Hamilton supreme in Singapore
FORMULA ONE: CYCLING:
Britain’s Simon Yates all but assured himself victory in the Vuelta a Espana by finishing third in yesteday’s 20th and penultimate stage.
The 26-year-old survived an arduous final mountain stage and will take a lead of one minute 46 seconds into today’s final stage to Madrid.
Enric Mas (Quick-Step) and Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) finished first and second to put themselves on to the GC podium.
Nicolas Roche, who saw an attack pegged back yesterday, is set for a 40th-place finish.
Lewis Hamilton tightened his grip on the Formula One world title by coming from nowhere to claim a stunning pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix in his Mercedes yesterday.
The Briton, 30 points clear of closest rival Sebastian Vettel with seven rounds remaining, lapped the Marina Bay Street Circuit in 1:36.015 to claim a record-extending 79th pole position, 0.319 seconds ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
The Ferrari pairing of Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen had set the pace for most of the weekend but the German could manage only third place, more than half a second down, and will start alongside Mercedes’s Valtteri Bottas, who was fourth fastest.
‘That lap felt like magic. I don’t really know where it came from,’ Hamilton said afterwards. ‘It was just perfectly to the limit.’
CRICKET:
Cricket Australia is investigating claims by England’s Moeen Ali that he was called ‘Osama’ by an Australian player during a match between the two countries in 2015.
Ali, who is a Muslim of Pakistani and English heritage, claims the unnamed Australia player compared him to Osama bin Laden during an onfield exchange. The alleged incident occurred on Ali’s Ashes debut in Cardiff, Wales, the England all-rounder has said in his autobiography.