With 24 laps remaining, when he was running second to last, only ahead of Guanyu Zhou, Aston Martin ordered Fernando Alonso's car to be withdrawn.. The second consecutive abandonment marked the culmination of the Asturian's disastrous career at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, where he could not even match the times of Lance Stroll, his garage partner.. Another dark chapter that should make the British team reflect, with the slowest cars on the track.

The fastest, for the sixteenth time in this World Championship, was driven by Max Verstappen, never bothered by Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, his companions on the podium.. With 51 victories, Mad Max has just equaled Alain Prost's record and is only two behind Sebastian Vettel. If there is any objection to his Sunday, blame Hamilton, who snatched the fastest lap bonus with treachery and almost nighttime.. Carlos Sainz, fourth, did not find the best sensations with the SF-23 either.

Not even at the start, when Ferrari suffered one of the most distinctive factors of this track, where the slipstreams act in a very powerful way.. Therefore, we had to observe with some skepticism the Scuderia's double on the front row and look back, where the Red Bulls plus the unpredictable Daniel Ricciardo would appear.. For once, the Australian maintained his composure against Verstappen, his ancestral enemy, so the usual three-way duel had Sergio Pérez as the exclusive protagonist..

Ferrari, waiting

Spurred on by thousands of throats, stung with pride after his fateful World Cup, the Mexican placed himself alongside the Ferraris before the first corner and paid for his excess of optimism before Leclerc's left front wheel.. Checo's premature goodbye contrasted with the good fortune of the Monegasque, who neither suffered structural damage nor was punished by the stewards despite having the front wing almost trailing..

Not even the loss of the lead before the first crossing of the finish line made him completely discouraged against Verstappen. For his part, Sainz held his own against Hamilton, waiting for Ferrari to decide on the first tire change.. If it was any indication, Lando Norris was already marching at the pace of the head with the hard tires.. Although he was out of position, in search of an improbable comeback, the McLaren's data was used almost immediately by Red Bull..

On lap 19, the Austrian team took the initiative to ride that white Pirelli compound. Five laps later, Mercedes followed the plan with Hamilton and just one later, McLaren with Oscar Piastri. With eight seconds of deficit, Sainz clearly lost the private duel against Leclerc. And after finally passing through the pits for his only stop, he rejoined six seconds behind Hamilton. Or put another way, the decision to keep him on a 48ºC asphalt for so long made him give up seven seconds to the seven-time champion.

Slower than Stroll

In any case, Ferrari's strategic hesitations seemed like child's play compared to Aston Martin's ordeal.. For the second consecutive race, Lance Stroll's car had to be intervened at the last minute, forced to start from the pit-lane. And the changes improved the Canadian's performance, faster than Alonso, which is already news for the Silverstone team..

The Asturian, initially sentenced to a frustrating Sunday, had to face several episodes of absolute blushing. How to be overtaken by Logan Sargeant's Williams, the worst driver on the grid, or how to give way to Stroll. “Maybe he has a chance. More than me,” the Asturian commented on the radio, already riding a second slower per lap than his teammate.. When they gave him the choice of his career plan, he was even more specific.. “I would say C, although in reality it doesn't matter to me”. He himself had asked his team if they had found damage to his car after the start.. “Negative, Fernando. We looked thoroughly and everything was fine,” they responded by radio.

Just at the halfway mark, an ugly accident by Kevin Magnussen at the entrance to the straight triggered a red flag and more than 20 minutes of stoppage.. An excuse, like any other, to think that a start from a standstill, with hard tires, would give some spice to a race without history. There was no such thing, of course, despite Hamilton tackling Leclerc's second place.. “With these tires it will take us a long time,” warned the British. However, the podium positions had already been defined. Not even the spectacular touch between Piastri and the combative Yuki Tsunoda added anything relevant.

Nor should Stroll's farewell be considered anomalous, after a collision with Valtteri Bottas under the Foro Sol, with 14 laps left until the checkered flag.. While Mike Krack, Aston Martin's main team, grimaced on the green wall and Ricciardo stalked George Russell in the fight for sixth place, the Mexican fans cheered Norris, who was able to complete a magnificent comeback from seventeenth to fifth position. When the chords of the trumpets and guitarrones in honor of Verstappen died out, Aston Martin confirmed that Alonso's withdrawal was due to the damage caused by the pieces that his car had stepped on.. And that Stroll had suffered a puncture in his right rear wheel. Too many calamities for another unfortunate weekend.

It was a match for history, to stop missing the Calderón and turn the Metropolitan into the home of Atlético in a categorical way and its coach, into a symbol.. 14 straight wins at home, 450 games for Simeone on the bench. Almost nothing. Alavés did not want to ruin the red and white party and hardly caused any concern. [Narrative and statistics]

The night began inclemently. With intermittent rain and a wind that reminded us of other times on the banks of the Manzanares. Atlético, warned after the draw in Glasgow and after several comebacks due to their cold starts, decided to warm up from minute 0 of the game, not from the first, from zero. An attitude that the coach liked on his night of records.

In this historic event, 12 gladiators wanted to please Cholo. We say 12 because Samu had the opportunity to show him that he had a place next year, something he already did as a forward for Granada in the first meeting of the season. He could do little this time, well controlled by the red-and-white center backs and unassisted by his teammates.

Another who wanted to vindicate himself, especially with Lino's loss, was Riquelme. The red and white youth player sought to take advantage of Galán's weak game in Glasgow and give his coach something to think about on the left wing.. His band, in the first part of the match, was a real highway and not because of Gorosabel's demerit but because of the good work of 25. His teammates knew it and Koke and Griezmann, the red and white metronomes, had a great impact on his position.. So much so that, in a Morata cross that Riquelme collected at the far post, he decided to make a cut in a tile to eliminate Gorosabel and score the first goal with a futsal kick.

Atlético was the Malaysian straw for Sivera's goal. The one that doesn't stop falling until it does the intended damage. Morata ended the torture of the first half after collecting a long pass from Koke and cutting out Sadler with some luck. The ball stayed at his feet after the dribble and, with his left foot, he hit it into the top corner.

Alavés did not appear at the Metropolitano in the first half. Luis García Plaza's team decided to make the party easier for Atlético and Simeone. A question of respect between coaches, who knows, or of the rojiblanco past (the coach played for Atlético B). Just a cross shot from Gorosabel, the parsley of all sauces in the Metropolitano, was the only moment of danger for the babazorros.

helpless attempt

García Plaza, perhaps regretful of a first half with so many spaces for Atlético, decided to switch to a five-man defense after the break with the departure of Javi López to try to change the game. It was a timid attempt, Atlético was not up for surprises. The second 45 minutes were dull, with more chances for Atlético's third team than for Alavés' first team.

And it could have arrived if Muñiz Ruiz did not stop an action between Llorente and Duarte due to a slap from the red and white. Then Molina and Riquelme had it. However, since this is football, Alavés decided to add some spice at the end of the game with a goal in injury time from Guevara. Make-up. Atlético, on its record-breaking night, sleeps third in the league after overtaking FC Barcelona.

Who was going to tell the hundreds of Real Madrid fans who occupied the visiting stands of the Etihad Stadium in Manchester on May 17 that that song that accompanied one of Real Madrid's worst nights in recent years was going to be their great joy in 2023?. The Hey Jude that sounded on the citizen stage before and after the painful 4-0 that ended the white team's continental season now also does so at the end of each Madrid match.. It is the stands' way of thanking the appearance and explosion of Jude Bellingham (Stourbridge, Birmingham, 2003), top scorer in LaLiga and the Champions League and author of a double that marked another victory for Madrid in the classic.

That “na na na nananana, nannana, hey Jude” sounded again on Saturday in Montjuic, the scene of confirmation, in case it was needed, that this 20-year-old Englishman was not only born to play for Madrid, but that he has the team on his shoulders. Flag of the club on and off the field at a football and media level, winner of the Golden Boy this Monday and leader of a generation that has already taken possession of Valdebebas. Everyone follows him and he is the center of the young gang formed by Camavinga (20 years old), Tchouaméni (23), Rodrygo (22), Vinicius (23) or Fede Valverde (25). That's how forceful his landing has been.

Physical and mental “maturity”

«He has fallen on his feet. He is a polite and simple boy in the locker room, he is passionate about learning Spanish and loves the city of Madrid,” they reflect from the white team's sports city.. The getaway that the youngest core of the squad made to Saint-Tropez at the end of August is part of that union. After a generation in which Cristiano, Benzema and Gareth Bale understood each other more on than off the field, now that “chemistry” that they talk about at the club begins far from the pitch. They spend the afternoons together at each other's houses or go out to dinner in the capital's fashionable places, something that has further accelerated the adaptation of a Bellingham that “seems like it has been here for many years,” they say.

Beyond the goals, there is a word that always comes to light when asking about Bellingham in Valdebebas: “Maturity”. Physical and mental maturity. He has been one of the players who has surprised Antonio Pintus the most in the preseason and during this beginning of the season he has played almost everything, he has only rested against Las Palmas. And to explain how the head of an English teenager stays in its place after leaving the family home at 17 and succeeding in Madrid at 20, you have to look at his family.

Pep Clotet: “Mentality, conviction…”

“Jude's success is the success of the Bellingham family,” Pep Clotet, the Spanish coach who made Bellingham's debut with the Birmingham City first team, explains to EL MUNDO on August 6, 2019.. I was just 16 years old. «His success is a teamwork between him and his parents. And there is an example that sums it up. In January 2020, the club set up a meeting with Liverpool, who were interested in him, and they told him that he must go to Anfield to meet with them.. And the boy says no, that he has training that day and that he is not going to leave his teammates.. What will he do when he has a day off?. “That already tells you how clear he was, that his head was in his club and the seriousness of his surroundings,” recalls Clotet, who left Birmingham in 2020 and has spent time at Brescia, SPAL and Torpedo Moscow.

That August 6, 2019, the takeoff of a rocket began and only four years later it landed in Madrid. One of the great explosions in the history of world football. «When he started coaching with us in the preseason, I removed all my doubts. I saw determination, mentality, talent and conviction. And a great ability so that the error did not weigh on him, but rather he corrected it super quickly. He analyzed it himself. He looked like he was 30 years old,” admits Clotet, who remembers a phrase from Jude himself on the day of his debut: “I told him what I expected from him and I saw in his eyes that he had prepared his whole life for that. He told me: 'Don't worry, this is going to turn out well.'”

In the year of the pandemic, Bellingham scored four goals and was indisputable in a Birmingham team that avoided relegation in the Championship, the second division of English football. The whole country loved him. Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea… But he and his parents were clear about their destiny. He wasn't going to go to such a big club.. I needed an intermediate step.

And Mark Bellingham, a former West Midlands police sergeant and record-breaking striker in English amateur football, and Denise, his mother, a worker in the human resources department of a company, have always carefully managed their son's career.. «That summer of 2020, his parents, Jude, his brother Jobe and I met for dinner. I didn't ask them about their next destination, but there was no need.. They told me that they wanted a club where they continued to progress, not a very big club with players ahead of them.. I didn't even ask, but I knew it was Dortmund, it was the natural step. Just like this summer, the natural step was a big team in which to win,” reflects Clotet.

Denise to Dortmund, Mark in England

Denise went to Dortmund with Jude and Mark stayed in England with Jobe, who at 18 years old already plays for Sunderland in the Championship. His mother became the greatest support for the eldest Bellingham in his adaptation to Germany. «The role it is playing is enormous. I think at the moment it's probably the most important, even more than my coaches, to be honest,” Jude admitted during the last World Cup.

His parents and brother are his core and until now they have avoided relationships with a large representation agency. They hire legal, marketing, personal training experts or even a coach occasionally, such as when they signed for Madrid, but the weight of the conversations is always carried by Mark and Denise.

As with his move to Dortmund, his mother came with him to Madrid and his father stayed on the islands with Jobe. Nothing goes wrong in the Bellingham family since their childhood in Birmingham, the city, according to data, luckiest in the English Lottery. They have won 205 jackpots in the last 29 years. An industrial and working city that has marked the character of the Bellinghams. “It is a family with a very well-furnished head,” they praise in Madrid.

In the Madrid board there were never any steps back with his signing. José Ángel Sánchez, general director of the club, and Juni Calafat, head of scouting, have been the men on the ground to insist to Mark and Denise how positive his arrival in Madrid would be for Jude's career.. Ancelotti changed the scheme to enhance his virtues and the rest is history. «He has the English mentality of reaching the goal. That doesn't happen so much in Spain.. That's why it's surprising”, explains Clotet. «He is the King of Madrid. Superstar,” answers McManaman, another successful Englishman. «He feels like the happiest boy in the world in Madrid. There is no bigger secret,” they conclude in the club.

Who was going to tell the hundreds of Real Madrid fans who occupied the visiting stands of the Etihad Stadium in Manchester on May 17 that that song that accompanied one of Real Madrid's worst nights in recent years was going to be their great joy in 2023?. The Hey Jude that sounded on the citizen stage before and after the painful 4-0 that ended the white team's continental season now also does so at the end of each Madrid match.. It is the stands' way of thanking the appearance and explosion of Jude Bellingham (Stourbridge, Birmingham, 2003), top scorer in LaLiga and the Champions League and author of a double that marked another victory for Madrid in the classic.

That “na na na nananana, nannana, hey Jude” sounded again on Saturday in Montjuic, the scene of confirmation, in case it was needed, that this 20-year-old Englishman was not only born to play for Madrid, but that he has the team on his shoulders. Flag of the club on and off the field at a football and media level, winner of the Golden Boy this Monday and leader of a generation that has already taken possession of Valdebebas. Everyone follows him and he is the center of the young gang formed by Camavinga (20 years old), Tchouaméni (23), Rodrygo (22), Vinicius (23) or Fede Valverde (25). That's how forceful his landing has been.

Physical and mental “maturity”

«He has fallen on his feet. He is a polite and simple boy in the locker room, he is passionate about learning Spanish and loves the city of Madrid,” they reflect from the white team's sports city.. The getaway that the youngest core of the squad made to Saint-Tropez at the end of August is part of that union. After a generation in which Cristiano, Benzema and Gareth Bale understood each other more on than off the field, now that “chemistry” that they talk about at the club begins far from the pitch. They spend the afternoons together at each other's houses or go out to dinner in the capital's fashionable places, something that has further accelerated the adaptation of a Bellingham that “seems like it has been here for many years,” they say.

Beyond the goals, there is a word that always comes to light when asking about Bellingham in Valdebebas: “Maturity”. Physical and mental maturity. He has been one of the players who has surprised Antonio Pintus the most in the preseason and during this beginning of the season he has played almost everything, he has only rested against Las Palmas. And to explain how the head of an English teenager stays in its place after leaving the family home at 17 and succeeding in Madrid at 20, you have to look at his family.

Pep Clotet: “Mentality, conviction…”

“Jude's success is the success of the Bellingham family,” Pep Clotet, the Spanish coach who made Bellingham's debut with the Birmingham City first team, explains to EL MUNDO on August 6, 2019.. I was just 16 years old. «His success is a teamwork between him and his parents. And there is an example that sums it up. In January 2020, the club set up a meeting with Liverpool, who were interested in him, and they told him that he must go to Anfield to meet with them.. And the boy says no, that he has training that day and that he is not going to leave his teammates.. What will he do when he has a day off?. “That already tells you how clear he was, that his head was in his club and the seriousness of his surroundings,” recalls Clotet, who left Birmingham in 2020 and has spent time at Brescia, SPAL and Torpedo Moscow.

That August 6, 2019, the takeoff of a rocket began and only four years later it landed in Madrid. One of the great explosions in the history of world football. «When he started coaching with us in the preseason, I removed all my doubts. I saw determination, mentality, talent and conviction. And a great ability so that the error did not weigh on him, but rather he corrected it super quickly. He analyzed it himself. He looked like he was 30 years old,” admits Clotet, who remembers a phrase from Jude himself on the day of his debut: “I told him what I expected from him and I saw in his eyes that he had prepared his whole life for that. He told me: 'Don't worry, this is going to turn out well.'”

In the year of the pandemic, Bellingham scored four goals and was indisputable in a Birmingham team that avoided relegation in the Championship, the second division of English football. The whole country loved him. Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea… But he and his parents were clear about their destiny. He wasn't going to go to such a big club.. I needed an intermediate step.

And Mark Bellingham, a former West Midlands police sergeant and record-breaking striker in English amateur football, and Denise, his mother, a worker in the human resources department of a company, have always carefully managed their son's career.. «That summer of 2020, his parents, Jude, his brother Jobe and I met for dinner. I didn't ask them about their next destination, but there was no need.. They told me that they wanted a club where they continued to progress, not a very big club with players ahead of them.. I didn't even ask, but I knew it was Dortmund, it was the natural step. Just like this summer, the natural step was a big team in which to win,” reflects Clotet.

Denise to Dortmund, Mark in England

Denise went to Dortmund with Jude and Mark stayed in England with Jobe, who at 18 years old already plays for Sunderland in the Championship. His mother became the greatest support for the eldest Bellingham in his adaptation to Germany. «The role it is playing is enormous. I think at the moment it's probably the most important, even more than my coaches, to be honest,” Jude admitted during the last World Cup.

His parents and brother are his core and until now they have avoided relationships with a large representation agency. They hire legal, marketing, personal training experts or even a coach occasionally, such as when they signed for Madrid, but the weight of the conversations is always carried by Mark and Denise.

As with his move to Dortmund, his mother came with him to Madrid and his father stayed on the islands with Jobe. Nothing goes wrong in the Bellingham family since their childhood in Birmingham, the city, according to data, luckiest in the English Lottery. They have won 205 jackpots in the last 29 years. An industrial and working city that has marked the character of the Bellinghams. “It is a family with a very well-furnished head,” they praise in Madrid.

In the Madrid board there were never any steps back with his signing. José Ángel Sánchez, general director of the club, and Juni Calafat, head of scouting, have been the men on the ground to insist to Mark and Denise how positive his arrival in Madrid would be for Jude's career.. Ancelotti changed the scheme to enhance his virtues and the rest is history. «He has the English mentality of reaching the goal. That doesn't happen so much in Spain.. That's why it's surprising”, explains Clotet. «He is the King of Madrid. Superstar,” answers McManaman, another successful Englishman. «He feels like the happiest boy in the world in Madrid. There is no bigger secret,” they conclude in the club.

The line overflowed the Plaza de Callao and stretched down Gran Vía, towards Plaza de España. At noon yesterday, the only desire of hundreds of fans was to get an autograph and a photo with Mathieu van der Poel (Kapellen, 1995), wearer of the rainbow jersey. Before leaving the Madrid Criterium, the latest winner of Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix and the Glasgow World Cup saved a few minutes to talk with EL MUNDO.

Until today [yesterday] you had only participated in two races in Spain, the 2014 Ponferrada World Cup, in the sub-23 category and the Benidorm CX, last year. Is this Madrid Criterium a new milestone in your relationship with our country? I don't know, really. Competing in the Vuelta is on my wish list for the future, of course, so I am convinced that I will race it at least once in the coming years. But in the meantime, I think that not competing so much in Spain has been the right decision. In 2023 it has given us fantastic victories in San Remo, Roubaix and the Glasgow World Cup. Do you think you have already reached your full maturity as a cyclist? Yes, of course, I consider it to be one of my best seasons so far. Of course, the experience that I was able to accumulate during the last few years in those same races has had an influence.. I think I have reached maturity and perhaps I feel stronger than ever.. You are the king of short distances, champion of the cyclocross World Cup, but also the one of the most demanding race due to its mileage, like Milan – San Remo. What is the secret of its versatility? I don't know, honestly.. I grew up doing cyclocross, so it's a specialty that was always familiar to me and I always knew how to tackle. My jump into road racing also helped me understand that I could be really strong in the final stretches of such long events.. And that is now one of my great strengths..

There was always a group of chosen ones who shared everything. 20 years ago the same thing happened

This season, Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Wout van Aert, Remco Evenepoel and you have shared 85% of the big wins. Is this percentage good news for cycling? Of course, because it has always happened this way. That is to say, this sport has always had a select group that prevailed in the most prestigious races.. Without going any further, the same thing happened 20 years ago.. And this is because some events on the calendar are so hard and difficult that in the end they will always fall in favor of the strongest. I wanted to ask you about your fierce rivalry with Van Aert. Do you think that the Belgian, in some way, is afraid of you? No, I don't think so at all.. Just like I'm not afraid of him either.. I think we've simply been great rivals for many years.. As I said on other occasions, that also helps us both reach a better level. Do you feel something special when you manage to beat him? No, not at all.. I have known Wout for a long time and as I have already mentioned several times, I am used to having great battles with him. However, I have also been able to feel something similar against Pogacar, like two years ago in the Tour of Flanders. It was something very special to see the winner of the Tour de France compete with me on the pavé. You don't have to personalize anyone, but rather try to be the best on a given day. You have come to be pigeonholed as a runner who relies simply on brute force.. Do you think you still have weak points where you can continue to improve? I simply feel satisfied with the way I raced throughout the season. I think I completed very good races, with intelligence when reading situations, combined with others where I showed all my strength.. I feel pretty happy with how things went.

I'm going to focus on the races I like to do.

To win the five monuments, you still need Flanders, Liège and Lombardy. Are these careers goals for you? No, not really.. So far I have won the classics that best suited my way of running. For example, I think Lombardy would be really difficult for me, due to its steep profile. Maybe in the future, but for now I'm going to focus on the races that I really like to do. Are you going to continue combining road cycling with cyclocross and mountain bike events in the future or are you going to definitely focus on the first discipline? Now I'm focused on the road tests. During the last few years I was not really active in MTB, since it is very difficult to combine it at the highest level. In my early days, when I did it, I didn't really compete in the most prestigious road events. Does mountain biking help you develop new skills for the road or can it harm you in some way? I've always found positives since I went from MTB to the road. I felt pretty strong and it also helped me stay mentally fresh.. For me it is always good to alternate the different disciplines. How can you explain the overwhelming dominance of the Jumbo in the Giro, the Tour and the Vuelta? It did not surprise me, because they had already been showing their strength for a couple of years. They just have extraordinarily strong running backs. The entire team is incredible and only in this way can you obtain results like this.