Still more honours await world champion Vettel at United States Grand Prix

Many records have been broken by Sebastian Vettel during his seven years in Formula One so far.

Youngest race winner, youngest world champion, youngest four-time world champion, and most pole positions in one season are just some of the honours that Vettel holds.

Another one is set to come his way on Sunday at the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.

Victory at the Circuit of the Americas will give the Red Bull Racing driver his eighth win in a row, which would break the record for most successive wins in one season.

The 26-year-old German matched compatriot Michael Schumacher’s record of seven straight wins, set in 2004, by taking the chequered flag at the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix two weeks ago, and he can own the record outright with another victory today.

He starts in the ideal position, having clinched pole position in qualifying on Saturday with a last-gasp effort.

The already-crowned world champion lapped the 5.5-kilometre circuit in 1 minute, 36.338 seconds in the dying seconds of the session to usurp teammate Mark Webber from top spot by just 0.103 seconds and claim his eighth pole of the season.

Romain Grosjean’s Lotus and the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg will start on the second row, with Lewis Hamilton, who won the first race held in Austin 12 months ago, in fifth spot in his Mercedes-GP ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari.

Heikki Kovalainen made an impressive return to F1 for Lotus as he finished eighth fastest. The Finn is competing in the final two races of 2013 in place of Kimi Raikkonen, who had an operation on his back on Thursday.

The performance of the day came from Valtteri Bottas, who qualified his Williams in the top 10 for only the second time this season as he was ninth quickest.

But unlike Canada in June, where conditions were wet, it was a dry track yesterday, and the achievement of Bottas, who has yet to score a point in his debut season in F1, was made even more impressive by the fact his teammate Pastor Maldonado qualified down in 18th.

Bottas was fastest in the first part of qualifying, fourth in the second part, before falling back in the top-10 shoot-out.

Handling problems meant that Nico Rosberg could do no better than 14th place in his Mercedes, giving the German his worst starting position of the season.

Jenson Button qualified 13th in his McLaren-Mercedes, but he will lose three places on the grid after being penalised by race stewards for overtaking under red flag conditions during the opening practice on Friday.

gcaygill@thenational.ae

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Profile

Company name: Marefa Digital

Based: Dubai Multi Commodities Centre

Number of employees: seven

Sector: e-learning

Funding stage: Pre-seed funding of Dh1.5m in 2017 and an initial seed round of Dh2m in 2019

Investors: Friends and family

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Members of Syria's Alawite minority community face threat in their heartland after one of the deadliest days in country’s recent history. Read more

COMPANY PROFILE

Name: Mamo

Year it started: 2019 Founders: Imad Gharazeddine, Asim Janjua

Based: Dubai, UAE

Number of employees: 28

Sector: Financial services

Investment: $9.5m

Funding stage: Pre-Series A Investors: Global Ventures, GFC, 4DX Ventures, AlRajhi Partners, Olive Tree Capital, and prominent Silicon Valley investors.

Some of Darwish's last words

"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008

His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.

Global state-owned investor ranking by size

1.	United States
2.	China
3.	UAE
4.	Japan
5	Norway
6.	Canada
7.	Singapore
8.	Australia
9.	Saudi Arabia
10.	South Korea

Test

Director: S Sashikanth

Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan

Star rating: 2/5

Who is Allegra Stratton?

Previously worked at The Guardian, BBC’s Newsnight programme and ITV News
Took up a public relations role for Chancellor Rishi Sunak in April 2020
In October 2020 she was hired to lead No 10’s planned daily televised press briefings
The idea was later scrapped and she was appointed spokeswoman for Cop26
Ms Stratton, 41, is married to James Forsyth, the political editor of The Spectator
She has strong connections to the Conservative establishment
Mr Sunak served as best man at her 2011 wedding to Mr Forsyth

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Directed by: Shaka King

Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Lakeith Stanfield, Jesse Plemons

Four stars