With all the plaudits firmly fixed in Lewis Hamilton's direction after the Mercedes-GP driver secured a fifth Formula One drivers' championship at last week's Mexican Grand Prix, there was still some consolation for rivals Ferrari.
The Italian marque have shown over the past two races they have found their pace again. Kimi Raikkonen won the United States Grand Prix three weeks ago to end a run of four wins in a row for Hamilton. Then Sebastian Vettel finished second, with Raikkonen third, in Mexico, behind race winner Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing.
Vettel passed Hamilton on track in Mexico. But for a poor qualifying session that meant he started fourth and had to fight through the field he would have challenged Verstappen for the victory.
Granted, it's a case of too little, too late to do anything about stopping Hamilton now, whose fourth place in Mexico was enough to secure this year's championship, but encouraging enough to give Ferrari hope of mounting a serious challenge to Hamilton and Mercedes in 2019.
Ferrari can take a lot of confidence into this weekend’s penultimate round in Brazil as they look to continue their fight for the one remaining bit of silverware still on offer.
Realistically, they need a one-two finish to keep alive hopes of a first constructors’ championship title since 2008. They trail Mercedes by 55 points, with a maximum 86 still available. After Sunday’s race only the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on November 25 remains on the schedule. Ferrari must out-score Mercedes by at least 13 points to keep that championship alive heading to the UAE.
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Comment: Lewis Hamilton enjoys his best ever season and his dominance is set to continue
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Vettel won in Brazil 12 months ago in similar circumstances to now. Back then he had seen Hamilton win his fourth championship in Mexico but rallied with a victory at the Interlagos track, holding off Hamilton's Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas.
A repeat performance would do wonders for Vettel's confidence. His last victory, at the Belgium Grand Prix in August, feels a long time ago.
Mexico felt like a significant return to form for the four-time world champion. There was no contact with other drivers; no bad strategy calls from the team. Put simply he had a clean race and was back on the podium for only the second time since Belgium.
Red Bull and Verstappen were a class apart in Mexico, but the layout of the Interlagos circuit for Sunday’s 71-lap race, with strong engine power required, means a follow-up win is unlikely, with Mercedes and Ferrari both better suited.
Raikkonen beat Hamilton fair and square in the United States and Vettel almost certainly would have done so too had he not spun on the opening lap.
Ferrari, as a package, were resoundingly faster then Mercedes in Mexico as the German marque suffered with tyre wear issues.
A good end to 2017 with the Brazil win and then a third place in Abu Dhabi helped set Vettel up for his strongest season yet with Ferrari this year.
The 2018 campaign may have ended disappointingly for Ferrari, but six victories (Vettel 5, Raikkonen 1) is still the most notched in one season since 2008.
It is progress and the important thing now for Vettel is to get back to winning ways. He welcomes a new teammate next year with Charles Leclerc replacing Raikkonen. Vettel, 31, has consistently beaten Raikkonen in their four years together and taking a step into the unknown with Leclerc will be one more thing for the German to have to think about over the winter.
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
On Instagram: @WithHopeUAE
Although social media can be harmful to our mental health, paradoxically, one of the antidotes comes with the many social-media accounts devoted to normalising mental-health struggles. With Hope UAE is one of them.
The group, which has about 3,600 followers, was started three years ago by five Emirati women to address the stigma surrounding the subject. Via Instagram, the group recently began featuring personal accounts by Emiratis. The posts are written under the hashtag #mymindmatters, along with a black-and-white photo of the subject holding the group’s signature red balloon.
“Depression is ugly,” says one of the users, Amani. “It paints everything around me and everything in me.”
Saaed, meanwhile, faces the daunting task of caring for four family members with psychological disorders. “I’ve had no support and no resources here to help me,” he says. “It has been, and still is, a one-man battle against the demons of fractured minds.”
In addition to With Hope UAE’s frank social-media presence, the group holds talks and workshops in Dubai. “Change takes time,” Reem Al Ali, vice chairman and a founding member of With Hope UAE, told The National earlier this year. “It won’t happen overnight, and it will take persistent and passionate people to bring about this change.”
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
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
MANDOOB
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more from Janine di Giovanni
How Islam's view of posthumous transplant surgery changed
Transplants from the deceased have been carried out in hospitals across the globe for decades, but in some countries in the Middle East, including the UAE, the practise was banned until relatively recently.
Opinion has been divided as to whether organ donations from a deceased person is permissible in Islam.
The body is viewed as sacred, during and after death, thus prohibiting cremation and tattoos.
One school of thought viewed the removal of organs after death as equally impermissible.
That view has largely changed, and among scholars and indeed many in society, to be seen as permissible to save another life.
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
