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Canadian Grand Prix
Venue: Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal Dates: 13-15 June Race start: 19:00 BST on Sunday
George Russell says that it was “good” that Max Verstappen took accountability for colliding with the Mercedes driver during the Spanish Grand Prix – but says he was “a bit surprised” the Dutchman did so.
The world champion is one licence point away from a race ban as a result of deliberately hitting Russell’s car as his race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya unravelled in the late stages after a safety car.
In addition to three licence points, Red Bull’s Verstappen was also given a 10-second penalty, which dropped him from fifth to 10th in the results.
Russell said: “His actions cost him, and they benefited me. So, I should be almost thanking him. But it’s good to see that he took accountability, which I was a bit surprised.”
Asked what he thought Verstappen was trying to achieve in the manoeuvre at Barcelona’s Turn Five, Russell said: “I think he was trying to run me off the road, but I don’t think he was trying to intentionally crash into me. I think he just misjudged it.”
If Verstappen receives one more point on his licence over the next two races in Canada this weekend and Austria at the end of the month, he will be banned for a grand prix.
After Austria, two points come off his licence, but that still leaves him on nine points – three away from a ban – until the Mexico City Grand Prix in October.
Russell said a ban for Verstappen would be deserved if it came to that.
“If he gets his 12 points, it wouldn’t be unjust, you know,” the Briton said. “So that’s literally why it’s there.”
He said he thought the penalty Verstappen received in Spain was “fair”, but added: “If it took me out of the race, then it needs to be deemed differently.”
Russell said Verstappen’s rivals could benefit from his precarious position at this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix.
“We have to be smart and use it to our advantage,” he said.
“I’m going to continue racing exactly the same because at the end of the day, that’s what I did last week and I benefited from it. And as we said, if you do keep driving like that, you’ll accumulate your points and you’ll get punished. Ultimately, he got punished for it.
“So, from my side, kind of long may it continue and for a neutral, it spices things up a little bit.”
Russell said he had met Verstappen by chance at Nice airport on Sunday on his way to watch the French Open final between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannick Sinner.
“We bumped into each other at the airport a few days ago on Sunday morning when I was going to Roland Garros,” he said.
World Test Championship final, Lord’s (day two of five)
Australia 212: Webster 72; Rabada 5-51 & 144-8: Carey 43; Ngidi 3-35
South Africa 138: Bedingham 45; Cummins 6-28
Australia lead by 218 runs
Australia suffered a dramatic second-innings batting collapse to leave the World Test Championship final hanging in the balance after another topsy-turvy day dominated by the bowlers at Lord’s.
South Africa had resumed their first innings on 43-4 and managed to reach 121-5 by the lunch break with skipper Temba Bavuma, who made 36, the only wicket to fall in the morning.
But the relative serenity of those first couple of hours gave way to unbridled chaos as 13 wickets fell across the next two sessions.
Australia captain Pat Cummins claimed 6-28 to play the leading hand after lunch with the last five South African wickets costing just 12 runs.
David Bedingham top-scored for the Proteas with 45, one of four players in their side who made it into double figures in their total of 138.
Cummins’ side appeared to be in the driving seat, only for South Africa’s bowling attack to blow the match wide open as they ran through Australia’s top order during a frenzied period after tea.
Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith were the only Australian batters in the top six to make it out of single figures as South Africa’s attack turned up the heat.
Lungi Ngidi and Kagiso Rabada picked up 3-35 and 3-44 respectively while Marco Jansen and Wiaan Mulder also claimed one apiece.
Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey had counter-attacked with 43 off 50 balls but it felt a huge moment in the context of the match when he was trapped lbw by Rabada late on.
The steward at the bottom of the steps in front of the Lord’s pavilion must be in danger of suffering from repetitive strain injury.
Every time he settled back into his chair after lifting the latch to open and close the gate to allow an Australian batter out to the middle he was soon repeating it to welcome him back again not long after.
Australia had reached 28 without loss just before tea when their tormentor from the first day, Rabada, lit the blue-touch paper.
First he dismissed Usman Khawaja in a similar vein to the first innings, inducing a nick to the wicketkeeper from the left-hander with a delivery which squared him up.
Then two balls later Cameron Green departed after a defensive prod flew to Mulder at third slip.
The majority of the English ‘neutrals’ in the crowd are supporting South Africa, and they were whipped into a frenzy by the Australian capitulation which followed in the evening.
Labuschagne was guilty of poor shot selection when he edged a loose drive off Jansen to the diving Kyle Verreynne.
Australia were 48-4 when Ngidi lulled Smith into stepping across his stumps and was struck on the pad, the crowd erupting when Bavuma’s review overturned the original decision of not out.
Beau Webster was given out without the need for DRS after a nip-backer from Ngidi before Mulder thudded one into Head’s off stump from round the wicket.
A yorker from Ngidi into Cummins’ pads deflected on to the stumps and Australia were in tatters at 73-7.
Those with tickets for fourth day of this contest would be well advised to start making alternative plans if the first two days of this match are anything to go by.
Barring any interjections from the weather it would be a minor miracle if this contest now stretches through until Saturday.
It had looked like Cummins was going to be the talking point of the day after he had got his name on the Lord’s honours board.
Australia’s bowlers had initially seen their efforts thwarted by Bavuma and Bedingham.
After pulling down the shutters on day one, Bavuma showed more attacking intent before he drove Cummins on the up and Labuschagne pulled off a spectacular full-length diving catch at cover.
Nevertheless, South Africa would have been happy with their position heading into the interval only to be blown away like a house of cards in a hurricane.
Rabada had provided a template for Cummins as he etched his name on the Lord’s honours board in the home dressing room with 5-51 in the first innings.
According to CricViz, the consistency of the Aussie skipper’s lengths (7.21m) were almost identical to Rabada’s (7.25) from the first innings which showed an acute ability to put theory into action.
Cummins had Kyle Verreynne trapped lbw attempting to work the ball to leg – given out on review – then three balls later took a simple return catch to dismiss Jansen.
Bedingham was Cummins’ fifth when he nicked off to delivery he had to play at before Rabada slogged him deep into the hands of Webster, who picked up the ball late but readjusted to dive forward to claim the catch.
South Africa had been polished off in the space of an hour as Cummins became the eighth Australian bowler to reach the milestone of 300 Test wickets.
He also became the first Test captain to take a five-for at Lord’s since Daniel Vettori’s 5-69 for New Zealand against England in 2008.
South Africa paceman Lungi Ngidi told TMS: “It’s in the balance right now. Two wickets in hand. If we can knock those over and maybe chase 225, people are going to get their money’s worth.
“I guess that’s what a Test Championship final should bring. A lot of guys have put their hands up. It’s been really exciting and tough cricket out there.
“We were very disappointed not to get to Australia’s total. We were up against a world-class attack. Every mistake you make is a chance to them and I give credit where credit’s due. They bowled well.”
Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc told TMS: “You bowl good balls, good spells, and you’ll be rewarded with a few loose shots over the two days but we’ve seen some quality bowling.
Ella McCaughan hit the first women’s T20 Blast century to inspire Hampshire Hawks to a thumping win over Essex at a sun-drenched Chelmsford.
Playing in front of watching England coach Charlotte Edwards, the 22-year-old opener cracked 16 boundaries and shared a competition best stand of 173 with Australian Charli Knott before departing for 106 from 60 balls as the Hawks posted 195-2.
The right-hander has now scored 327 runs across five knocks in this season’s competition, averaging more than 81.
Essex won the toss and elected to bowl first but McCaughan was soon put down on four behind the stumps by Lauren Winfield-Hill after a top-edge, but the breakthrough arrived early as Maia Bouchier got a leading edge to Essex skipper Grace Scrivens in the second over, chipping a catch to Maddie Penna to depart for four from five deliveries.
Knott joined McCaughan and also received another life on nine, with Winfield-Hill missing a stumping, and the Australian made the hosts pay, bringing up her half-century from 39 balls with her seventh four, off Sophia Smale, though she might have been caught just inside the deep square rope by Cordelia Griffiths.
Having raced to her fourth half-century in five innings from just 34 balls, McCaughan kept the pedal down and picked up a single to move to 90 off Esmae MacGregor to retain strike for the penultimate over.
A reverse sweep for four off Smale took McCaughan past Bouchier’s 92 in the 25-run win against Essex at Southampton on 30 May – the previous highest score in this season’s competition.
She brought up three figures with a single from the 57th delivery she had faced but holed-out to Smale at long-on off Scrivens in the final over to end the 173-run stand with Knott.
Freya Kemp hit one of her two balls to the rope to end unbeaten on five while Knott finished 72 not out from 55 deliveries with seven fours, having previously scored just 37 combined across her first three T20 appearances for the Hawks.
The hosts were 46-0 at the end of the six-over powerplay in reply, with Scrivens finding the boundary four times and Winfield-Hill doing so twice, but Winfield-Hill drove straight to Knott at cover to depart for 18 in the seventh over off Daisy Gibb, bringing Lissy Macleod to the middle.
Macleod began positively but with the hosts falling behind the required rate, Scrivens miscued Mary Taylor to opposite number Adams at extra cover to depart for 29 from 28 balls to leave the hosts 66-2 at the end of the ninth over.
Knott took a fine catch inside the rope at long-on to see the end of Griffith and leave Essex 82-3 midway through the 12th over.
Taylor was fortunate to pin Australian Penna in front for one in the next over to pick up her second scalp before Macleod was run out by a direct hit from Freya Davies to leave her side 90-5, ending a bright knock of 30 from 18 balls, with six fours.
The hosts reached three figures in the 14th over and Jo Gardner and Smale set about hauling their side to the 156-run mark to deny the visitors a bonus-point win in a tight fight for the top three spots in the table.
They added 42 in 25 balls before Smale was lbw for 24 from 16 deliveries trying to sweep Adams at the start of the 18th over and Gardner fell to a diving catch at long-off from Kemp for 18 to give Adams a second wicket in the over.
Hampshire centurion McCaughan told the ECB Reporter’s Network: “That was one of the good days. I had some luck early and just tried to cash in.
“I didn’t really expect to make a hundred to be honest. Things are going well and I’m trying not to overthink it, keep my game simple and it seems to be working.
“I’m not trying to hit big sixes, I’m playing the same way as I usually do, but just with a bit more intensity in T20 and staying present.
“I didn’t feel great at the start of the partnership with Charli, but we tried to run hard and we both got into it as we went along.
Tehran, Iran – Iranian authorities have remained defiant amid concerns that Israel could launch an attack on Iran as the global nuclear watchdog adopts another Western-led censure resolution.
Even as Oman confirmed on Thursday that it will host a sixth round of talks on Sunday between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s nuclear programme, reports by outlets such as The New York Times, quoting officials in the US and Europe, warned that Israel is “ready” to attack Iran, even without military backing from Washington. Israel has long threatened to attack Iran’s nuclear sites.
The administration of US President Donald Trump also carried out a partial evacuation of embassy staff in Iraq and dependants of US personnel across the Middle East in a sign of escalating tension in the region.
“I don’t want to say imminent, but it looks like it’s something that could very well happen,” said Trump at a White House event on Thursday, commenting on the likelihood of an Israeli strike.
“We will not give in to America’s coercion and bullying,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a televised speech in the western city of Ilam on Thursday, pointing out that Iran resisted eight years of invasion in the 1980s by neighbouring Iraq, which was backed by many foreign powers.
Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), told state television that if Israel attacks, it would be met with a “history-making” response that would go far beyond Iran’s two rounds of retaliatory strikes on Israel last year.
He said Iran is not “defenceless and encircled” like Gaza, where the Israeli military has killed more than 55,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023.
Speaking to a crowd in Tehran, IRGC Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani said Iran’s armed forces have made significant strides in improving their attacking capabilities in the months since the previous missile barrages launched against Israel.
“If they think the axis of resistance and Iran have been weakened and then boast based on that, it is all a dream,” said the commander, who leads the external force of the IRGC, which is tasked with expanding Iran’s regional influence.
Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, announced on Thursday that he has given the order to launch more military exercises after a series of large-scale drills were held across Iran earlier this year. An array of missiles and drones, warships, special forces and even underground missile bases featured in those drills.
On Wednesday, Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh reiterated that all US military bases in countries across the region are legitimate targets if conflict breaks out with the US.
He said Iran had successfully launched an unnamed ballistic missile last week with a 2,000kg (4,410lb) warhead and promised casualties “on the other side will be greater and would force the US to leave the region”.
After days of deliberation, the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Thursday passed a resolution to censure Iran over its advancing nuclear programme and several outstanding cases involving unexplained nuclear materials found at Iranian sites.
The resolution was put forward in Vienna by the US along with France, Germany and the United Kingdom, the three European nations who are still party to Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which Trump unilaterally abandoned in 2018.
The global nuclear watchdog has adopted several Western-led censure resolutions against Iran over the past few years, but the one on Thursday was the most serious in nearly two decades because it alleges Iran is not complying with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations.
Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs branded the accusation “completely baseless and fabricated” and said Western powers are using the international body as a tool for exerting political pressure.
Tehran’s response was also significant. The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and the Foreign Ministry jointly announced that the country would build its third uranium enrichment site at a “secure” location.
They added that first-generation centrifuges will be replaced with sixth-generation machines at the Fordow enrichment plant, which will considerably boost Iran’s ability to create highly enriched uranium.
The Natanz and Fordow facilities, both built deep underground to protect them against bunker-buster munitions used by the US and Israel, are currently the only facilities enriching uranium in Iran. They are both under heavy supervision by the IAEA.
Iran is now enriching uranium up to 60 percent and maintains that its nuclear programme is strictly peaceful and has civilian uses, such as power generation and the manufacture of radiopharmaceuticals. Uranium must be at 90 percent purity to build nuclear weapons.
Iran and the US are once again heading to Muscat even as they still disagree over enrichment, the key issue for any potential agreement.
The 2015 nuclear deal allowed Iran to enrich uranium up to 3.67 percent under IAEA monitoring, but Trump, who now says he is less confident about a deal with Iran, has insisted on “zero” enrichment taking place inside Iran.
Tehran, which this week rejected another US proposal that included zero enrichment, is slated to offer a counterproposal soon to try to advance the negotiations.
Ideas for a nuclear consortium that includes Iran’s neighbours to bolster trust have so far failed to provide any breakthrough.
Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Mossad chief David Barnea are expected to meet with US envoy Steve Witkoff on Friday before he heads to the Omani capital for the latest round of talks.
In Tehran’s Vanak Square, authorities this week installed a huge sculpture of Arash Kamangir (Arash the Archer), a hero in Iranian mythology.
The story of Arash involved the hero putting his life in danger by climbing Mount Damavand – the highest peak in Iran at 5,609 metres (18,402ft) and a symbol of national pride – to use his archery skills to set Iran’s borders. In the story, his arrow flies for days before setting Iran’s boundaries with Turan, a historical region in Central Asia.
The story is one that evokes a sense of national pride among all Iranians. When images of the sculpture went viral on social media, some Iranians praised the move while others criticised it as an attempt to tap nationalist sentiment at a time when Iran may be attacked.
مجسمه بزرگ ۱۵ متری از آرش کمانگیر امروز در میدان ونک تهران نصب شد. pic.twitter.com/QQBglpxWXO
Translation: A 15-metre-high [50ft-high] sculpture of Arash Kamangir was installed at Tehran’s Vanak Square today.
But even with the spectre of war seeming to loom over Iran again, markets in the country have remained relatively stable in recent weeks as they anticipate the results of negotiations with the US.
The Iranian rial changed hands in Tehran for about 840,000 per US dollar on Thursday, having only slightly dipped compared with the days before and its news of more military and political pressure on Iran.
“Most people I’ve spoken to here are following the news of the talks with the US and Israel’s threats very closely, but there’s no panic,” a 36-year-old vendor at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar told Al Jazeera, asking to remain anonymous.
After years of stringent sanctions, along with local mismanagement, Iran has been facing consistently high inflation. It currently stands above 30 percent. Iranians are also cut off from international payment networks and banned from most international services due to the sanctions.
Footballer Dele Alli has split up from his partner Cindy Kimberly after three years together. The former Premier League player had been supported by the model earlier this year but it’s now been revealed that they have separated.
Dele, now 29, who currently plays for Serie A team Como 1907, and Cindy, now 26, went public with their romance in 2022. It’s now been announced by the model that she’s no longer in a relationship with the former Everton midfielder.
There had been speculation that they had split up after it was noticed that she wasn’t following Dele on Instagram. Cindy – who has modelled for magazines like Playboy – is also said to have removed photos of him from her page.
Dele however continues to follow her on the platform. Cindy also still features in some posts on his account, including on celebrating his signing with his current football team in January, following his two year absence from the pitch.
The outlet Glam Set & Match (GSM) speculated in a post yesterday that their relationship looked to be “headed for the rocks” after three years. Cindy reacted in the comments section, with her confirming that they have broken up.
She announced that herself and Dele haven’t been together “for a little while”. Addressing rumours about their romance, she wrote in the comments section of the post this morning: “We’ve been broken up for a little while already.”
Although she appears to have removed photos of Dele from her own page, Cindy has kept up a post of herself seemingly sat in the stands at one of his games in Como, Italy, in March. She had been spotted there with him at the time.
She’s since been seen supporting Dele’s team too. More recently, Cindy was seen in the crowd at a match between Como and Torino at Giuseppe Sinigaglia Stadium on April 13, just two months before the news of their break-up.
Dele – who played for Tottenham Hotspur and England earlier in his career – signed with Como in January. It was announced at the time that he was on an 18-month contract, but with an option to extend that for an additional 12 months.
Head Coach Cesc Fàbregas shared his thoughts on the signing: “The club believes in Dele’s potential and is committed to helping him rediscover his best form. His experience and leadership qualities will undoubtedly benefit the squad.”
The signing came after two year absence from the pitch for Dele, which came following an injury in 2023. It was suggested in February that there was no rush to get the footballer back playing competitive games in the season.
Dele, who’s spoken about challenges he’s faced in his life off the pitch, made his comeback in March but, as reported at the time, he was sent off after 10 minutes when he received a red card. He later posted on Instagram: “2 years! Not necessarily how I planned it, but we keep moving.” It’s been reported that he hasn’t made another appearance for the club since then.
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