Lewis Hamilton recalled the glory years of the Ferrari team with German driver Michael Schumacher, as one of the world champions in Formula 1 car races, who won the title seven times, recalled the memory of another champion who also won the title seven times on Saturday, by taking the pole position for the first time with the Italian team.
This achievement, which was achieved at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit in Mexico City, is Hamilton's first start from first place since July 2023, and his first, with the exception of two speed races, since his move from Mercedes to Maranello.
He also holds the 105th pole start in the British driver's career, making him (41 years old) the oldest driver to start a race from this position since Mario Andretti, who was 42 years old at the time, at Monza in 1982.
As for German Schumacher, who retired from Mercedes in 2012 and won five titles with Ferrari between 2000 and 2004, he achieved his first starting position with Ferrari in the San Marino Grand Prix in 1996.
“It feels great to be able to reward them with pole position,” Hamilton said. For me, getting my first pole position with Ferrari, I mean, it takes me back to watching Michael get all those pole positions when he was with Ferrari and all those wins. “So, this is very, very special.”
The British driver, who won in Spain this year to become the oldest winner in Formula 1 since Australian Jack Brabham in 1970, pointed out that the issue of age is just an idea in the mind.
“I use ice baths a lot,” he said. I do all these different things that you can do to try to stay young and fit. Yes, but I love what I do, and this love has not disappeared. I wake up every day thinking about that. I dream about it. And I have such amazing support from all over the world. These are the people who keep me going, so I hope they are happy with that and I hope I can achieve what satisfies them today in the race.”
It seems that Sunday will witness the coronation of Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli as the youngest champion ever, when he is twenty years old.
Antonelli will start from fourth place and only needs to finish the race in the top nine positions to win the title, and he does not even need to do that if Hamilton or his colleague Mercedes driver George Russell fail to win. Hamilton is 124 points behind, with the possibility of earning a maximum of 100 points after the Mexico race, while Russell is 123 points behind the lead.
The Italian driver replaced Hamilton at Mercedes, and the British driver spoke warmly of his admiration for what the “little Italian boy” had achieved.
“I think it's very cool to see,” Hamilton said. Then records are there to be broken, you know. A very bright future awaits him. So I'm grateful that I'm still racing at a time that allows me to see and follow that. “I really hope that we will witness real competitions in the future, because we did not have the opportunity to engage in any confrontations of this kind this year.”
Spanish cyclist Marc Marquez (Ducati) dominated the Malaysian Grand Prix, achieving a landslide victory at the Sepang Circuit on Sunday, soaring to the top of the riders’ standings and more than clinching his eighth world title in the first category, and the tenth in his career overall.
Marquez finished the race (20 laps) with a time of 40:14.236 minutes, 4.172 seconds ahead of his compatriot Pedro Acosta (KTM), winner of Saturday’s sprint race, and 5.955 seconds ahead of his younger brother Alex Marquez (Ducati-Gresini).
Mark took advantage of the absence of his compatriot Jorge Martin (Aprilia) from the nineteenth round due to a fracture in his wrist, to achieve his seventh victory this season and the 80th in his career in the first category, moving closer and closer to the Italian record holder Valentino Rossi, who has 89 victories to his credit in the MotoGP category.
The current world champion also achieved his third victory in Malaysia in the MotoGP competitions, as his last victory at the Sepang Circuit dates back to 2018.
Marquez raised his score to 399 points at the top of the overall riders’ standings, 44 points ahead of Martin, whose score froze at 355 points.
The 33-year-old Ducati rider can clinch the title early in the next race in the Qatar Grand Prix next weekend.
Immediately after the end of the Malaysian race, the Yamaha team announced that it would not go to Qatar next week to participate in the twentieth round, due to “the (security) situation in the Middle East.”
The final two races will be held in Portugal and Valencia (Spain) at the end of November. Marquez needs to score 30 points more than Martin next weekend, to win the title for the eighth time in MotoGP, and for the tenth time in his career in all categories.
In Malaysia, the Catalan driver, who started from second place behind his brother Alex, expressed his happiness at what he described as a “perfect race.” He was quick to stress, saying: “We have to remain very focused,” immediately after arriving at the closed pit area, where he appeared exhausted due to the heat and high humidity in this Southeast Asian country, which in October witnessed the reopening of the Sepang Circuit to host the Bahrain Grand Prix.
“There are only a few races left, but there are still many decisive moments,” Marquez noted.
Japanese Ai Ogura (Aprilia Trike House) took fourth place after a fierce competition at the end with Italian Marco Betsicki riding an Aprilia bike belonging to the factory team.
Betsiki, who is ranked third in the overall standings with 332 points, gave up fifth place in the race to his compatriot Enea Bastianini (KTM-Tech 3), after he made a mistake before reaching the finish line.
Carsten Kramer, CEO of the German Football Club Borussia Dortmund, confirmed that the club will not be forced to sell its most prominent players, despite incurring financial losses exceeding 20 million euros during the last financial year.
The German club announced that it recorded combined annual losses amounting to 21.7 million euros ($24.3 million) during the fiscal year 2025-2026, after achieving profits worth 6.7 million euros in the previous year.
Kramer said, in statements to the “Sport 1” television station, on Sunday: “I am very confident in our ability to maintain the strength of the team during next summer.”
He added: “We have financial strength at our core, and we are also working to ensure that we do not have to sell players.”
However, Kramer did not rule out the possibility of some players leaving during the upcoming transfer windows.
“If economic opportunities arise, we will study them,” the 57-year-old official said. I do not want to rule anything out, but we do not work with the aim of constantly selling players, but rather we seek to continue developing on the field.”
Dortmund shares the top spot in the German League with its rival, Bayern Munich, after the two teams tied 2-2 in Bavaria on Saturday, after only eight rounds of the competition this season.
Dortmund won the German League title for the last time under the leadership of its former coach Jurgen Klopp in 2012. Since then, Bayern Munich has monopolized the title, with the exception of 2024, when Bayer Leverkusen achieved a major surprise and won the championship without suffering any defeat.
Kramer also left the door open to the possibility of strengthening coach Niko Kovac's squad during the winter transfer period next January.
He said: “The truth is that we are able to act at any time, and if there is a need to conclude a deal, we will certainly have the ability to implement it.”
