F1 2019: Hamilton wins Mexico Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton triumphed in a nail-biting finale to the Mexican Grand Prix, brilliantly making an ambitious one-stop strategy work to win out from Ferrari Sebastian Vettel and his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas – although it wasn’t quite enough for the Briton to secure his sixth drivers title over Bottas at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

Hamilton superbly eked out the tyre life out of his hard rubber, making a 48-lap stint work to take his second win in Mexico, and Mercedes’ 100th as a constructor – although it was the first time in three years that he hasn’t claimed the title in Mexico City. A slow second pit stop helped consign early race leader Charles Leclerc to fourth, ahead of the Red Bull of Alex Albon in fifth.

Having lost his pole position yesterday, Max Verstappen endured a disastrous Mexican Grand Prix, with Lap 4 contact with Bottas – after first-lap contact with Hamilton – causing a puncture that saw him forced to recover to a distant sixth place, behind his Red Bull team mate Albon after a mammoth 66-lap stint on hard tyres.

Home hero Sergio Perez drove a fine race to finish ‘best of the rest’ for Racing Point in seventh, holding off the late charge of Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo, while the Toro Rosso pair of Daniil Kvyat and Pierre Gasly finished ninth and 10th on the road – but only after late contact between Kvyat and Nico Hulkenberg that saw the Renault driver end up clattering into the Turn 16 wall and losing his rear wing. The stewards had a look and decided to issue a 10-second penalty to the Russian, dropping him back to 11th, with Hulkenberg classified 10th to mark a double points-scoring day for Renault as rivals McLaren endured their first non-score since Belgium.

Australian MotoGP 2019: Marc Marquez wins

Marc Marquez seems to be making a habit of having race outcomes decided only on the last lap. There have been several instances through the season where the 2019 World Champion rider won and lost races on the last lap. The 2019 Australian MotoGP at Philip Island was yet another thriller which boiled down to the last lap as leader Maverick Vinales crashed out.

This win allowed Marquez to surpass the tally of five-time world champion Mick Doohan, making him the third most successful premier class winner of all time - and Honda’s most successful rider. LCR rider Cal Crutchlow finished second to make it a Honda one-two, while homeboy Jack Miller of Pramac Ducati claimed the final podium spot, much to the delight of local fans.

As expected, tyre choice became an important factor in the race - the Phillip Island circuit is known to really put tyres to the test. This is thanks to the layout of the circuit which overheats the tyres. Accordingly, the tyres used this weekend were specifically designed for this track by tyre supplier Michelin. Vinales and Marquez both opted for soft/soft, while others such as Quartararo and Dovizioso chose the hard option. Interestingly, the riders also took part in a brief test with Michelin over the weekend, to evaluate the new tyres for 2020.

Andrea Iannone of Aprilia put up a stellar show, even leading the race and pulling off two overtakes on Marquez. Aprilia is the lowest-ranked constructor and yet they were battling closely with the reigning world champion - surely this is a sparkling testament to the competitive quotient of MotoGP. Iannone finally finished in P6, with teammate Aleix Espargaro in P10. This is the best result ever for Aprilia in the history of MotoGP. In addition, it is Iannone’s best-ever result all season.

Karnataka won Vijay Hazare Trophy

Mayank Agarwal well earned confidence through his Test exploits did Karnataka a world of good as he smashed an unbeaten 55-ball 69, while KL Rahul too reached a half-century to put Karnataka on course to their fourth Vijay Hazare Trophy title win in the last seven seasons.

Tamil Nadu would've gone into the innings break knowing fully well that they finished about 15 runs short of a truly competitive total, and began their defence of 252 with spin from both ends. The bowling pair were all over the place in the first couple of overs, until Washington Sundar got one ball to utterly fox the in-form Devdutt Padikkal and force him to play the wrong line and get bowled.

But that's how far Tamil Nadu would go with the ball, as Mayank joined Rahul in Karnataka's quest for a successful run-chase at large, and a swift partnership to take the VJD par-score out of the way as dark clouds hovered over. To their advantage, Dinesh Karthik's bowling options weren't inspiring enough to force the chaser to a corner.

Karthik's expectation of his quicks replicating what Karnataka's pacers pulled off didn't come to fruition, as Mayank and Rahul unfurled drives at will. At the 10-over mark, Karnataka had 64 runs on the board for the loss of one wicket. Such was Karnataka's grip on proceedings that Karthik summoned his entire side for an impromptu team huddle to figure the best way ahead.