Lewis Hamilton wins Chinese F1 Sprint race for his first Ferrari victory
Shanghai (AP): Lewis Hamilton has won his first race for Ferrari, securing Saturday's Sprint victory from pole position following an early duel Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen at the Chinese Formula 1 Grand Prix.
Hamilton got a great start to take the lead into turn one, and managed the gap to Verstappen, until the Dutchman was passed for second on lap 15 by McLaren's Oscar Piastri into the back straight's hairpin.
Ferrari's new recruit was then able to stretch his legs all the way to his maiden Sprint win, with the Brit coming home almost 6.9 seconds ahead of Piastri – for eight points (nine overall) and a three-place jump to seventh in the standings.
“The last like five laps or something I was in a really pretty comfortable position. It's hard to put into words what it feels like,” Hamilton said.
“Obviously it's a Sprint race, is not the main race, but even just think to get that – it's just a good stepping stone to where I'm working towards.”
Hamilton is still enjoying every new moment with the Scuderia, despite having secured a record-equaling seven titles and 104 wins, with the Chinese Sprint – and his romp to the win - all about managing the tire wear.
“I got in the car extra early because I just wanted to be present and enjoy it, because I hadn't been there for a while,” he said.
“(I got a) good start and challenging race. It is generally really close between all of us. But the tire degradation today was pretty huge I think for everybody, so I think for me it was just try to manage that early on.”
Hamilton arrived in Shanghai after a disappointing season-opening race last weekend in Australia, where he finished 10th in his debut race for Ferrari.
Piastri was happy to jump Verstappen and take second, but disappointed to not be the one to take the win from pole position – given McLaren's pace advantage.
“(It was) Tough,” Piastri said. “(It was) probably one of the more difficult ones in terms of tire degradation, so I knew I had to try and be patient.”
McLaren eyeing strong qualifying pace The pressure is now on McLaren to recover in Saturday afternoon's qualifying to what it hopes is its rightful place at the front of the grid.
“The difference between qualifying and the race, in terms of what you want from the car and what the tires need, seems to be quite big,” Piastri said.
“I think the pace we had in the car yesterday was good. I think we just in hindsight would have done a few things a bit differently in qualifying. But I think the pace is there and there's plenty of conference going this afternoon.”
Verstappen was again happy to finish in the top three, with the reigning World Champion picking up seven points to take his total haul to 24 – two behind leader, McLaren's Lando Norris, who had a scrappy race to finish eighth.
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Strict security measures in place in Mumbai for Messi's events at 2 venues Dec 14, say police
Mumbai (PTI): In view of Argentine superstar footballer Lionel Messi's visit to Mumbai on Sunday, the city police are implementing stringent security measures, like not allowing water bottles, metals, coins inside the stadiums and setting up watchtowers to keep an eye on the crowd, officials said.
The police also said taking extra care to avoid any stampede-like situation and to prevent recurrence of the chaotic situation that unfolded in Kolkata during Messi's visit on Saturday as thousands of fans protested inside the Salt Lake stadium here after failing to catch a clear glimpse of the football icon despite paying hefty sums for tickets.
Messi is expected to be present at the Cricket Club of India (Brabourne Stadium) in Mumbai on Sunday for a Padel GOAT Cup event followed by attending a celebrity football match. He is expected to proceed to the Wankhede Stadium for the GOAT India Tour main event around 5 pm.
"In view of Lionel Messi's visit to Mumbai, the police are geared up and have put in place a high level of security arrangements in and around the stadiums located in south Mumbai. Considering the chaos that prevailed in Kolkata and the security breach, we have deployed World Cup-level security arrangements at Brabourne and Wankhede stadiums," an official said.
Expecting heavy crowd near the stadiums during Messi's visit, the city police force has deployed more than 2,000 of its personnel near and around both the venues, he said.
As the Mumbai police have the experience of security 'bandobast' during the victory parade of ICC World Cup-winning Indian team and World Cup final match at the Wankhede Stadium, in which over one lakh cricket fans had gathered, we are prepared to handle a large crowd of fans, he said.
"We are trying to avoid the errors that occurred in the past," the official said.
There is no place to sneak inside the stadiums in Mumbai like the Kolkata stadium, according to him.
The police are also asking the organisers to provide all the required facilities to the fans inside the stadium, so that there will be no chaos, he said, adding the spectators have purchased tickets in the range of Rs 5,000 to 25,000. After paying so much of amount, any spectator expects proper services, while enjoying the event, he said.
The police are expecting 33,000 spectators at the Wankhede Stadium and over 4,000 at Brabourne Stadium. Besides this, more than 30,000 people are expected outside and around the stadiums just to have a glimpse of the football sensation, he said.
The organisers responsible for Messi's India visit recently came to Mumbai to discuss security arrangements. During the meeting, the Mumbai police asked them not to take the event lightly, according to the official.
After those requirements were fulfilled, the final security deployment was chalked out, he said.
Police has the standard procedure of the security arrangements inside the Wankhede Stadium, where people are barred from taking water bottles, metals objects, coins. Police are setting up watch towers near the stadiums and there will be traffic diversions, so that there is maximum space available to stand, according to the official.
Police are also appealing to the spectators to use public transport service for commuting and avoid personal vehicles to reach south Mumbai.
To avoid any stampede-like situation, police are also taking precautionary measures and will stop the fans some distance ahead of the stadium and public announcement systems will be used to guide the crowd. Barricades will be placed at various places to manage the crowd.
In case the crowd swells up beyond expectation, the police will divert people to other grounds and preparations in this regard underway, he said.
Additional police force has been deployed in south Mumbai to tackle any kind of situation, he said.
