Record breaking British Formula 1 rookie Oliver Bearman, 18, has dream debut in Saudi Grand Prix
Ferrari stand-in Oliver Bearman has completed a dream debut with a seventh-place finish at the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix.
The 18-year-old British rookie was called in at the last minute to replace Carlos Sainz, after the Spaniard was diagnosed with appendicitis, requiring surgery.
Bearman, who only had an hour of practice under his belt and a qualifying appearance – as he normally drives Formula 2 – started in 11th place, working his way into the points by overtaking Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu and Nico Hulkenberg.
On worn tyres, he managed to hold on to keep Britain’s Lando Norris and seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton at bay, finishing the 50-lap race in seventh place, becoming the youngest Briton to start or finish a Formula 1 race and the third-youngest driver from any country to start an F1 race.
Afterwards, a beaming Bearman said: “I didn’t have time to get nervous or to overthink it.
“I was focused on what to do and didn’t have time to think about the gravity of the situation, and that was probably a good thing.
“On Monday, I will feel it and I will be quite proud.
“I’m sure when I step back, I’ll pinch myself.
“My phone is going crazy but I will have a look at it tonight,” he added.
Bearman driving in the Saudi Arabia GP. Pic: AP
The Chelmsford youngster was voted by fans as driver of the day and his performance also drew praise from his rivals.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc described him as “incredible”, adding: “It’s hugely impressive and I’m sure he’s extremely proud.
“Everybody has noticed how talented he is and I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before he’s in F1.”
Hamilton said Bearman had done a “mega, mega job”, adding: “I am really impressed and it just shows what a talent he is.”
And the day’s winner, Max Verstappen, who was 17 when he made his debut nine years ago, said Bearman had been “very, very impressive”.
“I watched his first few laps in practice, because that is where you can judge if someone is comfortable in the car, and by lap two or three I thought ‘that is a strong start’, and to be 11th, and only six tenths off pole at the time, is more than you could have asked for.
“He has done an incredible job.”
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Verstappen’s win provided a brief distraction from the ongoing saga involving his team Red Bull Racing.
Boss Christian Horner, who has been principal of the team since it entered F1 in 2005, was recently cleared of allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards a female colleague after an investigation by its Austrian parent company Red Bull GmbH.
The 50-year-old British boss has always denied the claims but the controversy has rumbled on after a file of hundreds of leaked WhatsApp messages was sent to key figures within the sport from an anonymous email account.
It is not clear whether the messages were included in the misconduct investigation and whether they are genuine.
Max Verstappen, after winning the Saudi Grand Prix. Pic: Reuters
Verstappen’s second win of the season followed speculation over whether he would remain at Red Bull, after his father said the team was “in danger of being torn apart” if Horner remained in charge.
Verstappen hinted on Friday that he may reconsider his future with the team if his mentor Helmut Marko were to leave.
Marko told Sky Sport on Saturday that he would be staying.
“I always said that, what is most important is that we work together as a team and that everyone keeps the peace,” Verstappen said after the race.
“And that’s what we, I think, we all agree on, within the team. So hopefully from now onwards that is also fully the case and everyone is trying to focus in the same direction. And I think the positive out of all this is that it didn’t hurt our performances, so it’s a very strong team.”
New pictures show the moment of impact as an Israeli missile hit a Beirut apartment block and exploded.
The block was one of five buildings destroyed by airstrikes on Friday alone.
Israel launched airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut in a fourth consecutive day of intense attacks.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press photographer captured a sequence of images showing an Israeli bomb approaching and hitting a multi-storey apartment building in Beirut’s Tayouneh area.
Richard Weir, a senior crisis, conflict and arms researcher at Human Rights Watch, reviewed the close-up photos to determine what type of weapon was used.
“The bomb and components visible in the photographs, including the strake, wire harness cover, and tail fin section, are consistent with a Mk-84 series 2,000-pound class general purpose bomb equipped with Boeing’s joint directed attack munition tail kit,” he told AP.
Pics: AP
Smoke covers a building that collapses following the strike. Pic: AP
Deadly strikes as bombardment stepped up
Israel stepped up its bombardment this week – an escalation that has coincided with signs of movement in US-led diplomacy towards a ceasefire.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets attacked munitions warehouses, a headquarters and other Hezbollah infrastructure. It issued a warning on social media identifying buildings ahead of the strikes.
Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike killed five members of the same family in a home in Ain Qana in the southern province of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon’s state media said.
The report said a mother, father and their three children were killed but didn’t provide their ages.
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Three other Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded 32 in different parts of Tyre province on Friday, also in south Lebanon, the report said.
Video footage also showed a building being struck and turning into a cloud of rubble and debris that billowed into Horsh Beirut, the city’s main park.
Residents check the site of the airstrike in Tayouneh, Beirut. Pic: AP
More than 3,200 people have been killed in Lebanon during 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah – most of them since mid-September.
About 27% of those killed were women and children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Israel dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon from September, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel.
Friday’s strikes come as Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister has asked Iran to help secure a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The prime minister appeared to urge Ali Larijani, a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to convince the militant group to agree to a deal that could require it to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border.
Iran is a main backer of Hezbollah and for decades has been funding and arming the Lebanese militant group.
On Thursday, Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister and a member of its security cabinet, said that prospects for a ceasefire with Lebanon were the most promising since the conflict began.
The Washington Post reported Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rushing to advance a Lebanon ceasefire to deliver an early foreign policy win to his ally, US President-elect Donald Trump.
“Super high-IQ revolutionaries” who are willing to work 80+ hours a week are being urged to join Elon Musk’s new cost-cutting department in Donald Trump’s incoming US government.
The X and Tesla owner will co-lead the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
And in a post on X, the official DOGE account put out a call to arms for people to sign up and help “dismantle government bureaucracy”.
The post said: “We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE.
“We don’t need more part-time idea generators.
“We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.
“If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.”
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Elon Musk speaking at an event held at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Pic: AP Photo/Alex Brandon
In a reply to an interested party, Mr Musk suggested the lucky applicants would be working for free.
“Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lost of enemies & compensation is zero,” the world’s richest man wrote.
“What a great deal!”
When announcing the new department, President-elect Donald Trump said Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.
Mr Musk has previously made clear his desire to see cuts to “government waste” and in a post on his X platform suggested he could axe as many as three-quarters of the more than 400 federal departments in the US, writing: “99 is enough.”
At least 10 people have been killed after a fire broke out at a retirement home in northern Spain in the early hours of this morning, officials have said.
A further two people were seriously injured in the blaze at the residence in the town of Villafranca de Ebro in Zaragoza, according to the Spanish news website Diario Sur.
Two people remain in a critical condition following the blaze. Pic: AP
They remain in a critical condition, while several others received treatment for smoke inhalation.
Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at the residence – the Jardines de Villafranca – at 5am (4am UK time) on Friday.
Several residents were treated for smoke inhalation. Pic: AP
Those who were killed in the fire died from smoke inhalation, Spanish newspaper Heraldo reported.
The residence is home to 82 elderly residents.
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The blaze started in one of the rooms, Fernando Beltran, the national government’s top official in the region, told reporters.
All of the victims were elderly residents, he added.
Relatives wait for news outside the care home. Pic: AP
Fire crews, paramedics and police officers remain on site, said a spokesperson for the regional government of Aragon who confirmed the fatalities.
It took firefighters several hours to extinguish the blaze, they said.
The cause of the fire is unknown and is being investigated.
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