Oscar Piastri dominates the only practice session at the Belgian GP

AFP

La Jornada Newspaper, Saturday, July 26, 2025, p. a10

Francorchamps. Australian Oscar Piastri (McLaren) will start from pole position today in the Belgian Grand Prix sprint race, after dominating the only free practice session at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit yesterday.

The leader of the Formula 1 World Championship clearly outperformed the defending champion, the Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull), and his teammate at McLaren, the British Lando Norris, respectively, relegated to 477 and 618 thousandths of a second.

In this way, Piastri looks like the great rival to beat this weekend on the emblematic Ardennes circuit.

The Melbourne driver had a scare in Q2 of the qualifying session, only managing the tenth-best time, thus occupying the last place to access Q3, after his fastest time was suppressed for going outside the track limits.

I got scared in Q2 after one of my lap times was cancelled, but in the end, everything went well. This is one of my favorite tracks; I love driving here, and the team has done a fantastic job. We've had pace in the last few races, but not the results we wanted, so this is good for confidence , Piastri noted.

Ahead of today's and tomorrow's races in Belgium, Piastri holds a slender eight-point lead over Norris in the standings and a much more comfortable 69-point lead over Verstappen.

Today, the Australian will try to confirm his strong form in the sprint race, which will take place before another qualifying session, which will determine the grid order for tomorrow's main race.

On the other hand, yesterday's session served as the debut for Red Bull's new CEO, Frenchman Laurent Mekies, who replaced Christian Horner, who was dismissed two weeks ago.

In a press conference, Mekies revealed that he had received Horner's endorsement. "I contacted him right away and he gave me his support, which was incredible given how difficult the situation was for him. We exchanged messages yesterday (Thursday) and this morning (Friday) ," he indicated.

Meanwhile, Mexican driver Patricio O'Ward (Arrow McLaren) was the fastest in practice for the IndyCar Monterey Grand Prix at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in California.

▲ The tricolor representative captivated the audience with a routine dedicated to Matlalcueye, goddess of water. Photo Ap

From the Editorial Staff

La Jornada Newspaper, Saturday, July 26, 2025, p. a11

The Mexican artistic swimming team farewelled the Singapore 2025 World Aquatics Championships yesterday with a fifth-place finish in the acrobatic routine.

The gold medal went to China (229.0186 points), silver to Russia, competing under a neutral flag (224.7291), and bronze to Spain (221.0962). Mexico finished fifth with 216.7876, behind Italy (217.5667).

With the participation of Diego Villalobos, who in this competition won the bronze medal in the men's solo technical event and was also a finalist in all seven events in which he competed, the tricolor representative, also made up of Pamela Toscano, Itzamary González, Glenda Inzunza, Regina Alférez, Fernanda Arellano, Miranda Barrera and Joana Jiménez, showed a renewed routine dedicated to the goddess Matlalcueye (of water) and surprised the public with their energy and spectacular acrobatics.

"I'm very happy, very satisfied with the performance shown by the Mexican team. Despite having significant losses after the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, we've continued forward and are going all out.

"We've been one of the most consistent countries for several years now, and that speaks volumes for our work. We continue to make history, we remain among the elite. There are teams that were very good in their time and are no longer so, but we continue to climb the ladder. Today (yesterday) we had a magnificent performance and, above all, a very good result. We have a very competitive Olympic cycle ahead of us, but Mexico has what it takes to compete at Los Angeles 2028 ," said coach Adriana Loftus, who at the end of the competition was thrown into the water, along with her multidisciplinary team, as part of the celebration for the tricolor representative's performance.

The Mexican delegation's participation in the Singapore World Cup will continue early Saturday morning, when two-time Olympic medalist Osmar Olvera, along with Randal Willars, Alejandra Estudillo, and Zyanya Parra, will compete in the final of the mixed 3- and 10-meter team event.

In the afternoon, Olvera, along with fellow Paris 2024 medalist Juan Manuel Celaya, will compete in the men's 1-meter springboard event.

Osmar will seek to retain the world gold medal he won in Doha 2024, after winning silver in Fukuoka 2023.

Meanwhile, with another gold, Spain finished on a high in artistic swimming in Singapore, with nine medals, three of them gold, its best record ever.

The Iberian team's final gold medal came thanks to Iris Tió and Dennis González, who were crowned champions of the mixed freestyle duet yesterday.

Tió, the team's star, participated in all three gold medals Spain won at the competition. She had taken the title on Tuesday in the free solo and also topped the podium on Thursday, alongside Lilou Lluís, in the women's free duet.

With information from AFP

From the Editorial Staff

La Jornada Newspaper, Saturday, July 26, 2025, p. a11

In sports, the most important thing isn't always winning. Mexican cyclist Isaac del Toro, a UAE Team Emirates rider, knows that winning is a goal, but it's not the only path he has in mind. In the longest-running race in Spanish cycling, La Clásica de Ordizia, the 21-year-old left the path clear for his teammate, local Igor Arrieta, as he was about to reach the end of the race.

Arrieta achieved his first professional victory in his home country, while Del Toro, who was close to finishing the 167.4 kilometers as the leader, finished second. The Ensenada cyclist reciprocated the support he received from the Spaniard during the Giro d'Italia: he slowed his pace, waited for him to finish to make way for him, and celebrated with him in the same way he had done on other occasions when he won.

UAE Team Emirates' dominance was evident on the podium with the arrival of Portuguese Antonio Morgado in third place, completing the 1-2-3

The peloton completed five laps on a circuit of just over 30 kilometers, characterized by a sawtooth profile. The riders challenged the Albaltzisketa slope, a 2.9-kilometer third-category climb, at every turn. After the final climb, a seven-kilometer gradient led them to the finish line.

Watching Igor win was wonderful. After all the work he did for me at the Giro, he proved he's a true team rider , Del Toro said of his teammate.

If sport is a mirror that reflects an athlete's values, the Mexican preferred to measure the success of his journey not with victory, but with a rarely seen gesture of sportsmanship. The result marked a milestone, as no team had managed to monopolize the podium at La Clásica de Ordizia since 1978. "It's the first victory of my career, and to do it so close to home is indescribable ," confessed Arrieta, still surprised by the way Del Toro conceded his place in first place. "It wouldn't have been possible without Isaac and Antonio, who were incredible today ." The Emirati team reached 67 wins with 19 different riders in the campaign.

Meanwhile, Dutchman Thymen Arensman launched a daring solo attack on a sweeping climb to the finish and held on to win stage 19 of the Tour de France. Although overall leader Tadej Pogacar is on track for his fourth title, the Slovenian star couldn't catch Arensman. He finished the stage in third place behind Denmark's Jonas Vinge-gaard, who overtook Pogacar right on the finish line.