Here we go again. There’s still a sprint and a grand prix left in Formula 1’s penultimate triple-header of the year for things to get ugly at least a third time in this run between 2024 title contenders Max Verstappen and Lando Norris and up next after Brazil is Sin City…

Given last Saturday’s news that the FIA is open to altering F1’s racing guidelines – the topic of the Mexico event’s build-up – there had been relief in some quarters of the F1 paddock.

The hope is that this willingness to engage on racing rules, and fast, might finally stamp out Verstappen’s cynical professional foul tactic.

This was in action at Turn 4 of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on lap 10 of last weekend’s Mexico Grand Prix. Again it – and the even worse move a few seconds later at Turn 7 – eclipses a famous Ferrari win. But Fred Vasseur and co are actually gleeful that the focus keeps falling elsewhere, while the Scuderia concentrates on notching up wins.

This time, after the ruling on the Verstappen/Norris Austin Turn 12 clash had been botched by their predecessors, the Mexico stewards penalised the world champion for doing yet another ‘turning-defence-into-attack’ move – this one sent Norris off across the Turn 4 grass – and they did so with a 10-second penalty, with another soon to follow.

On Turn 4 alone, this sets a strong precedent the stewards at the upcoming Brazilian and Las Vegas races must heed.

On the specifics of the 10s penalty, FIA sources explained in the Mexico paddock that this is actually the standard sanction for such a transgression per the penalty range guidelines given to the stewards.

Verstappen and Red Bull have disputed the pair of 10s penalties he was given for his actions fighting Norris

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

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Yet Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko claimed “it’s a reaction to all the incidents that took place in Austin” – the combination of Verstappen’s total penalty count at play.

But the explanation of why this was objectively harsher than Norris’s five-second penalty for overtaking outside track limits in that Austin clash is because there the stewards are understood to have applied mitigating circumstances from Verstappen’s apex diving.

This time, with no doubt Norris was ahead at the apex of Turn 4, Verstappen still shoved him wide.

Post-race, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner offered more deflection defence. He claimed Norris was “15km/h faster and later on the brakes than his fastest lap” and “wouldn’t have made the corner” and presented a print off of GPS traces of Norris’s quickest lap of the race, overlaid with those from the clash with Verstappen.

“Can the rules be better? Maybe yes, maybe not. It’s always the same thing. I just drive how I think I have to drive” Max Verstappen

“He would’ve run off track,” Horner added. “You can see from his onboard steering and of course, at this point in the race, he’s got probably 80kg more fuel than at the point that he’s done his done his fastest lap [on lap 68, when Norris didn’t have DRS as he did when attacking Verstappen].”

But not only is Norris’s trajectory from his onboard feed indicating he would have made the corner had he not been forced off, the GPS trace data Motorsport.com has seen of other Norris laps skews Horner’s braking point claim because Norris braked not much later than he did on either the preceding lap nine or lap 11 afterwards and in both those cases made the corner.

He did, it should be noted, apply no lift and coast in the clash with Verstappen – slamming on the brakes as soon as he released the throttle as Turn 4 approached and, as with the Austin incident, Verstappen seemed to release the throttle differently to other laps rather than releasing his brakes. His dab of right-hand down was what put Norris on the grass.

Was the decision to heavily penalise Verstappen an after effect of the Austin clash?

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

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Post-race, having looked pretty chilled as he waited for space to open up in the written media pen area of the paddock – smiling and joking with a Red Bull press officer – Verstappen then gave rather clipped answers to questions from the scrum of journalists.

Here, Verstappen pointed out inconsistency in stewarding decisions from the last two weekends.

“At the end of the day, everyone speaks for themselves,” Verstappen said. “Can the rules be better? Maybe yes, maybe not. It’s always the same thing. I just drive how I think I have to drive. Last week that was all right, this week, 20-second penalty. That’s what it is. Life goes on.”

And he’s right – although only because the outcome was wrong in Austin. There, either Verstappen should have been sanctioned for forcing Norris off or no penalty handed to the McLaren driver. But, given the rules on overtaking off track are clearer, a suggestion that both being punished was the better Austin outcome came up time and again in the paddock in Mexico.

That inconsistency is precisely why it’s so important to draw a new line here – before the Qatar round in early December post-Interlagos and Vegas. This is where the FIA’s racing guidelines changes will be presented to the drivers again.

Given GPDA director George Russell claimed that “19 out of 20 [drivers], we’re all aligned on where it needs to be”, surely these will go through with the drivers’ body’s seal of approval.

He may still have a 47-point buffer over Norris, but Sunday’s action indicated that Verstappen won’t stop racing Norris that hard.

Verstappen still has a healthy points lead over Norris with four rounds to go despite the outcome in Mexico

Photo by: Mark Sutton

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While that was of little doubt, the more worrying element was how Horner suggested Verstappen’s reaction to ‘clash one’ with Norris caused the second penalised incident.

“I think that was the frustration of potentially Lando not giving back the place,” he said. “Things, they only escalate.”

Well, they just shouldn’t and the Turn 7 clash was an even more egregious move, with Norris correct to call Verstappen out as “dangerous”.

So, to Brazil, with the spectre of Verstappen’s bitter 2021 race there with Hamilton having risen and hovering over the current title battle

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella revealed afterwards that the team has told Norris it approves and “confirm the way you go racing – it is not for you to go there and find justice yourself – you go racing in a fair, sportive way”.

Even Verstappen offered little defence of his second attack – saying only “Turn 7 is what it is”. This speaks volumes.

And so, to Brazil, with the spectre of Verstappen’s bitter 2021 race there with Hamilton having risen and hovering over the current title battle.

The debate over such moves will inevitably rumble on. But a line has been drawn here in Mexico and it is critical to F1’s future sporting health that it is preserved.

As F1 rumbles on to Brazil next weekend, what will Sao Paulo produce?

Photo by: Andy Hone

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Robert Whittaker’s nasty submission loss at UFC 308 was just as devastating as it looked.

Khamzat Chimaev became the first UFC fighter to defeat Whittaker by submission on Saturday, locking in a terrifying face crank that had Whittaker quickly tapping out in the middleweight co-main event. It was immediately clear that something was wrong and later a photo was shown of Whittaker’s injuries, which appeared be to his jaw and teeth.

Dr. Brian Sutterer, a popular YouTuber who regularly discusses sports injuries on his channel, uploaded a video commenting on the grisly finish and speculated on the extent of the injuries.

“What you’re looking at is his lower row of tooth and these three teeth in the front are displaced into his mouth because his jaw is fractured,” Sutterer said of the photo. “So that’s not just that the teeth fell out. The teeth are actually still attached to that lower portion where they’re anchored into the jaw, but the jaw is broke in a way that’s caused his teeth to completely displace backwards into his mouth. It’s not like these teeth just fell out or were knocked out, no, the whole anchor site for those three teeth broke causing that teeth to displace posterior.”

As most would guess, Whittaker is likely to undergo a procedure to address the injury and should be out of action for the foreseeable future.

“Treatment of this is going to be some type of surgery to put those teeth, that bone back in place,” Sutterer said. “Plate potentially braces across the teeth. Real possibility here that Whittaker might end up having his jaw wired shut for some time, so this is a serious, serious injury.”

It was only the second time in Whittaker’s fighting career that he’d ever lost by submission, the first happening in his pre-UFC days in an October 2011 bout against Kim Hoon. Whittaker later won The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes tournament as a welterweight and eventually moved to 185 pounds where he became UFC champion in 2017.

Now, it’s Chimaev who seems destined to wear gold around his waist after making short work of Whittaker. Sutterer broke down the undefeated fighter’s incredible finish and why Whittaker had no choice but to signal his submission.

“Initially, it kind of looked like a choke, but actually Khamzat’s left arm is located on a part of Whittaker’s jaw called the mandible,” Sutterer said. “The lower portion of your jaw that moves up and down, that’s called the mandible. Your jaw joint then comes up from the mandible going up to insert at the temporomandibular joint and so the part that moves up and down, that’s the mandible, and your teeth on the lower portion of your mouth are fixed into that mandible.”

“Essentially, he just grabs on to Whittaker’s lower chin and cranks backward so severely that it doesn’t choke him out, it results in a break of his jaw. This wasn’t a jaw dislocation, there was some speculation about that after the fight. Based on a picture that we’re going to show here, this was just so powerful that Khamzat broke his jaw.”

Whittaker gave his own update on the injury in an interview with Red Corner MMA, saying it was only his teeth that were injured as a result of Khamzat’s face crank.

“It wasn’t the jaw, it was the teeth,” Whittaker said. “The teeth got pushed in. I’ve kind of always had loose teeth and they got looser. It was the face crank. His forearm went straight on the bottom tooth. I didn’t even have a moment to turn the head or anything. It was on. It is what it is. I had them pushed in before when I fought Dricus [du Plessis] as well and they’ve never really recovered. It was from an injury when I was young.”

Click. Khamzat Chimaev knew the moment he did something bad to Robert Whittaker’s face.

155. Is it time for Max Holloway to permanently move to lightweight?

Rematch? Ilia Topuria and Alexander Volkanovski appear to be on a collision course, one more time.

Reaper. Robert Whittaker releases a statement following his devastating loss.

Persevere. Rafael dos Anjos vows to come back after injuring his leg at UFC 308.

Personal. Dana White is still distinctly not a fan of Francis Ngannou.

UFC 308 post-fight show.

On to the Next One.

Relive the magic.

Aftermath.

Pros react.

On to the Next One. MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee pick future matchups for Ilia Topuria, Khamzat Chimaev, Max Holloway, and the big winners of UFC 308.

Nothing but respect.

Lots of love for the featherweight king.

Excuse me?

Practice makes perfect.

Always ready.

Sinister.

What can you say after a show like that?

Ilia Topuria doing the impossible and knocking out Max Holloway to prove that he’s maybe the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Khamzat Chimaev looking like he was in a different league from Robert Whittaker. “Shara Bullet” giving us the first double backfist KO in UFC history.

UFC 308 delivered in spades and there are still plenty of massive fights ahead to close out 2024.

Enjoy, MMA fans.

If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @AlexanderKlee or @JedKMeshew on Twitter and let us know about it. Also, follow MMAFighting on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and like us on Facebook.

The Ballon d’Or winner will be announced on Monday in Paris – with 30 players named on the initial shortlist.

Many of them started their careers in English football, with more joining Premier League clubs later on.

We want you to name them from the first English team where they played a first-team game, so we are including loans.

Some of the clubs have more than one option – just pick one of them and you’ll get the point.

BCCI on Friday night announced the squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series against Australia. Seamers Prasidh Krishna and Harshit Rana were called up to the Rohit Sharma-led team which also included rookie wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel. Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini and Khaleel Ahmed were included in the squad as travelling reserves, the ICC release said.

The inclusion of Nitish Kumar Reddy and Abhimanyu Easwaran in the squad also came as a surprise to many.

Wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav missed out on the 18-string squad as he has been referred to The BCCI Centre of Excellence for resolving his chronic left groin issue. Yadav is expected to begin his rehabilitations soon after the ongoing New Zealand Test series concludes. Recovering fast bowler Mohammed Shami was also omitted from the squad by the Indian selectors.

After featuring against Sri Lanka in T20Is and ODIs, KKR’s Harshit Rana has now received his maiden Test call-up. Interestingly, all three travelling reserves are also fast bowlers. 

Bengal captain Abhimanyu Easwaran has been consistent in the domestic circuit in the recent times. The star performer of the Duleep Trophy and Irany Trophy will board the flight to Australia as the third-choice opener with Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal. 

Indian Test squad for Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024:

Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravi Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar

TRAVELLING RESERVES:

Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed