Archive December 1, 2025

Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, and Oscar Piastri are all in contention for the 2025 Formula 1 drivers’ championship, which will now be decided in the final race of the season.

Verstappen, who is chasing a fifth consecutive title, leads Red Bull’s Briton Norris by 12 points, with Piastri coming in at a further four.

Norris and Piastri, McLaren drivers, are both aiming for their first F1 title.

The final race of the Formula 1 World Championship, which featured Luigi Fagioli, Giuseppe Farina, and Juan Manuel Fangio of Alfa Romeo, was held in Monza, Italy.

Italian Fagioli and Farina, both of whom were Italians, were two points clear of each other in the grand prix. Fagioli finished third in the race and the overall standings, but mechanical issues put an end to Fangio’s afternoon.

Before the season-ending 1959 United States Grand Prix in Sebring, Florida, where British drivers Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks were still in contention, Australian Jack Brabham led the championship.

Moss, who was in second place, had to win or finish second behind Brabham, while Brooks, who was in second, had to win to have a chance, and even then could still be beaten to the title.

Moss took the lead from pole position, but he quickly retired with a broken gearbox, giving Brabham, who had been closely following his rival, a short distance behind, with the initiative.

With his F1 championship in 1964, John Surtees won the only two-wheeled world title.

Before the final score in Mexico, Surtees was five points ahead of fellow Englishman Graham Hill, and Scot Jim Clark was in third place, a further four points behind.

Hill, the 1962 champion, collided with Lorenzo Bandini, Surtees’ Ferrari teammate, to delay the event. After dominating from the front, Clark, who was driving a Lotus, had to stop on the final lap due to an oil leak.

Since its debut on the F1 calendar in 2023, Las Vegas Grand Prix, which is centered on the Strip, has generally been regarded as a huge success. However, this is not exactly the first iteration of the event.

A track constructed in the Caesars Palace hotel’s parking lot was used to stage a Caesars Palace Grand Prix in 1981 and 1982.

Although it hosted championship deciders both years, neither the location nor the circuit are particularly fond of nostalgia.

Carlos Reutemann of Williams held off Nelson Piquet of Brabham by a point in 1981, with Jacques Laffite of Ligier also in contention.

At a time when only the top six drivers received points, Frenchman Lafitte had to place first or second to have a chance, but Argentine Reutemann looked confident when he finished in pole position.

However, he eventually finished eighth overall and was passed by race winner and team-mate Alan Jones.

The day his left rear tire and dreams were shattered.

The British driver knew a third-place finish would ensure his victory at the 1986 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide would ensure his drivers’ championship.

Alain Prost, the 1985 champion, was six points adrift while Nelson Piquet, Mansell’s Williams coworker, was seven back. Given their tense relationship, “team-mate,” doesn’t seem appropriate here.

With 19 laps to go, Mansell’s tire exploded down the 200-mph Brabham Straight, leaving him in third place, behind Piquet and Prost. Murray Walker, a commentator for BBC, remarked, “And look at that! And colossally, Mansell is that name!

As a last resort, Williams called Piquet in to change his tyres because Keke Rosberg, who had recently retired from McLaren’s lead role due to a puncture, had just before Mansell’s drama.

That left Frenchman Mansell to wait until 1992 before capturing the title, while Prost had to bring his McLaren home first and secure back-to-back championships.

Lewis Hamilton’s stunning rookie season should have won him the title, but Lewis Hamilton’s performance in the final two races ultimately went wrong.

The 22-year-old led McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso by 12 points and Kimi Raikkonen by 17 behind after winning the Japanese Grand Prix in particularly wet conditions. For a race win, drivers were awarded ten points.

Hamilton fell off into a gravel trap in China and was left on a worn-out tyre during the final match in Brazil after getting a bad start and being stuck in fourth gear for 25 seconds.

He needed to finish fifth to ensure that he could win the championship, despite coming back to seventh, which earned him two points.

Although Lewis Hamilton had only the best of the best chances, he was 24 points behind leader Fernando Alonso in the standings before the final race, with only two other drivers in between them, in Abu Dhabi.

Sebastian Vettel was third and 15 points ahead of Mark Webber in Alonso’s first season at Ferrari, who finished eighth behind the Spaniard.

German Vettel won from pole, but Alonso should have won.

However, Alonso was forced to wait for an early pit stop by Ferrari to protect Webber, leaving him tucked behind Vitaly Petrov of Renault for the duration of the race. Vettel was able to take Vettel’s place in seventh place while Webber was eighth, which was a tiebreaker.

Few people anticipated asking if Mikel Merino could become Arsenal’s number nine when he left Real Sociedad in August 2024.

He made his debut at Emirates Stadium as a 28-year-old Spain midfielder with more than 200 La Liga appearances and a Euros title. He has never been a striker.

Even considering that some of Arsenal’s walking wounded are returning, Merino is a serious contender to become their main frontman a year later.

In the absence of injured trio Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus, and Viktor Gyokeres, he again showed his worth as a makeshift striker in Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Chelsea.

In a 2-0 victory over Leicester in February, he came on as a substitute and scored twice, marking the first time in his professional career that he had played as a striker.

Mikel Arteta has not signed a midfielder who has become his starting forward before.

Kai Havertz initially played mostly as a midfielder for Arsenal, but when fit, he quickly became Arteta’s preferred choice.

Hasrtz has a strong foundation in that role thanks to his physical prowess, pitch intelligence, and ability to score goals. These traits are present in Merino as well.

However, Havertz’s ability to score goals has previously been questioned. In response, Arsenal signed Viktor Gyokeres in a £64 million deal in July.

At Portuguese side Sporting, Gyokeres have 97 goals in 102 games. He has scored six goals, four of them in the Premier League, in 15 appearances for Arsenal overall.

However, Gyokeres continues to be questioned about his suitability for Arsenal.

Merino has shown he can deliver in big games in the interim. He has three goals and two assists in his previous five goals as a striker.

The 29-year-old scored eight goals, five of which came from headers, making him the top scorer for Arsenal in the Premier League in 2025.

Given that they have more attacking options, Arteta will be thrilled to welcome back both Gyokeres and Brazilian Gabriel Jesus. However, it seems unlikely that the Swedish team’s big-money signing will ever rejoin.

Gyokeres, who had a hamstring problem for almost a month out with a hamstring problem, will need more time to recover. Arsenal’s attack has performed admirably with Merino running the middle in his absence.

In his 22 games as a forward this season, the Gunners have won 22 goals. And they have scored 13 goals from open play in his previous five games of play alone, with 11 of those coming from open play.

This campaign, Arsenal have been accused of relying heavily on set pieces. Minero’s attack seems to add a new dimension.

He is a very different player from Gyokeres, who constantly runs behind a backline and uses his strength to slam defenders.

Merino has a well-tower-tower height of 6 feet, but he also has a different approach to making room for his teammates.

And headers account for seven of his ten Premier League goals. Only former Ipswich and Leicester striker James Scowcroft has ever scored ten or more goals with his head in the history of the competition (eight percent of his 14 top-flight goals were scored between 2000 and 2004).

Leandro Trossard’s opening goal in the 4-1 win against Tottenham on November 23 shows how deep Merino has started to drop deep into midfield to let the wingers and midfielders around him travel into space.

Eberechi Eze has also benefited from this, with his best appearance for Arsenal coming in a hat-trick against Spurs as the highlight of his recent outing.

Merino is a regular midfielder for his country, and he is regarded as one of the squad’s most tactically aware players at Arsenal.

He has already joined the leadership team at Arsenal.

“To score goals is always good.” said Minero. The team’s main benefit is getting a point or winning games, they say.

I’ve been playing striker lately, and I’m making moves in the right places to help my team find me.

He has been asking team-mates for advice as part of the makeshift frontman’s improvement effort.

He said, “I tried to ask the strikers that played for us last year if they could offer me some advice on how to position myself in the box and stay on the right side of defenders.”

Merino scored his 20th goal for Spain and Arsenal in the match against Chelsea, and Arteta claimed that he “can smell danger.”

The 2026 Giro d’Italia will take place in Bulgaria, which will be its second year in a row after Italy.

The race has now started seven times abroad, including Jerusalem in 2018, with the opening three stages in Albania taking place in May.

The three-week event will end in Rome on May 8 through May 31.

The Women’s Giro d’Italia will begin in Cesenatico on the east coast of Italy, starting on May 30th, but will not start in Bulgaria.

It will wrap up its nine stages in Saluzzo on June 7.

Elisa Longo Borghini, the reigning men’s champion, will defend her title on her own soil while Simon Yates, a former champion, reigns as men’s champion.