Author: Black Dog
The WNBA is close to its halfway point in the season and will resume play on August 15 after the Olympics have concluded. The break provides an excellent opportunity to assess midseason awards and who is standing out so far in the 2024 season. Some awards, like MVP, are clear-cut, but the majority are contested races to watch closely in the second half of the season. Predicting the 2024 WNBA awards MVP: A’ja Wilson, Las Vegas Aces A’ja Wilson’s MVP is currently the easiest award to pick; this would be her third MVP trophy. Wilson is putting up unprecedented…
The secrecy around the true potential of Andrea Kimi Antonelli makes it difficult to judge Mercedes’ decision-making, it has been suggested. Antonelli is now the clear and obvious contender to replace Lewis Hamilton, who is heading to Ferrari next year, in a Mercedes F1 car. Carlos Sainz’s signing at Williams removed him as a small possibility and has paved the way for Antonelli, the talented teenager who is now in his rookie F2 campaign. Antonelli has also tested a Mercedes but his proficiency remains unknown. “None of us can see what is happening in testing so we…
Toto Wolff has conceded that, during the nail-biting finale at the Belgian Grand Prix, Mercedes pondered over implementing team orders if the race had stretched out for an additional lap. George Russell finished ahead of Lewis Hamilton thanks to a strategic pivot to a one-stop strategy mid-race. Russell’s decision seemed prudent as tyre wear was surprisingly low, and he successfully warded off Hamilton’s challenge in the dying moments on worn rubber. Nonetheless, it was Hamilton who triumphantly claimed the win due to a bizarre twist – Russell faced disqualification when post-race checks by the FIA revealed his car falling…
Mercedes was lucky that Lewis Hamilton was in second place, says the Brackley-based outfit’s trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin, referring to the George Russell’s shock disqualification from the Belgian Grand Prix. Having lacked pace during Friday’s practice sessions, Mercedes driver George Russell had seemingly pulled off an unlikely win during Sunday’s race at Spa-Francorchamps. The Briton started from P6 on the grid, and committing himself to a one-stop strategy, he took his third F1 win. However, after the chequered flag, Russell’s car was found to be underweight, with the stewards subsequently excluding him from the results – meaning team…
Next term he will work with Charles Leclerc who has, for several year now, been one of the central cogs around which the Ferrari project has been built. It remains to be seen how the Monegasque will fare going up against one of the greatest drivers the sport has ever seen, having for so long been the main man at Maranello. But Vasseur insists he has no concerns about that right now. The Frenchman went on to say he believes Leclerc can benefit in the long term from the experience of having been measured against a seven-time champion. …
Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur hopes Lewis Hamilton’s “personal baggage” can help push the Italians into title contention. Hamilton rocked Formula 1 with his announcement before this season even began that he was quitting Mercedes to join the famous red team. He will make his Ferrari debut in Australia next March, the Melbourne race temporarily replacing Bahrain as the 2025 curtain-raiser due to a clash with Ramadan. Signing the seven-time F1 champion is a coup for Ferrari. And team boss Vasseur hopes Hamilton, who will have turned 40 by his first race for the Scuderia, can add to the…
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton only crossed the finish line second at Spa, but he displayed a remarkable performance all through the 44-lap race. The Briton insists that he did not feel in control of a race victory for several years. Last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix saw Lewis Hamilton made a superb start from the second row, getting ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez to power into second position. The Briton did not hesitate long to take over the lead on Lap 3, going past the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc on the Kemmel straight. Although he looked in control of…
In their third and final season together as team mates, the battle for supremacy between Lewis Hamilton and George Russell is an intriguing affair. Russell holds the upper hand in terms of pure results and quite comfortably so by some measures. He’s a solid 10-4 up in the qualifying battle against a driver who has historically excelled at single-lap pace. Hamilton made what appeared to be a less-than-subtle insinuation about his Saturday deficit when he reached 7-1 down in Monaco, saying: “I don’t anticipate being ahead of George in qualifying.” However some within his team observed that the seven-times champion…
New York Giants owner John Mara remains firmly behind Daniel Jones, one injury-plagued season removed from the quarterback signing a four-year, $160 million contract. Jones was sacked 30 times over six games in 2023 before he tore his ACL in the Giants’ 30-6 setback to the Las Vegas Raiders on Nov. 5. “I’m still happy we gave (Jones) that contract because I thought he played really well for us in ‘22,” Mara said Thursday, via the team website. “Last year, he got hurt and let’s be honest, when he was playing, we weren’t blocking anybody. So, let’s give him a…
There are 32 former, current, and incoming Texas Longhorns representing 15 different countries in nine various sports at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games this summer. While USC has 54 athletes at the Games, followed by Stanford and Cal with 41 each, the Longhorns are making a name for themselves in Paris. Five days into the two-week Olympics, Texas has already won six total medals and is currently one medal ahead of Notre Dame for the second-most by a collegiate program. In the lead is Stanford with nine total medals: one gold, four silvers, and three bronzes. So…