SINGAPORE // Last year’s Singapore Grand Prix enjoyed one of the closest qualifying sessions of the season and a repeat looks to be on the horizon after Daniil Kvyat was quickest in second practice Friday night.
Mercedes-GP have dominated this season, helped by their powerful engines, but the twists and turns of the 5km Marina Bay Street Circuit, which has 23 corners, mean aerodynamic performance is just as important as straight-line speed.
The top eight were covered by 0.80 seconds, with championship leader Lewis Hamilton only fourth fastest, three spots ahead of his teammate and title rival Nico Rosberg.
Kvyat’s time of one minute, 46.142 seconds capped an impressive day for Red Bull Racing, with Daniel Ricciardo in third spot.
LIVE FROM SINGAPORE: Alexander Rossi takes place at Singapore GP aiming to steer F1 into mainstream America
Speculation continues on the Austrian team’s future due to uncertainty on whether they will remain with engine supplier Renault for 2016.
Ferrari maintained their impressive recent form; Kimi Raikkonen was second and Sebastian Vettel fifth, with the top eight completed by Force India’s Sergio Perez in sixth and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso in eighth.
Mercedes have taken the past 22 poles in F1 to be only two away from matching the record of 24 set by Williams in 1992-93, but Red Bull and Ferrari look to have strong pace, meaning Hamilton and Rosberg will have a fight on their hands to keep their streak going.
It was a disappointing day for American Alexander Rossi as he crashed in first practice, his first session since being announced as a race driver by Manor Marussia.
To cap a miserable time for the team, Rossi’s teammate Will Stevens also crashed, in the second practice session.
Final practice is on Saturday at 2pm UAE time with qualifying at 5pm. Sunday’s 61-lap race begins at 4pm.
gcaygill@thenational.ae
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The biog
Hometown: Cairo
Age: 37
Favourite TV series: The Handmaid’s Tale, Black Mirror
Favourite anime series: Death Note, One Piece and Hellsing
Favourite book: Designing Brand Identity, Fifth Edition
Muguruza's singles career in stats
WTA titles 3
Prize money US$11,128,219 (Dh40,873,133.82)
Wins / losses 293 / 149
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Start-up hopes to end Japan's love affair with cash
Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash still rules. Now, as the country’s biggest web companies race to dominate the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a fighting chance to win with its QR app.
Origami had a head start when it introduced a QR-code payment service in late 2015 and has since signed up fast-food chain KFC, Tokyo’s largest cab company Nihon Kotsu and convenience store operator Lawson. The company raised $66 million in September to expand nationwide and plans to more than double its staff of about 100 employees, says founder Yoshiki Yasui.
Origami is betting that stores, which until now relied on direct mail and email newsletters, will pay for the ability to reach customers on their smartphones. For example, a hair salon using Origami’s payment app would be able to send a message to past customers with a coupon for their next haircut.
Quick Response codes, the dotted squares that can be read by smartphone cameras, were invented in the 1990s by a unit of Toyota Motor to track automotive parts. But when the Japanese pioneered digital payments almost two decades ago with contactless cards for train fares, they chose the so-called near-field communications technology. The high cost of rolling out NFC payments, convenient ATMs and a culture where lost wallets are often returned have all been cited as reasons why cash remains king in the archipelago. In China, however, QR codes dominate.
Cashless payments, which includes credit cards, accounted for just 20 per cent of total consumer spending in Japan during 2016, compared with 60 per cent in China and 89 per cent in South Korea, according to a report by the Bank of Japan.
The End of Loneliness
Benedict Wells
Translated from the German by Charlotte Collins
Sceptre
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
