Russians take triple gold, Manuel beats Sjostrom
BUDAPEST: Ferrari’s Formula One championship leader Sebastian Vettel took pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday as Mercedes title rival Lewis Hamilton missed out on a record-equalling career 68th.
The German’s Finnish team-mate Kimi Raikkonen sealed Ferrari’s front row lockout, with the Italian glamour team back to their best after recent setbacks while Mercedes wondered where their previous pace had gone.
“The car was fantastic today, it was really a pleasure to just go around,” said Vettel after taking his 48th career pole on a hot afternoon at the Hungaroring.
His sizzling time of one minute 16.276 seconds was an absolute record for the slowest permanent circuit on the calendar. “Obviously the last race wasn’t great for us but it doesn’t matter now,” added the four-time world champion, who finished seventh at Silverstone two weeks ago with a late blowout slashing his lead over Hamilton to a single point.
Hamilton will start from a disappointing fourth place on the grid and alongside his Finnish team-mate Valtteri Bottas.
The triple champion had been hoping to match Michael Schumacher’s all-time pole record with his sixth in Hungary, a circuit where he has won five times already, and had set the fastest lap of the second phase of qualifying.
But he had to abort his first run in the final part after running wide, complaining of vibrations to the tyres, with the pressure piled on as the clock ticked down and no margin for error.
“We knew they were quick and we BUDAPEST: Russia took triple gold across the 200-metre events at the world championships on Friday, thanks to Anton Chupkov and Yuliya Efimova in a breaststroke double and Evgeny Rylov in the backstroke.
They upstaged Simone Manuel, who claimed the top prize for the United States in the women’s 100m freestyle. She had shared Olympic gold at the Rio Games last summer, but took the medal outright this time, beating top-ranked Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden.
Sjostrom had gone under the 52-second barrier in the 4x100m relay and was again under worldrecord pace at the turn. But Manuel, a 20-year-old Texan, clawed her way level with 25m left and with her final five strokes clocked an Americanrecord time of 52.27 seconds. were aware of their pace. I don’t know if they brought an upgrade but I think we did quite well considering,” said the Briton. “You can’t overtake here so it’s most likely going to be a train unless we can do something on strategy.”
UPPER HAND Ferrari had not swept the front row in Hungary since 2004, when a dominant Schumacher led Brazilian team-mate Rubens Barrichello.
That year was also the last time anyone other than Hamilton has won at the Hungaroring from pole position and the last year in which the winner in Hungary went on to take the world championship that same season.
“They’ve been quick all weekend,” said Bottas. “Coming to qualifying we knew it should be close and they would
“My legs were burning but I just really had to dig deep,” said Manuel, who was aged two when the US won its last women’s gold in the blue riband event in 1998.”
Sjostrom finished 0.04 seconds back. Denmark’s Pernille Blume took bronze. “I am really disappointed, it is so sad when I can’t do it the whole way,” said Sjostrom.
Among the Russians, Chupkov overhauled his Japanese rivals to claim men’s 200m breaststroke gold in two minutes 06.96 seconds. Yasuhiro Koseki and Ippei Watanabe, the world record holder, had traded leads throughout before Chupkov produced a winning burst in the final 50m.
Koseki took silver and Watanabe claimed bronze. “I wasn’t expecting such a great time. Watanabe and Koseki are my friends and are really be tough to beat and they had the upper hand today.”
Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg was seventh, but will take a five place penalty for a gearbox change. That will raise McLaren’s Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne to seventh and eighth respectively.
While one Briton had seized all the attention at the front end, another stood out at the back with Paul di Resta making his first appearance in qualifying since 2013 as a last-minute replacement for an unwell Felipe Massa at Williams. The Scot, who had never driven a 2017 car before and faced the monumental task of getting to grips with it in a matter of minutes, qualified an impressive 19th and ahead of Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson. 1. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Ferrari 2. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 3. Valtteri Bottas (Finland) Mercedes 4. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes 5. Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Red Bull-TAG Heuer 6. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) Red Bull -TAG Heuer 7. Fernando Alonso (Spain) McLaren 8. Stoffel Vandoorne (Belgium) McLaren 9. Carlos Sainz Jr (Spain) Toro Rosso-Renault 10. Jolyon Palmer (Britain) Renault 11. Esteban Ocon (France) Force India-Mercedes 12. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany) Renault 13. Daniil Kvyat (Russia) Toro Rosso-Renault 14. Sergio Perez (Mexico) Force India-Mercedes 15. Romain Grosjean (France) Haas-Ferrari 16. Kevin Magnussen (Denmark) Haas-Ferrari 17. Lance Stroll (Canada) Williams-Mercedes 18. Pascal Wehrlein (Germany) Sauber-Ferrari 19. Paul Di Resta (Britain) Williams-Mercedes 20. Marcus Ericsson (Sweden) Sauber-Ferrari strong rivals,” Chupkov told reporters.
The 200m breaststroke will be one of the races to watch at the Tokyo 2020 after Japanese great Kosuke Kitajima won double Olympic gold in 2004 and 2008.
Earlier, Rylov had set a European record, beating Olympic champion Ryan Murphy of the United States in the men’s 200m backstroke. Rylov stole a march on the opening 50m and held an unassailable lead thereafter, winning with a time of one minute 53.61 seconds.
Murphy settled for silver and his compatriot Jacob Pebley took bronze. China’s Xu Jiayu finished fifth.
Efimova then matched Alexander Popov’s five individual world titles for Russia with a gold in the women’s 200m breaststroke. American Lilly King, who finished fourth, put her differences with Efimova congratulating the Russian. aside by WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS RESULTS MEN 200m backstroke 1. Evgeny Rylov (RUS) 1:53.61 2. Ryan Murphy (USA) 1:54.21 3. Jacob Pebley (USA) 1:55.06 200m breaststroke 1. Anton Chupkov (RUS) 2:06.96 2. Yasuhiro Koseki (JPN) 2:07.29 3. Ippei Watanabe (JPN) 2:07.47 4x200m freestyle relay 1. Great Britain 7:01.70 (Stephen Milne, Nicholas Grainger, Duncan Scott, James Guy) 2. Russia 7:02.68 (Mikhail Dovgalyuk, Mikhail Vekovishchev, Danila Izotov, Aleksandr Krasnykh) 3. United States 7:03.18 (Blake Pieroni, Townley Haas, Jack Conger, Zne Grothe) WOMEN 100m freestyle 1. Simone Manuel (USA) 52.27 2. Sarah Sjostrom (SWE) 52.31 3. Pernielle Blume (DEN) 52.69 200m breaststroke 1. Yuliya Efimova (RUS) 2:19.64 2. Bethany Galat (USA) 2:21.77 3. Shi Jinglin (CHN) 2:21.93