Weekend Review: McLaren’s dominance continues as Yamal continues to deliver

McLaren made it back-to-back wins as the second race of the season took place in far east Asia last weekend. 

The Chinese Grand Prix dominated the headlines on a weekend that little sporting activity. It was a weekend with no club football as the first international break of the year. 

While there were other sporting events like the UFC, Miami Open and the NBA, it still did not feel like a proper sporting weekend. 

Nonetheless the Chinese Grand Prix indeed live up to expectation as McLaren made it back-to-back wins in the first two races of the season after Oscar Piastri won the race ahead of his teammate Lando Norris. 

Piastri had put himself in control after taking pole in qualifying on Saturday and the Australian did the rest of the job on Sunday. Piastri controlled the race from start to finish, leading all the laps aside from when he had to take a pit stop. 

In fact, not even Norris came close to challenging him as the American won the race by almost ten seconds ahead of his British teammate. 

Norris, who won the Australian Grand Prix, made it a one-two finish after taking the second spot ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell. 

As for the defending champion, Max Verstappen, his wait for his first win continued as he could only manage a fourth-place finish, having secured second position in Australia on opening weekend. 

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton’s struggles in a Ferrari car continued as he was disqualified, having initially finished in sixth position. Hamilton had secured his first win with Ferrari in Saturday’s sprint race and was hoping to take that form into the main race. 

But he could only manage a sixth place before he was later disqualified for excessive plank wear underneath his Ferrari. Hamilton has a chance to regroup, though, when the F1 train moves to Japan in two weeks. 

Away from Formula 1 to international football, where players swapped their club jerseys for the pride of representing their nation. 

The biggest story was the UEFA Nations League quarterfinal games, where Spain, France, Germany and Portugal all booked their spot in the final four. 

Spain edged the Netherlands on penalties after a thrilling 3-3 draw in the second leg, having played 2-2 in the first leg. Barcelona star Lamine Yamal was the star in the second leg as he scored a brilliant goal, which Messi would have been proud of. 

Meanwhile, in Lisbon, Portugal overcame a 1-0 first leg to beat Denmark 5-2 on the night and 5-3 on aggregate. The match was tied on aggregate after 90 minutes in the second leg, but Portugal scored twice in extra-time to secure a 5-2 win. 

In Paris, France also came back from a 2-0 first leg deficit to beat Croatia in a dramatic penalty shootout. Goals from Michael Olise and Ousmane Dembele levelled the tie for Les Bleus before going on to win it on penalties. 

Finally, Germany and Italy played out a thrilling 3-3 draw in Dortmund, but it was the Germans that progressed to the semifinal, having secured a 2-1 win in the first leg in San Siro.