Lewis Hamilton accused George Russell of “dangerous” driving after the Mercedes team-mates collided at 200mph in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix. Max Verstappen will start Sunday’s race from pole position ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz with British driver Lando Norris an impressive third for McLaren. Hamilton lines up in fourth, despite a bizarre coming together with Russell, who qualified 12th, on the main straight at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya. As both Mercedes men started their hot laps in the closing moments of Q2, Hamilton moved to his left and out of Russell’s tow to assume the racing line for the first right-hander corner. But the seven-time world champion was forced to take to the grass after Russell, pre-occupied with Sainz ahead of him, closed the door. Hamilton kicked up dirt from the grass, while his right front-wing endplate flew off following contact with Russell. “George just backed off,” said Hamilton over the radio. “That is really dangerous. He pulled over to the left. I might have some damage on the car.” Although Hamilton’s time was good enough to progress to Q3, and limp back to the pits for repairs, Russell was eliminated. “You didn’t tell me there was a car behind,” said Russell. “I don’t know what the hell was going on in that session. The car was bouncing. I couldn’t get my tyres working.” Both Mercedes drivers were summoned to see the stewards to explain their version of events. Russell was let off the hook with a formal warning after he was adjudged not to have checked his mirrors. Hamilton, 38, revealed he cleared the air with Russell, 25, after he moved to draw a line under their first coming together as team-mates. “It was just a misunderstanding,” said Hamilton, who qualified fifth but moved up a place after Pierre Gasly was penalised for blocking in qualifying. “I have spoken to George. I went and shook his hand and that was it.” The Mercedes drivers were closer on track than desired after Russell aborted his previous lap. “Lewis was not aware that I was starting a quick lap,” said Russell. “I was looking ahead to get the slipstream from Sainz. “It was not something that either driver necessarily did wrong, but within the team it shouldn’t happen and the communication should have been better towards us.” Hamilton and Nico Rosberg – in the paddock on Saturday as a pundit for Sky Sports – collided on the opening lap here at the peak of their acrimonious relationship in 2016. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff threatened Hamilton and Rosberg with a ban if they collided again. And the Austrian was asked if Saturday’s qualifying collision between his current drivers evoked memories of that race in Spain seven years ago. “No, it wasn’t shades of 2016,” he said, with a wry smile. “I wish we were in the situation of 2016 where we’re so quick. “But it shouldn’t happen. Team-mates should never collide – and even with another car, you should never collide in qualifying. “Lewis saw it as his last opportunity and didn’t think that George was on that line. It looks silly, but it wasn’t, it was just a miscommunication. “This is a team effort and we need to review our communications to avoid it in the future.” With Mercedes tripping over one another, Verstappen, who finished four tenths clear of Sainz, will be favourite to convert pole into his fifth victory from seven rounds this year. Verstappen heads Sergio Perez by 39 points in the standings, but his Red Bull team-mate starts only 11th after he fell off the road. It was a qualifying session to forget for Charles Leclerc, too, as he could manage only 19th of the 20 runners. Home favourite Fernando Alonso lines up ninth on the grid. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Max Verstappen tops rain-hit final practice for Spanish Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton toils in 12th as Max Verstappen and Red Bull dominate in Spain Fernando Alonso: Hamilton can win eighth title but Verstappen can break records

Six people died in a missile strike late on Saturday night (21 October) on a mail depot in the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine. Another 14 people were injured in the blast, which is believed to have been caused by a Russian S-300 rocket, Kharkiv governor Oleh Syniehubov said on social media. All of the victims were employees of private Ukrainian postal and courier Nova Poshta. In a statement, the company said that the air raid siren had sounded just moments before the attack, leaving those inside the depot with no time to reach shelter. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky described the strike as an attack on an “ordinary civilian object.” Read More

CINCINNATI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 1, 2023--

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With the fictional streaming service known as Streamberry from Black Mirror’s “Joan Is Awful” episode,

The Women’s World Cup has barely had time to get going, and already organisers at FIFA have managed to drop the ball when it comes to, well, women. FIFA announced its English language commentary team on 18 July, two days before the tournament kicked off, and out of nine commentators it contains exactly zero women. The list of commentators is as follows: Simon Hill, Robbie Thomson, Simon Brotherton, Kevin Keatings, Mark Scott, John Roder, Paul Walker, Chris Wise, Steve Wilson. Not exactly a beacon of gender diversity, eh? Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Unsurprisingly, the announcement left fans fuming, while others could scarcely believe that FIFA had managed to mess up on such an obvious opportunity to spotlight women commentators who often struggle to get a look-in on men’s broadcasts. Sports journalist Manasi Pathak wrote on Twitter: “So you’re telling me FIFA could not hire a single female commentator for what’s expected to be the biggest women’s sporting event?” Sally Freedman, another sports writer, said: “Seriously… are we in 2023 or 1950? It’s the *women’s* World Cup, yet here is our allsinging, all dancing all male commentary team!” Despite the backlash, FIFA also managed to annoy people with its response, which was to appoint a smaller team of women as “co-commentators” the next day. They are Amy Chapman, Melissa Barbieri, Izzy Christiansen, Laura Bassett and Rehanne Skinner. One person suggested FIFA was still discriminating against women. They said: “‘Co-commentators’ aka women, know your place behind the men, okay?” It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time FIFA has faced criticism for somehow managing to discriminate against women even at the Women’s World Cup. It still offers a significantly smaller prize pool for the tournament versus the men’s edition, with prize money standing at only $150m. Men’s World Cup prize money was $440m last year. England’s Lionesses will kick off their campaign against Haiti on Saturday. Also in their group is Denmark and China. Hopefully we’ll get to hear some women’s voices on commentary by then. Is that really too much to ask? 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.

Nathalie Stutzmann has become the second woman to lead a Richard Wagner opera at the Bayreuth Festival

The UK government’s push to discourage companies from profiting from inflation seems to be resonating, at least among