Lewis Hamilton had hoped his revamped Mercedes would have propelled him closer to the front after he finished sixth in practice for Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix. Hamilton’s Mercedes team arrived for the sixth round of the season in the sun-cooked principality armed with a major upgrade. But after an encouraging start – with Hamilton briefly heading the order in the opening running of the weekend – the British driver ended the day half-a-second behind Max Verstappen, who finished fastest for Red Bull. George Russell was only 12th in the other Mercedes. “It is a shame we were not as close as I hoped we would be at the end of the session,” said Hamilton. “In P1, I thought, ‘Wow, maybe we’re looking pretty good’, but in P2 we were close to half-a-second off. I don’t think we have half a second in the bag. “We’ve just got to keep chipping away to see if we can squeeze any more juice out of the cup.” After giving up on this season’s car on the eve of the opening race in Bahrain, Mercedes have spent the ensuing dozen weeks working on a new design philosophy. The Silver Arrows have abandoned their controversial zero-sidepod concept and introduced a new front suspension, new floor and cooling system in a drastic change of development on a car which has contributed to the longest losing streak of Hamilton’s career. On Sunday, it will be 539 days since Hamilton last stood on the top step of the podium at the penultimate round of the contentious 2021 season in Saudi Arabia. And although Mercedes are keen not to draw too many conclusions at this week’s unique Monte Carlo configuration – and believe the following round at the well-trodden Circuit de Catalunya venue on the outskirts of Barcelona will present them with a better understanding of where they stand – the evidence of practice suggests they are no closer to providing a real challenge to Red Bull. Hamilton added: “It’s not really the place to test an upgrade, but the car was generally feeling good. “It’s very clear where the lack of performance is, and we will talk about that in the debrief. Hopefully this gives us a platform to build on moving forwards.” Verstappen and team-mate Sergio Perez are the only men to have won a race this year, but their rapid Red Bull is not necessarily suited to the narrow and slow-speed track in Monaco. However, despite Perez managing only seventh in practice, Verstappen’s pace indicates he could still be the driver to beat. Home favourite Charles Leclerc is ready to pounce – after he finished just 0.065 seconds back – with his Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz, who crashed out of second practice remaining following a mistake at the high-speed swimming pool chicane, third. Fernando Alonso could be a contender, too. The Aston Martin driver, 41, took fourth spot, 0.220 sec adrift of Verstappen. Lando Norris finished fifth in his McLaren. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Lewis Hamilton: Racist abuse of Vinicius Junior really hits home for me Bernie Ecclestone would be surprised if Lewis Hamilton wanted to leave Mercedes Lewis Hamilton insists right decision is made as Emilia Romagna GP cancelled

MLB The Show 12 Technical Test sign-up information, dates, eligible consoles and more.

When a seam joining two segments of the Keystone oil pipeline ruptured on a frigid night last December

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 14, 2023--

When it’s not making disastrous decisions around the housing of migrants on barges found to contain Legionella, the Home Office is reviewing the 2016 Investigatory Powers Act and considering a proposal to require telecoms operators to notify the government of “technical changes” to their services before they are implemented – something which has been slammed as “catastrophically short-sighted”. Between 5 June and 31 July, the Home Office consulted on revising the legislation passed by Theresa May’s government, with one of the planned changes relating to “notification requirements” placed on businesses. The consultation document reads: “We propose to make changes that would support cooperation between government and industry by setting clear expectations about the circumstances in which operators might be expected to notify the Secretary of State of planned changes to their service that could have a negative impact on investigatory powers and, where necessary, mandating notification of planned changes. “This would be intended to facilitate early engagement between operators and the government so that, where necessary, appropriate steps can be taken in good time to ensure that any negative impact on investigatory powers is fully considered, and so that we can ensure continuity of lawful access to data against a background of changing technology.” However, it was a news article from Just Security on Tuesday which reignited concerns that the UK Government is about to do something “ultimately unsafe”. The piece explains: “While the proposal does not specify what technical changes would require notification, these may include changes in the architecture of software that would interfere with the UK’s current surveillance powers. “As a result, an operator of a messaging service wishing to introduce an advanced security feature would now have to first let the Home Office know in advance. “Accordingly, the Secretary of State, upon receiving such an advance notice, could now request operators to, for instance, abstain from patching security gaps to allow the government to maintain access for surveillance purposes.” If the idea of Suella Braverman being able to halt security fixes so the government can continue to spy on people doesn’t fill you with dread, we’re not sure what will. While the Home Office goes on to add in its consultation document that there is a proposed requirement for the home secretary to “consider the necessity and proportionality” of imposing such a duty on businesses, Twitter/X users remain fairly troubled by the prospect: The Investigatory Powers Act, which was dubbed “the snooper’s charter” by critics when it was first proposed, is separate to the Online Safety Bill, which the government is still trying to pass through parliament. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 8, 2023--

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Special prosecutors in Switzerland have closed criminal proceedings against FIFA President Gianni Infantino relating to undisclosed meetings with the country’s former attorney general

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And the winner is... a 16-year-old Colombian whose videos of his life in the countryside landed him an award at TikTok's answer to the...