Technical challenges and crowd tensions in Formula 1 races and the Beijing Tennis Championships

Defending champion Lando Norris, driver of McLaren, faced difficulties with the car that did not respond to him during qualifying trials for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, which was held on Saturday as part of the Formula 1 World Championship, and attributed his team’s suffering to the unique flooring of the Sepang Circuit.

Norris achieved the sixth fastest time in qualifying, six tenths of a second behind first-place finisher Max Verstappen, but he will start the race from fifth place after Red Bull driver Ishak Hajjar received a five-place drop penalty, dropping from third to eighth.

The McLaren driver, who is ranked fourth overall, did not hesitate to frankly express his opinion about his car’s performance at the Sepang Circuit.

“We're just slow,” Norris told reporters. "The car is not good enough here."

He added: “This track is very different from the other tracks we visited this year, and therefore I think you see Mercedes also suffering much more today in particular, while we find the Red Bull team faster than usual.”

He continued: “So I think the arrangement has changed a little bit, and I think we are facing a little more difficulty than we expected because of the surface of the track.”

Norris expressed his satisfaction with his final lap in qualifying, noting that he got the most out of the car.

He said: “But it is clear that we are very far from the required speed.” “My car has a problem with speed on straight tracks, and we lacked speed in general throughout the testing period.”

He added: “So, starting from fifth place is not a surprise. “We don’t expect any miracles, and it is clear that Red Bull cars have the advantage here.”

As for his teammate, Oscar Piastri, he recorded the seventh fastest time, but he will start the race alongside Norris on the third row due to Hajjar’s penalty.

“The experiments did not go exactly as we planned,” Piastri said. We're having some difficulty achieving speed here. But overall, I was fairly satisfied with things.”

He added: “It would have been good if we had achieved an extra ten seconds. But unfortunately we were not fast enough here. “This will be a race in which we can achieve a lot by following a strategy, and then hopefully we will achieve the required speed.”

Olympic tennis champion, Geng Chenwen, rebuked unruly fans in Beijing on Saturday, before her opponent, Anna Kalinskaya, withdrew due to injury, giving the Chinese player a 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 3-0 win.

Strong winds and a noisy crowd caused tense exchanges on the cold main stadium in Beijing, prompting the match referee to intervene to warn those present not to move in the stands during the game.

During a tense first-set tiebreak, Geng Chenwen, who is hugely popular in her country, was twice heard telling spectators: “Stop yelling” as she prepared to serve.

“I think the first set in particular was very difficult,” Jing told the crowd during an on-court interview after the match, which lasted two hours and 22 minutes.

The 23-year-old added: “Actually, seeing some movement in the stands made my feelings very unstable.”

But she admitted, saying: “It is my problem, it is my problem,” pledging to adapt to the situation.

Chants of encouragement for Geng Chenwen echoed throughout the stadium, which was rocked by the wind before most points, while fans sometimes asked each other to remain calm.

After equalizing the score in the second set, the world number 54 got her chance when Russian Kalinskaya withdrew due to injury after trailing by three games in the third set.

Geng Chenwen will play in the third round with the winner from the Czech Republic Marie Bouzkova or the Australian Kimberly Birrell, ranked 582nd in the world.

Later, on Saturday, world number one Elena Rybakina is scheduled to face Armenian world number 118 Alina Charaeva in the evening session.

British Mercedes driver George Russell confirmed that starting from his worst position on the starting grid this year in the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday was “not the end of the world,” a week after his wonderful victory in Azerbaijan, which gave him a boost in his struggle for the world championship title.

British news agency PA Media reported that Russell earned 15 points from championship leader Kimi Antonelli with his dominant win on the streets of Baku, reducing the gap with his Mercedes teammate to 66 points, with 208 possible points remaining in the competition.

But he will start in the Manama race, which has been rescheduled and will be held on Sunday at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia, from seventh place, four places behind his competitor.

Dutchman Max Verstappen, driver of the Red Bull team, won his first starting position this year, and will start next to British Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton from the front row. Frenchman Isaac Hajjar finished third in qualifying, but he will fall five places due to the use of new engine components, so the penalty pushes Antonelli to third place and Russell to seventh place.

It was expected that Mercedes would likely help the car's biggest upgrade package in four months widen its lead over rivals at the front of the standings, but instead it produced its worst performance yet on a single lap.

The disappointing starting positions raised major questions about the effectiveness of the new updates, and Russell will also reconsider his performance. He finished the qualifying trials 0.240 seconds behind Antonelli, despite receiving an additional attempt compared to his colleague during the decisive round of the third qualifying trial.

But Russell, who spoke optimistically on the eve of the first Formula 1 race in Malaysia since 2017, said: “A lot will happen tomorrow. “Tire wear is very high, and the pace of the race will be the deciding factor, so although what happened today was really disappointing, it is not the end of the world.”

He added: “This circuit is exceptional in terms of the roughness of the asphalt surface. Nine years ago lap times were six or seven seconds faster, and in some parts you felt like you were driving on gravel. “It applies to everyone, but it clearly affects us more than others.”

He continued: “As a team, we have not yet had a bad race throughout this season, and these were certainly very bad qualifying experiences for us. All the numbers indicate that the update represents an improvement, but it is clear that we need to follow the lap times and not what the numbers say. The numbers looked quite good and in line with our expectations, but the result was not like that.”