Qualifying snafu adds to Hamilton’s F1 woes
Crouching down by the side of his Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton lowered his head and stayed perfectly still for several moments.
The British driver looked lost in thought, deep in contemplation, seemingly unable to believe what happened yesterday. A hydraulic failure had just ended his qualifying run prematurely, dropping Formula One’s all-time record-holder for pole positions to 14th on the grid for today’s race in Hockenheim, Germany.
Hamilton’s hopes of winning a record-equaling fourth German Grand Prix — and matching Michael Schumacher — have been dented. And his woes are piling up as he duels with Sebastian Vettel — in a seemingly quicker Ferrari — for a fifth Formula One title.
July has been a bad month for Hamilton. He retired from the Austrian GP and got knocked off the track at the British GP. He recovered from last to finish second in Silverstone and faces another uphill struggle at Hockenheim.
After sliding off the track early in qualifying, Hamilton came back on. But because his power steering was failing he plowed through rough grass and bounced over a curb, sending the hefty-looking Mercedes momentarily airborne and down with a bit of a bump.
“It definitely wasn’t Lewis’ driving. A hydraulic leak caused a power steering failure,” Mercedes head of motorsport Toto Wolff said. “It was not caused by the driver.”
Revs fall to Red Bulls
Daniel Royer and Bradley WrightPhillips scored to help the New York Red Bulls beat the Revolution, 2-0, in Harrison, N.J.
Royer tapped in Marc Rzatkowski’s free kick from near the corner to open the scoring in the 69th minute. WrightPhillips connected in the 80th for his 99th MLS goal, a header off Alejandro Romero Gamarra’s diagonal pass.
The Red Bulls (12-5-2) have won five of their past six. The Revs (7-7-7) have lost three in a row . . . .
The Wild and Matt Dumba have agreed on a five-year, $30 million deal to keep the 23-year-old defenseman in Minnesota after a breakout year that included 14 goals and 36 assists to go with a plus-15 rating . . . .
The Los Angeles Lakers added one more veteran to their roster, signing forward Michael Beasley to a one-year deal worth $3.5 million.
Deraney heads to China
Former Boston University goaltender and ex-Providence College women’s coach Bob Deraney has taken the position of head coach with the HC Kunlun Red Star, with an opportunity to lead Team China at next year’s IHHF World Championship in Beijing.
Deraney, who played on a Hockey East champioship team while at BU in 1986, and also guided the Lady Friars to the HE playoff crown in 2010, succeeds former Brown coaching legend Digit Murphy, who resigned in May.
“Hopefully, I’ll do a good enough job to be asked to coach the China national team,’’ said Deraney, 52, a West Roxbury native. “Those are two of the things I always wanted to do: Coach a pro team and coach a national squad.”
Oh mama, Minella in final
Mandy Minella has a chance at becoming the third mother to win a WTA singles title in the last 12 months after reaching the Ladies Championships Gstaad (Switzerland) final.
Minella, of Luxembourg, overcame 19-year-old Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 to reach her first career final at 32.
She will meet top-seeded Alize Cornet of France, who beat Eugenie Bouchard 7-6 (5), 1-0 when the Canadian retired with a right thigh injury . . . .
Fabio Fognini edged Fernando Verdasco for the first time on clay to reach the Swedish Open final against Richard Gasquet in Bastad.
Fognini won 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 even after losing two break leads in the deciding set of their 2-hour, 17-minute semifinal.