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SUZUKA, Japan — Mercedes go into Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix hoping to show that their baffling lack of pace in Singapore was just a one-off but Lewis Hamilton and team mate Nico Rosberg need some convincing.

“I don’t have any confidence. I don’t have any information to give me that confidence,” world champion Hamilton told British reporters when asked how confident he was that Suzuka would be different.

“I’m hoping it’s a one-off but it was a strange weekend to say the least.

“Our car has not got slower. I think some other people might have brought an upgrade package... but that doesn’t explain it,” added the Briton.

Eclipsed in qualifying after 11 poles in 12 races, Hamilton suffered his first retirement of the season in Singapore and saw his lead over Rosberg cut to 41 points with six rounds remaining.

On a tight and twisty circuit, the previously dominant Mercedes were a second and a half slower than Sebastian Vettel’s winning Ferrari.

The heat and slow nature of the track may have played to rivals’ strengths, but there will be worried faces among the championship leaders until at least Friday practice at Suzuka and possibly beyond.

The Japanese circuit is both fast and demanding, with the flat-out 130R curve a stand-out feature, and should be much more to Mercedes’ liking. If Ferrari are quicker there too, then the fight is really on.

“To be so far off the pace all of a sudden, to not understand it, that’s really bad because then how are you going to improve it?,” asked Rosberg, who finished fourth, after Sunday’s race.

“You just hope that at the next track it’s going to come towards us again. The chances are extremely good, because at all other tracks we’ve been so fast, but who knows?”

Red Bull principal Christian Horner, whose team have been rebuffed by Mercedes in their quest for a new engine partner, expected to see the champions pick up speed but hoped a different scenario might evolve.

Senna mark

“It’s quite confusing to see them so far off but maybe some of the new changes that have been introduced tyre-wise may have had an effect, who knows?,” he said. “I’m sure we’ll see maybe business as usual next weekend.

“If it’s not, then it’s obviously something that’s been introduced that’s affecting their performance.”

Singapore was Hamilton’s chance to equal the 41 wins of his late hero Ayrton Senna and he has every chance of doing that on Sunday, even if from one more start than the great Brazilian triple champion.

In other respects, he and Mercedes will be starting over after falling just short of the all-time records for most individual and team pole positions in a row.

But the Briton, winner of seven races this season and still firmly on course for a third title, can consider himself fortunate.

“The car broke down... and I didn’t lose a huge amount of points to the guy who’s right behind me. It could have been a lot worse, so I’m looking at the glass half-full,” said Hamilton.

The Suzuka weekend will be a tough homecoming for Honda, whose return as engine partners to McLaren has been painfully uncompetitive, even if Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso can count on plenty of local support.

The race could also be a farewell from Button, a winner at Suzuka in 2011, to his Japanese fans if speculation that he is set to quit the sport at the end of the season are accurate.

It will also be emotionally charged for the entire paddock, returning one year on from the late Jules Bianchi’s horrific accident.

AMMAN — Jordan’s national basketball squad lost to South Korea 87-60 on Wednesday in its opening match at the 28th Asian Basketball Championship which tips off in Changsha, China starting September 23 and qualifies the winner to represent Asia at the 2016 Summer Olympics basketball tournament.

Jordan will play in Group C alongside China, Singapore and South Korea and the top three teams will move to Round 2 to join the top three from Group D which includes Taiwan, Lebanon, Kazakhstan, Qatar.

AMMAN – Jordan’s national basketball squad plays South Korea on Wednesday in its opening match at the 28th Asian Basketball Championship which tips off in Changsha, China starting September 23 and qualifies the winner to represent Asia at the 2016 Summer Olympics basketball tournament.

Jordan will play in Group C alongside China, Singapore and South Korea and the top three teams will move to Round 2 to join the top three from Group D which includes Taiwan, Lebanon, Kazakhstan and Qatar.

Group A includes Iran, Japan, India and Malaysia, while Group B is made up of the Philippines, Hong Kong, Kuwait and Palestine.

In the preliminary round, the 16 teams will play in four groups with the top three teams from each advancing to the Round 2 where the qualifying teams from Groups A and B will form Group E, while those from Groups C and D will form Group F. Teams will play the teams from the group they had not faced before. The top four teams from each group will proceed to the final round. The champion will qualify to the 2016 Summer Olympics. The runner-up, third and fourth place will qualify to the Final Olympic qualifying tournament.

The Kingdom clinched one of three qualifying slots after it beat Iraq 86-71, lost to Lebanon 92-74 and beat Palestine 92-76 and took runner-up spot after it beat Syria 80-69 at the West Asian Basketball Association (WABA) Championship earlier this summer.

Lebanon took top spot from the zone, but it was the qualification of Palestine for the first time ever that was historic following their 70-62 win over Iraq. Host China and 2014 FIBA Asia Cup champion Iran automatically qualified to the FIBA Asia.

It will be the 9th time at the Asian Basketball Championship for 2002 and 2014 West Asia champ Jordan. The country’s best performance at FIBA Asia was in 2011, where for the first time in history, Jordan reached the final but lost the chance to qualify to the 2012 Olympic Games after losing the final 70-69 to China and settling for runner-up. Jordan then played at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) for Men but lost to Puerto Rico and Greece and was eliminated. The OQT gave Asia’s second and third teams a chance to qualify to the London Games basketball event. 

The national team just concluded a training camp in the Philippines and earlier played a four nation friendly in China where the squad lost the final match 76-65 to the Chinese Olympic team after earlier beating China 72-70, Palestine 95-55 and the UAE 101-72.

The participation of stars Zaid Abbas and Sam Daghlas, who were both playing abroad and were not part of the line-up in the past two years, made up for the mediocre training agenda as the squad only managed to play two friendlies against Palestine prior to departure. 

Due to financial constraints crippling the Jordan Basketball Federation (JBF), Jordan declined participation at the William Jones Tournament and the King Abdullah Cup was cancelled. Participation at the EXPO four nation friendly was not deemed technically needed with no top tier teams competing, but the JBF went ahead after all other options were exhausted and after managing to secure part coverage of participation costs.

Although the men’s basketball team reached the World Championship in 2010 — and was the only Jordanian team to actually reach a world championship in a team sport alongside the junior team in 1995 — official support for Jordan’s second most popular sport is seen as below par by most observers, leading to a decline in the game locally and less competitive advantage on the regional scene.

AMMAN — The 64th Jordan Professional Football League ended its second week but will now take a nearly three-week break as the Jordan Cup Round of 16 and national team agendas take over.

After Week 2, Wihdat are still in the lead after they beat Kufrsoum 1-0. Shabab Urdun beat newcomers Asala 2-0, Sarih upset Ahli 2-0 to go up to fourth and Ramtha beat Faisali to go up to fifth. Jazira were held 0-0 by Hussein Irbid and That Ras drew 1-1 with Baqaa.

In the kickoff of the local football season, Faisali beat league champs Wihdat to win the 33rd Super Cup 1-0. It was a much-needed win for reigning Jordan Cup champs Faisali after a disappointing 7th place finish the league last year.

Wihdat have been league champions for the last two consecutive years. Last year, they also won the Super Cup while Faisali won the Jordan Cup title. Last season, the runner-up and third places went to Jazira and Ramtha. There was also a battle at the other end of the standings where after Ittihad Ramtha dropped to Division 1, former champs Shabab Urdun, Faisali as well as Baqaa could have easily followed suit but eventually Manshieh were relegated.

National team players will regroup to resume Group B qualifiers of the 2018 World Cup doubling as part of the qualification for 2019 Asian Cup. Jordan is set to play Australia and Tajikistan on October 8 and 13, and will play a friendly against Iraq on October 3.

So far, Jordan beat Tajikistan 3-1, scored a 4-0 win over lowly Bangladesh and were held to a disappointing 0-0 draw by Kyrgyzstan.

This weekend , teams are set to play the knockout Jordan Cup Round of 16 where four Division 1 teams — Turra, Balaama, Arabi and Shiekh Hussein — qualified to join Professional League teams. Teams had requested that matches be postponed over the Eid holiday but the scarcity of stadiums — under maintenance and otherwise — has kept the schedule as is. It will be Ahli vs Wihdat, Hussein vs Baqaa, Asala vs Jazira, Turra vs Ramtha, Shabab Urdun vs Balaama, Faisali vs Sarih, Arabi vs That Ras, Kufrsoum vs Sheikh Hussein. Faisali are reigning Jordan Cup champs.

AMMAN — As the FIA Middle East Rally Championship moves to Cyprus for round five this weekend, Jordan Motorsport made a big announcement on Tuesday ahead of its round six event next month, according to Jordan Rally Media Service.

With a mission to take the sport to the people, the Jordan Rally will start with a Thursday night spectacle in Abdoun on October 15. A large part of Amman’s popular social hub will be closed off to the public for a night to remember, when the region’s top drivers will go against the clock on a specially created track through the area’s streets.

It marks a return to where the 2009 rally was launched, attracting a bumper crowd in excess of 10,000 spectators. Following the Thursday night launch event, the region’s top drivers will take on 20 timed special stages held over two days (October 16-17) through the Jordan Valley and Dead Sea areas.

Among the big names expected are Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah, from Qatar, and the UAE’s Sheikh Khaled Al Qassimi, who currently stands first and second respectively in the Middle East Championship ahead of Cyprus this weekend. Meanwhile, entries for the Jordan Rally close on September 29.

LILLE, France — Tournament MVP Pau Gasol had a double-double as Spain cruised past Lithuania 80-63 Sunday to regain the European basketball championship title.

Spain earned its third title in the last four tournaments after having to settle for bronze two years ago. For Lithuania, it was a second straight runner-up finish after losing the final against France in 2013.

“It was an incredible championship,” Gasol said. “We went through struggles early on but the team responded well and with our backs to the wall we understood that we had to play better defense.”

Earlier, France pulled away in the third quarter to beat Serbia 81-68 for the bronze medal.

With Spain’s King Felipe VI and tennis star Rafael Nadal watching on, the final was a one-sided affair as the Spaniards opened a 13-point lead in the first quarter and were never really threatened. The king presented the medals to the Spanish players, who celebrated with their fans in the stands after the ceremony.

Gasol finished with 25 points, 12 rebounds, four assists, three blocked shots, one steal and no turnovers to earn the tournament’s Most Valuable Player award.

“It’s of special significance to play this well at this stage of my career after all I’ve accomplished,” said Gasol, the 35-year-old Chicago Bulls centre who has two NBA championship rings with the Los Angeles Lakers. “It is something I will remember until the end of my life.”

The victory completed a turnaround for Spain, which came to the tournament without Mark Gasol, Serge Ibaka, Juan Carlos Navarro and Ricky Rubio and lost two of its first three games.

But with Gasol dominating, Spain raised its game when it mattered and looked impressive throughout the knockout stage. Gasol put his stamp on the final early, scoring eight straight points for Spain to lead 19-6.

That helped the team overcome the loss of influential guard Rudy Fernandez halfway into the third quarter when he was fouled by Robertas Javtokas. Fernandez fell to the ground and was helped off the floor while holding his left hip, and did not return.

Matas Kalneitas and Renaldas Seibutis scored 13 points each for Lithuania. Star Jonas Valanciunas had 10 points and nine rebounds.

“They were just much better than us,” Kalneitas said.

Spain and Lithuania booked direct slots at next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Spain won the silver medal in the last two Olympics and Gasol said he’d be around once again if his body holds.

Valanciunas joined Gasol, Spain guard Sergio Rodriguez, Lithuania forward Jonas Maciulis and France guard Nando de Colo in the tournament’s all-star team.

In the third-place game, the host team outscored Serbia 21-12 in the third quarter following a 10-0 run and led by as many as 16 points.

De Colo led France with 20 points, while centre Rudy Gobert had 15 points and 14 rebounds. Evan Fournier added 15 points, including five straight in the fourth that dispelled any hopes of a Serbian comeback as France took a 12-point lead.

“This is not what we came here for but it’s always good to finish with a win,” de Colo said.

Both Serbia and France clinched spots in qualifying tournaments for the Olympics. France coach Vincent Collet said all French stars, including Tony Parker, who had 13 points on 3-for-12 shooting from the field, would return.

“We all agreed that that the main goal is to win an Olympic medal, this is the last chance for this generation to win an Olympic medal, but it won’t be easy to qualify,” Collet said.

Serbia’s star guard Milos Teodosic went 0-for-9 from the field and his only points were three free throws. Bogdan Bogdanovic led Serbia with 14 points. France pulled down 14 more rebounds.

Serbia’s coach Sasha Djordjevic said his team would be back “with more heart and more desire”.

“We want to go to the Olympics,” said Djordjevic, who guided his team to the World Cup silver medal last year.

AMMAN — Two national teams were eliminated from their respective Asian qualifiers this week — echoing concerns of their coaches of not having prepared enough for competitive regional participation.

In qualifiers for the 2016 AFC U-16 Asian Championship, the U-16 national football team went down 4-1 to Kyrgyzstan in their last qualifier after they beat Oman 2-0 and unexpectedly lost the opening match to Nepal 2-1. Nepal and Oman qualified from the group joining Uzbekistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iran, India, Kuwait, Malaysia, North Korea, Thailand, South Korea, Australia, Vietnam and Japan to the finals.

Forty five nations played in 11 groups with group winners and four best second-placed teams moving on to the finals hosted by India will host the 2016 AFC U16 championship.

Earlier this summer, Jordan also finished last at the 5th West Asian Championship. 

Women’s team crashes

Meanwhile, the women’s national team concluded Group A Round 2 matches at the 2015–16 AFC Women’s Olympic qualifying tournament currently under way in Myanmar with a winless record and only one goal.

Jordan lost its fourth match 2-1 to Vietnam after losing 1-0 to Thailand, 3-0 to Taiwan and 2-0 to Myanmar. With two matches to go, Taiwan and Thailand lead the group as only the top team from this round will move to Round 3 to play the top five seeded teams — Japan, Australia, South Korea, North Korea and China — and only the top two qualify to represent Asia at the Olympic Games.

Currently 53rd in the latest FIFA rankings and leading all Arab teams at 11th in the Asian continent, team officials had voiced concern that “the task of clinching a berth from some of the best teams in East Asia was not going to be easy”.

SINGAPORE — Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel won the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday and runaway championship leader Lewis Hamilton retired mid-race, injecting new life into the fight for the Formula One title.

Vettel led from start to finish in a race that was temporarily interrupted by a fan wandering on the track.

Vettel's third win of the season came by 1.4 seconds over Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was third, as all three finished in the positions they started at the Marina Bay street circuit.

"I was able to look after my tyres and control the pace," Vettel said. "Overall a perfect weekend, I am very, very happy."

Hamilton suffered a power delivery failure that the team took a long time to diagnose and could not fix, forcing him out on lap 33.

His championship lead over Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg, who finished fourth, was cut from 53 to 41 points — 252 vs 211 — with Vettel a further eight points back on 203. There are six races left.

Williams driver Valterri Bottas was fifth on Sunday, Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat sixth and Force India's Sergio Perez seventh.

Toro Rosso teenager Max Verstappen finished eighth, refusing team orders in the closing laps to move over for teammate Carlos Sainz Jr who was ninth. Sauber's Felipe Nasr passed Romain Grosjean on the penultimate lap for the last points position.

There were two safety-car periods in the race. The first came following a collision between Williams' Felipe Massa, who was coming out of the pits and Force India's Nico Hulkenberg. Race stewards blamed Hulkenberg, and he will get a three-place grid penalty at the next race.

The second came in bizarre circumstances when a fan was seen wandering on the track near the Anderson Bridge section. Vettel shouted over the team radio "there is a man on the track" and the safety car was immediately deployed. The casually-dressed man soon climbed over a trackside barrier and off the track and the race resumed.

Mercedes struggled all weekend for pace as it was not able to get enough grip from the tyres, and then on race day Hamilton suffered his first retirement of the season.

While this race was likely to be only a temporary aberration to Hamilton's otherwise dominant season, Vettel was not giving up hope of challenging for the championship.

"If we have more weekends like this, yes," Vettel said. "All we have to do is look after ourselves, maximum attack. We still have a small chance. Maybe we can make the impossible possible. We will definitely go for it."

The German made a storming start to the race, leading by three seconds after a brilliant opening lap and extending that to 5.3 seconds after only five laps. Ricciardo had whittled that back to 3.6 seconds after 12 laps and the Australian looked likely to close onto the back of his former Red Bull teammate, but then the first safety car emerged.

After that caution period, Vettel adopted a different strategy, driving conservatively as the field closed up behind him. He then suddenly burst away to put two seconds' gap on Ricciardo in the space of one lap. Again, Ricciardo began to erode the margin, only for another safety car period to effectively destroy the Australian's hopes of catching up by exploiting his superior long-stint pace.

"Both safety cars came out at crucial times, but nonetheless his pace was good," Ricciardo said, while quipping that he was so frustrated by the intruding fan ruining his tactical plan that "I was tempted to swerve and clip him".

Hamilton was racing in fourth place and with the potential advantage of having a softer tyre than his rivals in the final stint, when suddenly the car began to lose power.

"I was feeling super optimistic," Hamilton said. "I was on the prime tyres and the three cars in front were on the options but I was easily keeping up with them and thinking 'we have a race on our hands'. They were telling me to change all these things and then I was overtaken by two Manors so I knew l was last. When they started to pull away, I knew it was over."

AMMAN — The U-16 national football team lost to Kyrgyzstan 4-1 on Sunday in their last qualifier for the 2016 AFC U-16 Asian Championship.

Meanwhile, the women’s national football team lost to Vietnam  2-1 concluding Group A round 2 matches at the 2015–16 AFC Women’s Olympic qualifying tournament currently under way in Myanmar.

They had already lost their qualifying chance earlier after a 3-0 defeat to Taiwan and 2-0 to Myanmar.

AMMAN — Khaled Juma on Friday captured the Jordan Rally Championship title after winning the fourth round in preparation for the Jordan Rally.

Juma and co-driver Imad Juma clocked 1h02m02s in their Mitsubishi Evo 7, followed by Basheer Azar and co-driver Bilal Majdalawieh (1h08m39s) in their Subaru Impreza and Ihab Shurafa and co-driver Rakan Khair (1h09m50s) in their Mitsubishi Evo 9.

Raed Habaybeh and co-driver Marena Habaybeh (1h12m15s) in their Subaru Impreza settled for fourth place.

Juma expressed his happiness to The Jordan Times after the win saying it was very exciting.

“I have a clear ticket for the Jordan Rally as I have built great confidence, and hopefully with more practice I can reserve a place at the podium,’ he said.

“I am happy that I won the fourth round and captured the title. It was such a challenging event and very focused rally and this gives me a lot of hope for the next event,” he added.

With this win, Juma heads the standings with 100 points followed by Azar with 46 points and Ihab Shurafa with 45 points.

“It was the final rehearsal for us before the Jordan Rally. We had the chance to feel and focus more on the route of the rally and this is a chance that is priceless. We hope to have a strong presence in the coming event and make our Jordan proud,’ Juma said.

Drivers had to cover a total distance of 310.76km with six special stages (73.6km) on gravel tracks around the Dead Sea area. Drivers passed through Turky 1 & 2 (9.43km), Shouneh 1 &2 (15.309km) and Baptism site (11.80km). 

The Jordan Rally will be held October 15-17.