Hamilton claims pole at rain-hit Spa
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, BELGIUM: Lewis Hamilton tiptoed his way to a memorable record fifth pole position at the Belgian Grand Prix on Saturday as he and Mercedes handled the capricious weather conditions at the famous SpaFrancorchamps circuit with tactical aplomb.
The championship leader produced a decisive lap in the last drying seconds of a rain-hit session in 1min 58.179sec to outpace nearest rival Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari, who is 24 points behind him in the title race, by 0.726sec.
“That was one of the toughest I can remember,” said Hamilton who had claimed the 78th pole of his career thanks to well-timed laps in the improving conditions at the end of the session.
Esteban Ocon took third place for the reborn Force India team, under new ownership, ahead of his team-mate Sergio Perez and Romain Grosjean of Haas, their teams taking a positive view of the conditions and timing their tyre-changes perfectly.
FEDERER LAGS
NEW YORK : Roger Federer heads to the US Open as third favourite behind longtime rivals Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal after a season that has nose-dived since he won the Australian Open at the start of the year.
This time last year, Federer was the pundits’ pick to claim a third Grand Slam title of 2017 in New York, after roaring back from a season decimated by injury to win the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
His run at Flushing Meadows was ended by Juan Martin del Potro in the quarter-finals, but Federer appeared to have put that defeat behind him as he claimed his 20th career Grand Slam title in style in Melbourne in January.
By July, however, that early optimism had faded following Federer’s defeat by Kevin Anderson in the Wimbledon quarter-finals.
LAHIRI MAKES CUT
PARAMUS (US) : Anirban Lahiri made the cut on the line after producing a second successive 71 in the second round of the Northern Trust Championships, the first event on the FedExCup play-offs.
Tiger Woods (71) also shot a second successive even par round to stay around for weekend action. Riding high on two Major trophies this season, Brooks Koepka played a stunning back nine to shoot six-under 65 and got to 10-under to join Jamie Lovemark (66) who is winless in 135 starts on PGA Tour.