F1 2018: Lewis Hamilton wins Russia Grand Prix

Valtteri Bottas has fond memories of Sochi, having earned his maiden Grand Prix victory at the venue last year. But the Mercedes driver was asked to play the team game allowing Lewis Hamilton to ultimately claim a victory and extend his championship lead yet further over Sebastian Vettel.

Hamilton, who, after falling behind in the pit stops, was forced to pass Vettel on track en route to what was his third victory in Sochi. Behind the front three, Max Verstappen starred, climbing from 19th on the grid to fifth in just eight laps, which soon became the lead when the tyre strategies began to play out.

The Dutchman ended up leading the most laps of anyone, but ultimately came home fifth, behind the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen but ahead of his Red Bull team mate Daniel Ricciardo. Unsurprisingly, Verstappen also picked up Driver of the Day honors with a huge majority. Sauber’s Charles Leclerc was another to shine, the future Ferrari driver finishing seventh ahead of Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, while the Force India pair of Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez kept their noses clean this weekend to round off the top ten.

Mercedes - knowing a race win for Hamilton was crucial for both championship quests - allowed their reigning world champion to keep top spot, with Bottas - who had asked if the positions would be reversed - forced to settle for second on a track he has enjoyed much success at. Vettel came home where he started, and he now trails the Brit by 50 points with just five races of the season remaining.

Aragon MotoGP 2018: Marc Marquez extends his lead

Marc Marquez rode a master class race at MotoGP Grand Prix of Aragon, which helped him retain his place at the top of the 2018 championship standings. The Spaniard was able to beat the Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso who followed closely in second place, and the Suzuki of Andrea Iannone who delivered a spectacular third place finish.

The race got off to a dramatic start as the series' top three riders blasted out of their grid spots, but ultimately only two of them would make it past the first corner. After diving too deep into Turn 1, Marquez and his archenemy Jorge Lorenzo went wide and handed over the lead to the Dovizioso. While Marquez was able to turn his Repsol Honda around and emerge from the run-off unscathed, Lorenzo high-sided, while attempting to rejoin the racing surface and crashed in dramatic fashion.

With Marquez out of the picture and Dovizioso at the lead, it was Iannone and teammate Alex Rins who bolted to the front along with Honda's Dani Pedrosa, Aprilia's Aleix Expargaro, and LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow. The battle for the top five positions was a heated one throughout the race, and a charging Marquez only made things even hotter. Crutchlow eventually crashed out, but it was Marquez who held a tight grip on the TV cameras as he did everything he could to get back to the front and lead around his beloved MotorLand Aragon circuit.

Marquez continues to dominate the championship with 246 points, with Dovizioso in second place with 174 and Valentino Rossi in third with 159. The MotoGP fraternity now heads to the Chang International Circuit for the Thailand Grand Prix on Oct. 7.

Caribbean Premier League 2018

New Zealand’s Colin Munro smashed an unbeaten 39-ball 68 as defending champions Trinbago Knight Riders thrashed Guyana Amazon Warriors by eight wickets to lift Caribbean Premier League 2018 title for the third time.

Opting to field, Knight Riders restricted Guyana Amazon Warriors to 147 for 9, with Khary Pierre claiming 3 for 29 and Captain Dwayne Bravo picking up two wickets. In reply, Knight Riders chased down the target in just 17.3 overs, thanks to brilliant batting performances from Brendon McCullum (39) and Munro (68).

For Guyana Amazon Warriors, Luke Ronchi scored 44 off 35 balls. Chasing 148 to win, Ramdin played the anchor even as McCullum pulled out the big shots. The two added 52 for the first wicket before McCullum skied Chris Green for Delport to take the catch in the seventh over - the former New Zealand captain hit 39 in 24 balls.

Pierre was adjudged Player of the Match for his brilliant bowling figures of 3/29. Munro was earlier named in the CPL tournament team, alongside Phillips who had a big few weeks for Jamaica Tallawahs. Phillips scored 457 runs from 11 innings at a strike rate of 147 to push a strong case for one of the two available spots for the Black Caps T20 squad to face Pakistan.

F1 2018: Lewis Hamilton wins Singapore Grand Prix

For two races in a row, Lewis Hamilton has won Grand Prix that he arguably shouldn’t have. After stealing the Italian Grand Prix from under Ferrari noses, Hamilton produced another dominant display in Singapore, seeing off the challenge of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to increase his lead in the title race over arch rival Sebastian Vettel, who could only finish third.

With Ferrari calling him in for fresh rubber on lap 14, he was unable to make the undercut on Hamilton work, ending up behind Verstappen after the first round of pit stops. From then on, Vettel was in damage limitation mode, as he was forced to watch on as his 2018 championship hopes took a further hit. As the chequered flag fell on Hamilton’s 69th career win, the British driver earned himself 25 points to Vettel’s 15, the gap between them in the drivers’ standings now up to a full 40 points.

Behind the podium finishers, Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas just managed to hold off his fellow Finn Kimi Raikkonen for fourth place as Daniel Ricciardo, who’d come away from qualifying puzzled at his lack of pace, could only manage sixth. Further down the order, it was a great day for McLaren, as Fernando Alonso used his free choice of tyres resulting from qualifying 11th to end up seventh and ‘best of the rest’ in the race, ahead of the Renault of Carlos Sainz, while Charles Leclerc put in yet another impressive 2018 race performance, the newly-minted Ferrari driver ending up P9.

The second Renault of Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top ten, but ultimately, once again they day belonged to Mercedes and Hamilton who once again triumphed on a track that was not expected to suit the W09.

Novak Djokovic wins third US Open

Novak Djokovic clinched his third US open title with a 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 triumph over Juan Martin Del Potro, taking him level with Pete Sampras mark of 14 Grand Slams.

Djokovic, playing in this eighth final in New York and already the champion in 2011 and 2015 is now just three slams behind Rafael Nadal and six back from the record 20 held by Roger Federer. It was also the third time the 31 year old Serbian who missed last year’s tournament with an elbow injury which sent his career into a mini-crisis completed the Wimbledon US open double.

For world number three Del Potro, it was a heartbreaking experience coming in just his second Slam final, nine years after he was crowned US Open champion. It was Djokovic 15th win over the Argentine and fifth in five at the Slams. Victory also means that 50 of the last 55 majors have been win by the 'Big Four' of Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Andy Murray.

Del Potro was looking at having to become the first man since Pancho Gonales in 1949 to win the US title from two sets down. Djokovic sprinted into a 3-1 lead in the third set before a battling Del Potro clung on, hitting back for 3-3. But off the back of a 24-shot rally, Djokovic broke again for 5-3 and he was within tantalizing touching distance of his 14th Grand Slam title, just three months after he had left Roland Garros in despair after a shattering quarter-final exit.

Misano MotoGP 2018: Dovizioso beats Marquez

Andrea Dovizioso scored a straightforward third win of the MotoGP season at Misano ahead of Marc Marquez, as Jorge Lorenzo crashed out of second place. Dovizioso scored Ducati's third successive race win - the first time the Italian marque has taken a hat-trick since 2008 - after scything his way from fourth on the grid in the opening laps and then setting a pace his adversaries couldn't match.

Lorenzo and Marquez managed to close the gap in the latter stages until the former slid out at the Turn 8 left-hander on the penultimate lap, which left Dovizioso with a clear run to victory. Poleman Lorenzo hung onto the lead in the opening sequence of corners ahead of fellow front-row starter Jack Miller, as Marquez jumped to third ahead of Dovizioso.

But by the end of the lap Dovizioso had cleared both Marquez and Miller to move into second, and on the sixth lap of 27 he eased past Lorenzo on the run down to the Turn 8 left-hander to assume command. By that time, Pramac Ducati man Miller had crashed out of what had become fourth, leaving the leading trio with a significant gap over the rest. Dovizioso lead was hovering at less than a second until he set a new fastest lap on lap nine and five laps later his advantage had grown to nearly two seconds.

Marquez and Lorenzo, engaged in a thrilling scrap over second, edged back towards Dovizioso in the final five laps but the Italian was able to stabilize his gap and finally take the chequered flag by 2.8s after Lorenzo's crash. Behind Marquez, LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow - who ran a lonely fourth for most of the race - was promoted to the final podium spot, a further 4s down on Marquez, followed by Suzuki man Alex Rins. Yamaha's Maverick Vinales failed to make the most of his front-row starting spot, slipping to fifth on the opening lap and ultimately ending up in the same position.

Teammate Valentino Rossi had a similarly indifferent run to seventh behind the second works Honda of Dani Pedrosa. Andrea Iannone (Suzuki), Alvaro Bautista (Nieto Ducati) and Johann Zarco (Tech 3 Yamaha) completed the top 10.