HAMILTON PREDICTS ‘MOST CHALLENGING SEASON’

MONTMELO,SPAIN:LEWIS Hamilton says he’s feeling “better than ever” ahead of a 2019 season he predicts will be “the most challenging” since he joined Mercedes with Ferrari looking especially fast.

The 34-year-old Briton enjoyed a near flawless run to secure his fifth drivers’ title in 2018.

“Ferrari are very strong,” Hamilton said in Barcelona on the third day of pre-season testing on Wednesday with Daniil Kvyat in a Toro Rosso topping the times from the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen. “It appears they have a better package than last year, which means it will be a bigger challenge for us,” he suggested.

FINANCIAL QUESTIONS HOUND 2 OF F1’S 3 RACES

AUSTIN, TEXAS: Two of Formula One’s three races in North America are facing financial issues that are raising concern about their future. Organisers of the US Grand Prix won’t get at least $20 million from the state of Texas for the 2018 race after missing a paperwork deadline set by state law. And new questions lurk about the future of the Mexican Grand Prix after the country’s new president suggested the government may not spend on the race like it has the last four years.

BREAKDANCING SET FOR OLY DEBUT IN PARIS 2024

PARIS: Breakdancing is set to make its debut as an Olympic sport at Paris 2024, the head of the local organising committee said on Thursday.

Skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing, which have already been added to the programme for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, have been invited to return in Paris four years later.

Tony Estanguet, the head of the Paris 2024 organising committee and a former Olympic gold medallist in canoeing, said the inclusion of the four sports responded to a need to make the Olympics “more urban” and “more artistic”.

The choice of the four sports still needs to be rubberstamped by the International Olympic Committee.