Federal investigators are digging into the cause of a Cessna crash Sunday that killed a top aviation safety expert and a former NFL star.

It’s a case of 12 down, 10 to go for Formula 1 in 2023. Max Verstappen is cruising to a third-straight world championship for a Red Bull team who look invincible – and could yet go the whole season invincible. Yet there have been other notable performances too, with Aston Martin and more recently McLaren impressing, while behemoths like Ferrari and Mercedes are left wondering how they’ve been left so far behind Red Bull yet again. It’s now time for the usual four-week August break, but not before The Independent takes a look at the highlights and lowlights from the first five months of the 2023 season. Best driver – Max Verstappen Unsurprisingly, the easiest choice of the lot. Eight wins in a row, 10 from 12 in total, Verstappen is has a mammoth 125-point lead to team-mate Sergio Perez with 10 races left. The title is already virtually sewn up. The only question left is – how many records he can set this season? Next in line is Sebastian Vettel’s 2013 record of nine wins in a row, which he can match at his home race in Zandvoort. Thank you, next. Best team – Red Bull To the second easiest choice of the lot. It seemed highly unlikely that Red Bull could improve on their double success last year; surely the chasing pack would reel them in? In fact, it’s gone the other way. Red Bull’s rocketship RB19 is Adrian Newey’s greatest design yet. It has won all 15 races including sprints – 12 from Verstappen, three from Perez – and they’ve had five one-two finishes. Including last season, Christian Horner’s team have won 22 of the last 23 grands prix. George Russell was somewhat ridiculed for suggesting after the first race in Bahrain that Red Bull “could win every race this season.” He doesn’t look so silly now. An unprecedented perfect season could well be the story of the season. Biggest disappointment – Nyck de Vries Already out the door after 10 races, with Daniel Ricciardo replacing him at AlphaTauri, Nyck de Vries’ Formula 1 career is in tatters. With zero points, a best-finish of 12th and Red Bull overlord Helmut Marko criticising him as early as April, the writing was on the wall for De Vries from the outset. Did he deserve quite such an early exit? Probably not. But it was coming. This was not supposed to be the order of play after the Dutchman’s mightily impressive debut at Monza last year for Williams, where he finished ninth filling in for Alex Albon. A return to Formula E appears most likely for the 28-year-old now. Most improved driver/team – Aston Martin Eyebrows were raised last summer when Fernando Alonso switched from Alpine to the struggling Aston Martin, who finished seventh in the Constructors’ Standings. But how that decision has bore fruit. Alonso started the 2023 season with five podiums in six races, with the racing green Aston modelled closely on leader of the pack Red Bull, leapfrogging the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari early on. They’ve had something of a dip recently, but Alonso remains the best of the rest behind Red Bull in the world championship. Their emergence as a frontrunner will be undoubtedly confirmed if they can achieve a race victory in the second-half of the season. Biggest surprise – McLaren’s recent revival Aside from the extent of Red Bull’s dominance, the July renaissance from the McLaren papaya has come completely out the blue. It looked set to be a long season when, in the season-opener in Bahrain, Lando Norris pitted six times amid issues with the MCL60. But, having made personnel changes and altered their floor of the car, Norris secured two second-place finishes in a row in Silverstone and Hungary. Australian rookie Oscar Piastri has also impressed after a cagey start – the highlight a sterling drive to finish second in the Belgian GP sprint race on Saturday. Biggest underachiever – Ferrari This will not be the biggest surprise. After looking so fierce and domineering at the start of 2022, how the Scuderia’s fortunes have reversed in the 18 months since. Ferrari have not won a race since Charles Leclerc in Austria last year – over 12 months now – and despite changing their team principal in the off-season from Mattia Binotto to Fred Vassuer, they continue to be impacted by the same disorderly confusion which characterised last season. Charles Leclerc appears close to breaking point on occasions, with Carlos Sainz not far behind. Ferrari themselves will do well not to be left bereft in the midfield in the remainder of 2023. Biggest shock – Toto Wolff revealing Mercedes will ditch car concept Max Verstappen insisting he could quit F1 if more sprint races are added to the calendar was a shock. But just beating it, it didn’t take long for Mercedes to finally ditch their unique no-sidepod design. Toto Wolff didn’t even wait until the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix; testing, practice and qualifying had told him enough. “I don’t think this package is going to be competitive eventually,” he said. “We got it wrong last year. We thought we could fix it by sticking to the concept of car but it didn’t work out so we just need to switch our focus on to what we believe is the right direction.” Improvement for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell has been slow but steady since. Biggest farce – Esteban Ocon pit-lane incident in Baku Everyone knew it was happening. The pit wall, the broadcasters – but not the FIA seemingly. Esteban Ocon had to pit before the last lap of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix having pursued a bold – albeit ineffective in the end – strategy to drive the whole race on one set of tyres. F1 rules dictate every driver must pit at least once. So the shocking scenes which followed of Ocon almost running over photographers and officials walking in the pit lane was shambolic and extremely unsafe. Best race – Australian Grand Prix In a season lacking classic races thus far, the street track of Albert Park in Melbourne did at least provide drama from start to finish. Three red flags were thrown due to crashes throughout the race, with a late shunt forcing a captivating two-lap shootout to finish, which subsequently resulted in the Alpines crashing into each other and Carlos Sainz penalised for spinning Fernando Alonso. The sort of chaotic carnage which has not been replicated since. Worst race – Hungarian Grand Prix Expectations were high in Budapest after Hamilton claimed his first pole position since December 2021. Could he defend from Max Verstappen from lights out? Could there be a battle between the pair not seen since Abu Dhabi 2021? No, no there couldn’t. Verstappen dived down the inside at turn one and was not seen again. The race descended into nothing short of a bore-fest and had just 16 overtakes – the lowest amount in any grand prix in 2023. For comparison, last year’s race at the Hungaroring had 61 overtakes. Read More Daniel Ricciardo is back - and this time he wants to go out on top Lewis Hamilton makes Austin Powers reference to show Max Verstappen dominance Max Verstappen extends invincible streak with victory at Belgian Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton reveals return of major issue with Mercedes car at Belgian Grand Prix Max Verstappen extends invincible streak with victory at Belgian Grand Prix ‘We should not be deterred’: Lewis Hamilton unhappy with stewards after penalty

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You might not think that a man ogling a woman is particularly news or praise-worthy, but tens of millions of people disagree. A TikTok posted by an Italian influencer has gone stratospherically viral, not because of anything she’s doing, but because of the apparently laudable restraint shown by an admirer. In the video, model and dancer Barbara Gambatesa is trying on a skin-tight suit in a tailor’s shop, right by a door leading onto the street. A passer-by spots her and stops to have a look, shamelessly lingering and seemingly overwhelmed by her curvaceous beauty. Puffing on a cigarette while tilting his head to soak her up from different angles, he eventually turns around, walks away and carries on with his life. But rather than criticise the man for such blatant gawking, social media users have been gushing in their praise for his “perfect” behaviour. “He looked. He admired. He stole one more look, then simply went about his business. That's how you look at a beautiful person,” one X/Twitter user commented. This particular post was viewed more than 33.8 million times in three days, as fellow commentators shared their appreciation for the man’s response. “I know someone is going to ruin the moment and call him a perv when truly he did everything right,” one wrote. “[Admiring] without violating something so beautiful.” Another agreed, applauding him for not taking things too far: “He just looked at her with admiration, without disturbing or harassing her.” A third admitted: “Every man has been in this position before,” before implying that the man would come to regret not “shooting his shot.” Meanwhile, others shared how they would have reacted in the moment, with one boasting: “I’m the type that would’ve respectfully told her how gorgeous she is, and then went about my day.” So, to be clear, this man is being celebrated for not “harassing” or “violating” a woman who was a total stranger to him. Yeah, bravo, man. And bravo, the internet. Fortunately, some viewers haven’t totally lost the plot, with one pointing out: “He creepily paced and stared at her debating if he should harass her or not, let’s not get it twisted.” Meanwhile, a psychologist fumed: “Praising a man for looking at a woman’s butt and not harassing her? When has society’s standards become this low?" Carly Dober, who specialises in the emotional wellbeing of young women, stressed that condoning such behaviour fuels the idea that women owe men something, according to the New York Post. “While restraint or holding back might be being celebrated by some men, that attitude might reinforce the belief that women are solely there to be accessed for pleasure by men, or to get attention from men and that they are being the ‘bigger person’ in not going out of their way to hit on women,” she said. “Culturally, some men still also think that women wearing particular clothes or presenting themselves in certain ways still demands attention from the opposite sex. This is still something that needs to change.” Sign up for 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

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