappen added that he too had not expected to be fighting for the title, which he had believed was beyond him at the midway point of the season.“I’ve won championships very late, very early,” he said.“Now, this one, of course, is very different because I think for most of the season, it was a lot harder for us.
To be honest with you, to still be in this fight is very surprising,“Now we need to be perfect but for me, it’s just positive pressure,I’m loving what I’m doing,If the car is competitive, much better to be racing in it than when it’s not,So every race that you do until the end, we can’t afford any bad luck or mistakes.
”Piastri also cleared up McLaren’s position after he and Norris had clashed with each other in the last two rounds.After Norris barged into Piastri while overtaking in Singapore, McLaren said there would be “repercussions” for the Briton.In Austin last week, however, Piastri was at fault in a first corner incident with Norris in the sprint race.With Norris starting in second and Piastri in third, the Australian tried to cut back inside his teammate but in doing so was struck by the Sauber of Nico Hülkenberg.His move was risky given how crowded it can be at turn one at the Circuit of the Americas.
The impact speared him into Norris at speed, lifted Piastri’s car into the air and entirely sheared off one of Norris’s wheels, damage that ended both their races.Sign up to The RecapThe best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend’s actionafter newsletter promotionOnce more McLaren said they would review the incident and Piastri confirmed that as of the Mexican GP neither would face any punishment from the team.“We’ve gone through it again, normally we go through every weekend, regardless of what’s happened,” he said.“There is a degree of responsibility from my side in the sprint and we’re starting this weekend with a clean slate for both of us.So, just going out and racing, and see who can come out on top.
”He went on to confirm that any potential sanctions against Norris from his move at the Singapore Grand Prix would not be imposed.“The consequences on Lando’s side have been removed,” he said before confirming it was the aggressive nature of his cut-back in Austin that had been considered at fault.“Yes, ultimately it was that.There were a lot of factors involved but yes, ultimately, that’s what has been decided.”Meanwhile, it has emerged that the FIA has reinstated a former Russian general, under sanctions from the US, UK and Canada, to the governing body’s World Motorsport Council.
Victor Kiryanov, who is head of the Russian Automobile Federation, had stepped down from his role on the WMC voluntarily when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 but returned to his position in June this year after the FIA approved the reinstatement of Russian and Belarusian officials “in the interests of fairness”,An FIA spokesperson said: “The FIA is a politically neutral body, governed by a democratically elected senate,Members of the world motorsport council are elected, and serve, in an individual capacity,The FIA has a longstanding commitment to upholding motor sport’s neutrality,“Its decision to allow all elected members, regardless of nationality, to continue serving their terms is in line with the approach of other international sports bodies.
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Welsh rugby to lose one of its four regions in the next three years
The number of professional men’s rugby teams in Wales is to be cut from four to three within the next three years. The Welsh Rugby Union had been pushing for a two-team solution but, after a period of consultation, has now announced there will be funding for only three pro sides in the future.The four existing regions – Cardiff, Scarlets, Ospreys and Dragons – will remain for the moment but are to be reduced to three by 2028, with teams based in the capital city, east Wales and west Wales. It means there will be insufficient room for both the Scarlets – formerly Llanelli – and the Swansea-based Ospreys who could now come under pressure to merge. If a merger proves impossible – highly likely with so much history and rivalry involved – a “fair and transparent” tender process would decide the outcome
Dan Skelton out of traps fast in trainers’ title battle with Cheltenham double
The feature race had a finish worthy of the festival itself here on Friday, as Harry Skelton summoned a final lunge for the line from Fortune De Mer in the Grade Two novice hurdle and edged out Doctor Blue by a short-head. “He’s a quirky sort,” Dan Skelton, the winner’s trainer, said afterwards, “but he’s got plenty of ability, and that’s an 80 grand race, so we won’t worry about the next one too quickly.”Skelton already has the County Hurdle at the festival meeting here in March as a long-term target for Friday’s winner – “it would really suit him, lots of runners and smuggling him around in a race like that” – while the £48k first prize was supplemented by a further £52k for his prize money total when Calico took the feature handicap chase later on the card.That was more than enough to extend Skelton’s lead at the top of the trainers’ table after Olly Murphy, currently his closest rival, had taken the novice chase with Alnilam earlier on the card, and he is currently odds-on to win the championship for the first time when the season concludes in April.Having seen the prize snatched away by Willie Mullins’s familiar springtime surge in each of the past two campaigns, however, he will take nothing for granted until the final penny has been counted
Your Guardian sport weekend: rugby league Ashes, Lionesses v Brazil and F1’s title tussle
Dominic Booth helms our essential gateway to the day’s football action. He will be looking forward to Saturday’s four Premier League fixtures – Chelsea v Sunderland, Newcastle v Fulham, Manchester United v Brighton and Brentford v Liverpool. There’s also the prospect of the Lionesses hosting Brazil at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium as well as Wales Women facing Australia in Cardiff. There’ll be team news and breaking stories as well as any wash-up from Friday night’s Leeds v West Ham match.England’s head coach, Shaun Wane, has been waiting five years for a “smash-up” with Australia and is relishing the role of underdogs in the first of three long-awaited Tests
England in Women’s World Cup semi-finals but questions remain for Charlotte Edwards
It’s official: Sunday’s World Cup match between England and New Zealand will be Sophie Devine’s last one-day international. After their loss against India on Thursday, New Zealand can no longer qualify for the semi-finals: the 36-year-old Devine, who made her international debut in 2006 and has represented her country for more than half her life, will not be signing off with another world title.She still has the chance to finish with a win, though. The New Zealand captain has already scored 266 runs in the tournament, including a century against Australia, so it could be a fierce tussle against England’s attack – and an emotional one. Expect to see tears come the anthems, as well as blood and sweat in the sweltering humidity of Visakhapatnam
In an affluent and crowded T20 market how is the BBL supposed to compete? | Jack Snape
The BBL may have been born near the start of Twenty20 era, but ahead of its 15th season growing pains have set in. Cricket Australia wants to tap private funding to help Australia’s men’s and women’s competitions keep pace in franchise cricket’s crowded landscape. But as the BBL rubs up against well-heeled upstarts in the sport’s increasingly unstable calendar, its true worth can be difficult to assess.Few are better placed to do so than Venky Harinarayan, the Indian-born, Silicon Valley investor, who is a leading name in San Francisco’s venture capital scene. In the sport he loves, he established his home town’s franchise the Unicorns in 2023 with co-owner Anand Rajaraman, and made headlines when he signed Pat Cummins in a pioneering four-year deal that gave Major League Cricket [MLC] legitimacy
England’s Shaun Wane banks on experience as rugby league’s Ashes ends 22-year hiatus
It has been a long time between drinks – 22 years to be exact. The Ashes were last staged in 2003, meaning more than two decades have elapsed without international rugby league’s greatest rivalry, a wait which finally ends on Saturday at Wembley. For Shaun Wane, the wait must have felt like an eternity.If you were fortunate enough to be there when Wane was appointed as England coach in February 2020, it is easy to remember that he could not hide his delight that his first assignment was an Ashes series that autumn. Of course, within weeks the world had ground to a halt due to Covid-19 and the chance of taking on Australia on home soil disappeared
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