SAO PAULO: England expects Lewis Hamilton to become Formula One's youngest world champion in Brazil on Sunday at the same circuit where last year he buckled under pressure and blew his chance. Brazil hopes Ferrari's Felipe Massa can somehow upset the odds and, with his home Interlagos crowd roaring him on, be crowned the country's first champion since the late Ayrton Senna in 1991. After last year's astonishing finale, with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen clawing back a seven-point deficit to prevent Hamilton becoming the first rookie to take the title, anything could happen. The only certainty is there will be a first-time champion. Hamilton, 23, is back with another seven-point advantage while Massa must win and hope the hand of fate favours him. All the McLaren driver has to do, to become Britain's first champion since Damon Hill in 1996 and his team's first since Mika Hakkinen in 1999, is finish fifth. That proved beyond him at Interlagos last year, despite starting alongside Massa on the front row, when he struggled to seventh place. This time Formula One's first black driver is determined to make amends and show he has learned from the past by playing it safe. "I remember last year, going into the final race, I was really on the back foot," he told Britain's Observer newspaper. "I felt the whole country, the whole world ... I just felt this huge weight on my shoulders. I went in and made several mistakes and we dropped back. This year, because I've experienced it, I'm much better prepared."
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
Comments