Lando Norris shrugged off the jeers of the Mexican crowd on Sunday as he produced a commanding drive to reclaim the Formula One championship lead from McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
The Briton, starting from pole at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, led from start to finish to take a crucial win in the title race – his fifth of the season – and move one point clear of Piastri at the top of the standings. But instead of cheers, his post-race celebrations were accompanied by a chorus of boos from sections of the local fans.
“People can do what they want, honestly. They have the right to do it,” Norris said with a wry smile when asked about the reaction. “I don’t know why I can’t stop laughing when I get booed. I think it makes it more entertaining for me. Of course, I’d prefer if people cheer for me, but I just focus on doing my job.”
The reason for the crowd’s hostility was unclear, though Mexican media speculated it could stem from comments Norris made last year about home favourite Sergio Perez, or frustration from some fans who believe McLaren have favoured him in his duel with Piastri.
A Mexican journalist suggested to Norris that a poll run by his publication had asked readers what the Briton should do about the Italian Grand Prix controversy earlier this year, when team orders reversed positions between him and Piastri. The most popular answer: “Return the three points.”
The Italian race saw Norris regain second place from Piastri after a slow pit stop cost him the lead – the opposite of Hungary last season, where Norris had been told to let Piastri through to win.
“As a team, we always try to be fair,” Norris replied. “Like Oscar deserved the win in Budapest, I deserved to be ahead at Monza. Simple as that.”
While the off-track noise surrounded Norris, on track his performance was beyond reproach. Controlling the race from lights to flag, he never looked threatened as he executed a clean two-stop strategy and pulled clear of the chasing pack.
Behind him, Max Verstappen took third after a resilient drive for Red Bull, though the Dutchman admitted he was not expecting to finish on the podium after qualifying only fifth.
Verstappen’s race came alive in the closing laps after switching to soft tyres, but a virtual safety car on the penultimate lap – caused by Carlos Sainz spinning his Williams – halted his pursuit of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc for second.
“Sometimes the safety car works for you, sometimes it doesn’t,” said the four-time world champion. “It would’ve been fun to go for it at the end, maybe a bit more fun for me than for Charles defending. But still, it was a good race considering where we started.”
Verstappen’s result trimmed his deficit to the McLarens at the top of the standings to 36 points, with four rounds remaining.
For Piastri, a fifth-place finish was enough to stay firmly in the title hunt despite surrendering the championship lead. The Australian’s afternoon began poorly when he dropped to ninth after a chaotic first lap and further slipped to 11th following his first pit stop. But a well-timed second stop and an aggressive final stint saw him climb back into contention before the late virtual safety car robbed him of the chance to challenge Haas’s Oliver Bearman for fourth.
“It wasn’t so much the pace of the car because it was pretty quick,” Piastri said. “It was more about unlocking it, and I felt like I made some steps in doing that today. I’ve had to drive differently the last couple of weekends – or not differently when I should have – and that’s been strange to adjust to. But today felt like progress.”
For McLaren, the sight of both drivers in the top five underscored their growing dominance in a season increasingly defined by the internal battle between their two young stars.
Norris, now back in front, played down any notion of discord. “We’re both fighting hard, but we both know what’s best for the team,” he said. “There’s respect between us – that’s what matters most.”
Profile of Bitex UAE
Date of launch: November 2018
Founder: Monark Modi
Based: Business Bay, Dubai
Sector: Financial services
Size: Eight employees
Investors: Self-funded to date with $1m of personal savings
The 12 Syrian entities delisted by UK
Ministry of Interior
Ministry of Defence
General Intelligence Directorate
Air Force Intelligence Agency
Political Security Directorate
Syrian National Security Bureau
Military Intelligence Directorate
Army Supply Bureau
General Organisation of Radio and TV
Al Watan newspaper
Cham Press TV
Sama TV
if you go
Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff
By Sean Penn
Simon & Schuster
It Was Just an Accident
Director: Jafar Panahi
Stars: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr
Rating: 4/5
Four%20scenarios%20for%20Ukraine%20war
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Women%E2%80%99s%20T20%20World%20Cup%20Qualifier
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The%20specs%20
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Company%20profile
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
History's medical milestones
1799 - First small pox vaccine administered
1846 - First public demonstration of anaesthesia in surgery
1861 - Louis Pasteur published his germ theory which proved that bacteria caused diseases
1895 - Discovery of x-rays
1923 - Heart valve surgery performed successfully for first time
1928 - Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
1953 - Structure of DNA discovered
1952 - First organ transplant - a kidney - takes place
1954 - Clinical trials of birth control pill
1979 - MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, scanned used to diagnose illness and injury.
1998 - The first adult live-donor liver transplant is carried out
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
White hydrogen: Naturally occurring hydrogen
Chromite: Hard, metallic mineral containing iron oxide and chromium oxide
Ultramafic rocks: Dark-coloured rocks rich in magnesium or iron with very low silica content
Ophiolite: A section of the earth’s crust, which is oceanic in nature that has since been uplifted and exposed on land
Olivine: A commonly occurring magnesium iron silicate mineral that derives its name for its olive-green yellow-green colour
Sun jukebox
Rufus Thomas, Bear Cat (The Answer to Hound Dog) (1953)
This rip-off of Leiber/Stoller’s early rock stomper brought a lawsuit against Phillips and necessitated Presley’s premature sale to RCA.
Elvis Presley, Mystery Train (1955)
The B-side of Presley’s final single for Sun bops with a drummer-less groove.
Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two, Folsom Prison Blues (1955)
Originally recorded for Sun, Cash’s signature tune was performed for inmates of the titular prison 13 years later.
Carl Perkins, Blue Suede Shoes (1956)
Within a month of Sun’s February release Elvis had his version out on RCA.
Roy Orbison, Ooby Dooby (1956)
An essential piece of irreverent juvenilia from Orbison.
Jerry Lee Lewis, Great Balls of Fire (1957)
Lee’s trademark anthem is one of the era’s best-remembered – and best-selling – songs.
UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
Racecard
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Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
THE BIO
Bio Box
Role Model: Sheikh Zayed, God bless his soul
Favorite book: Zayed Biography of the leader
Favorite quote: To be or not to be, that is the question, from William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Favorite food: seafood
Favorite place to travel: Lebanon
Favorite movie: Braveheart
WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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UAE tour of the Netherlands
UAE squad: Rohan Mustafa (captain), Shaiman Anwar, Ghulam Shabber, Mohammed Qasim, Rameez Shahzad, Mohammed Usman, Adnan Mufti, Chirag Suri, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Mohammed Naveed, Amjad Javed, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed
Fixtures and results:
Monday, UAE won by three wickets
Wednesday, 2nd 50-over match
Thursday, 3rd 50-over match
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
The specs: 2018 Audi RS5
Price, base: Dh359,200
Engine: 2.9L twin-turbo V6
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 450hp at 5,700rpm
Torque: 600Nm at 1,900rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.7L / 100km
Recent winners
2002 Giselle Khoury (Colombia)
2004 Nathalie Nasralla (France)
2005 Catherine Abboud (Oceania)
2007 Grace Bijjani (Mexico)
2008 Carina El-Keddissi (Brazil)
2009 Sara Mansour (Brazil)
2010 Daniella Rahme (Australia)
2011 Maria Farah (Canada)
2012 Cynthia Moukarzel (Kuwait)
2013 Layla Yarak (Australia)
2014 Lia Saad (UAE)
2015 Cynthia Farah (Australia)
2016 Yosmely Massaad (Venezuela)
2017 Dima Safi (Ivory Coast)
2018 Rachel Younan (Australia)
Company Fact Box
Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
Sector: Education Technology
Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed
Stage: early-stage startup
Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.
Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
Polarised public
31% in UK say BBC is biased to left-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is biased to right-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is not biased at all
Source: YouGov
