03/06/2025

SPORTS TUESDAY | JUNE 3, 2025

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Piastri wins, Max on brink of ban

TOP 10: 1. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) , 2. Lando Norris (McLaren), 3. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) , 4. George Russell (Mercedes), 5. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) , 6. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari), 7. Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) , 8. Pierre Gasly (Alpine), 9. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) , 10. Max Verstappen (Red Bull). SPANISH GP RESULTS SHORTS ‘Worst race I’ve experienced’ AFTER finishing sixth in the Spanish Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton has slammed the event as “the worst race I’ve had, balance-wise.” The Ferrari driver had nothing positive to say about the SF-25’s performance, saying that there were “zero” positives from a challenging race. Of the two Ferrari drivers, Lewis Hamilton had the better qualifying session. He lined up fifth on the grid, with teammate Charles Leclerc starting seventh. Both Ferrari drivers had a strong start. Hamilton was able to overtake the Mercedes of George Russell into the first turn, and Leclerc followed him through. Almost immediately, though, it became clear that Hamilton wasn’t catching the McLaren of Lando Norris in third place; behind him, his teammate was chomping at the bit, knowing he could go faster. The command to swap positions came on Lap 9, and from that moment on, Leclerc put on an impressive show on his way up to a surprise podium, while Hamilton found himself unable to make progress. In the closing stages of the race, the No. 44 driver was even overtaken by the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg, adding insult to injury. As the chequered flag flew and Hamilton crossed the line in seventh, he called up race engineer Riccardo Adami and lamented, “I believe we’ve got something wrong with this car, mate. It’s the worst it’s ever been.” Asked for more insight into what went wrong with the car, Hamilton told media, including PlanetF1.com , “I have no idea why it was so bad. Worst race I’ve experienced, balance-wise.” Verstappen gives feisty response after crash MAX VERSTAPPEN offered a blunt response when asked if his crash into George Russell was deliberate at the Spanish Grand Prix. When asked by Sky Sports F1 on the matter, Verstappen did not want to discuss it further but did not deny intentionally driving into Russell, only asking: “Does it matter?” When pushed for more of a response on the incident, Verstappen continued: “Yeah, OK. That’s great. I prefer to speak about the race rather than one single moment.” He was told that the punishment puts a serious dent in his championship chances, only to reply: “If there are any. I think we are way too slow to fight for the title. That was clear again today. “We tried to do a three-stop and that was quite good but we also needed it because we had quite a bit of degradation on the tyres. “Unfortunately, the Safety Car came out at the end and we ran out of tyres to use and the hard tyre was not the right tyre. “When you only have six laps to go, everyone can go flat out, and you are severely grip-limited on the hard.”

FORMULA ONE leader Oscar Piastri won the Spanish Grand Prix in a McLaren one-two with Lando Norris yesterday while Max Verstappen was left on the brink of a ban after a clash with Mercedes’ George Russell. Polesitter Piastri won by 2.471 seconds to go 10 points clear of Norris with his fifth victory in nine races, and McLaren’s seventh of the season. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc completed the podium in a race that left the drama to the end with a late safety car deployment. “It’s a nice way to bounce back from Monaco. A superb weekend,” said Piastri, who finished third the previous weekend in a race won from pole by Norris. Verstappen, who made four stops in total and ended up fighting on hard tyres against rivals with faster softs, collided with Leclerc and then twice with Russell after the safety car restart with six laps to go.

Ferrari’s seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton on the penultimate lap. Hamilton ended up sixth, Isack Hadjar seventh for Racing Bulls and Pierre Gasly eighth for Renault owned Alpine to cap a solid weekend for the Frenchman celebrating soccer side Paris St Germain’s Champions League win. Ferrari moved up to second from fourth in the constructors’ standings, now 197 points behind McLaren. Verstappen remained third in the drivers’ championship but now 49 points behind Piastri in what is becoming a McLaren battle. Home hero Fernando Alonso scored his first points of the season in ninth for Aston Martin, who had only one car on the grid due to Lance Stroll’s withdrawal through injury after Saturday’s qualifying. – Reuters

Stewards handed the four-times world champion a 10-second post-race penalty for the second collision with Russell, which appeared deliberate, dropping Verstappen from fifth on the road to 10th. The Dutch driver was also given three penalty points to take his total tally to 11 for the 12 month period. One more before the end of June would incur a one-race ban. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes 2016 world champion and now a pundit for Sky Sports television, said Verstappen should have been black-flagged for what looked to him like intentional retaliation for the earlier contact. Another investigation into the clash with Leclerc drew no further action. Russell finished fourth while Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg finished a surprising and morale boosting fifth for the future Audi team after passing

Delight for Swede Maja Stark captures US Women’s Open for first major title M AJA STARK has won tournaments around the world, but a professional victory in the United States eluded her. Now she’s a US Women’s Open cushion to absorb bogeys at the difficult Nos. 17 and 18, where she missed each fairway.

placing second to Korda at the 2024 Chevron Championship. Now, she is just the third Swedish woman to win a US Women’s Open after Liselotte Neumann and golf legend Annika Sorenstam. “It’s so cool. They texted me yesterday and just kind of said, ‘Bring it home,” Stark said. “That was already cool to just get those texts.

“You need to kind of think about every shot here,” Stark said of the difficult course setup. “Maybe not the tee shot on 10. I think that’s fine. “But everything else, you’ve just got to have your brain working for you, whereas like on normal weeks, you can kind of bail out. Here, not really.” Stark has six wins to her

champion. Stark carded an even-par 72 to win the second major of the year by two shots yesterday at Erin Hills in Erin, Wisconsin. The 25-year-old from Sweden led the championship by one stroke through 54 holes and outlasted World No. 1 Nelly Korda, who got within a shot of the lead

“Just looking at all the names on the trophy. I love the U.S. Opens. I’m so happy that it’s mine now.” Korda came up short of a would-be third major victory. She earned her best finish at a US Women’s Open and her third top-10 after she missed the cut last year. “To have that showing last year definitely put a dagger into my heart, but that’s just golf,” Korda said. “You’re going to lose more than you win a majority of the time.

name on the Ladies European Tour. One of those, the ISPS Handa World Invitational in Northern Ireland, was co-sanctioned by the LPGA and earned her a tour card in 2022. Before yesterday, the highlight of

before petering out on the back nine. “I just didn’t want to get ahead of myself. I thought there’s still a lot of golf left to be played,” Stark said. “I just felt like people are going to pass me probably, and I just had to stay calm through that. “I didn’t look at the

S t a r k ’ s m i n i ma l m a j o r resume was

leaderboards until I was on like 17. I caught a glimpse of it. It was nice.” Stark posted a 7

“I feel like I actually learn a lot about myself and my game and where I need to improve playing the US Women’s Open because it does test every part of your game. “It’s also super motivating… to see where my game’s at. Hopefully I can continue trending in the right direction for a long season ahead.” – Field Level Media

under 281 for the week. Korda tied for second with Japan’s Rio Takeda at 5-under, and South Korea’s Hye Jin Choi carded a 68 to claim a share of fourth place at 4-under with countrywoman Mao Saigo and China’s Ruoning Yin. Stark made a two-putt birdie at No. 14 to get to 9 under and had enough

Maja Stark

Scottie rolls to victory at Memorial

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER showed once again that he’s ready to conquer whatever challenge he’s faced with on the PGA Tour. The world’s No. 1 golfer had another smooth round and won for the third time in his last four tournaments, successfully defending his title at the Memorial Tournament with yesterday’s 2 under 70 in the final round at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. “This is a golf course that is definitely going to expose your weaknesses,” Scheffler said. “Did some really good battling today. Put up another really good round on this very difficult golf course.” At 10-under 278 for the tournament, Scheffler secured a four-shot victory over Ben Griffin – the only other golfer to win a PGA Tour event that Scheffler started in the past month. Scheffler hadn’t won in 2025 until capturing

good stuff, and I’ll bounce back and get right back to it.” An eagle on the par-5 15th with a 12-foot putt followed by a birdie on No. 16 allowed Griffin to extend the suspense. Then the margin went from two strokes to four when Griffin was stuck with a double bogey at No. 17. “We battled really hard on the weekend,” Scheffler said.“Ben made things interesting down the stretch. Overall, it was a great week.” A week ago, Scheffler tied for fourth place as Griffin won the Charles Schwab Challenge. Scheffler has secured seven consecutive top-10 finishes. Sepp Straka was third at 5-under and second round co-leader Nick Taylor of Canada finished fourth at 4-under. Russell Henley and Maverick McNealy shared fifth place at 2-under. – Field Level Media

the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, which is considered his hometown event in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and followed that with claiming the PGA Championship. He won seven times in 2024. Scheffler and Tiger Woods are the only back to-back winners of the Memorial Tournament. It’s a tournament hosted by legendary Jack Nicklaus, who greeted the current champion as he walked off the green. “It’s pretty cool,” Scheffler said. “It’s always a hard week. It’s so challenging to play this tournament.” Griffin led for large chunks of the first three days, but lost a share of the top spot with a bogey on Saturday’s final hole. He began Sunday with another bogey, and he was 2-over for the day through 13 holes. “I’ll learn from some of my swings down the stretch,” Griffin said. “I’ll remember some of the