New boy Vettel plays down Ferrari hopes in Melbourne.
English Premier League leaders Manchester City and Chelsea slugged out a magnificent 4-4 draw at Stamford Bridge.
England cricketer Ben Stokes will test his driving skills against five Formula One drivers, including Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, in the sport's second virtual Grand Prix this weekend. The World Cup winning all-rounder will team up with Thai racer Alexander Albon in the Red Bull line-up for his first esports competition.
The McLaren Racing team has withdrawn from this weekend's season-opening Australian Grand Prix after a team member tested positive for coronavirus, the team said on Thursday. The positive test at McLaren follows four crew members of fellow Formula One team Haas being quarantined due to the outbreak.
Lewis Hamilton spent the off-season crisscrossing the globe to party with A-list celebrities but Formula One's reigning champion is adamant there will be no hangover when he returns to work at this week's season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
The UK capital on Wednesday unleashed a major operation to manage the several thousands of people expected to queue over the next few days to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth II as she lies in state at Westminster Hall.
As expected, it was not a great result for Sahara Force India in the qualifying session for Sunday's Australian Grand Prix as Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez will start the season-opening race from the 14th and 15th spots respectively.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton took pole for Mercedes at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton has dismissed criticism from former Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg as the product of someone seeking "headlines".
While Valtteri Bottas claimed a dominant win for Mercedes and his team mate Lewis Hamilton held off Red Bull's Max Verstappen for second, Ferrari's drivers were left scrambling for minor points in a sobering start for the Scuderia.
Fernando Alonso felt lucky to be alive after walking away from a spectacular crash that left his obliterated McLaren scattered across the Albert Park circuit and brought a halt to the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday. Alonso's right wheel clipped Esteban Gutierrez's Haas at high speed going into turn three of the 18th lap and the impact sent the Spaniard's McLaren careening into a barrier, smashing it to pieces, before it flipped, rolled and flew end-over-end into another barrier. The two-time Formula One world champion emerged from the wreckage and walked gingerly over to Mexican Gutierrez, where the pair embraced. "I'm okay, I'm trying to put everything in place again," the 34-year-old told Sky Sports in the paddock after Nico Rosberg won the race for Mercedes.
The next time the four-time world champion will get behind the wheel will be for first Friday practice at Melbourne's Albert Park on March 23.
World champion Hamilton stormed to pole with a record lap of one minute 21.164 seconds at Albert Park, with a gap of more than six-tenths of a second to the second placed Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen.
A summary of the opening day's action in the UEFA Champions league on Tuesday.
Roundup of Champions League matches played on Wednesday night
Fernando Alonso passed a final medical examination on Thursday and will be able to participate in the Malaysian Grand Prix this weekend after the Spaniard missed the Formula One season-opener in Australia due to concussion.
Formula One's Australian season-opener lacked a vital ingredient, overtaking, and it will take years to fix the problem, managing director for motorsports Ross Brawn said on Monday.
Valtteri Bottas knows he needs to step up his game from last season if he is to have any chance of keeping his place at Mercedes.
IMAGES from the Champions League matches played on Tuesday.
'NO problem. Nobody was hurt, which is the most important thing'
The Argentine joined Barca on a free transfer during the close season, but made only five appearances in all competitions due to a calf injury and his cardiac issues, scoring once in a 2-1 home defeat by Real Madrid.
India's young batters Yastika Bhatia and Shafali Verma dazzled at the top with contrasting half-centuries to power their team to a consolation two-wicket victory over Australia in the third women's ODI, which ended the home team's 26-match unbeaten streak in Mackay.
Dutch Formula One driver Giedo van der Garde dropped his legal action against Sauber, allowing the team to race in this weekend's season-opening Australian Grand Prix without him.
An Australian court has found in favour of Dutch driver Giedo van der Garde in his bid to force the Sauber Formula One team to let him drive for them this season.
A round-up of all the tennis action from around the globe.
'I think the team's getting stronger, pushing very hard. I think people are fired up and we are motivated for tomorrow'
Ferrari showed impressive pace during pre-season testing and are considered the team most likely to dethrone Mercedes.
India will open their campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan in the Women's ODI World Cup, starting in New Zealand on March 4.
Mercedes set for proper fight with Ferrari in Melbourne
In a ceremony on Monday on the occasion of Parakram Diwas, Prime Minister Narendra Modi named the 21 largest unnamed islands of Andaman and Nicobar after Param Vir Chakra awardees.
Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes 1-2 at the top of the timesheets for the first free practice session at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Friday, while McLaren's hopes of a clean start were tempered by reliability issues.
One of cricket's greatest players passed into the ages on Monday. Rediff.com salutes the legend.
'I'm the first one to say we shouldn't be speaking bad about things on TV, but I think the new qualifying format is pretty rubbish'
World champion Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets for Mercedes in both practice sessions of the Australian Grand Prix on Friday but team mate Nico Rosberg crashed as waterlogged conditions put a dampener on Formula One's season opener.
The gap between Mercedes and the rest has narrowed and Ferrari "have something up their sleeve" at this week's season-opening Australian Grand Prix, according to champion Lewis Hamilton.
McLaren unveiled their new Formula One car on Sunday, certain it cannot be any worse than last year's but still unsure when they might get back to winning ways after their longest drought in decades. The former champions have not won a race since 2012 and finished last season, the first of a new partnership with Honda, ninth of the 10 teams with just 27 points compared to 703 for dominant Mercedes. The three years without a win is the team's longest barren stretch since their absence from the top step of the podium in 1994-96. "As we embark on the second year of our renewed McLaren-Honda partnership, all of us remain united in our purpose. That purpose is to develop our team towards our shared ambition: to win," said McLaren boss Ron Dennis. "We'll make no predictions as to when those wins will come," he added. The new MP4-31 car was presented online in a predominantly black livery with some prominent new sponsors in LVMH's sparkling wine brand Chandon and watchmaker Richard Mille replacing the departed Tag Heuer.
Ferrari's new team principal Mattia Binotto said earlier in the year that Vettel, as the team's "champion", would be given priority over Leclerc in certain racing situations, though he later clarified the drivers would be "free to fight".
The unfortunate associations with the name Charles for an English king -- one who was executed; the other with a very unsavoury reputation -- led royal observers to assume that Charles would not take his Christian name when he became king.
Lewis Hamilton has raised his game but whether the Mercedes driver can deny Ferrari a second successive win of the season in China this weekend remains to be seen.
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