MONACO: Red Bull denied Sergio Perez a chance to race for the win in Spain with team orders that left the Mexican star unsettled.
Assured that he’d be allowed to race for wins this season, Perez moved on to the Monaco Grand Prix with Red Bull’s disappointing decision in his rearview mirror. Then he scored his first Formula One victory of the season.
Perez rebounded from the Red Bull team orders one week ago to pick up the win Sunday in the rain-marred Monaco Grand Prix.
The third win of Perez’s career came after a questionable strategy call by Ferrari that cost pole-sitter Charles Leclerc a win on his home circuit. Although Leclerc finished the race for the first time in four tries, he finished fourth and allowed reigning world champion Max Verstappen to extend his lead in the standings.
Carlos Sainz Jr. finished second for Ferrari and Verstappen was third for Red Bull. But Ferrari protested both Perez’s win and Verstappen’s finish, alleging the Red Bull drivers failed to stay to the right of the yellow line at pit exit following their stops.
The FIA race stewards were examining the Ferrari protest.
“We made the protest because we believe it was right to seek clarification,” Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto said.
Verstappen has a nine-point lead over Leclerc in the standings; Leclerc has two wins this season, Verstappen and Perez have combined for five victories as Red Bull and Ferrari have claimed all seven races.
The win on the slick city streets of Monaco went to Verstappen’s teammate just one week after Perez was ordered to cede the lead to Verstappen during the Spanish Grand Prix. Leclerc had dropped out of the race with an engine failure and Red Bull chose to capitalize by manipulating the finish to get Verstappen the win in Spain.
The team promised Perez he’d be allowed to race for wins and held its word Sunday.
“You dream of winning this, and after your home race, there is no place more special to win,” Perez said after waving the Mexican flag. He is third in the standings and only six points behind Leclerc.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner patted Perez on the back as he walked alongside him. Perez is in a contract year and both Red Bull and Perez have said discussions on an extension would ramp up over the summer months.
“Checo was sensational,” said Horner, who joined Perez on the podium and as the driver struggled to hold back tears and wiped his eyes as the Mexican anthem played. Perez is the first Mexican driver to win Monaco.
“It’s a massive day for myself and my country. I am very happy. I was wearing a Pedro Rodriguez helmet,” Perez said. “I am sure he was looking down on me and hopefully he would be very proud. I’m the only Mexican or Latin-American driver on the grid. It just shows how difficult it is for us to make it into the sport.”
Rodriguez, a Mexican driver who won two F1 races, died in 1971.
Verstappen celebrated with Perez, whom he considers the best teammate of his career. Verstappen told Perez after the race that the win “might help, just a little bit,” in Perez’s contract talks.
Leclerc led from the pole and screamed in rage when told to pit for a second tire change on Lap 22 — at the same time as Sainz. His engineer realized the mistake and yelled “stay out!” but it was too late and Leclerc returned to the track in fourth.
“What are you doing?” Leclerc shouted.
After the race, he lectured Ferrari again.
“No words, no words. We cannot do that,” he radioed.
“It was a freaking disaster today,” Leclerc said after. “The win was clearly in our hands. We had the performance, we had everything. I just don’t really understand the call.”
Binotto accepted the team made the wrong call for Leclerc.
“I know he’s not happy. It’s normal that he’s not happy because we only made mistakes. If you’re first and end up fourth it’s obvious something didn’t work,” Binotto said. “We should have stayed out. We’ll look at why we made that decision.”
Leclerc also won the pole a year ago but never got to start because he crashed at the end of qualifying, and the car’s gearbox failed moments before the start. In 2018 and 2019, Leclerc had retired from the race with crash damage.
The race was delayed by 70 minutes for heavy rain and began from a rolling start behind a safety car.
It was then red-flagged on Lap 30 after Mick Schumacher’s heavy crash three laps earlier sliced his Haas car in two. He was uninjured.
George Russell finished fifth for Mercedes ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and the Alpine of Fernando Alonso. Seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton was eighth for Mercedes — extending his winless run with the Silver Arrows to eight races — while Valtteri Bottas was ninth for Alfa Romeo and Sebastian Vettel 10th for Aston Martin.
“Crazy afternoon. I thought the rain would make it more exciting but we struggled still on our cars,” Hamilton said. “Probably one of the worst (starts to the season).”
Relentless rain drenched the track 20 minutes before the scheduled start at 3 p.m. local time.
The field initially lined up and completed a delayed formation lap behind the safety car. But drivers climbed from their cars when the rain intensified and it became clear Sunday’s start would be delayed.
“With the length of the race, and the delays and interruptions, it felt more like an NFL game than a Grand Prix,” Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said. “The rain at the beginning was torrential, then there was an issue with the connectivity for the TV broadcast which meant we couldn’t get going.”
When the rain subsided enough to start the race, Leclerc led the field on a rolling start and started clocking fastest laps.
Then came a team order that played straight into Red Bull’s hands and left Leclerc despondent in Monaco.
Once again.
Perez wins chaotic Monaco GP, Ferrari blows it for Leclerc
https://arab.news/jybgy
Perez wins chaotic Monaco GP, Ferrari blows it for Leclerc
- The third win of Perez’s career came after a questionable strategy call by Ferrari that cost pole-sitter Charles Leclerc a win on his home circuit
- Although Leclerc finished the race for the first time in four tries, he finished fourth and allowed reigning world champion Max Verstappen to extend his lead in the standings
Saudi duo Alkhadrawi and Bu Shulyabi make history in Saudi Smash table tennis doubles event
- They beat countrymen Turki Almutairi and Khalid Almutairi in the last 32 clash on day two
RIYADH: The Saudi pair of Ali Alkhadrawi and Abdulaziz Bu Shulyabi made history on Sunday by becoming the first athletes from the Kingdom to reach the last 16 of a World Table Tennis-sanctioned tournament.
They beat countrymen Turki Almutairi and Khalid Almutairi in the last 32 clash on day two of the Saudi Smash event at King Abdullah Sports City.
The win for Alkhadrawi came hot on the heels of his singles win on day one, the first by a Saudi athlete in a professional table tennis competition.
Reflecting on the win, Bu Shulyabi said: “There are no words to explain what the experience was like with not one, not two, but three other Saudi players – not to mention the fans who were cheering us on from start to finish.”
He continued: “It was beyond incredible. In sports and all walks of life, moments that special and spectacular don’t happen often, to be a part of this chapter in history not just for table tennis in Saudi Arabia, but for sports as a whole, has instilled a level of pride that all four of us will feel forever.”
Having secured their passage to the next round as wildcard entrants, Alkhadrawi and Bu Shulyabi will face the ultimate test in pro table tennis in the next round when they come up again two of the top three players on the planet.
A win against China’s world number 1 Wang Chuqin and fellow Chinese sensation Ma Long – the world number 3 – would be career-defining and catapult both men to global superstardom.
“Opportunities like these are what we’ve been dreaming of and working towards for years – we can’t wait for the Round of 16,” Alkhadrawi said.
“Of course, it will be tough. They are the best in the world for a reason and players around the world aspire to reach their level. However, we will be giving it our best out there, we want to put on a great show for the Saudi fans and their support will be driving us on like always.”
‘Splendid’ Sunil Narine powers clinical Kolkata to top of IPL, Chennai win again
- The top four teams will make the play-offs with the final on May 26 in Chennai
LUCKNOW: Red-hot Sunil Narine smashed 81 off 39 balls to help Kolkata Knight Riders thrash Lucknow Super Giants by 98 runs and take top spot in IPL table on Sunday.
Narine’s blitz, laced with six fours and seven sixes, guided Kolkata to 235-6 after they were invited to bat first in Lucknow’s final home game.
Two-time champions Kolkata bowled out Lucknow for 137 in 16.1 overs for their eighth win in 11 matches and almost guaranteed a play-off berth. Second-placed Rajasthan Royals have played one match fewer.
In the first game of the day, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja starred with bat and ball to help holders Chennai Super Kings climb to third with a 28-run win over Punjab Kings.
The top four teams will make the play-offs with the final on May 26 in Chennai.
Narine, who has impressed after being promoted to open by Kolkata this season, led their batting charge in a 61-run first-wicket stand with Phil Salt.
“He was splendid,” Kolkata skipper Shreyas Iyer said of his team’s player of the match Narine, who has amassed 461 runs at a strike-rate of 183.66.
“The start from openers has been great. Pure bliss. We just want to keep continuing the momentum so that we get to the great total and be optimistic.”
Lucknow’s Naveen-ul-Haq took three wickets to hurt KKR but Iyer, who made 23, and Ramandeep Singh, who hit a six-ball 25 not out, helped the team finish on a high.
Ramandeep returned to make an impact in the field as he took a stunning catch to dismiss Arshin Kulkarni when he ran back 21 meters to dive and pouch the ball off the bowling of Mitchell Starc.
Marcus Stoinis hit 36 but the rest of the batting fell flat as spinner Varun Chakravarthy and fast bowler Harshit Rana took three wickets each.
Andre Russell took two wickets and Narine returned figures of 1-22.
Lucknow are fifth on the table and stay in the hunt for a play-off spot.
“Once we go back to dressing room, we move on from this game and see where we went wrong,” said skipper KL Rahul. “Last home game, we are on the road for the next few games, we need to be little bit more fearless.”
In the earlier match, Jadeja top-scored with 43 off 26 balls to guide Chennai to 167-9 batting first in Punjab’s adopted home ground of Dharamsala.
Jadeja then returned figures of 3-20 from his four overs of left-arm spin to help restrict Punjab to 139-9 for Chennai’s sixth win in 11 matches.
The performance from the veteran Jadeja comes as a welcome sign for India ahead of the T20 World Cup in June in the West Indies and the United States.
Chennai suffered an early blow with Sri Lanka pace bowler Matheesha Pathirana set to return home due to a hamstring injury.
Pathirana was Chennai’s standout bowler and took 13 wickets in six matches.
But medium-pace bowler Tushar Deshpande took on the responsiblity in the absence of Pathirana and injured Deepak Chahar as he struck twice in his first over and Punjab’s second in the chase.
Deshpande sent Jonny Bairstow, bowled for seven, and then Rilee Rossouw, bowled for a duck, trudging back to the pavilion in the space of four balls and the chase could never take off.
Saudi riders dominate first World Camel Endurance Championship in AlUla
- Local riders filled the first three places in the men’s category
- Event featured a prize pool of more than SR2 million
ALULA: Saudi competitors dominated the first World Camel Endurance Championship for men and women in AlUla, which was held in partnership with the Royal Commission for AlUla Governorate.
The Saudi racers took the first three places and the championship cups in the first and second rounds of the men’s event. Fares Al-Juhani on Bayan won in a time of 15 minutes 54.27 seconds, with Nayef Al-Faydi riding Munadi second in 32:05.84, and Sulaiman Al-Huwaiti on Motaeb third in a time of 32:11.6.
In the women’s category, Saudi racer Kholoud Al-Shammari on Jabbar took first place with a time of 36:59.91, with the second and third places filled by a Jordanian and a German rider respectively.
Competitors representing 20 countries participated in the championship, with the 16 km races split into two 8 km stages, with a 30-minute break in between. After the first stage, 20 male competitors and 15 women qualified for the final stage, and the result was calculated according to times set across the two stages.
The value of the tournament prizes exceeded SR2 million ($533,333), with the winner in the men’s and women’s categories receiving SR500,000, while the balance of the prize pool was distributed between 10 runners-up in the men’s category and 10 runners-up in the women’s category.
How La Liga is building bridges with Saudi Arabia and regional partners
- Managing Director for Middle East and Africa Maite Ventura spoke to Arab News about the recent Futures FC tournament in Riyadh and promoting the Spanish league’s brand and its clubs
DUBAI: On and off the pitch, La Liga’s ties with Saudi Arabian football are growing.
At the start of March, the La Liga FC Futures U14 tournament was held at the Mahd Sports Academy in Riyadh and won by Spanish club Villarreal.
The competition had been organized in partnership with the Kingdom’s Ministry of Sports and saw 12 teams taking part, including eight EA Sports La Liga teams — Barcelona, Cadiz, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, Villarreal, Real Betis and Osasuna — as well AS Roma from Italy, Portugal’s SL Benfica, Olympique de Marseille ofFrance and Saudi Arabia’s own Mahd Academy.
Just last week, Barcelona-based Espanyol became the latest Spanish club to welcome a delegation of the Saudi Future Falcons program, with the team from the Kingdom beating the La Liga reserve team 3-2 at Dani Jarque Sports City.
There have been several other collaborations and Maite Ventura, La Liga managing director for the Middle East and North Africa, says more projects are set to come to fruition in the coming months and years — all part of La Liga’s mission to grow its brand.
“Our goal in the case of Saudi is about understanding that the popularity of La Liga and the popularity of football in Saudi is huge,” Ventura told Arab News at La Liga’s headquarters in Dubai. “I think more than 80 percent of the population follows football, so we wanted to be there. It's one of the main countries in the region, so for us was very important to be there.
“We not only want to be there with a small project,” she added. “We have many different projects there, with the General Entertainment Authority, with the Ministry of Sports, and (recently) we were celebrating FC Futures in Riyadh, which Villarreal won. We we want to know the countries in which we have fans of La Liga.”
Off the pitch, other ventures include the opening of themed bar and restaurant LaLiga TwentyNine and the world’s largest football museum, Legends, both in Riyadh in collaboration with Saudi events company SELA and the GEA.
“So, this is our mission there, it's about connecting with all of the fans, engaging with the main institutions there,” said Ventura. “We want to be present there, and we don’t want to be there just doing FC Futures, we want to be there for a long time, and we want to be there for our fans.”
When La Liga’s office in Dubai opened in 2014, it became its first ever outside Madrid, with an urgent brief to spread the Spanish league’s brand.
“Our president, Javier Tebas, understood that the limit was the population in Spain, so the only way to keep growing was to go beyond our borders.”
Dubai was seen as the ideal strategic location from which the operation would be carried out in the rest of the region.
“This is not only the 10-year anniversary of the Dubai office, but (of) the international expansion strategy,” said Ventura. “It’s been a long journey, but actually working in the MENA region, where football is the number one sport and where La Liga is the most consumed competition, it’s a pleasure.”
Regionally, Real Madrid and Barcelona have enjoyed huge support for decades in the Middle East, while others like Atletico Madrid, Athletic Bilbao and Valencia have accumulated big followings as well. La Liga’s mission is not just to promote its collective brand, but the individual clubs as well among Arabic-speaking audiences.
“We are doing this in different areas” said Ventura. “From a data perspective, we are working with around 12 clubs from La Liga, we are managing their Arabic social media accounts, we are putting weekly content plan for them to be connecting with their own fans.
“The clubs have understood as well that their fans are not only in Spain, in Valencia or Sevilla or Vigo, but they are in Cairo, Dubai or Jeddah,” she said. “So, this clicked in their heads, and in the last four to five years, the clubs have changed their strategy to go abroad and to connect with their fans. For us, we started with just three people back in 2013. And, right now, we are almost 20 people working only for the MENA region in eight different countries.”
Alongside its strategic projects in Saudi Arabia, La Liga also has representatives working in Qatar, Morocco, Egypt and Iraq.
“Right now we have three people fully based in Baghdad, because we have a very interesting project with the football association there,” said Ventura. “In at the end, our way of doing this is always to be on the ground, physically here, understanding who our fans are, how they consume our product, how they like it, and this allows us to understand and to have this market intelligence and to go to the clubs to let them understand how this works.
“Being in Morocco is not the same as being in Dubai or Baghdad, for example. Our mission is basically to increase the brand value and the value of the TV rights to reach other audiences, other profiles, and of course, to generate business opportunity for La Liga and the clubs.”
In 2022, La Liga and Dubai-based media multinational Galaxy Racer signed a 15-year joint venture to promote the league’s brand in the MENA region and Indian subcontinent.
“We are totally convinced that (for La Liga) to penetrate any market, we need to go hand-in-hand with a partner. It doesn’t matter if it’s a local authority, football federation, local league or a club. We are here to connect with the fans, to connect with the people that like football in each of the countries. So, it’s not like we are in Dubai, and we are managing everything from here. In the case of Iraq, we have a strategic agreement with the football association there. We are working with them to transform the local league, the Iraqi Stars League.”
The highest number of users from the region registered on La Liga’s app comes from Iraq, Ventura revealed, and technology and artificial intelligence are ways through which Spanish clubs will be reaching out to fans, as well as, in the cases of Sevilla and Deportivo Alaves to name two, to gain an advantage in the fields of scouting and recruitment of players.
“We (La Liga) have been working very hard in strengthening the brand of each of the clubs,” Ventura said. “Because the clubs are not just depending on their players — if one player leaves, the club has to keep being strong. So, of course, these are very important lessons that we have been working on now over the last 10 years. First it was international strategy, they understood this, and right now for example, they are working a lot in technology, and definitely AI is going to play a key role in La Liga, not only in this region, but worldwide in the coming years.
“Each of the clubs have their own approach,” said Ventura. “Some of them, they have very strong grassroots systems. Some of them are in involving themselves a lot in technology. Each of them are specializing in (ways) to enter into the market. It’s not the same from one club to another, and they understood this in the right way.”
Ventura expects more partnerships to be signed in 2024 and beyond.
“Last year, it was very important because we partnered with a Galaxy Racer,” she said. “In the MENA region, 50 percent of the population is less than 30 years old. We are very focused on connecting with the youngest generations, Millennials and Gen Z population mainly. So, that is why, from this season, we have started to produce a lot of local content. This means that here we are creating content in Arabic for our Arab fans. We have a very strong strategy right now. We just launched the first Arabic podcast from La Liga, it is called ‘Vamos La Liga’.”
She continued: “We were expecting big numbers, but the the feedback has been amazing. We had more than five million views on the second episode that was with (renowned journalist) Achraf Ben Ayad.”
Ventura says the episode was one of the most consumed pieces of content ever produced by La Liga’s global accounts.
“The experience has been amazing, and we will keep increasing the (amount) of local content, and we are working with a lot of content creators. We will have very big names coming to this podcast very soon,” she added. “We are very focused on the production of local content, and by that I mean everything will be in Arabic, and with people from the region. So the experience has been great.
“We are also doing documentaries, we are producing other type of programmes and everything will be rolled out in the coming months so it’s very exciting.”
Smashing barriers — table tennis helping rise of sporting events in the Middle East
- WTT chief executive writes exclusively for Arab News about the impact of Saudi Smash 2024
JEDDAH: As the Middle East continues its economic transformation, its rapidly growing sports industry stands as a prominent example of this dynamic shift. Events like the Saudi Smash 2024 in Jeddah exemplify the region’s ambition to host major international sports competitions; they also underscore a broader trend toward creating immersive, engaging experiences for a diverse audience.
A reflection of regional growth
Saudi Smash 2024 is not merely an international table tennis event; it reflects a vigorous push into the sports sector, which is becoming a cornerstone of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 strategy. In 2022, the sports tourism sector emerged as a booming $600 billion industry in the Middle East, anticipated to grow even further. The sports industry in the region is expected to expand by 8.7 percent by 2026, sharply contrasting with the global industry’s slower growth rate of 3.3 percent. Studies suggest that, in some Middle Eastern countries, a halo effect boosts the tourism and hospitality industry by up to 30 percent.
But such mega sporting events do not only drive immediate economic uplift through increased tourism and consumer spending. The preparation and execution of an event like Saudi Smash 2024 involve numerous local stakeholders from various industries, thereby distributing economic benefits across a broad spectrum of the local economy. They also promote long-term economic stability by creating jobs and spurring infrastructural developments.
A need for enhanced fan engagement
Recognizing the shifting preferences of younger generations, the Middle East is tailoring its sporting events to cater to Generation Z and Alpha spectators who prefer shorter, more action-packed formats. Similar to what can be expected at a World Table Tennis Saudi Smash, these events are no longer just about the sport; they are multimedia, multifaceted experiences that incorporate advanced digital technologies — such as augmented reality and real-time data analytics — to offer personalized and interactive fan engagement. This shift is critical as fan attraction and retention now hinge on delivering more than just brand loyalty; young fans desire a voice in decision-making processes and seek bespoke experiences that resonate with their digital-native sensibilities.
The power of sports sponsorships
The global sports sponsorship market is poised to grow from $66 billion in 2022 to nearly $108 billion by 2030, and the flourishing sports scene in the Middle East provides fertile ground for brands to market themselves to millions of consumers in the region. An event like Saudi Smash offers regional and global brands a platform to enhance visibility and engage with diverse audiences. The power of sponsorship, in its traditional form, is undeniable. It offers brands an unparalleled opportunity to connect with specific audience segments, fostering emotional bonds, driving brand loyalty, and catalyzing sales. Sponsorship, long-standing in the world of marketing, has entered a transformative era. Sports event partnerships have evolved from mere logo placements and brand affiliations to deeper, more strategic partnerships with an increased focus on values, social impact, and long-term engagement. These collaborations not only drive direct revenue but also build brand associations with health, vitality, and global connectivity, aligning perfectly with corporate goals of broader market penetration and consumer connection.
The evolution of table tennis
The establishment of WTT has been instrumental in transforming table tennis into a major player on the global sports stage. By introducing high-stakes competitions and enhancing broadcast quality, WTT events like the Saudi Smash exemplify how the sport is not only elevating its profile but also integrating seamlessly into the broader context of international sporting events. These events showcase world-class table tennis talent and craft a spectator experience that is globally engaging and accessible. They not only captivate new fans but also attract brand partnerships, further embedding table tennis into the global sports narrative.
Looking to the future
The Middle East’s journey towards becoming a global sports destination is full of promise, bolstered by continuous investments in technology and infrastructure. The transformation of sporting events in the region is emblematic of broader ambitions on the world stage. Through strategic innovation and proactive engagement, the Middle East is not just participating in but is actively leading the global sports dialogue. Events like the WTT Saudi Smash are in place to support this journey, setting new benchmarks for what a sporting event can offer and inviting the world to witness the rise of a new era in global sports prominence.
• Steve Dainton is chief executive of World Table Tennis
