George Russell admits he was “off the pace” during Friday’s action at the United States Grand Prix. Russell was fifth-fastest during qualifying for Sunday’s grand prix, while his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton was third-quickest at the Circuit of the Americas. Yet after a difficult first practice session too, Russell seemed somewhat confused as to why he struggled but stated given his shortcomings, he was satisfied with his fifth-place starting spot for Sunday. “For me, it’s been a challenging day,” Russell said after qualifying. “Been off the pace, don’t know why. Strange day for me so I’m actually pleased with P5. “There were times that it didn’t look like we’d make Q3. I’ll take it on my shoulders, I’ve been off the pace today and don’t know why. “P5 is a great place to start on Sunday and we could have been much further down the order, so I’m satisfied with that position.” Charles Leclerc claimed pole position after an impressive Q3 in Austin, with Lando Norris alongside him in second. Max Verstappen was on pole but his final lap time was deleted for exceeding track limits at the penultimate turn, moments after he slammed his team on radio too. The 2023 world champion will start sixth on the grid with his team-mate Sergio Perez in ninth on what was a tricky day for Red Bull. Read More Max Verstappen fumes with Red Bull team towards end of US Grand Prix qualifying Daniel Ricciardo’s back from injury. Now he must show F1 he still belongs ‘Let’s not get too soft’: Lewis Hamilton insists F1 must remain extreme

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It’s a case of 12 down, 10 to go for Formula 1 in 2023. Max Verstappen is cruising to a third-straight world championship for a Red Bull team who look invincible – and could yet go the whole season invincible. Yet there have been other notable performances too, with Aston Martin and more recently McLaren impressing, while behemoths like Ferrari and Mercedes are left wondering how they’ve been left so far behind Red Bull yet again. It’s now time for the usual four-week August break, but not before The Independent takes a look at the highlights and lowlights from the first five months of the 2023 season. Best driver – Max Verstappen Unsurprisingly, the easiest choice of the lot. Eight wins in a row, 10 from 12 in total, Verstappen has a mammoth 125-point lead to team-mate Sergio Perez with 10 races left. The title is already virtually sewn up. The only question left is – how many records he can set this season? Next in line is Sebastian Vettel’s 2013 record of nine wins in a row, which he can match at his home race in Zandvoort. Thank you, next. Best team – Red Bull To the second easiest choice of the lot. It seemed highly unlikely that Red Bull could improve on their double success last year; surely the chasing pack would reel them in? In fact, it’s gone the other way. Red Bull’s rocketship RB19 is Adrian Newey’s greatest design yet. It has won all 15 races including sprints – 12 from Verstappen, three from Perez – and they’ve had five one-two finishes. Including last season, Christian Horner’s team have won 22 of the last 23 grands prix. George Russell was somewhat ridiculed for suggesting after the first race in Bahrain that Red Bull “could win every race this season.” He doesn’t look so silly now. An unprecedented perfect season could well be the story of the season. Biggest disappointment – Nyck de Vries Already out the door after 10 races, with Daniel Ricciardo replacing him at AlphaTauri, Nyck de Vries’ Formula 1 career is in tatters. With zero points, a best-finish of 12th and Red Bull overlord Helmut Marko criticising him as early as April, the writing was on the wall for De Vries from the outset. Did he deserve quite such an early exit? Probably not. But it was coming. This was not supposed to be the order of play after the Dutchman’s mightily impressive debut at Monza last year for Williams, where he finished ninth filling in for Alex Albon. A return to Formula E appears most likely for the 28-year-old now. Most improved driver/team – Aston Martin Eyebrows were raised last summer when Fernando Alonso switched from Alpine to the struggling Aston Martin, who finished seventh in the Constructors’ Standings. But how that decision has bore fruit. Alonso started the 2023 season with five podiums in six races, with the racing green Aston modelled closely on leader of the pack Red Bull, leapfrogging the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari early on. They’ve had something of a dip recently, but Alonso remains the best of the rest behind Red Bull in the world championship. Their emergence as a frontrunner will be undoubtedly confirmed if they can achieve a race victory in the second-half of the season. Biggest surprise – McLaren’s recent revival Aside from the extent of Red Bull’s dominance, the July renaissance from the McLaren papaya has come completely out the blue. It looked set to be a long season when, in the season-opener in Bahrain, Lando Norris pitted six times amid issues with the MCL60. But, having made personnel changes and altered their floor of the car, Norris secured two second-place finishes in a row in Silverstone and Hungary. Australian rookie Oscar Piastri has also impressed after a cagey start – the highlight a sterling drive to finish second in the Belgian GP sprint race on Saturday. Biggest underachiever – Ferrari This will not be the biggest surprise. After looking so fierce and domineering at the start of 2022, how the Scuderia’s fortunes have reversed in the 18 months since. Ferrari have not won a race since Charles Leclerc in Austria last year – over 12 months now – and despite changing their team principal in the off-season from Mattia Binotto to Fred Vassuer, they continue to be impacted by the same disorderly confusion which characterised last season. Charles Leclerc appears close to breaking point on occasions, with Carlos Sainz not far behind. Ferrari themselves will do well not to be left bereft in the midfield in the remainder of 2023. Biggest shock – Toto Wolff revealing Mercedes will ditch car concept Max Verstappen insisting he could quit F1 if more sprint races are added to the calendar was a shock. But just beating it, it didn’t take long for Mercedes to finally ditch their unique no-sidepod design. Toto Wolff didn’t even wait until the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix; testing, practice and qualifying had told him enough. “I don’t think this package is going to be competitive eventually,” he said. “We got it wrong last year. We thought we could fix it by sticking to the concept of car but it didn’t work out so we just need to switch our focus on to what we believe is the right direction.” Improvement for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell has been slow but steady since. Biggest farce – Esteban Ocon pit-lane incident in Baku Everyone knew it was happening. The pit wall, the broadcasters – but not the FIA seemingly. Esteban Ocon had to pit before the last lap of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix having pursued a bold – albeit ineffective in the end – strategy to drive the whole race on one set of tyres. F1 rules dictate every driver must pit at least once. So the shocking scenes which followed of Ocon almost running over photographers and officials walking in the pit lane was shambolic and extremely unsafe. Best race – Australian Grand Prix In a season lacking classic races thus far, the street track of Albert Park in Melbourne did at least provide drama from start to finish. Three red flags were thrown due to crashes throughout the race, with a late shunt forcing a captivating two-lap shootout to finish, which subsequently resulted in the Alpines crashing into each other and Carlos Sainz penalised for spinning Fernando Alonso. The sort of chaotic carnage which has not been replicated since. Worst race – Hungarian Grand Prix Expectations were high in Budapest after Hamilton claimed his first pole position since December 2021. Could he defend from Max Verstappen from lights out? Could there be a battle between the pair not seen since Abu Dhabi 2021? No, no there couldn’t. Verstappen dived down the inside at turn one and was not seen again. The race descended into nothing short of a bore-fest and had just 16 overtakes – the lowest amount in any grand prix in 2023. For comparison, last year’s race at the Hungaroring had 61 overtakes. Read More Daniel Ricciardo is back - and this time he wants to go out on top Lewis Hamilton makes Austin Powers reference to show Max Verstappen dominance Max Verstappen extends invincible streak with victory at Belgian Grand Prix F1 2023 race schedule: When is the Dutch Grand Prix? Lewis Hamilton reveals return of major issue with Mercedes car at Belgian Grand Prix Max Verstappen extends invincible streak with victory at Belgian Grand Prix

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David Moyes is considering converting Jarrod Bowen into an out-and-out striker following his latest goal for West Ham. Bowen had fired the Hammers into the lead early in the second half at Bournemouth with a spectacular curler from the edge of the box. But Moyes’ side were denied an opening-day win when Dominic Solanke rounded Alphonse Areola to snatch a 1-1 draw with eight minutes remaining. Bowen’s last kick of last season was the late goal which secured the Europa Conference League trophy against Fiorentina in Prague, 66 days ago. This time he collected the ball off Tomas Soucek 20 yards out, cut onto his left foot and buried a superb, curling effort beyond the dive of Neto. “It was a brilliant goal,” said Moyes, who previously successfully turned Marko Arnautovic from winger to striker at West Ham. “Jarrod is becoming our major goalscorer. There’s a lot of talk about needing to buy a centre-forward but I’m going to see if Jarrod could do the job. “He’s got the instincts and the sharpness. Hull played him at centre-forward so it’s not me trying to be a genius.” West Ham were pegged back when Antoine Semenyo’s wayward shot fell at the feet of Solanke, who showed tremendous composure to slip the ball around Areola and tap into an empty net. “The goal was really scruffy,” added Moyes. “I don’t know if the boy is crossing or shooting, it clipped Tomas Soucek’s heel and was bad fortune for us, but we probably brought it on ourselves.” Brazilian midfielder Lucas Paqueta put in an eye-catching display in a deep-lying midfield role, showing glimpses of why Manchester City made an approach to sign him. Moyes, who has already lost Declan Rice this summer, does not want another of his best players to leave but is realistic enough to know he might not be able to stop him. “There’s a price on everyone’s head somewhere,” he said. “We don’t want Lucas to go, it’s as simple as that. But sometimes it’s difficult to say to these boys you can’t join Manchester City, or Real Madrid, the biggest clubs in the world. “We’ve had a bit of news on Lucas but we’ve had nothing that’s made us wobble.” Bournemouth’s new boss Andoni Iraola enjoyed his first taste of Premier League football. “It’s a good point, we wanted three,” said the Spaniard. “We were better at the end of both halves. “After tying the game the momentum was with us and we finished better, but it was one point. “We improved after the first half and second half we were a bit more direct. We have to improve, this was the first game of the season. We have to grow from this starting point.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Tom Brady addressed Birmingham squad before last-gasp victory over Leeds Lachlan Lam lands golden point drop goal to give Leigh dramatic win over Hull KR Everton pay price for missed chances as Fulham snatch win at Goodison Park

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