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SILVERSTONE, UK: Charles Leclerc confirmed Ferrari’s competitive renaissance by clocking the fastest lap ahead of championship leader Oscar Piastri of McLaren in Saturday’s third and final practice at the British Grand Prix.

In an incident-filled and closely-contested session, punctuated by red flag interventions, the Monegasque driver was quickest in one minute and 25.498 seconds to outpace Piastri by 0.068 seconds.

Four-time champion Max Verstappen was third for Red Bull ahead of Lando Norris in the second McLaren, a revived Yuki Tsunoda in the second Red Bull and British rookie Ollie Bearman of Haas.

Leclerc was the third different driver to top the times in the three practice sessions following Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton and Norris on Friday.

Alex Albon was seventh for Williams ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell and the RB rookies Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson.

Seven-time champion Hamilton, who had been among the front-runners for Ferrari, was on a fast flying lap in the closing minutes when he was forced to abort his lap because of the first of two late red flags.

Both incidents were caused by incidents that required the track to be cleared. In the second Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto crashed, but was unhurt.

The start of the session was delayed by 10 minutes to clear some minor debris before the two Alpines and both Aston Martins initiated the fray.

On a grey and cool day, with rain threatening the drivers jostled for top spot as Leclerc reported rain at Copse corner.

The track was clearly ramping up and delivering faster lap times as Leclerc demonstrated again by outpacing Piastri by half a tenth before a late red flag, to clear a broken winglet from the circuit at Stowe, paused the action.

Hamilton had been on a flying lap at the time and was given no chance to run again as the final four minutes began, after a restart, before another red flag ended the action.

This time it came when Sauber’s Bortoleto lost control at Becketts where he snapped on entry and broke his car’s suspension and front wing.

In a separate incident Ollie Bearman lost his Haas and hit the barriers as he headed back to the pits.

In a tight session, the top three were separated by less than one-tenth of a second and the top 14 by less than one-tenth.

RIYADH: The 2024 PFL MENA welterweight champion, Omar Al-Dafrawy, delivered another show-stopping performance in front of a roaring Saudi crowd on Thursday night when he secured a spectacular first-round submission win over Italy’s Daniele Miceli.

Miceli wasted no time shooting for an early takedown, but Al-Dafrawy turned the tables with a textbook triangle choke. Miceli tried to power out, but the Egyptian champion tightened the hold and forced the tap just 1:15 into the fight.

Speaking exclusively to Arab News after his victory in the PFL MENA Riyadh main event, held at The Green Halls, Al-Dafrawy declared: “The plan is to fight the PFL Europe champion of 2024, so if he’s ready to come down here and grace the land, I’ll show.”

This was the third triangle choke on Al-Dafrawy’s record. He said: “I think I am probably the biggest superstar in the Arab World right now, whether you like it or not. No one has the skill set that I have. No one is as eager as I am. I took six fighters on short notice in the last PFL MENA in Jeddah, six fighters, all of them over 15 wins.”

Describing himself as “dangerous,” he added: “I’m getting the respect that I deserve where I go, so there’s no reason that I don’t rise to the occasion.”

Al-Dafrawy said he challenged any fighter, Arabian or international, in his bid to become “the best in the world.”

In the co-main event, 2024 PFL Welterweight runner-up Mohammad Alaqraa piled on relentless pressure to earn a dominant unanimous decision victory over Omar Hussein. Judges scored the contest 30-27 across the board to advance Alaqraa advances to the welterweight tournament semifinals.

Elsewhere on the card, ����ֱ��’s own Hattan Al-Saif (4-0 amateur) once again thrilled local fans with a second-round TKO over Nour Al-Fliti in their atomweight amateur bout. Al-Saif overwhelmed Al-Fliti with knees and kicks before the session was waved off due to injury in round two.

In an action-packed bout, Mohamed Zarey dug deep to defeat Ayman Galal by unanimous decision and punch his ticket to the welterweight semifinals. Zarey survived an early barrage to claim the biggest win of his PFL career and will now face Alaqraa.

On the bantamweight side, Xavier Alaoui leaned on his wrestling to shut down Ziad Ayman with a 30-27 sweep on the scorecards, moving into the next round. Mokhtar Benkaci needed just 57 seconds to dispatch Marcel Adur with a left hook to the body for a first-round TKO.

Badreddine Diani outpointed Ahmed Abdelbast Darwish in a closely contested three-round battle, earning a unanimous nod and advancing to face Amir Fazli, who himself scored a knockout over Rostem Akman in round two of their quarterfinal.

In another bantamweight thriller, Nawras Abzakh displayed power and precision, stopping Ali Yazbeck with ground and pound in the second round to move one step closer to a PFL belt. Islam Youssef, stepping in at short notice, delivered a spectacular flying knee knockout to Benyamin Ghahreman with five seconds left in round two.

Kicking off the night, Abdelrahman Alhyasat remained undefeated by submitting Anthony Zeidan with a rear naked choke in round two of their lightweight bout.

The PFL MENA semifinals are now set, promising even more fireworks as regional champions pursue title glory.