Leeds United defender Luke Ayling used to “shy away” from interviews because of his stammer. Now he is throwing himself into them in order to find his own voice.
Source: BBC Sport

Formula 1 will have a third race in the USA from next year after securing a deal for a Las Vegas Grand Prix.
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Barcelona’s Champions League match with Real Madrid is watched by a record-breaking crowd of 91,553 fans.
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Ramona Bachmann scores in extra time to send PSG into the Women’s Champions League semi-finals with a 4-3 aggregate victory over Bayern Munich.
Source: BBC Sport

Transgender cyclist Emily Bridges will not compete at Saturday’s National Omnium Championships in her first women’s event after a ruling by cycling’s world governing body.
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Barcelona beat Real Madrid to reach the Women’s Champions League semi-finals in front of a record crowd at the Nou Camp.
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Almost a year on from the European Super League proposal, Paris St-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi discusses the key issues affecting European football.
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Christian Horner isn’t resting easy about the Red Bull engine, insisting there are ‘concerns’ that could affect Max Verstappen’s Formula 1 title defence.

The Team Principal spoke about the problems with the power unit, and says they must ‘understand’ what the issue is before ‘fixes can be put in place’.

AFP

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Red Bull have had an interesting start to the 2022 season with varied results across the first two races.

The curtain-raiser in Bahrain saw both Verstappen and his teammate Sergio Perez forced to stop, with the former having to halt because of a fuel pump issue.

The race itself brought many other issues, which the Dutchman was unhappy with, and complained to Horner about, who later downplayed his anger.

But it was all smiles in Saudi Arabia where both drivers secured double digits for points as Verstappen won the race, and Perez finished fourth, and had started on pole, and rivals Mercedes struggled with George Russell fifth and Lewis Hamilton 10th.

Whilst it was an outstanding achievement, Horner is still concerned about the vehicle’s power unit, and hopes that issues can be resolved before the next race in Australia on April 10.

AFP

This season, Red Bull have their own engine department, Red Bull Powertrain Division after taking over from Honda.

But the units are still being produced and assembled by the Japanese manufacturer.

“Of course, we’re concerned about it,” Horner said to RacingNews365.com, when asked about the engine issues. “But I think, first, we have to understand what it is.

“I think once all the strip-down has been done and we understand what the issue is then, hopefully, fixes can be put in place.”

Valtteri Bottas has revealed it has been ‘weird’ to see former Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton struggle in the opening stages of the new race season.

Seven-time champion Hamilton, 37, finished in 10th place for Mercedes at the Saudi Arabian Grad Prix last time out.

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That followed a fortuitous fifth-place finish in Bahrain, where both Red Bulls encounter engine troubles.

Mercedes, though have got huge problems on their hand with their car well off the pace as Ferrari star Charles Leclerc now looks set to rival title-holder Max Verstappen this season.

Mercedes have won the last eight Constructors’ Championships and their troubles have not go unnoticed by Bottas, who spent five seasons with them.

The Finnish driver has looked good since his move to Alfa Romeo, and outqualified replacement George Russell in the opening race at the Bahrain Grand Prix, and was set to beat Hamilton in Saudi Arabia before his DNF.

Speaking on Hamilton and the Mercedes, the 32-year-old said he found it to be an odd situation.

“It’s weird to see,” the Finn said following Hamilton’s elimination in Q1, as reported by grandprix247.com.

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“I would guess he had some kind of issue, I don’t know.

“It is surprising to see them struggling, but it’s also nice to be able to battle with them.

“I think this was kind of the best-case-scenario for our first season together that I could ever imagine, with the information I had.”

Bottas had to retire in Jeddah due to a rising engine temperature, and claimed his late DNF was ‘how racing goes’ and is looking for improvements going forward.

“It’s a pity to retire from what had been a really good race until that moment, especially as we were looking good for P6 at least”, he said.

“The engine temperatures kept rising. We need to investigate what caused that, but we had to pull the car out as we didn’t want to lose the engine.

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“It’s how racing goes. We now need to make sure we solve whatever issue it was and move on.

“Looking at the positives, the car is really good. We made another step forward from the previous race, even in the starts.

“We were doing a good job and enjoying some close battles. Now let’s make sure we get back to scoring in Australia.”

F1 now moves to Australia, with the race taking place on Sunday April 10.

This gives Hamilton and Mercedes time to work through the problems they have been encountering thus far, and help the Brit get back on track.

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Source: TalkSport.com Motorsport

Chelsea cannot be allowed to operate like it is “business as usual” after the sanctions imposed on Roman Abramovich, says sports minister Nigel Huddleston.
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