Perez, Southgate upstage big names to ‘lead’ Dunhill Links

4-way tie for lead in Asia-Pacific

EDINBURGH, Sept 28, (RTRS): Frenchman Victor Perez and England’s Matthew Southgate upstaged the big names, jumping two strokes clear after the third round at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland on Saturday.

Neither player has won on the European Tour, but they set the stage for a possible breakthrough with fine performances in benign conditions in an event played on three courses.

Perez carded a nine-birdie eight-under-par 64 at Kingsbarns and Southgate shot 65 at nearby St Andrews.

They will start Sunday’s final round at 20-under 196 with a two-shot lead over England’s Paul Waring, who shot a 65 at Carnoustie to jump into third place on 18-under.

American Tony Finau and Swede Joakim Lagergren are three shots behind, while former world number one Luke Donald jumped into contention by pitching in for eagle from 53 yards at the 18th at St Andrews.

The effort left the Englishman four shots behind.

“I’ve certainly been putting in some time in my game and it’s nice to see some results finally,” said Donald, who

Perez

has not won on the European Tour since 2012.

While Donald surged into contention with his 64, Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy managed only a pedestrian 70 at St Andrews to slip 10 shots off the pace.

In Shanghai, Blake Windred of Australia has another entry in the record book at the Asia-Pacific Amateur, and it felt better than it might appear.

Windred fell apart Saturday at Sheshan International with four bogeys in a five-hole stretch in the middle of his third round, and he went from leading to two shots behind going to the par-5 18th.

He finished with a 5-foot birdie putt to salvage a 2-over 74. Ren Yonezawa of Japan missed a short par putt and had to settle for a 73.

Just like that, they were tied for the lead, and had plenty of company. Yung-Hua Liu of Taiwan and Yuto Katsuragawa of Japan each shot 69 for a four-way share of the lead at 8-under 208. In the 10 previous editions of the Asia-Pacific Amateur, there had never been a tie after 54 holes. Now there are four players tied for the lead, all aiming to win the tournament and earn a spot in the Masters and the British Open next year.

Windred, who tied the tournament record with a 63 in the first round, was happy to be part of the mix after the way his round was going. but I don’t really want to think about those stats for now, I just want to focus on the job,” said the youngster when spoken of in the same breath as seven-times world champion Schumacher.

“There’s still a long way to go tomorrow, we’ve been competitive all weekend long and the race simulation seems positive too. It’s looking good for tomorrow.”

Hamilton had been third behind the two Ferraris after the first flying laps of the final shootout session but the man who has more career poles than any driver still lifted himself on to the front row with slower, medium tyres.

His time was 0.4 seconds off Leclerc’s best but denied Ferrari a front-row sweep by 0.023 ahead of a race that has only ever been won by Mercedes since it first appeared on the calendar in 2014.

“It was a tough qualifying session because these guys have some crazy speeds on the straights,” said the five-times champion after ending up in a Ferrari sandwich.

“They go to another level. You know that whole ‘party mode’ you talked about us having? They have something else beyond that – jet mode.

“Nonetheless I gave it absolutely everything I had at the end. I’m so glad it came together, I wasn’t expecting it to.”

Max Verstappen qualified fourth for Red Bull but the Dutch youngster carries a five-place grid penalty due to an engine change, meaning Hamilton’s team mate and title rival Valtteri Bottas moves up to the second row.

Hamilton leads Bottas by 65 points with six races remaining and is well placed to extend his lead on Sunday, given that he is 96 points clear of closest non-Mercedes rivals Leclerc and Verstappen in the standings.

Verstappen’s Thai team mate Alexander Albon crashed out of the first phase of qualifying, smashing backwards into the barriers at turn 13 and bringing out the red flags, after Williams’s Robert Kubica had also spun.

“There’s nothing really to say other than I went in a bit hot like

First-placed Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc of Monaco (right), celebrates with second-placed Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain at the end of the qualifying session practice at the ‘Sochi Autodrom’ Formula One circuit

in Sochi, Russia on Sept 28. (AP)

Max did in FP3 (final practice) and I lost the rear. There’s a tailwind in that corner and it just caught me out. When these cars go, they go quick,” said Albon. “It was a silly mistake.” McLaren’s Carlos Sainz will start fifth with Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg sixth on a day when the Woking-based team announced it would be switching from the French manufacturer’s engines to Mercedes from 2021.

Sainz’s rookie team mate Lando Norris starts seventh with Haas’s Romain Grosjean eighth and Renault’s Australian Daniel Ricciardo joining former Red Bull team mate Verstappen on the fifth row.

The only Russian on the starting grid, Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat, will line up last due to engine penalties.

Formula One champions Mercedes have fired four employees and disciplined three others after an enquiry into racist bullying at the team’s factory, British newspapers reported on Saturday.

The team of five-times world champion Lewis Hamilton, who has Caribbean heritage and has spoken out against racism, confirmed in a statement that four individuals had been dismissed.

It said that the dismissals on Aug 2 “followed an internal investigation that confirmed breaches of our diversity and equality policy”.

“We condemn this behaviour in the strongest terms and acted immediately upon the complaint. We value the diversity of our employees and it is a source of strength for our team,” the statement added.

The Sun newspaper reported there had been a “campaign of racist bullying” against a Muslim employee at the team’s Brackley headquarters.

Hamilton has spoken out about his experiences of racism, calling in March for more of a stand against it in all walks of life after England soccer players reported abusive chants in a Euro 2020 qualifier against Montenegro.

“I remember being at school and you got a slap on the hand for it (racism) and it is just allowed to slide. That shouldn’t happen anywhere. Action should be taken and we should be a lot stricter with it,” Hamilton said.

Meanwhile, Formula E-bound Dutch driver Nyck De Vries clinched the 2019 Formula Two title at the Russian Grand Prix with three races to spare on Saturday.

The 24-year-old, in his third season in the series, won the Sochi feature race from pole position to put the championship beyond the reach of closest challenger, Canadian Nicholas Latifi.

“My future’s kind of been announced lately, so I really just wanted to come into this weekend and prove that we deserve to be the champions,” the ART team driver said.

While Latifi is tipped to step up to Formula One next season with Williams, De Vries is joining Mercedes in the all-electric Formula E series alongside former McLaren F1 racer Stoffel Vandoorne.

De Vries was part of the McLaren young driver programme until this year.

Last year’s F2 champion was British driver George Russell, now at Williams, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc won the F1 feeder series in 2017.

Albon