Sebastian Vettel wins Hungary Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel led team mate Kimi Raikkonen home for a Ferrari one-two in Formula 1 Pirelli Magyar Nagydij 2017. With Mercedes Lewis Hamilton finishing fourth, it means Vettel extends his championship lead to 14 points heading into the summer break.

On a day when the Silver Arrows had no answer to the Scuderia, despite Vettel complaining of steering issues, Valtteri Bottas took third ahead of Hamilton, just in front of a recovering Max Verstappen, who had been penalized 10 seconds for taking his Red Bull team mate Daniel Ricciardo out of the race on the opening lap. Fernando Alonso secured his and McLaren’s best result of the year in sixth, winning a race-long battle with fellow Spaniard Carlos Sainz in the Toro Rosso. Force India again got both cars in the points, with Sergio Perez beating team mate Esteban Ocon to eighth place, whilst Stoffel Vandoorne rounded out the top ten in the second McLaren.

Vettel and Raikkonen finished less than a second apart after 70 laps of the Hungaroring, but the reds certainly had to work much harder than they anticipated for their 43 points. In the opening stages they were very much in command, as Vettel sprinted away and took Raikkonen with him, and Hamilton dropped behind team mate Bottas and Verstappen at the start. But gradually Raikkonen began to erode Vettel lead as the German started complaining of a steering problem, and when Hamilton’s car came alive on the soft Pirelli tyres in the second stint, Mercedes asked Bottas to let the Briton by.

The result puts Vettel further ahead again in the title chase with 202 points to Hamilton’s 188 and Bottas 169, while Raikkonen closes on Ricciardo 117 with 116. Daniil Kvyat was 11th in the other Toro Rosso, four-tenths ahead of Jolyon Palmer who had run 10th early on before being instructed to let faster Renault team mate Nico Hulkenberg by. The German was fighting for points when he was eased off-track in Turn 2 by Kevin Magnussen (who received a five second penalty as a result), but his R.S.17 malfunctioned right near the end and he was instructed to retire.

That left Magnussen 13th from Lance Stroll who was Williams’ sole finisher after the returning Paul di Resta drove a smooth and incident-free race battling with the Saubers until he too was told to stop near the end due to an oil leak. Pascal Wehrlein beat Sauber team mate Marcus Ericsson for 16th, as Romain Grosjean joined Hulkenberg, di Resta and Ricciardo in retirement when an improperly fastened wheel obliged Haas to tell him to stop.

Chris Froome wins Tour de France 2017

Britain Chris Froome won the Tour de France for the fourth time as Dylan Groenewegen sprinted to victory in Paris on the 21st and final stage. Groenewegen defeated German Andre Greipel in a frenetic final sprint on the Champs Elysee but the day belonged to 32-year-old Froome. The Team Sky rider is now second in the all-time list after completing his third successive victory. Rigoberto Uran was second, 54 seconds behind, with Romain Bardet third.

But the stage ended in the expected bunch finish - with several teams trying to set up their sprinters before Lotto NL-Jumbo's Groenewegen held off his rivals to cross the line first. Lotto Soudal's Greipel banged his head against his handlebars in frustration as he ended a Tour without a stage win for the first time. An unusual thing happened to Froome during the 2017 Tour - he had the yellow jersey taken off him. Froome cracked on the steep incline up to the summit finish at Peyragudes at the end of stage 12, losing 22 seconds to Italian Fabio Aru.

It gave Aru a six-second advantage and the rest of Froome's rivals hope that they could seriously threaten the 32-year-old for the first time in several years. If his rivals thought Froome, who came into the race a little light on miles was vulnerable and he responded superbly, sprinting up to the finish in Rodez at the end of stage 14 to reclaim yellow from the tiring Aru. Froome did not surrender the jersey again. The only time he was seriously threatened was when he had to stop to change a wheel shortly after he had been attacked by his rivals on stage 15 - but he managed to close the gap they had opened.

Froome did not win a stage this year - becoming only the seventh rider to win a Tour without one - but does move second in the list of most Tour titles. Only the legendary Eddie Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain - all with five wins - stand above Froome. And there are now the only three men to have worn yellow on more days - Froome has worn it 59 times and moved above Jacques Anquetil on the all-time list during this year's Tour. The two remaining jerseys were both won by Team Sunweb, with the German team also picking up four stages, two each for Michael Matthews and Warren Barguil. Yates took the white jersey off Pierre Latour at the end of stage four and kept it all the way to Paris.

Roger Federer wins eighth Wimbledon Title

Roger Federer became the first man to win Wimbledon eight times and extended his record to 19 Grand Slam titles with victory over Croatia Marin Cilic. The Swiss third seed won 6-3 6-1 6-4 as seventh seed Cilic struggled with blisters on his left foot and broke down in tears during the second set.

Federer, 35, finished the contest in one hour and 41 minutes to claim his first Wimbledon title since 2012. He becomes the oldest man in the Open Era to win at all England Club. Federer surpasses Pete Sampras and William Renshaw, who won their seventh titles in 2000 and 1889 respectively, with only Marina Navratilova still ahead in terms of Wimbledon single titles on nine.

He has won two of the three Grand Slam Titles so far this year, having returned from a six-month break to win the Australian Open in January. With 19 major titles he extends his lead over Rafael Nadal in the men’s game to four, and now stands joint-fourth on the all-time list with Helen Wills Moody, five behind Margaret Court on 24. Among his long list of achievements, Federer became the first man since Bjorn Borg in 1976 to win the Wimbledon title without dropping a set.

In other categories, Garbine Muguruza romps to victory over Venus Williams in Women’s Singles. Lucasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo clinch Wimbledon Men’s double title. Makarova and Vesnina clinch Wimbledon Women’s doubles title. James Murray and Martina Hingis clinch Wimbledon Mixed Doubles title.

Lewis Hamilton wins Britain Grand Prix

Mercedes Lewis Hamilton won the British Grand Prix for the fifth time matching the record of Jim Clark and Alain Prost – to cut Sebastian Vettel championship lead to just a single point after late tyre dramas hit both Ferraris. They allowed Valtteri Bottas to grab second from Kimi Raikkonen to secure a Mercedes one-two, as Vettel trailed home seventh.

Red Bull – off the pace of the frontrunners all afternoon – were the key beneficiaries, with Max Verstappen fourth and Daniel Ricciardo – the fans’ Driver of the Day after battling his way up from P19 on the grid –fifth. Behind them, Nico Hulkenberg secured a superb sixth place for Renault – some consolation for the French team after Jolyon Palmer in the sister car went out with hydraulic problems on the formation lap. The Force India’s of Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez took the flag in eighth and ninth respectively, with Felipe Massa the final point scorer for Williams in tenth.

As Red Bull fell back, Bottas in the other Mercedes was pushing forward. He moved ahead of Verstappen after the latter’s pit stop on the 19th lap, then ran long on his soft tyres, climbed to second behind Hamilton as the Ferraris stopped, then battled after them on his supersoft tyres after pitting on the 32nd of the 51 laps. Vettel succumbed as the Mercedes slammed past going up to Stowe on the 43rd lap, after an attempt round the outside there the previous lap hadn’t quite worked out, and then Bottas began to slice into Raikkonen’s advantage as he sensed a possible Mercedes one-two.

Stoffel Vandoorne couldn’t quite turn his top 10 qualifying position into points with 11th for McLaren, who lost Fernando Alonso at just over half distance with mechanical problems. Haas took 12th and 13th with Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean, as Marcus Ericsson was Sauber top finisher in 14th ahead of the delayed Kvyat, who got a drive-through penalty for rejoining the circuit unsafely and thus causing the collision with his team mate. Lance Stroll was 16th for Williams with some ‘aero loss’ late in the race, leading home Sauber Pascal Wehrlein.

Valtteri Bottas wins Austrian Grand Prix

Mercedes Valtteri Bottas drove a masterly race to securely victory – his second season in Austrian Grand Prix, finishing just 0.6s ahead of world championship leader Sebastian Vettel for Ferrari. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo was third after fending off Mercedes Lewis Hamilton in the closing stages.

Kimi Raikkonen took a distant fifth in the second Ferrari, with Romain Grosjean an excellent sixth for Haas. The Force India’s of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon were seventh and eighth, while Williams staged an impressive recovery with Felipe Massa and Lance Stroll – who started 17th and 18th respectively – completing the top ten. It was a dramatic beginning to the race. As Bottas made a getaway so good the stewards’ investigated a potential jump start, Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat braked too late into Turn 1 and ran into the fast-starting Fernando Alonso.

Much to the chagrin of Red Bull's Max Verstappen and his legion of orange-clad fans who sat watching in horror, Alonso's McLaren inadvertently collided with Verstappen, who spun. Verstappen and Alonso had sufficient damage that they were forced to retire. Kvyat continued, receiving a drive-through for his trouble. From there on, in many ways it was a rear-loaded race, with most of the action at the end. The Finn led easily from pole and dominated the first half of the race when the leaders were running Pirelli’s ultrasofts tyres – but once the switch to supersofts came it was a whole different story.

Jolyon Palmer’s best drive of the season saw him see off Renault partner Nico Hulkenberg, and just fail to beat Stroll to the final point by half a second. Stoffel Vandoorne was 12th in the other McLaren, penalized for ignoring blue flags, ahead of Hulkenberg, the Saubers of Pascal Wehrlein and Marcus Ericsson, and Kvyat. Carlos Sainz had to retire the sister Toro Rosso after falling dramatically from point’s contention early on with mechanical woes. The other retiree was Kevin Magnussen, who was hounding Palmer when he suffered hydraulic failure on his Haas. Vettel now has a 20-point lead heading into the British Grand Prix weekend, with 171 points to Hamilton’s 151, the closing Bottas on 136 and 107 for Ricciardo.

Germany won FIFA Confederations Cup 2017

Germany survived a whirlwind assault by Chile and capitalized on an awful mistake by the South Americans to claim 1-0 victory in a pulsating, bad tempered Confederations Cup Final. Germany won the title for the first time after Lars Stindl scored the only goal in the 20th minute when Chile midfielder Marcelo Diaz gave the ball away on the edge of his own area.

Chile, playing with their trademark high octane style and driven forward by another relentless display by Arturo Vidal, dominated the match but were let down by poor finishing. A dramatic game featured missed chances, defensive howlers, scuffles and two video reviews, one producing a highly controversial outcome in the second half. Chile defender Gonzalo Jara elbowed Timo Werner by the touchline and Serbian referee Milorad Mazic, alerted by the video assistants, let him off with a yellow card instead of a red.

Shortly afterwards, Mazic turned down Chilean appeals for a penalty, stood by his original decision after another review incident and booked Eduardo Vargas for drawing an imaginary television screen. It was a remarkable achievement for Germany to lift the trophy with a young, experimental squad, although it could also be a bad omen as no team has ever won the World Cup after winning the Confederations Cup the year before.

On the other hand, Award list is also dominated by Germans. Julian Draxler won the Golden Ball Award, Claudio Bravo from Chile won the Golden Glove award and Timo Werner won the Golden Boot award. The young Germany team also won the FIFA Fair Play Award. On the other end, Germany beat Spain 1-0 to win the European under-21 championship.

MotoGP 2017: Grand Prix of Germany

Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) has taken an incredible eighth win in a row at the Sachsenring, extending his run from the 125 World Championships to another year of the premier class – with all those wins from pole. It was anything but easy, however – with German rookie Jonas Folger pushing the reigning Champion on home turf throughout the race in a stunning ride to his first podium. Dani Pedrosa completed the podium to get back in contention following a more difficult Dutch GP.

Marquez took the lead into Turn 1 from pole, with teammate Dani Pedrosa slotting into second as Jorge Lorenzo sliced through from P6 on the grid to third, pushing Danilo Petrucci and Jonas Folger back. Marquez and Pedrosa began to pull away in the lead as Folger charged through to get himself into third - and then started threatening the Repsol Honda duo in the lead. Choosing his moment, the German rookie then took Pedrosa and prepared to attack Marquez – pushing through soon after and below lap record pace.

With Petrucci through on Lorenzo into fourth, it was the ‘Doctor’ Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) who struck next, with the number 46, Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) and Petrucci then battling for fourth as Pedrosa began to drop back from the lead duo. Folger then headed wide and Marquez took the opportunity, but couldn’t shake the German.

Vinales came out on top in the battle for fourth, limiting his losses after a poor qualifying performance. Rossi came home fifth, while Dovizioso had to settle for eighth. The standings make for tremendous reading ahead of the summer break. We're in for a thrilling climax to the 2017 season when the action returns in the Czech Republic next month.