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Tuesday July 31, 2018

LEWIS HAMILTON heads into Formula One’s summer break with a comfortable 24-point lead over rival Sebastian Vettel after cruising to victory from pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Hamilton was untroubled as he secured a second straight win, his fi fth of the season and 67th overall. Vettel was second.

“It’s great to go into the break with back-to-back wins,” said Hamilton, who won in Germany last week. “That boost will last a long time with our team.”

After 12 of 21 races, defend-ing champion Hamilton has the momentum. At the same stage last season, he trailed Vettel by 14 points.

“What a beautiful day, what a great car,” said Hamilton, who won by 17 seconds. “We’ve had an amazing job by the team and we came here with Ferrari pushing.”

Mercedes missed out on a 1-2 as Valtteri Bottas was overtaken by Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen with fi ve laps to go.

Bottas and Vettel touched during the overtaking move, with some debris fl ying off the Mercedes.

“I got a hit from behind. I wasn’t sure what was going on,” Vettel said. “Lucky that the car wasn’t broken and we could carry on.”

In a dramatic fi nish, Bottas lost control of his car as he bumped Daniel Ricciardo’s Red

Hamilton wins Hungarian Grand Prix

Bull off the track as he was about to be overtaken.

“I just ended up being a mess in the end with a broken car,” Bottas said.

Bottas was told on team radio to give the position back to Ricciardo, who fi nished a com-mendable fourth after starting 12th. Bottas was later given a 10-second time penalty but this did not affect results, with Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly remaining in sixth place.

Ricciardo’s teammate, Max

Verstappen, launched a series of expletives after engine failure curtailed his race after eight laps.

“It was diffi cult to accept and I was very upset over the radio,” Verstappen said. “The fans are disappointed, they came all this way and only see you do fi ve or six laps.”

It is the fourth time Verstap-pen has failed to fi nish this season. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner blamed the Renault engine as being sub-

standard. Red Bull is splitting with Renault and working with Honda next season.

Hamilton and Vettel will continue their battle for a fi fth F1 title when the championship resumes at the Belgian GP on Aug. 26.

“The second half is always exciting and intense,” said Hamilton.

Vettel and Raikkonen drove well considering both endured a botched pit stop because of a slow tire change. (SD-Agencies)

CRISTIANO RONALDO’S presence in Serie A was a near certainty to make every visit he made around the league a hot ticket, and now there is proof to back it up.

The Portugal superstar left Real Madrid for Juventus this summer in a 100-million-euro (US$117m) deal that will see him take his talents to the Ital-ian top-fl ight for the fi rst time in his career.

While Ronaldo has played against top Italian sides before, fans of many of the clubs near the middle and bottom of the table are getting their fi rst opportunities to see the star visit their home stadiums.

Parma hosts Juventus on the third matchday of the Serie A campaign, and if fans have not already got their ticket to see the star make his appearance at Stadio Ennio Tardini, they will have to shell out more than normal to do so.

According to Tuttosport, seats in the North End section of the stadium would normally go for 25 euros. But if you want to go into the secondary ticket market to grab a seat there, you may have to pay up to 178 euros.

How much of a markup is that? If you bought a season ticket in that section, it would have cost only 190 euros.

And it only gets worse as you move into other sections of the stadium. A 60-euro ticket will cost you 199 euros. And if you want to drop 450 euros, that’s what you’ll spend for a seat that would have normally cost 150 euros.

Many of his teammates will continue their pre-season preparations in the United States as they face the all-stars of Major League Soccer on Wednesday before matching up against Ronaldo’s old club, Real Madrid, in the International Champions Cup on Aug. 4.

Ronaldo and Juve kick off their Serie A season away at Chievo on Aug. 18 before his home league debut against Lazio a week later. (SD-Agencies)

Ronaldo causes ticket pricesto skyrocket

Lewis Hamilton celebrates on the podium after winning the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest on Sunday. SD-Agencies

Cristiano Ronaldo arrives at an airport in Turin, Italy, on Saturday. SD-Agencies

LEBRON JAMES launched his I PROMISE School, which is a new public elementary school in Akron that opened yesterday to serve 240 at-risk children.

James tweeted his excitement Sunday ahead of the opening of his school in his hometown Akron, Ohio. The NBA super-star and new Los Angeles Laker tweeted that opening the public school would be among “one of the greatest moments” in his life.

“The jitters before the fi rst day

of school are real right now!!! Tomorrow is going to be one of the greatest moments (if not the greatest) of my life when we open the #IPROMISE School,” James said on Twitter.

His LeBron James Family Foundation partnered with Akron Public Schools to design the school for public school students in the area who come from diffi cult situations. It will initially open its doors to third and fourth grade students, and will add fi rst and second grade

classes in 2019. The school plans to offer fi rst through eighth grade classes by 2022.

“This school is so important to me because our vision is to create a place for the kids in Akron who need it most — those that could fall through the cracks if we don’t do something,” James said in a statement last year. “If we get to them early enough, we can hope-fully keep them on the right track to a bigger and brighter future for themselves and their families.”

(SD-Agencies)

CHINA’S second seed Wang Qiang claimed her fi rst WTA title after her compatriot Zheng Saisai was forced to retire injured trailing 7-5, 4-0 in the Jiangxi Open fi nal Sunday.

Wang struggled to fi nd her rhythm in the opening exchanges, allowing Zheng to seize her opportunities by mixing up baseline drives and deft drop shots.

But the match turned, with Zheng leading 5-3 and two points away from clinching the opening set, when Wang backed her incredible defensive skills to respond with a break and draw level at 5-5.

The 26-year-old Wang found another gear as she roared

through eight of the last 10 points to close out the set in splendid fashion.

Zheng, who was out injured from last September to this March, complained to her coach of fatigue at the end of the fi rst set and looked to shorten points with angled drop shots.

But Wang was up for the task with crisp volleys at the net to convert consecutive breaks of serve before Zheng, in tears, conceded the match and title to her compatriot.

Wang became the eighth Chi-nese champion in WTA history, and a third consecutive winner in Nanchang from the home nation after Duan Yingying and Peng Shuai. (SD-Agencies)

Wang Qiang lifts first WTA title

LeBron: Launching school ‘one of the greatest moments of my life’

LeBron James

China’s Wang Qiang in action against compatriot Zheng Saisai during their Jiangxi Open fi nal in Nanchang on Sunday. SD-Agencies