Was 2025 Oscar Piastri’s best chance at an F1 title or a prelude to glory? | Jack Snape

Tumbling from the Formula One precipice, ultimately Oscar Piastri was not the first Australian in 40 years to be crowned world champion. The man from Melbourne finished a narrow third in the driver standings this year behind his McLaren teammate Lando Norris and four-time champion Max Verstappen. Now, he is back to square one.Midway through the season Piastri lead Norris by a comfortable 34 points and Verstappen by a chasm. But a run of six rounds without a podium left him on the outside looking in, and by the end at Abu Dhabi he finished 13 points behind his teammate

Burning down the Baz-house is easy, but what comes after that for England? | Barney Ronay

Overprepared. Overconfident. Overblown. Over there. And now just over

‘Like a movie’: Lando Norris relives final lap to glory and partying till 6am as world champion

F1’s new superstar shares memories from road to glory Briton tells of ‘cool flashbacks’ on track in Abu DhabiAfter becoming Formula One world champion for the first time, Lando Norris revealed that he had enjoyed the final moments of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday by considering all the moments that had brought him to the pinnacle of the sport.Norris was speaking the day after he won the world championship by taking third place at the Yas Marina circuit. His title rival Max Verstappen won the race but fell short of Norris by two points. The fight remained tight to the decisive last round with Norris’s McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri, who had led the championship for a large part of the season, also in the mix going into the final race ultimately finishing third.“It was like a movie,” the 26‑year‑old said

Account closures and restrictions are angering racing punters but there is an answer

Racing enjoyed its biggest win for many years in last month’s budget. The threatened harmonisation of duty rates for betting and gaming was not simply seen off, but routed, with the differential between the two rates significantly increased. As an added bonus, meanwhile, racing was excluded from the small rise in the duty rate for bets on football and other sporting events.Having celebrated the win, though, the next step is to ensure that the benefits are maximised. And since, in relative terms, racing has just become a more attractive product for bookmakers, what better moment could there be to address one of the major obstacles that many punters face when they want to bet on the horses?That barrier is account closures and restrictions on punters who are – or appear to be – sufficiently smart to make a long-term profit on their betting

Ross Byrne says escort defender crackdown could see locks converted to wings

The Gloucester fly-half Ross Byrne believes international head coaches could convert second-rows into wings for the next men’s Rugby World Cup in 2027 to capitalise on the crackdown on escort defenders.Last October World Rugby instructed referees to scrutinise and punish defending teams obstructing opponents chasing high contestable kicks, a move that has had a profound tactical impact on the elite game.The former Leinster No 10 said it is a “backward step” and a “negative” development that will fundamentally change the sport long term.“Unfortunately I think it’s changed how everybody plays,” Byrne said. “Everybody knows the stats: because of the new rules whoever kicks the ball is most likely to get it back

McCullum’s ‘overprepared’ Ashes remark may prove England’s Bazball epitaph

Brendon McCullum hated the term Bazball from the moment it entered the lexicon, deeming it to be reductive and perhaps knowing how it might be weaponised down the line. Now, 2-0 down in an away Ashes series that began with high hopes, it has become the butt of Australian jokes.But McCullum has not helped himself, either. After the gutting at the Gabba, his insistence that, if anything, England trained “too hard” before the day‑night match was like trying to put out a bin fire with petrol. It risks becoming his epitaph as England head coach if performances do not take an upturn