Nico Rosberg bested his Mercedes team-mate and world champion Lewis Hamilton in Formula One’s opening grand prix of the season in Melbourne, but the main talking point was a horrific crash from which McLaren driver Fernando Alonso was lucky to emerge unscathed. “I’m happy to be here, it was quite a scary crash,” Alonso reflected, after clipping the rear wheel of Esteban Gutiérrez during a failed takeover attempt on lap 17. His car flipped twice and disintegrated after hitting a barrier. Rosberg finished eight seconds ahead of Hamilton, with Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari completing the podium. “It’s the perfect start. We have to keep an eye on the red guys,” Rosberg said, probably referring to Ferrari rather than lurking revolutionary socialists.
Leicester top on home straight
Any day now we will doubtless awake to find the English football season has been a winsome dream and that one of the usual petrodollar-fuelled suspects, guided by the hand of the dark lord Sauron, has won the Premier League. But for now, Leicester City are still top. “We are on the home straight and I want to see my horses, how they run,” burbled Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri after a 1-0 win at Crystal Palace kept them five points clear of Spurs, and really, who can blame him for that? Spurs stayed in the chase with a 3-0 win over Bournemouth, while United sneaked a 1-0 win over City in the Manchester derby.
Tennis chief forced to quit
Just when you thought tennis had buried the bad publicity of Maria Sharapova’s failed drugs test, along came Raymond Moore, CEO of Indian Wells Tennis Garden, with some choice views on how grateful “lady players” should be towards their male counterparts. “If I was a lady player, I’d go down every night on my knees and thank God that Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal were born because they have carried this sport,” he claimed. Moore later apologised, but the subsequent outrage was not enough to prevent his resignation. On court at Indian Wells, Novak Djokovic produced a Terminator-style 6-2, 6-0 dismantling of Milos Raonic in the men’s final, while world No 15 Victoria Azarenka surprised Serena Williams 6-4, 6-4 to win the women’s event.
NZ poop India’s T20 party
Fireworks, flashing bails and a great deal of whooping accompanied the start of cricket’s World T20 finals, where’s India’s opening party was promptly pooped by New Zealand. The hosts recovered to beat Pakistan in Kolkata, while New Zealand went on to beat Australia in the Super 10 group stage encounters. England brought their own mercurial properties, losing to West Indies before chasing down a mammoth target of 230 to beat South Africa.
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