Briton Lewis Hamilton said that achieving pole position for the Mexican Grand Prix scheduled to be held within the Formula 1 World Championship, for the first time with the Ferrari team, brought back his memory of watching German legend Michael Schumacher dominate the Italian team’s races.
The British news agency (PA Media) reported that Hamilton obtained his first starting position for more than three reasons, specifically since the “Hungarian Grand Prix” in 2023, that is, 1,197 days ago, after he recorded the fastest time in the official trial for the Mexican Grand Prix in Mexico City.
Hamilton had begun the weekend by reaffirming his pledge to continue his career in car racing until the 1930s, declaring that the Formula 1 World Championship had “never witnessed before a person like me.”
Hamilton believes that he is still able to keep up with the youngest drivers on the starting grid, and he once again demonstrated some of his continuing abilities when he outperformed his former Mercedes colleague George Russell by only 0.009 seconds to reserve the first starting position.
"My first pole with Ferrari, oh my God, it took me back to watching Michael (Schumacher) get all those pole positions with Ferrari and all those wins," said Hamilton, who previously achieved a pole position for the Sprint with Ferrari.
“It is very special,” he added. The seven-time world champion became the oldest driver to achieve pole position in Formula 1 since American Mario Andretti, who was 42 years old when he achieved this in 1982.
His desire to race in Africa, after it was announced that a race would be held in Rwanda in the “early 1930s,” prompted him to pledge to continue competing at the highest level for years to come.
Hamilton is still mathematically in the title race, as he is 124 points behind leader Kimi Antonelli, who will guarantee to become the youngest world champion in the history of Formula 1 if he finishes the race that will be held later today (Sunday) in ninth place or better.
Antonelli Hamilton is 21 years younger, and when asked about the secret of his ability to continue performing at this level at the age of 41, he said: “When there is a will, there is a way!” “It's all about the mind for all of us,” he added. You may experience some aches and pains, but fortunately for me, I don't experience that. That love didn't disappear. “I wake up every day thinking about it, dreaming about it.” The British driver achieved his first victory with Ferrari in Barcelona last June, and expressed his happiness at adding pole position to his record, in response to the trust placed in him by the team.
The victory of Mexican Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in Riyadh, on Saturday evening, reopened the race to unify world titles in super-middleweight, after he regained the World Boxing Council belt from Frenchman Christian Mbele, so that the former undisputed world champion has a new way to regain the belts he lost, in addition to the possibility of renewing his confrontation with Russian Dmitry Bivol, who inflicted on him one of his most prominent professional defeats.
According to the French newspaper L'Equipe, Canelo, who is 36 years old, is not thinking about retiring after his 64th victory, but rather may be heading towards regaining his position as unified champion of the above-average category, an achievement he previously achieved before losing his belts to American Terence Crawford in September 2025.
The victory he achieved in Riyadh gives the Mexican boxer the opportunity to return to competing for the rest of the world belts, after he showed during his confrontation with Mbele that he is still able to keep up with younger boxers, despite the questions surrounding his level after his loss to Crawford and his absence from the ring for more than a year.
The options available to Canelo appear to be multiple, but they are not without complications, as his compatriot Jaime Mungía, 30 years old, holds the World Boxing Association super-middleweight belt, after he maintained it during the “Mexico vs. the World” evening in Riyadh by defeating Russian Nikita Zohn by unanimous decision of the judges.
Mungia has a record of 47 victories, including 35 by knockout, compared to two defeats. However, the potential confrontation between him and Canelo collides with the technical relationship between the boxers, as they both work under the supervision of coach Eddy Reynoso, which may complicate the arrangements for holding a fight between them, despite its importance in the project to unify the belts.
As for the second belt that can be included in Canelo’s calculations, it is held by Cuban Osley Iglesias, the 28-year-old International Boxing Federation champion, who has not suffered any defeat in 16 professional fights, 15 of which were decided before the end of the rounds.
Iglesias represents a different option for the Mexican, not only because of his unbeaten record and attacking power, but also because he is under a contract with Canadian promoter Camille Estefan, who also manages the career of Mbele, Canelo's rival in Riyadh.
The identity of the World Boxing Organization belt holder remains undecided yet, as the Kazakh Janibek Alimkhanuli, who has 17 victories without defeat, and the Danish Jacob Bank, who has 20 victories without a loss, are scheduled to compete for it in a confrontation scheduled for next January 23 on the latter’s soil.
These data mean that the path for Canelo to regain all the belts may require more than one confrontation, especially since some of the current champions have not suffered any defeat, while technical and contractual considerations overlap with commercial calculations related to organizing major fights.
But the project to unify the above-average belts is not the only option for the Mexican boxer, as there is the possibility of returning to face the Russian Dmitry Bivol, the undisputed world champion in light heavyweight, whom he previously beat on points in May 2022.
Bivol is 35 years old, and has a professional record that includes 25 victories, including 12 before the end of the rounds, compared to one defeat, and he remains one of the few names that succeeded in inflicting a loss on Canelo during his long career.
Holding a second confrontation between the two boxers would give Canelo the opportunity to avenge his previous loss, but it would put him once again facing the challenge of moving to a higher weight, and facing a competitor who has a clear difference in height, as Bivol is 1.83 meters tall, compared to 1.71 meters for the Mexican.
These possibilities gain additional importance after the way Canelo won in Riyadh, as he demonstrated his ability to control the tempo of the confrontation against Mbele, who is 31 years old, even though the latter entered the fight with an unbeaten professional record.
The Mexican succeeded in investing in his defensive experience and the accuracy of his counter punches, to resolve the confrontation by unanimous vote of the judges, with scores of 115-112, 116-111, and 117-110, proving that his advanced age did not prevent him from regaining one of the world belts.
After the fight, Canelo did not specify the name of his next opponent, but he made it clear that he did not intend to stay away from the ring for a long time, saying: “I will have a rest, and I will continue to learn and work hard.” “I will rest for two weeks, then come back again.”
His speech indicates the continuation of his sporting ambition, but he has not decided whether his next destination will be defending the World Council belt, pursuing the rest of the above-average belts, or moving on to a revenge confrontation with Bivol.
Among these options, Riyadh’s victory seems to be more than just a return to the podium, after it gave Canelo the opportunity to redraw the next stage of his career, at a time when he is approaching his thirty-seventh year, and is looking for a new achievement to add to a career that has spanned more than two decades in professional boxing.
The question that will be answered in the coming months remains: Will Canelo choose the longer path towards regaining the above-average throne and unifying his belts, or would he prefer to face Bivol in a fight that might give him the opportunity to correct one of the most painful results in his career?
Russian Diana Schneider made up for the loss of the second set to win today (Sunday) over Canadian Laila Fernandez 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 to win the Pan Pacific Open tennis championship title in Tokyo.
Schneider, ranked 13th in the world, won the first set easily, but she appeared in trouble after losing the second, and was forced to defend 3 break points at the beginning of the decisive set, before clinching the victory within two hours and 18 minutes.
The Russian regained her balance in the third set, and broke her opponent's serve twice, before taking a 5-2 lead and deciding the confrontation from the first opportunity she was given to win the match, celebrating her title with a calm movement with her fist.
The 22-year-old Russian player won 6 consecutive final matches in the WTA tournaments.
The Tokyo title represents the Russian player's first coronation since winning the Monterrey Championship in August 2025, after she failed to reach the final during 4 previous appearances that ended in the semi-finals this year, before she succeeded in overcoming that obstacle in the Japanese capital.
On the other hand, Fernandez entered the final match after achieving 16 victories in the last 20 matches she played, including winning the Singapore Championship title last September, and reaching the final of the Chinese Ningbo Championship last week, when she lost to world number one Elena Rybakina.
The Canadian suffered from fluctuations in her serve during the confrontation, as she committed 5 double faults, and the success rate of her first serve did not exceed 50 percent during the opening set, but she showed great determination in the second set before retreating in the face of Schneider’s superiority in the decisive set.
Schneider said: “I would like to thank and congratulate my coach who is here with me for achieving our first title this season. This definitely means a lot to me, it is a great achievement and a great end to the season.”
The Canadian player, who won the Singapore Open last September, said: “I would like to congratulate Diana. Congratulations. It was an amazing week and a great match. Congratulations to you and your team. “I hope we have more confrontations like this.”
