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Craig Whymark

Unsung hero

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Lando Norris believes that Max Verstappen knows “deep down” that he was in the wrong during the Mexican Grand Prix, and that the three-time Formula 1 champion should know what to change in future.

Verstappen collected two 10-second penalties for a pair of 10th-lap incidents with Norris in Mexico, one for running Norris out of road at Turn 4 and another for leaving the track at Turn 7 and gaining an advantage by passing the McLaren driver.

In the aftermath, Norris reiterated his respect for Verstappen but was dismayed by the championship leader’s approach during the race – having noted that his only job was to stop his rival from outscoring him in races.

Norris said that he still hadn’t spoken to Verstappen about the race, and that it was not up to him to encourage the Dutchman to change his ways.

“We’ve not spoken and I don’t think we need to,” Norris said. “I’ve got nothing to say. 

“I still have a lot of respect for Max and everything he does – not respect for what he did last weekend, but respect for him as a person, and also what he’s achieved. 

“But it’s not for me to speak to him. I’m not his teacher, I’m not his mentor or anything like that.

“Max knows what he has to do. He knows that he did wrong, deep down he does. And it’s for him to change, not for me.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

He added: “Max is probably one of the most capable drivers on the grid, if not the most. He knows what he can and can’t do and where the limits are. So, he knows the changes he has to make.”

Norris explained that he was not going to change his approach when it came to racing Verstappen, and felt that he was good at keeping his nose clean during contentious moments on track.

He admitted that he might have “paid the price” for lacking aggression in certain scenarios, but that the points from keeping it clean in races have nonetheless added up.

“I think something I’ve done well in my whole career is staying out of trouble and keep the car in one piece. All those little things add up over a championship and over a season, especially in a cost cap season as well,” Norris contended.

“I’ve always had the mentality to want to race fair and clean. I think I probably said it last weekend, I’ve been maybe too kind, whether I was attacking or defending. But I think I’ve always made good decisions from that side. 

“Sometimes I’ve paid the price for not being aggressive enough, but the rest of it is not up to me. Even when you don’t realise it, there are times when you have to avoid a potential crash and maybe you don’t see it on the TV.

“There are more times that people realise that you go through those certain scenarios.  And I think those are some of the challenges we have every now and then. 

“But I’ll come into this weekend with a new expectation of hopefully having clean, fair racing. And I think that’s what we should expect.”

Josh Rock won his third PDC ranking title of the year as he edged Jonny Clayton to claim the Players Championship 30 in Leicester.

The Northern Irishman earned a hard-fought 8-7 win after a 118 checkout in the deciding leg.

The 23-year-old has had a fine terrific ProTour campaign, clinching his maiden European Tour title with victory over Clayton in May’s Dutch Darts Championship.

Rock followed that up with Players Championship 17 glory in August and now this title in Leicester, which was the final event of the season.

He raced into a 3-0 lead after a slow start from Clayton, only for the two-time World Cup winner to land a superb 132 combination.

After falling 6-2 behind, the Welshman again fought back to level after legs of 11, 13, 14 and 14 darts.

Clayton managed to force a decider, but he did not get the chance at a match-winning opportunity as Rock finished with 118 to claim success.

It meant Rock came seventh in the Players Championship, before the Players Championship Finals in England next month.

His attention will now turn to preparing for the Grand Slam of Darts which begins on 9 November.

Derrick Lewis and Daniel Cormier fought six years ago, but is there still bad blood to this day?

That appears to be the case at least on Lewis’ side as the veteran heavyweight cast Cormier in a negative light at Wednesday’s media day ahead of his fight with Jhonata Diniz at UFC Edmonton this Saturday. Lewis was asked what fight in his lengthy career he’d want to run back and “DC” was the name that came to mind.

“Probably DC,” Cormier said. “Because that’s still not sitting right with me, I don’t know. Do people really like DC like that?

“I told DC in his face, that guy a piece of shit. He’s a piece of shit, scumbag. F*ck DC.”

Lewis and Cormier met in the main event of UFC 230 in November 2018, with Cormier defending his heavyweight championship against “The Black Beast.” Cormier recorded his first and only successful heavyweight title defense, submitting Cormier in the second round.

When Lewis asked to elaborate on his issues with Cormier, he gave a cryptic response, joking about a past beef over a Popeyes chicken sponsorship, but then insulting Cormier again.

“DC know why,” Lewis said. “Everyone know why, too, he disrespect that Popeyes chicken, but other than that, he’s a piece of shit.”

Lewis’ comments made the rounds on social media, though it remains unclear how serious the often sardonic fighter intended to be.

During an episode of The Ariel Helwani Show on Wednesday, Helwani gave Cormier an impromptu call to sort out the situation, with the conversation arguably only raising more questions.

“I haven’t seen him for a while, but I was pretty hard on him about retiring because he had lost a couple of fights and I was kind of telling the truth and he seemed mad at me, but I haven’t seen him,” Cormier said. “I’m going to see him this weekend and I’m going to kind of ask him, ‘Yo, are you mad at me?’”

Lewis has seen mixed results in his past eight fights, with just three wins during that stretch, including a third-round knockout of Rodrigo Nascimento in his most recent outing this past May. In Cormier’s role as an on-air analyst and podcaster, he’s required to give his honest opinion on how fighters are performing and he believes he might have said something that rubbed Lewis the wrong way.

It’s important to note that Cormier was yet to see the clip of Lewis’ comments himself when discussing the matter with Helwani, so he was basing his response strictly on second-hand accounts. Still, real or not, Cormier sees no reason to reignite their former feud.

“It sounds like it may be a little underlying, he might be a little pissed at me because of the way I talked about him,” Cormier said. “I don’t know what fight it was where it he didn’t look great, but then he knocked the last guy out and I was like, ‘I’m glad he’s back.’ So I don’t know. My opinions go with their performances and I think maybe that’s what it is, but in terms of anything else, Derrick and I don’t really have many things that we do together outside of the Popeyes thing and then our fight.

“But we can’t be mad at each other, we already fought. It’s settled.”

RUUD VAN NISTELROOY has revealed that Sir Alex Ferguson wished him “luck” before taking charge of his first game as interim manager.

And it proved to have worked as Man Utd thrashed Leicester 5-2 in the Carabao Cup in the wake of Erik ten Hag’s sacking on Monday.

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When the Red Devils play Tottenham in the quarter-finals in December, they will likely be led by Sporting Lisbon boss Ruben Amorim.

Van Nistelrooy, who is set to face Chelsea on Sunday, unsurprisingly turned to his former boss Ferguson for advice before Leicester’s visit.

The pair fell out leading to Van Nistelrooy’s exit back in 2006 but have long since made up.

He said: “Yes I spoke to him, and he wished me luck. We talked about my situation and the team.

“Most of all he wished me luck. It is always great to speak to him.”

Van Nistelrooy, 48, was then asked if he ever thought he would be back at United in these circumstances after the way he left 18 years ago.

And the Dutchman replied: “No, at the time I wasn’t thinking about that, to manage.

“I left in 2006 for Real Madrid to perform and to play and to get the most out of yourself as a player.

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“After that, I started to think about coaching. It was special to come back to the club and the city that I love. 

“I enjoy it. I enjoy being around Manchester, the players and staff, although there’s not many still around.”

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Van Nistelrooy’s explosive fallout with Fergie’s came after the striker was an unused substitute during United’s 4-0 League Cup triumph over Wigan in 2006.

Tensions flared again when the Dutchman was left out of the squad for United’s 4-0 win over Charlton on the last game of the season.

He previously told the Overlap podcast: “I started pre-season but you knew he was moving on without me and putting the future of the club into other players so that was clear.”

Van Nistelrooy also revealed he called Ferguson to apologise for his profanity, on the advice of his wife, in 2011 to patch things up.

Despite making 219 appearances for United and scoring 150 goals over five years, Van Nistelrooy admitted it was strange to find himself in the role Ferguson fulfilled when he was playing.

He told a press conference on Thursday: “My team talk, I’m standing in front of the team, telling them about what Manchester United is all about.

“What it is to play at Old Trafford, what songs are being sung by the fans and why.

“You try to transmit that lovely feeling of playing for this club. It’s a proud moment to do that and to share that with players.

“And what they were transmitting on the pitch and the way it interacted with the supporters towards m.

“It was unbelievable support and it only strengthens me to do the utmost, especially short-term, for Chelsea on Sunday.”

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Ruben Amorim is ‘Mourinho 2.0’ who turned Sporting from ‘walking dead’ into Portuguese champs… he can revive Man Utd

WHEN Ruben Amorim took charge of Sporting Lisbon in March 2020, one club official compared their situation to the “walking dead”, writes Jordan Davies.

Optimism and hope was at an all-time low.

But the Amorim-effect was almost instantaneous, guiding the Portuguese sleeping giants to their first league title for 19 years in 2020/21, losing just once and only conceding 20 goals.

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Since then, Sporting have lifted another league title in 2023/24 – as well as two League Cups – and currently sit top with nine wins from nine this term.

He may be young, but Amorim already has an eye for rebuilding and revitalising fallen super powers with his infectious charisma and intense tactical philosophy that hardly ever wavers. 

The “walking dead” at Manchester United must be praying for a similar sort of revival.

And they may just get it from one of the most talented young coaches on the continent – a man accustomed to breathing new life back into crumbling institutions such as Old Trafford.

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Amorim has spent the last decade dreaming of one day gracing England’s Premier League, such was his admiration for an ex-United boss in Jose Mourinho growing up.

Often nicknamed ‘Mourinho 2.0’, Amorim spent a week with his coaching idol in an internship capacity at United’s Carrington training base in 2018, going on to cite him as his “reference point”.

United should not be expecting a mini-Mourinho, as Amorim said himself: “Mourinho is one of a kind. There won’t be another Mourinho. Mourinho is unique.”

And yet, you cannot help but compare the two.

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For all the mismanagement in the Old Trafford hot seats over the years, this would be a real get – finally a slap in the face United’s Prem rivals have no answer for.

Max Verstappen says he “has the wrong passport” for the Formula 1 paddock amid fierce criticism over his driving tactics in last week’s Mexican Grand Prix.

In Mexico City, Verstappen was handed a double 10-second penalty for two incidents in which he forced McLaren title rival Lando Norris off the track, which caused unease from various colleagues over his aggressive driving style in the title run-in.

Verstappen particularly copped heavy criticism from British pundits, with former F1 world champion and Sky analyst Damon Hill wondering if the three-time champion is even capable of racing fairly.

Meanwhile, Johnny Herbert, who was the FIA driver steward in Mexico, suggested Verstappen drove Norris off on purpose in Turn 7 to ensure Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc would make it past, hindering Norris’ title bid by reducing the number of points left on the table for the Briton.

Verstappen initially shrugged off Hill’s comments in the Brazilian Grand Prix’s FIA press conference, but speaking later on to Dutch-language journalists, he was amused by how he seemed to have the wrong nationality to be treated fairly by the media and the stewards.

“I know what most people are like, it’s nothing new,” he said. “Last year was perfect, so it must have hurt a lot for many people that they couldn’t say anything negative.

“Now they’ve got the chance to say something, so they’re all coming out of the woodwork. At the end of the day, I’ve got the wrong passport for this paddock.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

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Verstappen called Herbert’s theory “a pretty extreme accusation” and insisted he didn’t drive Norris off on purpose in Turn 8.

“I didn’t do anything on purpose. They can’t look inside my head,” he said. “It’s a pretty extreme accusation. We just raced hard.”

While questioning the size of the penalty for his Turn 4 incident with Norris, Verstappen did acknowledge the second 10-second penalty for his Turn 8 manoeuvre was fair. But he didn’t feel there was any reason to do things differently from now on.

“You win some, you lose some,” he said about the outcome of his Turn 8 lunge. “It depends. Every situation is different and in hindsight, it’s always easy to have another look at it.

“It happened, we just have to make sure we have a more competitive car so we don’t end up in that situation again, because that’s where it starts.”

What is also behind Verstappen’s suggestion of bias is his community service penalty for swearing in Baku’s press conference, while Leclerc hasn’t been slapped on the wrists yet for a similar offence in Mexico.

“[Herbert] had big opinions about what I said in the press conference [in Baku], but I didn’t hear him after the press conference in Mexico.

“Actually, what [Leclerc] said is worse than what I said in its context, and it was a much more important press conference with more people watching. But you know, I’m not going to spend time on that. It is what it is.”

Motorsport.com understands the FIA is still considering whether or not Leclerc’s swearing in Mexico’s post-race press conference needs to be investigated further, with a call expected over the Brazilian GP weekend.