Sunday June 24, 2012
Kaieteur News
Page 59
European GP: Vettel takes Sangakkara’s unbeaten 199 lifts Sri Lanka pole position in Valencia Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel took a stunning pole position at the European Grand Prix. The world champion was 0.324 seconds clear of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton in an otherwise closely fought qualifying session on the Valencia street track. Williams’s Pastor Maldonado was third, ahead of the Lotus drivers Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen, with Jenson Button ninth. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Red Bull’s Mark Webber were 11th and 19th. The Force Indias looked like they might challenge at the front but Nico Hulkenberg and Paul di Resta ended up eighth and 10th. Di Resta admitted that a mistake in the final corner on his final lap cost him the chance to be much higher up. “I think we wouldn’t have been far away but I just locked a wheel,” Di Resta said. Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg was sixth, ahead of Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi. Vettel’s pole was his third in a row at this track, and the 33rd of his career, matching the great Jim Clark and Alain Prost. Red Bull brought a major aerodynamic upgrade to Valencia and Vettel has appeared to be the man to beat from the outset. “A surprising gap,” he said. “But the boys have been working very hard this weekend to bring a couple of new parts to the car. They seem to work.” Hamilton, who had struggled in practice, said he did not expect to be on the front row. “To be honest I expected to be a lot further back,” he said. “We have been struggling all weekend, and we had to make some guesses as to what kind of set-up we wanted and it seemed to work OK. “The gap is quite big here and it’s going to be a tough race here as always.” Webber was unable to take advantage of Red Bull’s
Sebastian Vettel (centre) will start on pole ahead of Lewis hamilton (left) and Pastor Maldonado improved performance after suffering a series of problems on Saturday. Webber failed to get out of the first session after his DRS overtaking aid failed. He had earlier missed most of the final practice session with brake problems. “We had no DRS so that’s 1.3 seconds,” said Webber, who is only nine points off the world championship lead. “Makes it very difficult. The car has put up a good fight today, we only did four laps today and three of these were in qualifying. “We put on the soft tyres but we were in a desperate situation, we had to try and get through. “The lap time wasn’t too bad with the DRS out. It’s a big hit for us, here and Barcelona through no fault of my own, but that’s the way it can go in 20 races.” Alonso, who battled for victory in the previous three races, found his car was simply not competitive on the twisty Valencia street circuit. The Spaniard, two points behind championship leader Hamilton, was just over 0.2secs off the pace in the second part of qualifying, but that was good enough only for 11th place on the grid. Button was nearly 0.4secs slower than Hamilton and said he struggled with locking his front brakes on his final run and was pessimistic about being able to make any
progress in the race. “We’re in Valencia, not a lot happens here in the race. You can’t overtake around here. “If you get it right on the strategy maybe, but the way the tyres seem to hold on for most people it’s not going to be the most exciting race. The only person who’s will maybe move up is the Lotus in fourth [Grosjean].” However, the 2009 world champion later took to Twitter to soften his initial pessimism: “Hey guys, another tough day. Sorry for my negative comments about Valencia. Now I’ve calmed down I think there is still a lot to play for on Sunday!” Michael Schumacher was 12th, failing to get into the top 10 shoot-out after being 0.266secs slower than Rosberg in the second session. Heikki Kovalainen did an impressive job in the Caterham to beat Toro Rosso driver Jean-Eric Vergne and make it through into the second part of qualifying. The Finn was not able to make any further progress, however, and will line up 17th. HRT confirmed the steady progress they have been making in recent races with both their drivers out-qualifying the Marussia of Charles Pic. The Frenchman’s teammate Timo Glock did not take part in qualifying because he was feeling unwell - the German has been battling a stomach upset.
AFP – Kumar Sangakkara was stranded on an unbeaten 199 even as Sri Lanka took charge of the first cricket Test against Pakistan in Galle on Saturday. The left-hander’s monumental nine-hour effort saw the hosts recover from 335-5 in the morning session to post 472 in their first innings on the second day. Pakistan were tottering at 48 for five in reply at stumps with seamer Nuwan Kulasekara and off-spinner Suraj Randiv both taking two wickets each off successive deliveries. Kulasekara removed opener Taufeeq Umar and Azhar Ali, while Randiv dismissed skipper Mohammad Hafeez (20) and nightwatchman Saeed Ajmal in gloomy conditions. Asad Shafiq fell to Rangana Herath, leaving veteran Younis Khan unbeaten on 15 with Pakistan still 225 runs away from saving the follow-on. Sangakkara missed out on his ninth double-century in Test cricket partly due to an error in the scoreboard on the ground which showed him on 194 when his score was actually on 193. With last man Nuwan
Pradeep at the other end, Sangakkara smashed Ajmal for a six and raised his arms in celebrations believing he had reached the coveted doublecentury. Team-mates, who saw the correct score on television, immediately signalled to Sankgakkara that he still needed one more run — but to no avail. Unable to get a run off the last ball of the over, Sangakkara could only watch from the non-striker’s end as Pradeep was bowled by Hafeez for no score in the next over. Sangakkara, who was on 182 when the ninth wicket fell, scored all the 17 runs in the last-wicket stand, but found himself agonisingly short of the coveted mark. Sangakkara, a 34-year-old veteran of 109 Tests, has eight double hundreds in his 29 three-figure knocks in Test cricket. The left-hander held the innings together after Ajmal claimed his sixth five-wicket haul in 21 Tests to restrict Sri Lanka when the hosts resumed at 300-2. The off-spinner, who had taken both wickets on Friday, struck thrice in the morning session. Ajmal dismissed Sri
Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene for 62, before removing Thilan Samaraweera and Angelo Mathews off successive balls soon after the drinks break. Mahela Jayawardene added seven runs to his overnight score of 55 when he was bowled by Ajmal, ending a 128-run partnership for the third wicket with Sangakkara. Ajmal had Samaraweera stumped by Adnan Akmal for six and beat Mathews in the air to pick up an easy return catch with the fifth and sixth deliveries of his 30th over. Sangakkara denied Ajmal a hat-trick in the bowler’s next over and put on 80 for the sixth wicket with Prasanna Jayawardene, who made 48. Ajmal, 34, was the world’s leading Test wicket-taker in 2011 with 50 scalps in eight matches. He grabbed 24 wickets in Pakistan’s 3-0 whitewash of top-ranked England earlier this year. Prasanna Jayawardene fell soon after a 16-minute interruption due to rain in the post-lunch session when he was caught behind off Hafeez. The tourists cleaned up the tail on either side of tea with Hafeez finishing with three for 55 and Abdur Rehman with one for 126. Scores: Pakistan 48 for 5 (Randiv 2-5, Kulasekara 215) trail Sri Lanka 472 (Sangakkara 199*, Dilshan 101, M Jayawardene 62, Ajmal 5-146) by 424 runs.
Ireland v Australia one-day international abandoned Ireland’s one-day international against Australia at Stormont has been abandoned after only 10.4 overs of play because of bad weather on Saturday. The umpires took the decision to call the match off after making a final inspection of the pitch at 16:00 BST. The start was delayed until 11:30 BST and Ireland were 36-3 when the players came off the pitch due to rain. Australia bowler Brett Lee bowled William Porterfield with his first ball and Ed Joyce with his third delivery. Heavy rain on Friday had put the game in doubt, but the players were able to come onto
the field after Australia had won the toss and elected to field. Paul Stirling was the other Irish batsman to fall as he was caught by Michael Clarke off the bowling of Pat Cummins for 24. Niall O’Brien was 11 not out and Gary Wilson had yet to score when play was halted. News of the abandonment came as a major disappointment to the large crowd at the east Belfast venue. Ireland will now turn their attention to the two forthcoming one-day internationals against Afghanistan on 3 July and 5 July. Australia now face Essex at Chelmsford on Tuesday, before their five-match ODI series with England starts at Lord’s on Friday.