27/06/2025

FRIDAY | JUNE 27, 2025

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SPORTS

Rivals on collision course Red Bull face big challenge in home race as Max ban still hangs P RESENT rivalries and past collisions hang over Red Bull’s home Austrian Grand Prix as Formula One braces for the We’re not even at the halfway point yet.” Verstappen and Norris caused a commotion in Spielberg last year when they collided while scrapping for the lead, with Norris chasing. That gifted victory to Russell. reference point for our progress.” The same track, in 2023, marked a turning point for McLaren and the start of their rise to the top. It was also where Norris took his first podium in 2020, but he will have to wait until today’s second practice to start work.

Stat attack FORMULA ONE statistics for Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix at Spielberg, the 11th round of the 24-race championship. Lap distance: 4.318km 2024 pole position: Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Red Bull 2024 winner: George Russell (Britain) Mercedes Race lap record: Carlos Sainz (Spain) Ferrari AUSTRIA The Red Bull-owned circuit has the shortest lap, in terms of time, on the calendar with only 10 corners but aggressive kerbs. It takes a little over a minute to complete. It also has the second biggest difference between its highest and lowest points (69m), after Spa Francorchamps. This year will be the 38th Austrian Grand Prix. The first was held at Zeltweg airfield in 1964 and moved to the Oesterreichring (later renamed A1 Ring and now Red Bull Ring) in 1970. There have been 10 winners from pole in 20 races on the current configuration. Most overtakes occur into turns three and four. Turns two, five and eight are taken at full throttle. Verstappen has a record four Austrian wins (2018, 2019, 2021, 2023) and other active winners are Charles Leclerc (2022), Lewis Hamilton (2016) and George Russell (2024). Mercedes are the most successful team in Austria with seven victories. Hamilton and Verstappen also won the two Styrian GPs held at the same circuit during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The last three editions of the race have run as a sprint weekend but this year reverts to its traditional schedule. CHAMPIONSHIP McLaren’s Oscar Piastri leads the drivers’ championship by 22 points from teammate Lando Norris. Verstappen is 43 points behind Piastri. Leaders and champions McLaren are 175 points clear of Mercedes, with Ferrari a further 16 adrift. RACE WINS Piastri has won five of 10 races this season, Verstappen and Norris two each and Russell one. Seven-times world champion Hamilton has a record 105 career victories from 366 starts. Verstappen has won 65 grands prix and is third on the all-time list after Schumacher on 91. Piastri has seven career wins to Norris’s six and can become the first Australian to win six in a season. POLE POSITION Piastri has been on pole four times this season, Verstappen three, Norris twice and Russell once. Norris has started on the front row in Both McLaren drivers have finished on the podium eight times in 2025 but Piastri’s run of eight in a row ended in Canada two weeks ago. Charles Leclerc’s second place in Monaco was Ferrari’s best of the season so far. POINTS Only Piastri and Verstappen have scored in every race this season, with Norris’ run ending after a late collision with his teammate in Canada. Piastri has scored for 36 races in a row. Reuters five of 10. PODIUM

Russell (left) and Verstappen. – REUTERSPIC

next round of Max Verstappen vs George Russell and more title-chasing drama at McLaren. Russell and reigning champion Verstappen finished first and second in Canada two weeks ago, with Red Bull protesting – in vain – the Mercedes win and accusing the Briton of unsportsmanlike behaviour. It is safe to say the pair are not friends and they are building up quite a track record, colliding in Spain this month in an incident that left Verstappen blamed and on the brink of a mandatory race ban. Two of those penalty points expire after Austria but he still has to stay out of trouble through a weekend in the Styrian hills where his orange-shirted fans will be out in numbers. “It’s always a great weekend there. We’ve had a lot of great results and, hopefully, we can have another strong weekend there,” said Verstappen, the Austrian GP winner in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2023. Team boss Christian Horner was not about to make any sweeping predictions. “Probably our weakness at the moment is in the medium-speed type of corner,” he said. “Austria, that middle sector, there’s a bit of medium speed there. So we’ll see. I would expect, if it’s hot, McLaren to again be stronger. “There’s still a significant points gap between us and them (McLaren). But we don’t give up on anything.

Norris will return with the memory of that coming together now overtaken by the one between him and Piastri in Canada that left him 22 points adrift of the Australian after 10 of 24 races. The Briton, who retired in Montreal while Piastri finished fourth, could only blame himself for that error of judgement and knows without too much soul-searching that there can be no repeat. Another question neutrals want answered is whether McLaren will come back strong after a surprisingly low-key Canadian weekend that raised questions about their early domination slipping. Montreal was the first race this season without a McLaren on the podium or front row, and also Mercedes’ best so far with Italian rookie Kimi Antonelli third and on the podium for the first time in his F1 career. “We know that our

Ireland’s F2 leader Alex Dunne will take Norris’s car for first practice while Charles Leclerc steps aside at Ferrari to give Sweden’s Dino Beganovic some track time. Dunne will be the first Irish driver to take part in an F1 weekend since Ralph Firman with Jordan in 2003. – Reuters

rivals will likely be much more competitive in Austria this weekend,” said Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff. “The track in Spielberg will be a good test of our recent updates and provide another

Coach Gautam backs bowlers to deliver

INDIA coach Gautam Gambhir has backed his side’s raw bowling attack to “deliver for us” despite a chastening defeat by England in the first Test at Headingley. India slumped to a dispiriting five-wicket defeat Wednesday after they failed to stop England reaching a target of 371 in the 10th highest run chase in Test history. Ben Duckett scored a superb century and shared an opening stand of 188 with Zak Crawley, with India’s Jasprit Bumrah – the world’s top-ranked Test bowler – unable to take a wicket in England’s second innings. India have said they only plan to play Jasprit in three matches of this five-Test series against England, which continues at Edgbaston next week, in a bid to maintain his fitness following a back injury.

“I do believe that he should come into the team for Shardul Thakur because the Birmingham pitch will be one where there will be just a little bit of help for the wrist spinner,” Gavaskar added. Veteran left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja was expected to be a force on a wearing fifth day wicket, but he took just 1-104 as Duckett mercilessly reverse swept him for a series of boundaries, including one majestic six over deep cover. “I’m going to be critical of Jadeja because this is a final-day pitch,” former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar said. “There was rough for him to play with, and in the end, I know there were a couple of chances there, but we have to expect more from Jadeja.” – AFP/Agencies With India bidding for just their fourth Test series win in England after triumphs in 1971, 1986 and 2007, Gautam added: “We believe in them. We trust in them. “When we pick the squad, we pick the squad on trust, not on hope. These boys will deliver for us.” Batting collapses of 7-41 and 6-31 proved costly for India against England, with Gautam’s men in position to bat the hosts out of the game at 430-3 in their first innings before letting the advantage slip away. “I think they are more disappointed than anyone,” said Gautam. “Because they knew that we had the opportunity. “If we had got up to 570, 580 in the first innings, we could have dominated from there.”– AFP

Gautam insisted that was still the plan, even though India are now under pressure to get back into the series with a victory in Birmingham. Jasprit and Mohammed Siraj are the senior members of India’s pace attack. Prasidh Krishna and Nitish Kumar Reddy – the latter left out at Headingley – have just a handful of Test appearances behind them, with Arshdeep Singh yet to make his debut. How India, without veteran seamer Mohammed Shami, missing from this tour following knee trouble, take the 20 wickets needed to win a Test remains an open question. But Gautam pleaded for patience by saying: “These are early days. If we start judging our bowlers after every Test, how will we develop a bowling attack?”

Pundits tear into India after Headingley defeat FORMER players, including Sunil Gavaskar, tore into India yesterday, blaming lower-order batting failures, poor bowling and sloppy fielding for the chastening first Test defeat at Headingley. score 149 to set up victory. “Full credit to England. Despite India having five centurions, they seemed to have that confidence,” Gavaskar said on Sony Sports .

“That is what made them take the final wickets. So that is where India also missed out because those extra runs could have made the difference,” added the former captain. “As far as the fielding was concerned, it’s just not the catches, but the outfielding was pretty ordinary. Not Test class. “Hopefully, lessons have been learned.” Pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah took 5-83 in the first innings, but was blunted by England during the winning chase and went wicketless. “Whether Jasprit (Bumrah) is fit or not, I think Kuldeep Yadav has to come into the team.

A young India team, under new captain Shubman Gill and without the retired Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, went down by five wickets as England comfortably chased what should have been a daunting 371 to win on Tuesday’s final day. Five India batsmen, including Shubman, scored hundreds, but two collapses – from 430 3 to 471 all out in the first innings and 333-4 to 364 in the second – kept England in the game. India put down several catches, with Yashasvi Jaiswal dropping Ben Duckett on 97 on the final day – and the opener went on to