Hamilton, Vettel kick off race for fifth title
PRE-tournament favourites, Durban Girls College, came to the 3 Schools Trust Astra in Glenwood last weekend with one objective in mind: to win the Durban Central Regional of this year’s Spar Schoolgirls Hockey Challenge for the eighth consecutive year and thus qualify for the Grand Finals at St Mary’s DSG Kloof in July.
In the immortal words of Julius Caesar, DGC said: “Veni; Vidi; Vici”. (I came; I saw; I conquered!), winning all six of their round robin games to top the log with a faultless 24 points and then go on to beat host school St Henry’s 1-0 in the knockout final, scoring 22 goals on the way and conceding none.
Runners-up and making their first appearance in the Spar Challenge, St Henry’s won four games, drew 0-0 with Durban Girls High School and lost 1-0 to DGC in the round robin to end up with 17 points.
DGHS were third with 14 points after their scoreless draw against Maris Stella, when a win would have put them in the final on goal aggregate at the expense of St Henry’s.
Maris Stella were ranked fourth, Port Natal fifth, Ridge Park sixth and Inanda Seminary seventh.
The final itself between perennial favourites, Durban Girls College, and St Henry’s was a closely fought affair.
College scored within five minutes of the start when livewire striker, Emma Sharatt, took full advantage of a loose ball in a crowded goalmouth to steer the ball past a forest of legs, giving goalkeeper Unathi Sibeko no chance.
Play surged from one end of the Astro to the other at a relentless pace with first one side breaking over the halfway line and then the other but try as they might neither side came within a whisker of adding to the scoreline with both goalkeepers, Sibeko and Jamie Hume, virtual spectators.
Play became disjointed towards the end but DGC failed to add to their score despite a half-dozen penalty-corner awards with the Saints’ defence giving nothing away.
The Spar KZN Schoolgirls Hockey Challenge reaches the halfway mark with the fifth regional tournament tomorrow at the 3 Schools Trust Astro, featuring schools from the Durban South region and hosted by Kuswag High School with Amanzimtoti the pre-tournament favourites.
Rankings: 1 Durban Girls College 4 (6 wins) 24 points; 2 St Henry’s (4 wins, 1 draw) 17 pts; 3 DGHS (3 wins, 2 draws) 14 pts; 4 Maris Stella (3 wins, 1 draw) 13 pts; 5 Port Natal (1 win, 1 draw) 5 pts; 6 Ridge Park (2 draws) 2 pts; Inanda (1 draw) 1 pt
Final: DGC 1, St Henry’s 0 SURF Ski stars from East London were back in Durban last week hoping to pull off a clean sweep of the Varsity College SA Schools Challenge Under-18 national junior men’s and women’s titles with the event also incorporating the final leg of the popular Friday evening FNB Surfski Series.
But despite the rain and a cold front Uli Hart of Cape Town hit top form to take the men’s gold medal with a winning margin of 30 seconds from East London’s Jordy Malherbe and Kearsney College’s Callum Davis.
The girl’s title went to East London’s Zara Wood after a titanic duel with Amy Pecket of Epworth with Cayleigh Shaw clinching third place.
ALAN BALDWIN
MELBOURNE: Formula One has changed the positioning of race start lights to ensure drivers can see clearly around the new halo head protection system that debuts in Australia this weekend.
The halo, a titanium structure fixed at three points with a central upright in front of the driver’s vision and an overhead loop, has been introduced to protect against the risk of bouncing wheels and other
THE first instalment of what Formula One fans hope will be a genuine season-long tussle kicks off tomorrow as fourtimes champions Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel lock horns at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
This year marks the first that two quadruple champions are competing in the same season and their battle to see who joins Argentinian legend Juan Manuel Fangio in second place on the all-time list with five titles promises to light up the series.
Michael Schumacher leads the way on seven world titles.
Hamilton emerged well on top for Mercedes at the end of last year after Ferrari’s Vettel made the early running, but their rivalry added plenty of spice, the pair banging wheels on the track in Azerbaijan and exchanging threats off it.
Hopes are high for more tense duelling to spark interest in a championship that has generally proved a procession for the Silver Arrows, who have swept the drivers’ and constructors’ championships in each of the past four years.
Much will depend on whether Ferrari’s SF71H can keep German Vettel within striking distance of Hamilton in his Mercedes W09, which the Briton raved about during pre-season testing.
On that score, the jury is out.
Lap times at testing can be misleading but there remains a conviction that Mercedes will head into tomorrow’s race debris. Some drivers have expressed concern about seeing the start lights, depending on where they line up on the grid.
“With the halo, what we’ve asked every circuit to do is to make the lights at a standard height above the track,” the governing FIA’s race director Charlie Whiting said this week.
“We’ve also put a repeat set of lights, in this case off to the left, over the verge.”
The repeat set were introduced around 2009 when higher at Albert Park, as always, the team to beat.
“We know that Mercedes is a little bit ahead of everyone and is dominating the sport for the last four years,” McLaren’s twice world champion rear wings made it harder to see the lights, but aerodynamic changes have now fixed that Fernando Alonso said.
“And they are the big favourites again to start the new season.”
Mercedes are eager to see what the W09 can do at the lakeside circuit in Melbourne,
Pproblem. Now the wings have been lowered, there’s no need for those lights halfway up the with technical director James Allison saying it would “blow away” the W08 which garnered 12 race wins last year and a fourth consecutive constructors’ title.
Hamilton, however, was grid so I’ve decided to utilise them somewhere else,” said Whiting.
“Pole position seems to be the worst case scenario with the halo there – maybe the driver can’t quite see the lights, or see only half of them, and he might have to move his head too much.”
The new arrangements was expected to be tried out yesterday after the two practice sessions at Albert Park, with drivers allowed to rehearse starts on the grid. guarded about their opening weekend prospects, believing Red Bull could be as much a threat to the Silver Arrows as Ferrari.
“I think at this time of the year everyone is trying to hype
Whiting also played down fears that the halo would make it harder for fans to see drivers’ helmets as a means of identifying who was at the wheel.
Haas’s Danish driver Kevin Magnussen has said he feared fans were “not going to have a clue who is who”.
Whiting responded that driver numbers had already become much more prominent on cars since last season. – Reuters/African News Agency (ANA) someone else up and we are the perfect target because we are the world champions,” the Briton said at a Melbourne event with sponsor Petronas this week.
“From what I understand, I think Red Bull and Ferrari are very close. Potentially, we are either level, just behind or maybe just ahead of the Red Bulls as far as I’m aware.”
Ferrari have kept a low profile in the lead up to the race, but Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo emerged this week to express hope for a “statement” performance.
“Every year, the team works hard to build a fast car but, come testing, we’ve never really had much to show for it,” the Australian said.
“This year, we obviously had a bit more so, from a team perspective, we’re feeling much more prepared.”
There will be fingers crossed in the McLaren garage as Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne put the new Renault-powered car through its paces, the once formidable outfit having split with Honda after three miserable years.
Albert Park will see a number of debuts, with Formula Two’s Monegasque champion Charles Leclerc and Russian Sergey Sirotkin having their first races for Sauber and Williams respectively.
The much-maligned halo, a cockpit head protection system, will also make its race debut along with “Grid Kids”, aspiring young drivers who have replaced the female models who paraded on track in seasons past. – Reuters/African News Agency (ANA)
IAN RANSOM
MELBOURNE: Formula One’s former commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone has warned owners Liberty Media to take the threat of a breakaway series seriously and said Mercedes could follow Ferrari out of the championship.
Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne has threatened his team could quit if F1’s American owners follow through on plans for simpler engines and a redistribution of prize money after contracts expire in 2020.
Ecclestone, who moved aside in January last year after Liberty took over, suggested both Ferrari and Mercedes, who have swept the last four drivers’ and constructors’ championships, were on the same page.
“Talking to people like Sergio and (Mercedes boss) Toto (Wolff), they are not idiots,” the 87-year-old told Autosport.
“They will weigh up whether it’s better for everyone to leave and do their own series, or do we need the (governing body) FIA to look over things? So people will start to think what to do.
“The trouble now is that Sergio has come out and said, ‘The next time I see you, I’m going to punch you in the face’. And when he sees the people, he’s got to be sure that he’s going to punch them in the face.
“Sergio is not the guy that makes threats as a joke and then runs.”
Although fierce rivals on the track, Ferrari and champions Mercedes are closely aligned off it on financial matters and engines – supplying six of the 10 teams in the series.
The threat of a rebel series has rumbled only days before tomorrow’s series-opening Australian Grand Prix.
Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene said yesterday that Marchionne knew “very well what he is talking about”.
“My only suggestion is take him seriously,” he told a news conference at Albert Park.
Wolff, who was sitting alongside Arrivabene, struck a more conciliatory tone but would not rule out Mercedes leaving Formula One after 2020.
“It is clear that the current governance, how the rules are being made is not functional, there are too many different opinions and agendas on the table and we need to sort it for 2021, for the best interests of the sport,” he said.
“We have at least three more years together in this great sport, regulated by the FIA, owned by Liberty, run by competent men and we just need to give our input support into the best possible way so it’s great and we’re not devaluing it.”
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner quipped that Mercedes and Ferrari were “about the only two teams in Formula One that do agree”. He said it was up to Liberty and the FIA to table a plan rather than hope for a consensus. “My view on this is very simple, trying to get a consensus between teams that have got varying objectives, different set-ups, it’s going to be impossible,” he said.
“It’s down to the commercial rights holder and the FIA to get together, come up with a set of regulations.
“Put it on the table and it’s down to the teams whether they want to sign up to that or not.” – Reuters