The peculiarity of the free tyre change that is allowed under Formula 1’s red flag rules has long been a source of frustration to drivers.

When the situation crops up, like it did in Brazil last weekend and at the Monaco GP in May, those who are caught on the wrong side of things bemoan the sheer randomness of it.

In Monaco, it was all about how the hard compound starters were compromised by the first-lap red flag that allowed all the medium runners a free switch to the hard.

At Interlagos, George Russell, Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc were all left ruing what they had lost by switching to fresh inters as worsening rain arrived, while those that carried on in tricky conditions got a free tyre change after Franco Colapinto’s huge crash.

The apparent luck of the draw is something that time and again gets criticised, and yet no one has come up with the fairer solution.

Back at the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Norris was running sixth early on when he made a stop under safety car conditions for Mick Schumacher’s accident – which dropped him to 14th.

In theory, it was about playing the long game as those ahead of him that did not stop would need to do so under full race conditions later on – so lose more time.

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, makes a pit stop

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

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However, his plan fell flat when a red flag was brought out, which handed everyone ahead of him a free stop and left the Briton stuck down the order.

Speaking afterwards, his criticisms of things were similar to what he said on Sunday night after Brazil.

“Of course, I’m always on the bad end of it, so it probably sucks more for me than anyone, but I think it’s just a very unfair rule that should be taken away,” he said.

“I think they should change it to one mandatory pit stop with two different tyre sets needed to be used, and then I think that’s acceptable.

“But this just ruins everything, to be honest. You put so much effort in for it to be taken away for some stupid rule.”

But while the unfairness aspect is the thing that annoys drivers the most, last weekend’s race at Interlagos has put into focus another factor that is slightly more worrying.

It is that in a wet race like Interlagos where conditions are worsening and there is the potential for a red flag, drivers are almost encouraged to stay out on far-from-perfect rubber much longer than they ideally would.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who stopped under the VSC conditions triggered by Nico Hulkenberg’s off, said that the rain that was coming down had left the track treacherous – but the lead cars obviously felt it worth the risk of staying out.

“I don’t think we expected it to rain as much as it did and then honestly, the toughest part of the race was behind the safety car, trying to stay on the track,” said the Australian.

“I think it kind of exposed a bit of the issue we have with the wet tyre – when everyone is begging for a red flag but refusing to go onto the wet tyre because it’s so bad.

“A pretty dangerous situation to have cars literally struggling to stay on the track behind the safety car. But it’s not really anything new. Hopefully, we can try to at least change it now.”

Esteban Ocon, Alpine A524, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20, at the restart

Photo by: Lubomir Asenov / Motorsport Images

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Race winner Max Verstappen, whose victory was made easier by the red flag situation, admitted that things were right on the knife edge as he stayed out – but there was no way he was going to stop.

“When some pitted, the rain was coming, we stayed out, which was very sketchy,” explained the Dutchman.

“And then I saw Esteban [Ocon] in front of me flying, like four seconds a lap faster and I was like, ‘I’m just happy to keep the car on the track’.

“At one point it was just, we need a red flag. It was just undriveable, even on extreme tyres.”

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur, who had pitted Leclerc early but had dropped him into traffic, conceded that the issue teams face is gambling on staying out and not crashing.

“For sure you can say at the end of the day, if you stay on track, waiting for the red flag, it is the right call,” he said. “But if you crash, you look stupid…”

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella said that, with conditions worsening, there was a safety aspect to the situation – and that while there were competitive gains to be had by staying out and hoping for a red flag, in his mind there was only one course of action he preferred.

Speaking about the Brazil podium finishers who all stayed out, Stella said: “I am here congratulating them on their decisions.

“But personally, I am not very comfortable to leave a car out there that has tyres that are pretty worn with that amount of water. Without the red flag we would be commenting on a different race.”

The way to stop drivers from taking the gamble and pushing on with unsuitable tyres would theoretically be solved by not allowing the free tyre change that is allowed in the regulations.

If drivers knew that a red flag would not allow them a free swap, then decisions on which tyre to commit to would be based purely on which is most suitable to the conditions – and not so much about gambling in sticking it out when conditions are too dire in the hope of being saved by a stoppage.

But the red flag rules are in place for safety reasons and not competitive ones. It has long been accepted that changing tyres has to be allowed under red flag conditions because of the risk of debris from accidents causing punctures or other issues.

Forcing drivers to stick to their current tyres when there is a chance they could have run over broken carbon fibre of other parts on the track, or been involved in an accident themselves, would be an incredible safety risk and lunacy to have in the rules.

There have, however, been numerous suggestions in the past of ways to potentially improve things and make them fairer.

One idea, that would best work for dry races to avoid the potential for a free stop, would be to allow teams to change tyres in the stops – but if they wanted to it would have to be for the same compound.

This scenario would prevent what happened in Monaco, and also ensure that drivers who had stopped to switch compounds under full race conditions were not unfairly punished.

Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Team VCARB 01, makes a pit stop

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

However, it would not have avoided penalising drivers in Brazil because the inter is ultimately the best tyre for the rain – because by the time the full wet is brought into action, normally visibility is so bad that racing does not take place.

Another idea could be to allow the teams the option to change tyres if they are damaged, but if they do so they have to pull themselves out of the race order and drop to the back.

That way, there would not be an incentive to stay out longer than necessary in tricky conditions – because ultimately if there is a red flag the disadvantage could be greater if you need to change rubber. And if you feel you are still on the right tyres, you can keep them on and take your stop later.

Or what about Norris’s suggestion after Saudi 2021, of tweaking the sporting rules to demand that each driver makes a mandatory stop under normal race conditions, irrespective of a red flag?

All these ideas are things that have been discussed, and drivers have their own opinions about what can be done to make it better – but unfortunately, F1 has never moved things forward much.

Asked after Monaco whether he had some hope of the red flag tyre rule being revisited by teams and the FIA, he said: “I don’t know. There are many things that they have not changed, probably because they don’t listen to the drivers.”

Five months his words still appear to ring true.

Assistant coach Jonathan Humphreys says Wales would take any sort of win against Fiji in Cardiff on Sunday.

Wales have not won a Test match since the 2023 World Cup pool triumph against Georgia more than a year ago and are just one loss away from equalling the nation’s worst losing sequence of 10, under Steve Hansen between 2002 and 2003.

Alex Pereira is a scary human being – even if he’s wearing a bunny costume.

The UFC light heavyweight champion was a guest on a Podpah YouTube show recently and challenged to land a body punch on Brazilian comedian Diogo Defante.

Pereira landed a few short punches as a test, and settled to use “50 percent” of his power. Defante went down in pain.

“Poatan” is taking the rest of the year off after defending his UFC title three times in 2024, knocking out Jamahal Hill, Jiri Prochazka and Khalil Rountree between April and October, and is targeting a return to action in the first quarter of 2025.

The popular Brazilian fighter, a former two-division champion in kickboxing and former UFC middleweight titleholder, is expected to defend his belt next against Russian talent Magomed Ankalaev, who recently defeated Aleksandar Rakic via decision at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi to extend his unbeaten streak to 13 bouts.

A Football Association suspension meant Mendy, who was on a basic salary of £6m a year, was unable to fulfil his contractual obligations when not in custody.

Judge Dunlop said: “I found that Mr Mendy was ‘ready and willing’ to work during the non-custody periods, and was prevented from doing so by impediments (the FA suspension and bail conditions) which were unavoidable or involuntary on his part.”

She said the amount Mendy will receive will be calculated between the two parties or at a future hearing if they cannot agree.

City have declined to comment.

Mendy was remanded in custody for five months before being released on bail in January 2022. The case went to trial for the first time in August 2022.

In January 2023 Mendy was cleared of six counts of rape and one count of sexual assault.

He was then cleared of raping a woman and attempting to rape another in July 2023 at a retrial.

Mendy, who left City when his contract expired, now plays for French side Lorient.

In the submissions detailed in the judgement, Mendy’s lawyer argued that City had “a binary choice – to follow the dismissal procedure (which would, if a dismissal resulted, have freed Mr Mendy to contract with another club) or to keep him under contract and continue paying him”.

The hearing was told how on 15 occasions Mendy held or attended parties in breach of Covid-19 regulations or bail conditions, or both.

City’s lawyers argued that the suspension, being in custody and his bail terms “clearly amounted to a full impediment to Mr Mendy being able to perform his contract” and that the impediments were a result of his “culpable behaviour”.

The judgement read: “Mr Mendy’s position is that he is an innocent man whose career has been ruined, and life blighted, by false sexual allegations and that the football club which brought him to this country effectively abandoned him in his hour of need.

“Manchester City’s position is that Mr Mendy largely brought his troubles upon himself and ignored sensible advice and warning after warning in his self-destructive pursuit of his chosen lifestyle.

“Both these narratives have validity, and there is no one cause of the chain of events which unfolded in this case.

“The question of whether Mr Mendy deserves to be paid, however, is one for the commentators and comments sections. The only question for me is whether Manchester City was legally entitled to withhold that pay.”

Mendy’s legal team said City’s then chief football operations officer Omar Berrada had said he would be paid his salary if found not guilty.

Berrada denied the claim and Judge Dunlop said any “assurances about backpay” were “irrelevant”.

Mendy, who joined City from Monaco in a £52m deal in 2017, won the Premier League in 2018, 2019 and 2021.

His final appearance for City was on 15 August 2021.

A BRAZILIAN football star has seen red after an X-rated scissor kick went badly wrong.

Criciuma striker Felipe Vizeu was sent off in his team’s 2-0 loss to Internacional in Serie A last night.

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Vizeu led the line for relegation-threatened Criciuma as they travelled to Porto Alegre in Brazil’s top flight.

The 27-year-old was searching for an equaliser after Alan Patrick put the hosts ahead on the stroke of half-time.

A cross sat up nicely for Vizeu, who was chasing a third goal in as many games.

He opted to go for an audacious scissor kick, thrashing hard at the ball with his left boot.

Internacional defender Agustin Rogel read the danger, putting his head in harm’s way to direct the ball away.

Vizeu caught Rogel square in the face, sending him crashing to the turf.

Referee Felipe Fernandes de Lima immediately brandished the red card, to the horror of the Criciuma striker and his teammates.

One fan gasped in response to the footage: “Nothing but face! Yikes, that must have hurt.”

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Another argued: “The attacker was clearly making an attempt on the ball and didn’t mean it and the defender just caught a full force kick in the face.

While a third laughed: “This looks like a FIFA glitch.”

And a fourth added: “If the defender weren’t there probably would be a Puskas award contender.”

Criciuma are based in Santa Catarina and were promoted to the top flight from Serie B last season.

Vizeu joined the club in the summer of 2023 but has spent a large portion of his career in Europe.

The Brazilian has played for Udinese in Italy, as well as Sheriff Tiraspol in Moldova and Japan’s Yokohama FC.

Anatoly Malykhin and Reug Reug will get the chance to fight each other on Friday, but they nearly had their heavyweight championship fight two days early.

Malykhin and Reug Reug headline Friday’s ONE 169 event at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.

On Wednesday, the three-division ONE champion and the challenger got physical, and as things seemed to calm down, they engaged in a standing clinch and needed to be separated by a slew of security on stage. Check out the video below, courtesy of Nicolas Atkin.

Malykhin also is the promotion’s light heavyweight and middleweight champion, compiling a 14-0 overall record with a perfect 6-0 run in ONE. “Spartak” puts the heavyweight title on the line for the first time since stopping ex-UFC fighter Arjan Bhullar at ONE Friday Nights 22 in June 2023.

Reug Reug is 6-1 in the sport, and is set to compete in his first MMA bout since defeating Marcus Buchecha at ONE Fight Night 13 in August 2023.