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SUNDAY CHRONICLE September 16, 2018
Hamilton storms into stunning pole position in Singapore By John O’Brien SINGAPORE, (Reuters) Lewis Hamilton tightened his grip on securing a fifth Formula One world title by coming from nowhere to claim a stunning pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix in his Mercedes yesterday. The Briton, 30 points clear of closest rival Sebastian Vettel with seven rounds remaining, lapped the Marina Bay Street Circuit in 1:36.015 to claim a record-extending 79th pole position, 0.319 seconds ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. The Ferrari pairing of Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen had set the pace for most of the weekend but the German could manage only third place, more than half a second down, and will start alongside Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas.
“That lap felt like magic. I don’t really know where it came from,” Hamilton said in an interview. “It was just perfect to the limit. It felt like one of the best laps I can remember feeling,” the Briton added, describing the 23-turn floodlit circuit as “Monaco on steroids”. Hamilton’s time was three-and-a-half seconds quicker than Vettel’s pole position a year ago and should he make a clean start on a circuit where he has won three times before, the Briton is highly likely to extend his championship lead. Verstappen also sprang something of a surprise to finish just behind Hamilton, narrowly missing out on becoming the youngest-ever pole-sitter in Formula One. The 20-year-old was delighted. “Honestly, this feels
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton celebrates after qualifying in pole position. (REUTERS/Edgar Su) like a victory. To be second is unbelievable,” Verstappen said. “We just have to make sure we have a clean start and then everything is possible.” TYRE GAMBLE Vettel is also seeking a
Matthews hoping for impact on home debut
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) – All-rounder Hayley Matthews is hoping to make a memorable impact in her first international before her home crowd when West Indies take on South Africa in the opening one-dayer of the threematch series here today. The 20-year-old is very familiar with Kensington Oval – a venue where she grew up watching her father Michael Matthews play at the storied Pickwick Cricket Club – and hopes she can put on a good performance in front of her family and friends. “It’s great to be here … I actually grew up watching cricket here and playing here, so it’s a wonderful feeling to play my first match here in West Indies colours,” Matthews told members of the media on Friday. “It should be a wonderful occasion – playing with my family and friends in the crowd – and seeing the faces of so many people I know. It’s special to play in front of your home crowd and it would be good to get a big crowd to come and see us start the series against South Africa.” She added: “It’s no added pressure, it’s a matter of using the occasion as motivation to do something extra special in front of home fans. They’re a few of us from here in Barbados in the team for this series, so we all use it as motivation.” Matthews made her international debut back in September, 2014 and has so far
West Indies all-rounder Hayley Matthews played 36 ODIs and 29 T20s. Her finest hour came in the 2016 ICC Women’s World T20 in India when she took the Player-of-the-Match award in the final against Australia. A classy right-hander, Matthews has scored four ODI half-centuries and taken 35 wickets with her steady offspin, and she is eyeing success in both departments over the next week. “As an all-rounder I will be looking to perform with bat and ball. I would like to get a hundred, or maybe even two or three in front of the home crowd. With the ball, I would like to just contribute and keep things tight,” Matthews noted. The ODI Series will form part of the ICC Women’s Championship which is the basis for qualification to the 2021 ICC Women’s World Cup in New Zealand. West Indies have had mixed results so far and lie
sixth on six points while South Africa are seventh in the eightteam standings on four points. Both teams will use the five-match Twenty20 series, which follows immediately after the one-dayers, as a warm-up to the Women’s T20 World Cup from November 9 to 24 in Guyana, St Lucia and Antigua. Matthews said West Indies entered the series with the edge but would need to play consistently in order to emerge on top. “South Africa are a very good team. Last time we played them in South Africa we were able to get a 2-1 victory, so we’re hoping now that we’re playing on home soil - we know the pitches here better than anyone else - hopefully we can get a 3-0 victory in the ODI series and go up in the Championship,” she pointed out. “I think everything has been going pretty well for us over the past few months. We have been working really hard and going back to basics. “We’ve really been pushing hard and putting in the work covering all aspects of our game, bowling, batting and fielding, so I have no doubt that we have the ability to go out there and do what we need to. It’s just about executing now.” She continued: “Biggest challenge is being consistent and being able to go out there and execute each and every game.”
fifth world title and while he remains a huge threat in a very competitive car, the German was disappointed not to have been able to capitalise on the dominance Ferrari had over their rivals in practice. “For us it was a bit of a
messy qualifying,” he said. “We had two laps (in the final qualifying session) and they were both not good enough.” Raikkonen ended in fifth place, almost eight tenths of a second behind Hamilton, the Finn lining up next to Daniel Ricciardo in the other Red Bull. Ricciardo was the only other driver to lap the 5.063 km track in lower than 1:37.000. Force India’s Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon will start seventh and ninth respectively, while Romain Grosjean is eighth on the grid for Haas with Nico Hulkenberg rounding out the top 10 in his Renault. Hamilton admitted that Mercedes had been too conservative in their tyre choices for the race and after sneaking through the first phase of qualifying on the slower ultrasoft tyres,
the Briton was unstoppable with the high-grip hypersofts on his car. “I didn’t have a wheelspin, I didn’t have a snap anywhere, the car was just underneath me and I managed to maximise every corner... and I do feel like I got absolutely everything possible on that lap,” Hamilton added. Ferrari also gambled in the second phase of qualifying by using the more durable ultrasofts, which they would start on in today’s race, but the team aborted the plan when it was fairly obvious they would not advance to Q3. “The race is a different story and things will not be the same tomorrow (today) but we are, for sure, not happy with how it went today,” a despondent Vettel said.
Barcelona come from behind to remain unbeaten
Since the start of 2017-18, Barcelona have won a league-high 23 points from losing positions in La Liga BARCELONA scored two goals in three second-half minutes to come from behind and beat Real Sociedad to maintain their 100% start to the La Liga season. The champions trailed after 12 minutes when they failed to clear a free-kick and Aritz Elustondo lashed in. But Luis Suarez scrambled the ball home in the 63rd minute before Ousmane Dembele converted at another corner. La Real could have been
further in front but missed three chances shortly before the Barcelona goals. Barca goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen made two fine saves, denying Real Madrid loanee Theo Hernandez and Juanmi while Mikel Oyarzabal blazed over at the end of a quick counter-attack. The hosts, playing at their newly renovated Anoeta stadium for the first time, could have grabbed a point late on but Juanmi headed narrowly wide from inside the area.
Barcelona were poor in the first half and also capitalised on goalkeeping errors for both goals with Geronimo Rulli missing punches at both set pieces. The win for Ernesto Valverde’s side is their fourth from four games this season and keeps them top of the table. Earlier in the day, Atletico Madrid needed an injury-time debut goal from Borja Garces to draw 1-1 with Eibar.(BBC Sport)