Welcome to the latest Hugh Watches Sports post. In this edition we will reflect on a match from the Premier League, the return of a big rugby competition, a hugely-consequential week of tennis, the first round of the English FA Cup, a clash from the NFL, plus a highly-entertaining Formula 1 race. Let’s get into it.
EVERTON VS COVENTRY CITY (FOOTBALL)
On Friday evening, another weekend of Premier League action kicked off with Everton hosting Coventry City. After a strong start to the season, the Toffees sit seventh in the league table and came into this encounter knowing that a win would take hem up to fifth. After a brief blip where they went winless for three games, Everton returned to form with a 1-0 victory over Newcastle United on Monday. As for their visitors, Coventry endured a tricky opening to the campaign on their return to the Premier League. However, Frank Lampard’s side have managed to turn things around with three wins from their last five matches, which has lifted them out of the relegation zone. In fact, despite starting the weekend in sixteenth, they are only four points behind Everton in the league table. As well as three precious league points being up for grabs, this match was also significant for Everton manager David Moyes as it marked his 592nd game as manager of the club. That meant Moyes joined Harry Catterick at the top of the club’s all-time fixtures managed list. A record he will almost-certainly break and claim as his own in their next match against Brentford. On Friday night, under the lights at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, the encounter began with early chances for both teams. Eight minutes in, Coventry made a mess of trying to play out from the back and conceded possession to Vitalii Mykolenko on the edge of the penalty area but his shot was well-saved by goalkeeper Carl Rushworth. Then, at the other end of the pitch, Jack Rudoni’s low strike from outside the penalty area whistled past Jordan Pickford’s far post. The best opportunity to score in the first half came in the thirty-sixth minute when Rudoni’s excellent pass found Tatsuhiro Sakamoto in space inside the penalty area, who turned and unleashed a shot which was pushed away by Pickford. Moments later, with Coventry ending the first half on top, the Sky Blues had a big claim for a penalty. As they jumped to try and connect with a cross into the penalty area, Everton defender James Tarkowski appeared to pull the hair of Caleb Yirenki, preventing the Coventry midfielder from making contact with the ball. Whilst it was understandable that the clear foul was missed by on-field referee Stuart Attwell, it was baffling that VAR didn’t suggest an on-field review and therefore the game continued. That meant that due to the lack of goals, the half time talking point was one of refereeing controversy. After the break, the visitors had another credible penalty claim dismissed by the referee and VAR. This time Taiwo Awoniyi was clipped as he entered the penalty area by defender Mykolenko but the contact was deemed minimal. In the fifty-second minute, Coventry took a deserved lead as Rudoni found Yann Gboho on the left hand side of Everton’s penalty area and he exchanged passes with Sakamoto before placing the ball past Pickford and into the far bottom corner of the net. It was a scrappy goal but Coventry didn’t mind as they went 1-0 up from open play after having missed out on getting at least one of the two penalties they’d claimed for. That goal sparked the game into life as Everton quickly responded with an equaliser four minutes later. It came courtesy of Thierno Barry who rose highest at the back post to direct Mykolenko’s cross into the back of the net and level the score. Incredibly, Everton then completed the turnaround in the scoreline five minutes after as Barry doubled his goal-scoring tally for the evening with another back-post finish, this time from Tyrique George’s chipped cross from the left. However, initially it looked like the ball bounced off the Everton striker’s hand before he guided it into the net. Ordinarily that would result in the goal being disallowed, although the VAR deemed that they didn’t have a camera angle which was definitive enough to overturn the on-field decision and as a result the goal stood. Much to the delight of the majority of fans inside the Hill Dickinson Stadium, a quick-fire double from Barry had seen Everton come back from a goal down to lead 2-1. From then on, Coventry had the majority of possession but struggled to create any clear-cut chances to score an equaliser. Meanwhile, Everton remained a threat on the counter attack and that was evident in the eighty-first minute when Barry picked up the ball just inside Coventry’s half and played magnificent through ball to Keirnan Dewsbury-Hall, who took one touch before smashing the ball past Rushworth at his near post to score Everton’s third. It was an excellent finish from the Englishman who has been one of the Toffee’s stand-out players so far this season and it gave them the comfort of a two-goal advantage on the scoreboard. That proved to be the final notable moment of action in a highly-entertaining second half as Everton recorded a 3-1 victory against Coventry to move up to fifth in the Premier League. Looking ahead, these two teams now don’t play for a fortnight due to the upcoming international break. When the Premier League resumes, Everton will face Brentford, whilst Coventry host Crystal Palace.
SCOTLAND VS NEW ZEALAND (RUGBY UNION)
Having begun with the opening three rounds of fixtures in the summer, the inaugural rugby Nations Championship continued this weekend. With the concluding three rounds of matches, plus ‘finals weekend’ to be held across the next four weeks, the competition ramps up in intensity from now on. In the match I’ve chose to cover this weekend, Scotland welcomed New Zealand to Murrayfield Stadium as they looked to beat the famous All Blacks for the first time ever. In thirty-three previous meetings between the two side’s, Scotland have never emerged victorious so this occasion presented was an opportunity for the current squad to create some history. So far in this competition, Scotland showed good form with wins over Argentina and Fiji, either side of a loss against world champions South Africa. As for New Zealand, they hold a perfect record in the Nations Championship with wins over France, Italy and Ireland during the summer. In the early stages of the encounter, both side’s began well with a try each inside the opening eight minutes. First, Wallace Sititi’s try put New Zealand ahead, before Ewan Ashman powered through the last line of the All Blacks defence to equalise. With Scotland’s try then converted by Finn Russell, the home side took a 7-5 lead. Then, on fifteen minutes, the visitors moved back in front when a quickly taken penalty caught out Scotland’s defence and saw Ethan De Groot carry the ball beyond the try line. That try was successfully converted by Damian McKenzie. With momentum in their favour, the All Blacks extended their lead two minutes later courtesy of a maul which helped Peter Lakai over the try line to score their third try. Although this time, McKenzie’s conversion attempt missed which left the All Blacks lead at ten points. Now the onus was on Scotland to respond and they did so in great fashion with a sustained attack that piled pressure on New Zealand’s defence. First, they benefitted from a succession of fouls which resulted in Lakai being shown a yellow card and handing Scotland a temporary player advantage. The home side then capitalised on that with another determined attack which this time ended with Ashman forcing his way through a gap in the defence to score a try. As Russel then stepped up to kick the conversion through the posts, Scotland reduced their deficit to three points. Despite being a player down, New Zealand were keen to re-establish their ten-point cushion and a well-worked move saw them do just that in the thirtieth minute as Beauden Barrett completed his run down the left wing by collecting a pass and taking the ball beyond the try line. The visitors’ ten-point lead was fully restored when McKenzie then scored the resulting conversion. However, just as Lakai returned to the pitch, a moment of indiscipline saw New Zealand remain with fourteen as Sititi received a yellow card. As we reached the closing stages of a frantic first half, Scotland’s excellent maul in the aftermath of a line-out enabled Ashman to complete his hat-trick. Then, a successful conversion from Russell completed the scoring in a thrilling opening forty-minutes and moved Scotland back within three points of the All Blacks at the halfway mark. Moving into the second half, New Zealand produced a quick-fire double of try’s to dampen the raucous atmosphere inside Murrayfield. The first try came in the forty-eighth minute as the All Blacks found Josh Moorby in space on the left wing and he dived over the try line to score. Then, two minutes later, a quick sequence of passes from right-to-left saw Barrett charge through Scotland’s defence to score his second try of the afternoon. With McKenzie stepping up to convert Barrett’s try, the All Blacks took a commanding 36-21 lead. During that phase of play, things got even more tricky for Scotland as repeated infringements from the home side saw Sione Tuipulotu shown a yellow card. From there, New Zealand were in firm control of the contest as they limited their host’s attacking options with solid defending. In the sixty-eighth minute, the visitors added some extra gloss to the scoreline with their seventh try of the afternoon which came when Asafo Aumua burst through a gap in Scotland’s defence to score. Another perfect kick from McKenzie put New Zealand twenty-two points ahead and as good as confirmed victory. As the full time whistle was blown at Murrayfield, a dominant second half display saw New Zealand defeat Scotland 43-21 and continue their perfect record in the Nations Championship with four wins from four matches. Despite a strong first half performance and a spirited effort after the break, Scotland’s wait for a first win over the All Blacks continues and they will now look to bounce back against Australia next Sunday. Meanwhile, New Zealand’s next fixture takes place on Saturday when they will take on Wales.
ATP PARIS (TENNIS)
Paris hosted the final ATP Masters 1000 event of the season in what is always a decisive week in qualification for the ATP Finals. The season-ending tournament in Turin exclusively features the top eight players from across the year and this is the final week where players can accumulate points to seal their place. So far four players have qualified for the ATP Finals and the remaining four would be decided during the Paris tournament. At the start of the week the final four spots were held by Flavio Cobolli, Arthur Fils, Frances Tiafoe and Rafael Jodar, whilst an array of players including Alex De Minaur, Novak Djokovic and Taylor Fritz could still overtake them and seal a place in Turin. As the ATP Masters 1000 got going in the French capital, the stand-out match in round one saw recently-crowned Basel champion Valentin Vacherot take on tenth seed and seven-time winner of this event Novak Djokovic. After splitting two tight opening sets, Djokovic cruised to victory in the third to defeat Vacherot 6-7 7-5 6-1 from a set and a break down. Elsewhere, fellow Turin contender’s Jodar, Fritz and Tommy Paul all clinched round one win’s, whilst the top eight seed’s all received a bye through to round two. Played across two days, the second round in Paris turned out to be pivotal in deciding the qualifiers for the ATP Finals. First, on Tuesday evening, Casper Ruud beat Jodar 6-3 6-4 which left the Spaniard relying on other results to secure his qualification for Turin. Then, on a chaotic Wednesday, Tiafoe saw four match points come and go before he was taken down in three sets by Quentin Halys. Meanwhile on Court 1, Alex De Minaur’s ATP Finals hopes were ended by a shock 7-6 6-3 defeat to Tomas Martin Etcheverry, which was the Argentinian’s first top ten win in his career. A crazy day for the Turin contender’s then continued as Djokovic lost out in three sets to Rinky Hijikata to end his chances of qualifying. Then, Fritz appeared to be in danger of suffering a round two exit when he lost the opening set to Alex Molcan however the American came back to record a 6-7 7-5 7-6 triumph. As a consequence of those results, both Cobolli and Fils’ qualification for the ATP Finals was confirmed, leaving just two places remaining. Elsewhere in the Paris second round, top seed Alexander Zverev made an immediate exit as he was beaten 7-6 6-2 by Lorenzo Musetti. Similarly, fourth seed Daniil Medvedev also left Paris earlier than he’d have planned after losing in straight sets to Ignacio Buse. In contrast, second seed and last week’s Vienna champion Carlos Alcaraz began his campaign with a 7-6 6-3 triumph over Alex Michelsen. Moving into round three, Fritz defeated Fils 6-3 6-4 in a huge match in the race to Turin to keep his chances alive. Meanwhile we saw two first time ATP Masters 1000 quarter finalists confirmed as Luca Van Assche got past Musetti in round three, whilst Hijikata saw off Etcheverry. Unfortunately Matteo Berrettini withdrew from the tournament due to injury which handed Alcaraz a walkover into the last eight. On Friday in Paris, the line-up for Turin was confirmed as the quarter finals were completed. Firstly, Paul took on third seed Ben Shelton in a close battle which was won 6-4 4-6 6-3 by Shelton to end Paul’s chances of reaching the ATP Finals. That, in turn, sealed Tiafoe’s place at the season-ending showpiece and made the scenario for the last spot very simple. If Fritz defeated Alcaraz in the night session he would overtake Jodar and clinch the eighth spot in Turin whereas a win for Alcaraz would confirm his fellow Spaniard’s place. After Fritz edged a tight first set on a tie-break, he then went up an early break in the second to put himself in control of the encounter. However, after Alcaraz had already saved two match points, Fritz was then broken as he served for the match and Alcaraz stole the second set 7-5 to take us into a third. In the decider, Alcaraz emerged victorious 6-3 to clinch his place in the semi finals and ensure that Jodar will make his ATP Finals debut. Elsewhere, in another Paris quarter final, Van Assche’s sensational tournament continued as he beat Hijikata 6-4 6-7 7-5 to reach the biggest semi final in his career. Finally in the last eight, Ruud completed the semi final line-up with a 7-6 6-4 victory against Nuno Borges. With the line-up for the ATP Finals now settled, attention was solely on the battle to win the tournament in Paris across the weekend. First up on Saturday, third seed Shelton took on home favourite Van Assche. After the Frenchman took the opening set with a late break of serve, Shelton fought back to win 5-7 6-3 6-4 and progress into the final. That marked the American’s sixth final of the season and the third of his career at ATP Masters 1000 level. Later on in the day, Alcaraz faced Ruud with the Spaniard emerging victorious in two close sets. It was another fine win for Alcaraz as he booked his place in his first Paris final and his eleventh at an ATP Masters 1000 event. In Sunday’s final, two of the most in-form players on the ATP Tour went head-to-head in a rematch of the classic US Open quarter final which was won in a fifth set tie-break by Shelton in September. This time in Paris, the pair played out a tight first set in which Alcaraz saved six break points before going on to win it in a tie-break. It looked as if we were heading for another tie-break in the second set before Alcaraz struck late to break Shelton’s serve in the twelfth game and clinch the title. With a 7-6 7-5 triumph and an incredible championship point, Alcaraz added the Paris trophy to his already very large collection of achievements. An incredible fortnight had seen the Spaniard win back-to-back title’s in Vienna and Paris. The second seed will now head to the ATP Finals as a nine-time champion at ATP Masters 1000 level and the overwhelming favourite to win the season-ending event in Turin.
WIMBOURNE TOWN VS CRAWLEY TOWN (FOOTBALL)
This weekend marked one of the stand-out occasions in the English football calendar as the FA Cup first round was played. Along with the third round and the final, this is one of the most eagerly anticipated stages of the historic tournament as the teams from League One and League Two enter the competition. On Sunday afternoon, Wimbourne Town from the Pitching In Southern Football League took on League Two side Crawley Town. Wimbourne are one of six teams from their division, which falls under step three in the English football pyramid to reach the FA Cup first round. They’re currently ninth in the league table and in good form having won four of their last five games and only conceded once in that time. In contrast, Crawley are having a miserable start to the season and head into the weekend bottom of League Two, although they did pick up a much-needed victory against Oldham Athletic last time out. With the relative form of the two teams, there was a feeling that this match-up had the potential to produce a memorable FA Cup upset as it kicked off in Dorset. However Crawley were keen to prevent that and they had a chance to score inside the opening twenty seconds, as straight from kick-off, they worked the ball out to Stephen Duke-McKenna on the right wing. From there, his cross into the penalty area was met by Kai Jennings whose header drifted just over the crossbar but was an early show of intent from the visitors. Despite that early scare, Wimbourne grew into the game and had a chance of their own in the ninth minute which was taken in stunning fashion by Seung-Woo Yang. Having received the ball from Angel Diaz on the edge of the penalty area, Yang found some space and then curled a wonderful effort from his right foot beyond Crawley goalkeeper Vito Mannone and into the top corner of the net. It was a superb goal to put Wimbourne 1-0 up against their League Two opponents, who began the day fifty-seven places above them. Inevitably, there was a response from Crawley and they went close to equalising ten minutes later when Jennings’ volley from the edge of the penalty area beat Wimbourne goalkeeper Cameron Plain but went wide of the far post. Whilst Wimbourne spent a lot of time defending in the first half, they also remained a threat on the counter-attack which was well-demonstrated on thirty-six minutes when Yang’s long pass set away top-scorer Joe Smith who carried the ball towards goal before seeing his shot smartly saved by Mannone. As the first half drew to a close in Dorset, the FA Cup shock was well and truly on as Wimbourne were a goal up on Crawley. After the interval, Crawley piled pressure onto Wimbourne’s defence in their search for an equaliser. The closest they came to scoring was in the sixtieth minute as Nathan Tinsdale’s looped cross into the penalty area was punched away by goalkeeper Plain but only as far as Charlie Barker whose first-time effort went narrowly wide of the far post. It was agonising for the League Two side and their frustrations continued to build as Wimbourne’s defence remained solid as they battled to keep their clean sheet intact. With the home side growing in confidence, an attack down the left wing which began with a throw-in provided them an opportunity to double their lead. After playing a one-two with Diaz, the ball was carried into the penalty area by Jackson King who unleashed a shot which hit Cameron Munn and went into the back of the net. Despite not knowing much about it, Munn wheeled away to celebrate a potentially historic goal in Wimbourne’s club history as he put them 2-0 ahead with just over ten minutes to go. In front of a raucous home crowd, the Pitching In Southern Football League team edged closer and closer to victory whilst their visitors’ hopes of a comeback grew slimmer and slimmer. In fact, the best opportunity either side had to score in the closing stages came when Wimbourne midfielder Finely Toghill collected a loose ball in Crawley’s half and forced Mannone to get down quickly and make a strong save, before the ball then broke to King whose shot was impressively tipped over the crossbar by Mannone. Whilst Crawley continued to try and find a way to get back into the game, they couldn’t break down Wimbourne’s determined defensive unit and the home side made history by clinching a remarkable 2-0 win. It was a true FA Cup upset as non-league Wimbourne Town booked their place in round two of the competition by seeing off EFL opposition. Incredibly for the jubilant hosts, this is the first time in the club’s history that they have reached the second round of the FA Cup and they will now await the draw with great anticipation.
NEW YORK JETS @ KANSAS CITY CHIEFS (AMERICAN FOOTBALL)
We reached the midpoint of the NFL regular season with week nine of fixtures played between Thursday and Monday. One of the stand-out games played in Sunday’s early slot was the New York Jets visit to the Kansas City Chiefs. After making a perfect start to the season, the Chiefs have suffered back-to-back defeats including a tight 28-24 loss to divisional rivals the Denver Broncos last Sunday. That made this a big game for them to get back to winning ways in front of their fans at Arrowhead Stadium. Meanwhile, the New York Jets were having yet another underwhelming campaign. Following a win on the opening weekend of the season, the Jets lost six of their next seven games to slip to 2-6 and pressure is beginning to mount on head coach Aaron Glenn. As the game got underway, the Jets made a decent start with two field goals in the opening quarter, as well as their defense preventing the Chiefs offense from scoring. Those two field goals were scored by Jason Sanders and put the visitors 6-0 ahead at the end of the first quarter. On the first play of the second quarter, the Chiefs got themselves on the scoreboard as quarterback Patrick Mahomes found running back Kenneth Walker for the game’s first touchdown. With Harrison Butker then adding the extra point, the Chiefs moved into a one-point lead. Next the Jets’ were once again forced to settle for a field goal against the Chiefs’ well-organised defense, with Sanders’ forty-nine yard attempt successful to put them back in front. Although that lead didn’t last long as the Chiefs offense was starting to find their rhythm and Mahomes’ passed the ball to Walker who then carried it twenty-five yards and into the end zone to score. That touchdown, coupled with Butker’s extra point, saw the Chiefs to 14-9 ahead. Once again, the Jets replied with a field goal as Sanders scored from fifty-four yards after they were unable to find a way into the end zone. After the two minute warning, a turnover from the Chiefs handed the ball back to the Jets although they still couldn’t make much progress and decided to let Sanders attempt another field goal. However his fifty-three yard attempt went wide of the uprights. With time running out in the first half, the Chiefs offense quickly worked themselves into field goal range. Although, just like Sanders, Butker sent his attempt wide and therefore the half ended with back-to-back missed field goal attempts’. Moving into the second half, the Chiefs took control of the encounter with a four minute drive that ended with Mahomes making a lateral pass to Travis Kelce who bundled himself and the ball into the end zone for a touchdown. Next, Butker scored the extra point to give the home side a nine point advantage. Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the ball, the Chiefs defense continued to frustrate and limit the Jets offense who didn’t even get themselves within field goal range in the third quarter. As we reached the last moments of the quarter, the ball was back in the hands of Mahomes and he led his offense down the field and then laid the ball off for Walker to rush in for a touchdown from two yards. With Butker successfully adding the extra point, the Chiefs took a commanding 28-12 lead and it was now up to the Jets to come up with an almighty fourth quarter comeback if they were to avoid defeat. Sadly for the visitors, there were very few signs of that as their generally miserable day on offense continued. In fact, in the final four minutes of the encounter, the Chiefs further extended their advantage. It came courtesy of rookie running back Emmett Johnson who rushed into the end zone from six yards to score. With Butker then scoring the extra point, the Chiefs completed a run of twenty-one straight points. As the encounter came to a close at Arrowhead Stadium, the Chiefs bounced back from two straight defeats to record a comfortable 35-12 triumph over the Jets. That improves the home side’s record this season to 6-2 and keeps them fairly well-placed in the early AFC playoff picture. In contrast, the Jets slip to 2-7 for the campaign and look to be heading for another disappointing season in New York. Elsewhere this week in the NFL, the Cincinnati Bengals beat the Atalanta Falcons 34-17 in the latest international game which took place in Madrid. Meanwhile a fascinating game between the New Orleans Saints and Cleveland Browns went all the way to overtime, where it was won 23-22 by the Saints. Then, in Sunday’s late game, the Chicago Bears won with a walk-off field goal as they defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 27-24.
SAO PAULO GRAND PRIX (FORMULA 1)
After Kimi Antonelli became the sport’s youngest ever world champion in Mexico last weekend, Formula 1 moved on to Brazil this week for the third race in a triple-header. Whilst top spot in the driver’s championship was now decided, Mercedes had a chance to secure the constructor’s championship in Sao Paulo if they out-scored Ferrari by three or more points. Coming into the weekend there was a lot of news from the paddock including the confirmation that Esteban Ocon’s time at Haas was over and he was replaced for this race by Rafael Camara, who would make his Formula 1 debut. Elsewhere, we also learnt that some driver’s would take grid penalties for the race due to taking new engine parts outside of their initial allocation. As a result, Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez would start from the back of the grid, meanwhile George Russell took a five-place penalty whereas Charles Leclerc was demoted ten places. Those penalties, coupled with a chaotic qualifying session in heavy rain on Saturday, meant we had a mixed-up grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix. For the third successive year at Interlagos, Lando Norris qualified on pole with the fastest lap time in Q3. The Brit would be joined on the front row by Antonelli, ahead of a surprise second row of Liam Lawson and Nico Hulkenberg. Behind them was Isack Hadjar, Ollie Bearman, Russell and Fernando Alonso. Having qualified in fourth, Leclerc would line-up fourteenth on Sunday whilst his teammate Hamilton started alongside Verstappen at the back. On race day, with the track still wet from an earlier downpour, twenty-one driver’s all started the race on intermediate tyre’s. Unfortunately there were only twenty-one car’s on the starting grid because Cadillac found an issue on Valtteri Bottas’ car which they were unable to fix in time for him to be on the grid. As the five red lights went out at Interlagos, Antonelli got away better than Norris and took the lead on the run to turn one. Things then got even worse for the pole-sitter as Lawson overtook him to drop Norris into third. Elsewhere, Hamilton and Verstappen made an incredible start’s and found themselves up to ninth and eleventh respectively by the end of lap one. On the third lap, Verstappen’s rise up the leaderboard continued as he snuck past Hamilton and into ninth. Then, two laps later, we saw a stunning double-overtake from the Dutchman as he moved past Oscar Piastri and Alex Albon to claim seventh spot on the run into turn four. Ahead of them on track, Norris re-claimed second place from Lawson although he now trailed Antonelli by five seconds. Whilst Verstappen continued to make progress after his impressive start, Hamilton appeared to be struggling as he saw both Leclerc and Alonso move ahead of him. That prompted the Brit to encourage Ferrari to let him try and be the first driver to move onto dry, soft tyre’s on the drying track. Eventually on lap fourteen, Ferrari took Hamilton up on his suggestion which dropped him to the back of the grid but they knew everyone ahead would eventually need to make a pit stop. Across the next three laps, with Hamilton’s lap times suggesting the cross-over time to dry tyre’s was now, the entire grid headed into the pits for a tyre change. However there was an unfortunate moment for Russell as he spun at the pit exit and had to let others past before he could get going again, dropping him down to tenth place. Once everyone had changed tyre’s, the order on track was Antonelli, Norris, Hadjar, Verstappen, Lawson, Piastri and Russell in the top seven, with Hamilton only moving up as far as eleventh. Having pitted a lap earlier than Antonelli, Norris was now a lot closer to the championship winner who was struggling to get his new tyre’s up to temperature. On lap twenty, a spin at turn one from Antonelli opened the door for Norris to take the lead which he duly did. Meanwhile Antonelli re-joined the track under immediate pressure from the Red Bull’s of Hadjar and Verstappen. A lap after his spin, Antonelli lost second place to Hadjar on the exit of turn one as he continued to wrestle with his Mercedes. On lap twenty-four, Verstappen found his way past Antonelli to move up into the podium positions and continue his remarkable drive up the leaderboard. In true Red Bull fashion, Verstappen soon gained another place as his teammate Hadjar was ordered to let him past and up into second, albeit they were both over eight seconds behind Norris. On lap forty-six, Verstappen made his second pit stop which kicked off a series of pit stops among set the leading cars. By the end of lap fifty-three when Antonelli made his stop, Norris was still in the lead, ahead of the two Red Bull’s, although Russell’s decision to stay out had seen him gain places and up into fourth, ahead of his teammate Antonelli. Within a few laps, light rain began to fall around the circuit and it’s intensity gradually increased which provoked a difficult strategic decision for the teams and driver’s about whether they may need to pit again for intermediate tyre’s. On lap sixty-one, Russell was first to pit and a lap later there was chaos in the pit lane as all the other car’s came in to change to intermediate’s in the increasingly tricky wet conditions. As they headed back out onto the track, Norris still held the race lead with Verstappen second, Hadjar third, Antonelli fourth and Russell fifth. However that soon changed as Antonelli allowed Russell to overtake him as the Brit appeared to be faster and more confident on the intermediate tyre’s. Out at the front, Norris was showing excellent pace and mastery in the tough conditions, just as he did on Saturday to secure pole position. With two laps to go, there was a brief moment of drama as Lawson and Leclerc made contact as they squabbled over seventh position, which was eventually claimed by Leclerc. Although he received a penalty when the incident was reviewed after the race which handed seventh place back to Lawson in the final classification. As footballer Neymar waved the chequered flag on lap seventy-one of a highly-entertaining Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Norris secured his third race win of the season and was the winner in Brazil for the second successive year. It was a stunning drive from the 2025 world champion as he deservedly claimed top spot on the podium. Another incredible drive came from second-placed Verstappen as he moved up nineteen spots having started the race at the back of the grid in twenty-first. Completing the podium was Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Hadjar to pick up the fourth podium finish of his career. Behind them in the other point-scoring positions came Russell, Antonelli, Piastri, Lawson, Leclerc, Hamilton and Hulkenberg. As a result of handsomely out-scoring Ferrari, Mercedes clinched the constructors championship title for the first time since 2021. That completed a double for the team as they could now add their constructors title to Antonelli’s triumph in the drivers championship. Looking ahead, Formula 1 now takes a week off before heading to Las Vegas for the next race of the season in a fortnight.
