Mercedes stars Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas are dominating the Formula 1 season, winning every race so far.

Hamilton stormed to the F1 crown last season, beating Ferrari’s Sebsatian Vettel by 88 points to win his fifth Championship.

The British superstar won 11 races, including six out of seven between race weekends 11 and 17 in a stunning year for the 34-year-old.

Hamilton and team-mate Bottas have started Mercedes’ title charge in fine form yet again this season while Vettel and new Ferrari stablemate Charles Leclerc are looking to bounce back.

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This year saw F1’s 1000th race take place in China with Hamilton claiming glory on the historic landmark in April.

So from the season opener in Australia to the Abu Dhabi finale, here are all the dates you need for your F1 diary.

Formula One 2019: Race calendar

Australian Grand Prix: Valtteri Bottas FIRST, Lewis Hamilton second, Max Verstappen third

Bahrain Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton FIRST, Valtteri Bottas second, Charles Leclerc third

Chinese Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton FIRST, Valtteri Bottas second, Sebastian Vettel third

Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Valtteri Bottas FIRST, Lewis Hamilton second, Sebastian Vettel third

Spanish Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton FIRST, Valtteri Bottas second, Max Verstappen third

Monaco Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton FIRST, Sebastian Vettel second, Valtteri Bottas third

Canadian Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton FIRST, Sebastian Vettel second, Charles Leclerc third

French Grand Prix: Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet – 21-23 June

Austrian Grand Prix: Red Bull Ring, Spielberg – 28-30 June

British Grand Prix: Silverstone Circuit, Towcester, Northamptonshire – 12-14 July

German Grand Prix: Hockenheimring, Hockenheim – 26-28 July

Hungarian Grand Prix: Hungaroring, Mogyorod, Budapest – 2-4 August

Belgian Grand Prix: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot – 30 August-1 September

Italian Grand Prix: Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Monza – 6-8 September

Singapore Grand Prix: Marina Bay Street Circuit, Singapore – 20-22 September

Russian Grand Prix: Sochi Autodrom, Sochi – 27-29 September

Japanese Grand Prix: Suzuka International Racing Course, Suzuka – 11-13 October

Mexican Grand Prix: Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico City – 25-27 October

United States Grand Prix: Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas – 1-3 November

Brazilian Grand Prix: Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, Sao Paulo – 15-17 November

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi – 29 November-1 December

Formula One 2019: Driver Line-Up

Mercedes: Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas

Ferrari: Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc

Red Bull: Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly

Renault: Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg

Haas: Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen

Mclaren: Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris

Racing Point: Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll

Alfa Romeo: Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi

Toro Rosso: Daniil Kvyat and Alex Albon

Williams: George Russell and Robert Kubica

Source: TalkSport.com Motorsport

Sebastian Vettel swapped the first/second-place finishing signs around after Lewis Hamilton was crowned the winner of a remarkable Canadian Grand Prix.

Vettel took the chequered flag but was demoted to runner-up following a five-second penalty for a near-collision with Hamilton on lap 48.

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“They are stealing the race from us,” said a furious Vettel over the radio as he was informed of the stewards’ verdict.

Hamilton crossed the line 1.3 seconds behind Vettel to ensure he would take the fifth win of his championship defence, and extend his championship lead to 29 points after Valtteri Bottas finished fourth. Charles Leclerc completed the podium positions.

Vettel had appeared on course to end a 287-day losing streak, but the race exploded into life with 22 of 70 laps to run.

Hounded by Hamilton, Vettel, who has made a series of ruinous mistakes in recent seasons, lost control of his Ferrari at the left-handed third bend and ran over the grass.

Hamilton was within half-a-second of the Ferrari car, and as Vettel rejoined the track at the ensuing corner, Hamilton, pushed up against the concrete wall, was forced to slam on the brakes to avoid a coming together.

“I would have been past if it wasn’t for the wall,” said Hamilton on the radio after emulating Michael Schumacher by winning for a record-equalling seventh time in Canada.

But Vettel was incandescent.

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“No, no, no, not like that,” he said. “Seriously, you need to be a blind man to think you can go through the grass and control your car.

“We are lucky I did not hit the wall. Where was I allowed to go? This is the wrong world.”

As the drivers made their way on to the podium, Vettel deliberately stood with his left foot on the top step to make his feelings clear.

“I have said enough,” added Vettel on the rostrum. “You should ask the people.”

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A ripple of jeers rang out again as Hamilton spoke. “All I can say is that I didn’t make the decision,” he said. “I don’t know what they are booing at.”

Vettel jumped in. “People shouldn’t boo Lewis,” he said. “If anything they should boo at these funny decisions.”

He then walked off stage.

Vettel’s losing streak now stands at 15 races, but for much of the seventh round it looked as though he would finally win for the first time since last August’s Belgian Grand Prix.

Racing away from pole, the Ferrari driver kept Hamilton at bay, but as the Mercedes star began to reel Vettel in, the pressure showed.

Rafael Nadal kept his iron grip on the Coupe des Mousquetaires by beating Dominic Thiem in four sets to win a 12th French Open title.

It was a repeat of last year’s final and, although Thiem managed to win a set this time, he was unable to join Robin Soderling and Novak Djokovic as the only men to beat Nadal at Roland Garros, going down 6-3 5-7 6-1 6-1.

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Nadal now stands on his own as the most successful singles player, male or female, at a single grand slam having moved clear of the 11 titles won by Margaret Court at the Australian Open.

His 18th slam title overall, meanwhile, means for the first time he has closed to within two of his great rival Roger Federer, whose all-time men’s record of 20 titles appears increasingly within reach for either Nadal or Djokovic.

Thiem was trying to do what only Stan Wawrinka has managed by beating Djokovic and Nadal at the same slam, and Wawrinka did not do it back-to-back.

As if he did not have the odds against him enough already, the Austrian was also playing for the fourth day in a row after his epic two-day semi-final win over Djokovic, while Nadal had had a day off either side of a comfortable semi-final win over Roger Federer.

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Thiem knows how it feels to beat Nadal on clay having done so in each of the last four seasons, but only in best-of-three-set matches.

The first seven games were a physical war, both men growling and pummelling the ball back across the net with ever increasing vigour.

Source: TalkSport.com Tennis

Lewis Hamilton will start the Canadian Grand Prix in second after Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel pipped him to pole position.

Vettel finished 0.206 seconds ahead of the five-time world champion, while the German’s team-mate Charles Leclerc will start the grid in third spot.

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Source: TalkSport.com Motorsport

Ashleigh Barty won her first ever Grand Slam singles title with a convincing victory over Czech teenager Marketa Vondrousova in the women’s final at the French Open.

The 23-year-old Australian took time out from the game in 2014, citing too much pressure before returning three years ago, via playing professional cricket, ranked outside the top 600.

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She has been on an upward trajectory ever since and was totally in control of this meeting of two first-time Grand Slam singles finalists, winning 6-1 6-3 in just an hour and 10 minutes.

Barty, who will be ranked second in the world on Monday, is the first Australian woman to win a Slam singles title since Sam Stosur at the US Open in 2011 and the first in Paris since Margaret Court in 1973.

This was a crushing end to a superb fortnight for Vondrousova, who had hoped to emulate Jelena Ostapenko’s achievement of two years ago by winning the title as an unseeded player, but she will be ranked 16th on Monday and will surely have more chances at Slam level.

While this was not the final many would have predicted, it was a meeting between two of the most in-form players of 2019.

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Barty has soared into the top 10 while Vondrousova, who began the year ranked 67, has won more matches since the Australian Open than any other woman.

Hanging around for an hour and a half while the delayed men’s semi-final between Novak Djokovic and Dominic Thiem was completed would hardly have helped either of their nerves.

Vondrousova had begun very shakily in her semi-final against Johanna Konta, and it was the same again here, but this time she did not receive any help from her opponent.

Barty, who had been considered a potential Slam champion on faster surfaces but not clay, was in the groove from the start, serving strongly and placing the ball confidently into the corners.

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The Australian had been 5-0 up against Amanda Anisimova in the last four only to lose the first set but there was no sign of her letting her grip go here.

Vondrousova’s touch-based, tactical game makes her a tricky opponent for lots of players but Barty plays a similar style and was not unsettled by the drop shots and lobs coming her way.

The Australian is one of the world’s leading doubles players and won her first grand slam title in that format at the US Open last year with American Coco Vandeweghe.

Vondrousova desperately needed to get some kind of foothold in the match, and she dug in to hold for 1-2 in the second set.

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She was at least doing a much better job of holding her serve but she was unable to make any headway on Barty’s and at 3-5 found herself serving to stay in the match.

A netted forehand brought up a first match point for Barty, which she took with a simple smash before raising her arms in the air.

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Source: TalkSport.com Tennis

Johanna Konta lost in straight-sets in her French Open semi-final to Czech teenager Marketa Vondrousova.

Konta saw her chances of reaching her first grand slam final slip away as she squandered winning positions in both sets as she was beaten 7-5, 7-6 at Roland Garros.

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The 28-year-old was aiming to be the first British woman to win a grand slam singles title since Virginia Wade at Wimbledon in 1977 – but she instead lost her third straight semi-final.

In the end it was 19-year-old Vondrousova who showed the greater composure, coming back from 5-3 down in both sets.

The first set was a particularly bitter pill to swallow for Konta, who had three set points at 5-3 only to lose four games in a row.

As the players took golf carts out into the botanic gardens, where a disappointingly sparse crowd had gathered for the hastily-arranged contest on Court Simonne Mathieu, Konta looked relaxed.

But this was a different scenario from her two previous semi-finals given she found herself, remarkably, as the most experienced player left in the tournament.

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Vondrousova had never been beyond the fourth round at a slam before and her nerves were obvious in the first game with back-to-back double faults, while Konta clinched the break with a backhand winner down the line.

By the time Vondrousova won her first point, Konta had already won 10, but the British player let her opponent off the hook by placing a forehand wide of the open court and that settled the Czech down.

The threatened rain mostly held off but wind was whipping the clay off the court, something that Sloane Stephens felt had helped the aggressive game of Konta in their one-sided quarter-final.

Vondrousova is an excellent mover, though, and Konta was finding it much harder to hit through her than she had Stephens.

After dropping serve and then immediately regaining her break, Konta looked to have the set in her control when she brought up two set points at 3-5.

The drive volley that she blazed long and wide on the first will surely appear in her nightmares, and that set the tone for what followed.

A motorcyclist has died during the opening race of the 2019 Isle of Man TT.

Daley Mathison, crashed at Snugborough, near Union Mills, on his third lap of the four-lap Superbike race. He was 27.

A spokesman for ACU Events Ltd said he was an ‘experienced competitor’.

Tributes have come in for Mathison with his wife Natalie saying he had been “so happy with life and so proud of his racing.”

Mathison was making his 19th TT start, having previously achieved three podium finishes.

He was a regular rider at the North West 200 and won the 2014 Ultra-lightweight race of the Ulster Grand Prix.

Andy Murray could make his return to competitive tennis at Queen’s Club later this month.

According to widespread reports, the three-time grand slam champion is set to play in the doubles tournament when it starts on June 17.

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Spanish veteran Feliciano Lopez is the leading contender to partner Murray.

The 32-year-old underwent career-saving hip surgery in January after playing what he thought could be his final professional match at the Australian Open.

He has been back in training for a number of weeks and is thought to have made significant progress.

Murray is not yet in a condition to return to singles action but it bodes well for a future comeback to the tour that he already feels able to play competitive matches.

The Scot underwent a resurfacing operation on his left hip after an earlier arthroscopy failed to alleviate the pain that had dogged him since the summer of 2017.

No official confirmation has been made as to whether he will return for Queen’s Club in two weeks’ time or if he is targeting a return to Wimbledon this year.

Source: TalkSport.com Tennis