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BRISBANE, Australia — France breathed fresh life into their Women’s World Cup campaign with a 2-1 victory over Brazil on Saturday as Sweden barrelled into the last 16 and Jamaica claimed a historic first win.

France captain Wendie Renard headed in the winner seven minutes from time in front of nearly 50,000 in Brisbane to earn a vital three points and leave Brazil’s World Cup in peril.

The result blew Group F wide open. France are top on four points from two games and in pole position to qualify along with Jamaica, who have the same number of points following a 1-0 triumph over Panama.

Herve Renard’s France defied most of the Brisbane crowd and a Brazilian team who thumped Panama 4-0 in their previous match, to reinvigorate French hopes of a first World Cup title.

The French controlled much of the first half and took an early lead through veteran striker Eugenie Le Sommer with her 90th goal in 181 appearances.

Brazil came back into the game in the second half and was rewarded when Debinha latched onto a deflected shot and fired past goalkeeper Pauline Peyraud-Magnin to level.

With time running out, France struck again.

Selma Bacha swung in a corner in the 83rd minute and defender Renard — who had been a pre-match injury doubt — appeared unmarked at the far post to head home.

Ilestedt double

Sweden thumped Italy 5-0 to join title contenders Spain and former champions Japan in reaching the knockout rounds with a match to spare.

Three goals in seven minutes in the first half did the damage in Wellington as Italy struggled to deal with Sweden’s set pieces and aerial threat.

Arsenal defender Amanda Ilestedt scored twice and has three goals at this World Cup, all with her head.

“Maybe I didn’t expect three goals but I know that’s one of my strengths and it’s something we’re working on a lot at training,” she said.

Jamaica history

Jamaica won at the Women’s World Cup for the first time with a deserved victory over debutants Panama.

Skipper Allyson Swaby headed in from a corner early in the second half to give Jamaica their first victory at the fifth attempt.

Jamaica face Brazil on Wednesday knowing they only need a point to claim a landmark spot in the last 16.

The success comes against the backdrop of rows with the Jamaican football federation over a lack of support for the team and unpaid expenses.

“It is huge. It keeps our dream of getting out of this group alive,” match-winner Swaby said.

Kerr comeback

Australia’s hopes of staying in their home tournament received a boost on Saturday when skipper Samantha Kerr declared herself available.

The prolific Chelsea striker, the face of the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, suffered a calf injury on the eve of the tournament and missed the Matildas’ first two games.

The Australians squeezed past Ireland 1-0 thanks to a penalty to open their campaign but were then stunned 3-2 by Nigeria.

With a critical encounter against Olympic champions Canada looming on Monday, the 29-year-old fronted the media in Brisbane to say: “I am going to be there. I am going to be ready.”

There was also good news for European champions England who announced that key midfielder Keira Walsh did not suffer an anterior cruciate ligament injury in their win over Denmark.

Walsh will miss their last group game against China, when the Lionesses will hope to seal their place in the knockouts, but will remain with the squad.

Thrilling conclusion

Group A looks set for a thrilling conclusion on Sunday.

Switzerland lead with four points and is in pole position to advance. They play co-hosts New Zealand in a sell-out in Dunedin.

New Zealand is level on three points with debutants the Philippines, who play former champions Norway at the same time in Auckland.

Norway, which sits bottom of the group with one point, can qualify but they must win — and do it without star striker Ada Hegerberg, who is injured.

Also in action on Sunday are one of the favourites, Germany, who face Colombia in Group H.

PARIS — Bayern Munich announced on Saturday that Senegalese striker Sadio Mane was in talks “about a change of club” with reports suggesting he was destined for Saudi side Al Nassr.

The German champions left Mane out of a friendly match in Tokyo, posting on social media: “Sadio Mane is in contract negotiations about a change of club and is therefore not in the line-up today.”

The 31-year-old former Liverpool star is expected to become the latest high profile player to join the cash-rich Saudi league.

As Bild and Kicker magazine reported Mane was on his way for a medical with Al Nassr, Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel declined to be drawn on the player’s future.

“We are still in the transfer window and I would like to see what’s going on and wait and see how things will happen,” he told reporters after Bayern’s 1-0 win over Kawasaki Frontale in Japan.

Mane would be another major signing for the club that pulled off the first coup of a raft of signings by Saudi clubs, luring Cristiano Ronaldo, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner.

Mane won the Champions League and Premier League in six seasons with Liverpool and was a key part of Jurgen Klopp’s devastating front three with Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino.

When Liverpool won their first English league title for 30 years in the pandemic-disrupted 2019-2020 season, Mane scored 18 goals.

But in the summer of 2022, when he won the African Player of the Year, Mane decided he wanted a new challenge — unconfirmed rumours said he had tired of sharing the limelight with Egypt’s Salah at Anfield.

Bayern made a big play for Mane, promising to make him the focal point of an attack which had just lost the services of Robert Lewandowski to Barcelona.

After a strong start to the season at Bayern, it soon become clear that Mane was not clicking in Bavaria.

In a Bundesliga game against Werder Bremen in November, Mane suffered an injury to his fibula and his season was put on hold.

The injury forced him to miss the World Cup in Qatar at the end of last year in a crushing blow to Senegal’s chances.

While Mane returned to the Bayern team in 2023, his problems were underlined when he became involved in a physical altercation with teammate Leroy Sane following a Champions League defeat to Manchester City.

Bayern reportedly fined Mane around 350,000 euros ($385,000) and gave him a one-match suspension for his part in the incident.

He ended the season with an underwhelming 12 goals in 38 games across all competitions.

He is set to quit Bayern with two years left on his contract.

On the international stage, Mane helped Senegal to the Africa Cup of Nations title in 2022.

Apart from Ronaldo Al-Nassr have also signed this summer Croatia midfielder Marcelo Brozovic, Brazil full-back Alex Telles and Ivory Coast midfielder Seko Fofana.

AMMAN — Jordan’s national team were draw in Group G for the 23rd World Cup 2026 qualifiers set to kick off in October which also serve as qualifiers for the Asian Cup 2027.

Jordan will play alongside Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and the winner from the Cambodia/Pakistan match. 45 nations were in the draw for the start of their qualifying journey to the 23rd FIFA World Cup, which will be co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States.

The official draw ceremony for the preliminary qualification rounds 1 and 2 of the Asian qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup 2026 was held at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Asia will get eight slots in 2026 World Cup in additional to a zonal qualifier after expanding the number to include 48 nations.

The Jordan Football Association (JFA) this month signed up Moroccan coach Hussein Amomuta replacing Iraqi Adnan Hamad whose contract expired. Ammouta underlined in a meeting with JFA President HRH Prince Ali that he has his eyes set on advancing Jordan to the 2026 World Cup and the semifinals of the Asian Cup. 

After an early exit from the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, the focus of Jordan’s national team is the upcoming Asian Cup 2023 slated for Qatar in January 12, 2024. The draw put Jordan in Group E alongside Bahrain, Malaysia and South Korea.

Jordan last played 63rd ranked Jamaica beating them 2-1 a training camp as they prepare for the two events. Jordan lost 3-2 to 25th ranked Serbia and beat the Philippines 4-0 in earlier friendlies. In 2022, Jordan hosted the Spanish national team as the 2010 World Cup champions were on their way to the Qatar World Cup. Spain won the match 3-1.

Looking back at the Jordan’s peak performance, the team was on the verge of qualifying to the 2014 World Cup for the first time and advanced to play then World’s 6th ranked Uruguay in an intercontinental qualifying tie. The Kingdom had never reached that far in World Cup qualifying since first taking part in qualifiers. Round 3 had been the furthest Jordan reached in the past seven times since 1986 qualifiers. 

Jordan is now at 82nd in FIFA Rankings with the lineup including players from the U-23 team who won the West Asian Championship, but were eliminated from Round 1 at the 5th AFC U-23 Championship in their fifth time at the event.

Men’s divisions

On the other hand, Jordan will play alongside Syria, Oman and Brunei in Group A qualifiers for the U-23 Asia Championship in September. The squad played friendlies against Lebanon, Bahrain, Palestine and the U-20 national team. They also reached the semis of the U-23 West Asian Championship, as the team eyes the Olympic qualifier and playing in the games for the first time. They won the 2021 title and did not play in the 2022 edition.

The U-20 men played in their 6th Asian Championship in Group C against Tajikistan 2-0, South Korea 2-0, Oman 0-0, but were eliminated from the quarterfinals when they lost to Japan 2-0. 

Jordan was eliminated from Round 1 in 2008 and 2010 editions. In 2012 they moved to the quarterfinals. They did not take part in 2014 and 2016 and exited in the first round in 2018. They did not qualify to the 2020 event which was later postponed.

Last year, Jordan hosted Group A qualifiers for the U-17 Asian Cup but failed to advance as Japan clinched the slot from the group which included, Syria, Philippines, and Turkmenistan as 44 nations contested qualifiers in 10 groups with the top team in each group and 5 second place teams moving to the finals in Bahrain in 2023.

Women’s team

This season, the women’s squads had unsuccessful results. The senior team played Olympic qualifiers for the 2024 Paris Games losing to Uzbekistan 7-0, Bhutan 2-1 and managing a 3-1 win over East Timor. Uzbekistan qualified.

The U-20 women played qualifiers for 2024 AFC U-20 Women’s Asia Cup and were eliminated after contesting group D against Lebanon 0-0, Mongolia 4-1, Bhutan 1-0. Lebanon advanced.

The U-17 team played qualifiers for the 2024 AFC U-17 Women’s Asian Cup losing to Iran 7-1 and Nepal 4-1. Iran advanced.

AUCKLAND — Rampant title contenders Spain and former champions Japan became the first teams to reach the Women’s World Cup last 16 on Wednesday as both won with ease.

Two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas started for Spain following her serious knee injury and played her part in a 5-0 demolition of Zambia.

Japan had been on the brink of reaching the knockout rounds following their 2-0 win over Costa Rica earlier in the day and the Spain result sent both of them sailing through.

In the final match of the day, Olympic champions Canada took a step towards the next round by fighting back from a goal down in soaking-wet Perth to win 2-1 against Ireland, whose hopes of progressing are over.

Japan and Spain meet on Monday to decide who wins Group C, and with it a theoretically easier draw. Both have a perfect six points from two games and are yet to concede a goal.

Costa Rica and Zambia play the same day in the fight to avoid finishing bottom of the pile.

Barcelona’s Putellas came off at half-time at Eden Park in Auckland but Zambia were already dead and buried by then with Spain two goals in front against the lowest-ranked team in the tournament.

Jennifer Hermoso and Alba Redondo both scored twice in the victory in front of just over 20,000 spectators, but Spain coach Jorge Vilda warned their best was still to come.

“We haven’t seen the best version of Spain, that is absolutely clear,” said Vilda.

“After the second goal we took our foot off the pedal and that is something we need to correct. We can’t settle for this,” he added.

Canada survive

The 2011 champions Japan beat an error-prone Costa Rica comfortably in front of 6,992 spectators in Dunedin, the smallest crowd at the finals yet.

Japan, which began their campaign by thrashing Zambia 5-0, were never in trouble against an outclassed Costa Rica at the nearly 30,000-capacity Dunedin Stadium.

The game was effectively killed off in the space of three first-half minutes with goals from Hikaru Naomoto and 19-year-old Aoba Fujino.

In Group B, World Cup debutants Ireland took the lead against Canada after just four minutes when captain Katie McCabe scored direct from a corner.

But an own goal in the tricky conditions brought Canada level just before half-time and then Adriana Leon scored what turned out to be the winner in the 53rd minute to end Ireland’s World Cup hopes. 

Canada tops the group with four points from two games, but Australia will look to leapfrog them by beating Nigeria on Thursday.

The co-hosts Australia must do with only one recognised striker after Manchester City’s Mary Fowler was ruled out of the match with concussion.

The Matildas were already missing captain and talismanic striker Samantha Kerr, who was ruled out of at least the first two matches of the tournament with a calf injury.

Arsenal’s Caitlin Foord is now Australia’s only recognised fit striker.

US-Netherlands clash

Thursday’s action is headlined by a heavyweight clash between the United States and The Netherlands in Wellington.

Both teams will expect to get out of Group E, so bragging rights and group supremacy are at stake in a re-run of the 2019 final.

On that occasion the Americans won 2-0 and are pursuing an unprecedented third successive World Cup title.

The Netherlands are not quite the force they were but coach Andries Jonker believes the rest of the world, the Dutch included, are closing in on the United States.

“Are we getting closer? The feeling is yes,” he said

“Tomorrow is the first time we can check if we are closer or not.”

FUKUOKA, Japan — Katie Ledecky won a record-extending 20th gold at swimming’s world championships on Tuesday but Romanian sensation David Popovici fell flat, missing out on a medal after an “awful” performance.

Ledecky romped home in the women’s 1,500m freestyle in Fukuoka to bolster her credentials as the most decorated woman swimmer in the history of the world championships.

It was also her 15th individual world gold, drawing her level with fellow American great Michael Phelps.

Ledecky said that “every race has a story to it” after she won the 15,000m freestyle world title for a fifth time.

“I’m just feeling really locked into my distance races right now,” the 26-year-old said.

“I dove in and felt really, really good.”

Ledecky’s gold was one of two for the United States, with Ryan Murphy dethroning Italian champion Thomas Ceccon in the men’s 100m backstroke.

Britain won its first gold of the championships as Matthew Richards stunned Popovici in the men’s 200m freestyle.

Australia’s Kaylee McKeown beat American rival Regan Smith to win the women’s 100m backstroke, while Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte came out on top in the women’s 100m breaststroke.

Ledecky came home in a time of 15min, 26.27sec to win the 15,000 freestyle ahead of Italy’s Simona Quadarella on 15:43.31 and China’s Li Bingjie on 15:45.71.

It was the third-fastest swim of all-time and gave Ledecky the 16 top times ever in the event.

“I feel good — it hurt a lot but I’m really happy with the outcome,” Ledecky said.

“I’m just having a lot of fun this week.”

Popovici was expected to share top billing with Ledecky but he suffered a shocking meltdown in the first final of the evening.

The 18-year-old, one of swimming’s brightest stars and the red-hot favourite to defend his 200m freestyle title, comfortably led from the start and looked set to coast to victory as he reached the home straight.

But he faded badly as his rivals closed in, and ended up out of the medals completely as Britain’s Matthew Richards took gold in 1min, 44.30sec.

Britain’s Tom Dean was second on 1:44.32 and South Korea’s Hwang Sun-woo was third on 1:44.42, leaving Popovici fourth on 1:44.90.

Popovici said he “felt awful” but believed his shock defeat could benefit him as he eyes gold at next year’s Paris Olympics.

“If you have the absolute perfect race and you have nothing else to improve, you know that you’ve basically reached the top, the limit,” he said.

“You know that you can do nothing better from there on.

“I’m glad it happened now and I’m sure it has a meaning and I’m going to learn from it,” he added.

Last year in Budapest, Popovici became the first man to complete the 100m-200m freestyle double at a world championships in nearly 50 years.

Richards said “keeping my head” was the key to beating him.

“Swimming isn’t a sport like boxing — no one is going to come in and hit you in the face,” said the 20-year-old, who was appearing in his first world final.

“It’s all about you and what you do in your lane.”

Backstroke battle

Olympic champion and world record-holder McKeown won her battle with defending champion Smith in the 100m backstroke.

The Australian came home in 57.53sec to beat Smith on 57.78 and American Katharine Berkoff on 58.25.

McKeown was disqualified from her 200m individual medley semi-final on Sunday and she said it had been “a hard 48 hours”.

“If you’re not learning, you’re not growing, so I had to find a positive and a negative and that’s exactly what I did,” she said.

Murphy claimed the Americans’ second gold of the evening in the men’s 100m backstroke, finishing in 52.22sec to beat Ceccon on 52.27 and American Hunter Armstrong on 52.58.

In the women’s 100m breaststroke, Meilutyte came home in 1min, 04.62sec to finish ahead of South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker on 1:05.84 and Olympic champion Lydia Jacoby on 1:05.94.

France’s Leon Marchand, who broke Michael Phelps’s world record in the 400m individual medley on Sunday, qualified for the 200m butterfly final in a second-fastest time of 1min, 54.21sec.

AUCKLAND — With the opening round of group games completed, fears that a first 32-team Women’s World Cup would see a flurry of embarrassing mismatches appear largely misplaced.

Admittedly, Morocco experienced a painful introduction to the tournament on Monday as their debut ended in a 6-0 hammering in Melbourne at the hands of Germany, one of the favourites.

Zambia too suffered a heavy 5-0 loss to former winners Japan, but there has been nothing on the scale of the USA’s 13-0 annihilation of Thailand with which they began their triumphant campaign in 2019.

England, another of the favourites, struggled to break down a Haiti side ranked 53rd in the world and making their World Cup debut.

The European champions only secured a 1-0 win thanks to Georgia Stanway’s penalty.

The United States were expected to rattle in the goals against 32nd-ranked Vietnam but settled for a 3-0 victory in Auckland, although they missed a penalty and the shot count was 26-0.

Similarly, Spain beat Costa Rica 3-0 but it could easily have been more: they had 46 shots to one for their opponents.

“Going into this World Cup the game has just grown and a lot of federations have grown as well, so I think it is great to see so many countries coming in and making a great impression on the world stage,” said United States defender Naomi Girma.

‘Growing the game’

FIFA has overseen a rapid expansion of the Women’s World Cup, from 16 teams in 2011 to 24 in the last two editions, and now 32 for the first time this year.

Eight teams are appearing in the finals for the first time, and that exposure to this stage will stand them in good stead for the future, even if there could be some more heavy defeats along the way.

“It’s part of growing the game. They’ll improve from here,” was how USA star Megan Rapinoe described the possible impact on Thailand of that 13-0 defeat in Reims in 2019.

That scoreline is a tournament record, while in the 2015 edition in Canada Germany trounced the Ivory Coast 10-0 and Switzerland beat Ecuador 10-1.

Jamaica shows the way

While Morocco, Zambia and Panama — beaten 4-0 by Brazil on Monday — lick their wounds, other outsiders at this year’s tournament will be galvanised by their opening performances.

Not least Jamaica. They lost all three group games in 2019, including a 5-0 defeat by Italy. On Sunday they held heavyweights France to a 0-0 stalemate.

“The gap between nations is narrowing and that’s exactly what this sport needs to produce great tournaments. Look at the England-Haiti game. There was nothing between them,” said Jamaica goalkeeper Rebecca Spencer.

“France were used to outclassing opponents in their first match but that is going to change because [women’s] football is becoming stronger,” said French coach Herve Renard.

The wider women’s game is benefiting from greater investment, both at club and international level, and FIFA’s prize pot for this year’s World Cup, of $152 million, is triple that of four years ago.

That also reflects the growing interest in women’s football around the world which has seen bumper crowds at club level and big attendances so far in Australia and New Zealand.

“Many people who still believe that women’s football is not a great game or not so entertaining or it’s a bad copy of men’s football, when they watch a game for the first time they will see it’s a fantastic game and it’s very entertaining,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino on the eve of the tournament.

Yet, while the gap is closing, teams from North America and Europe in particular still have the edge over opponents from other continents.

At least more places at the World Cup offer the rest more opportunities to test themselves against the very best on the planet.

“This gives us encouragement and hope that we can compete evenly with European teams,” said the Argentina coach German Portanova after his side went down to a battling 1-0 defeat against Italy on Monday.

BUDAPEST, July — Max Verstappen cruised to another majestic victory on Sunday, reeling off a record 12th straight win for Red Bull as he dominated the Hungarian Grand Prix with a textbook drive from lights to flag. 

The defending double world champion grabbed the lead from pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton at the start and remained in control for his seventh successive victory, his ninth in 11 races this year and the 44th of his career.

More significantly, it was Red Bull’s 12th consecutive win, breaking a 35-year-old record they had shared with McLaren, who won 11 straight races in 1988 with Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna as their driver pair.

Verstappen came home a massive 33.7 seconds ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris with his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez in third.

“For the team 12 wins in a row is incredible. Hopefully we can keep this momentum going for a long time,” said Verstappen.

Verstappen’s seventh straight win stretched the double world champion’s lead over Perez to 110 points in the championship.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton, who started the race from a record 104th pole position, was outpaced at the start and finished fourth for Mercedes ahead of Oscar Piastri in the second McLaren and the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

Leclerc, however, took a five-second penalty, and was “passed” by George Russell in the second Mercedes with Carlos Sainz finishing eighth in the second Ferrari ahead of the Aston Martin paid two-time champion Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. 

“What an unbelievable race,” said Verstappen on his cool-down lap.

“It was good to drive, so enjoyable. It was unbelievable and thank-you everyone.”

He added: “I had a good start and had good ‘bite’. I had the inside, so I knew the corner was mine and it all worked out well. Then, it was my race and the car was fantastic.”

Hamilton swamped

Norris said: “It was a tough race and it wasn’t easy to hold off Checo at the end when he was catching up. But it’s another podium for me and for the team. We’re making great progress.”

The race began in hot conditions with an air temperature of 30ºC and the track at 54, factors sure to affect tyre performance. Verstappen wore an ice-packed vest on the grid under a parasol. 

Hamilton made a strong initial start, but was swamped at Turn One, Verstappen squeezing through on the inside and both McLarens taking advantage to push him down to fourth.

Gifted the lead, Verstappen took control as Hamilton, so delighted by his record 104th pole position, apologised. “It’s a long race,” Mercedes reminded him. 

On a busy opening lap Russell, from 18th on the grid, moved up to 13th as the two Alpines collided and retired, Zhou Guanyu having pushed the returning Daniel Ricciardo into Esteban Ocon who hit his teammate Pierre Gasly. The Chinese driver was given a five-second penalty. 

Red Bull pitted Verstappen for hard tyres on lap 23 without him losing his lead.

Perez, in the mood, passed Piastri forcefully at Turn Two on lap 48 as Leclerc was penalised for speeding in the pit-lane before Hamilton made a second stop for mediums. 

He re-joined fifth, close to a minute behind Verstappen who led imperiously ahead of Norris, Perez and Piastri with 20 laps remaining, the Dutchman afforded a luxurious 2.6 seconds stop on lap 51 before clocking the fastest lap as he surged to the flag.

BUDAPEST — Lewis Hamilton claimed his first pole position since 2021 after edging Max Verstappen in qualifying on Saturday for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The seven-time world champion ended a barren run stretching back 33 races by claiming a record-increasing 104th pole of his career and his record ninth at the Hungaroring circuit. 

His success with a last-gasp lap was greeted with cheers by the crowd and ended defending double world champion Verstappen’s run of five straight poles for Red Bull.

“I didn’t expect this, for us to be fighting for pole position here this weekend,” said a hoarse and emotional Hamilton, who had described his car as being “at its worst” on Friday. 

“But hats off to the team. They’ve done a fantastic job” added Hamilton, back on the front of the grid for the first time since the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in 2021.

The Briton outpaced Verstappen by just 0.003 seconds in a thrilling conclusion to their contest. 

Verstappen, whose Red Bull car ran with an updates package, was disappointed. 

“We’ve not been on it so far this weekend,”he said, but with a 99-point lead ahead of teammate Perez in the title race, he could afford a rare off day.

Lando Norris was third ahead of his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc with Valtteri Bottas taking seventh for Alfa Romeo. 

Two-time champion Fernando Alonso was eighth for Aston Martin ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, back in the top-ten shootout for the first time in six outings, and Nico Hulkenberg of Haas.

The session began in warm sunshine with an air temperature of 27ºC with the teams busy calculating their options for tyre strategy on a circuit known for high attrition rates. 

The introduction of F1’s new Alternative Tyre Allocation had reduced supplies to drivers and ensured that the first qualifying session was run using only hard compound, Q2 only mediums and softs for the top 10 shoot-out — another puzzle for them to solve. 

Hamilton’s teammate George Russell, pole-man last year, failed to make it out of the first qualifying session, blaming heavy traffic for his elimination. 

His comments on team radio were muted out by broadcasters. 

Russell, disappointed by his early exit and 18th place on Sunday’s grid, blamed poor preparation and timing for his lap.

He said: “We got punished... We were fast and the car felt great, but we were out of synch for the whole session. 

“I’m really disappointed. We didn’t need to take so many risks — you get what you deserve if you don’t do things right.”

Out with Russell went Williams’ Logan Sargeant, who was 20th, Haas’s Kevin Magnussen, Yuki Tsunoda of Alpha Tauri and Williams’ Alex Albon. 

Daniel Ricciardo, back in F1 as replacement for the luckless Nyck de Vries at Alpha Tauri, showed his potential by squeezing into Q2 in 15th place, out-qualifying his established teammate at the first attempt. 

The “mediums” second qualifying segment began with Perez quickly on top only to be overhauled by Verstappen whose lap was promptly deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn Five. 

This gave McLaren their chance to shine and Norris and Piastri rose to first and second while Zhou Guanyu, fastest in Q1, rose to sixth, showing just how open the competition had become. 

With Verstappen 15th, Red Bull sent him out alone for another run which resulted in a cautious lap for P2 with two minutes remaining. 

In a furious final flurry, Sainz, who started second for Ferrari last year, was knocked out in 12th along with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, Ricciardo, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Pierre Galsly in the second Alpine. 

Perez began the final session but he was quickly topped by Norris and then Alonso, who went second, before Verstappen and Hamilton took over in P1 and P2 on their first hot runs ahead of a tense finale.