A furious Lando Norris was forced to give up the second Formula One victory of his career after he followed a McLaren team order to allow Oscar Piastri to win a controversial Hungarian Grand Prix.
A mediocre getaway from pole position at the Hungaroring saw Norris drop behind teammate Piastri.
But he was handed an apparent lifeline by McLaren when they pulled him in for his second tyre change two laps earlier than his teammate.
The undercut propelled Norris into the lead, and he held a five-second advantage over Piastri.
However, the Englishman faced a barrage of orders from his race engineer, Will Joseph, to give the place back to Piastri despite his pursuit of Max Verstappen for the world championship.
"I know you'll do the right thing," Norris was told with 14 laps to go after the team repeated that they wanted Piastri to win. "Well you should have pitted him first," he replied.
"Lando, he can't catch you up. You've proved your point," the Briton was told when he moved six seconds clear with six laps remaining.
Norris slowed down on the main straight with three laps left to allow Piastri to take the lead.
“You don’t need to say anything,” he said over the radio. Norris finished one place clear of Lewis Hamilton, with Charles Leclerc fourth and Verstappen fifth.
Hamilton collided with Verstappen on lap 63 of 70 as they duelled for third place with Mercedes accusing the Dutchman of “arriving out of control”. The incident was under investigation by race officials.
Afterwards, Piastri said: "This is very, very special. This is really the day I dreamt of as a kid, standing on the top step of an F1 podium. Thank you to the team for an amazing effort and an amazing car. It's a hell of a lot of fun racing with McLaren so I can't thank them enough.
"The car is a beast at the moment. It's fast in every condition and today we had it under control completely and it's amazing feeling just to be able to manage a race like that with both cars and secure a one-two."
Norris said: "An amazing day for us as a team and that's the main thing. I'm so happy – it's been and amazing journey to get to achieving this on merit and that's exactly what we did today.
"We did it in style as well so. Congratulations [to Piastri], it was coming at some point and he deserved it today. The team asked me to let him through and I did it, so that's it."
Hamilton said: "Huge congratulations to McLaren on the one-two. Congratulations to Oscar, amazing, he's been doing a fantastic job ever since he got here but he's been so consistent so it was only a matter of time before he got a win.
"For us today the team has done a great job to continue on with pushing this car but, ultimately, we didn't have the pace of the McLarens, nor did we have the pace of the Red Bulls but we were just able to hold on at the beginning of the race and it was very, very tough to hold on and make those tyres last."
On the collision with Verstappen, he said: "Obviously, the close battle we had at the end was a bit hair-raising but that's motor racing so really happy and grateful for the points.
"I saw him coming from a long way back and he was able to brake a lot later than me. But he sent it up the inside I stayed still and he clipped the wheel and went over so I think it's a racing incident."
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
So what is Spicy Chickenjoy?
Just as McDonald’s has the Big Mac, Jollibee has Spicy Chickenjoy – a piece of fried chicken that’s crispy and spicy on the outside and comes with a side of spaghetti, all covered in tomato sauce and topped with sausage slices and ground beef. It sounds like a recipe that a child would come up with, but perhaps that’s the point – a flavourbomb combination of cheap comfort foods. Chickenjoy is Jollibee’s best-selling product in every country in which it has a presence.
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
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Ziina users can donate to relief efforts in Beirut
Ziina users will be able to use the app to help relief efforts in Beirut, which has been left reeling after an August blast caused an estimated $15 billion in damage and left thousands homeless. Ziina has partnered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to raise money for the Lebanese capital, co-founder Faisal Toukan says. “As of October 1, the UNHCR has the first certified badge on Ziina and is automatically part of user's top friends' list during this campaign. Users can now donate any amount to the Beirut relief with two clicks. The money raised will go towards rebuilding houses for the families that were impacted by the explosion.”
