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Verstappen Looks Unstoppable as he Enters the F1 Break with Massive Lead

Red Bull Racing's Dutch driver Max Verstappen celebrates with his trophy on the podium after the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix at the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit in Spa on July 30, 2023. (Photo by JOHN THYS / AFP)
Red Bull Racing's Dutch driver Max Verstappen celebrates with his trophy on the podium after the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix at the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit in Spa on July 30, 2023. (Photo by JOHN THYS / AFP)
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Verstappen Looks Unstoppable as he Enters the F1 Break with Massive Lead

Red Bull Racing's Dutch driver Max Verstappen celebrates with his trophy on the podium after the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix at the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit in Spa on July 30, 2023. (Photo by JOHN THYS / AFP)
Red Bull Racing's Dutch driver Max Verstappen celebrates with his trophy on the podium after the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix at the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit in Spa on July 30, 2023. (Photo by JOHN THYS / AFP)

Defending Formula One champion Max Verstappen enters the mid-season break in unstoppable form, after emphatically winning the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday for an eighth straight win and 10th overall of a crushingly dominant season.
Despite starting from sixth place he finished 22.3 seconds ahead of teammate Sergio Perez to give Red Bull an easy 1-2. It moved Verstappen ominously closer to a third straight world title and his own F1 record of 15 wins from last year.
Verstappen is 125 points ahead of Perez after just 12 races, and his next target is matching Sebastian Vettel’s F1 record of nine straight wins with a victory at the Dutch GP when the lopsided season resumes on Aug. 27.
“I just want to have a nice time now, have a bit of time with family and friends,” The Associated Press quoted Verstappen as saying.
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc finished in third spot for a third podium of the season, with Lewis Hamilton in fourth for Mercedes ahead of Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso.
George Russell was sixth for Mercedes, with Lando Norris (McLaren), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), and Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) completing the top 10.
Leclerc started on pole ahead of Perez, with Hamilton and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Jr. behind them. McLaren rookie Oscar Piastri was on the next row alongside Verstappen — who was fastest in Friday's qualifying but took a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change and had to avoid early traffic.
“It was just about surviving turn one. I could see it was all getting really tight,” Verstappen said. “I’ve been in that position before myself so I am just going to stay out of that and it worked out. From there onwards I made the right overtakes.”
Last year Verstappen won from 14th, and once he overtook Perez on Lap 17 of 44 his 45th career win was seemingly inevitable.
“Really enjoyable to drive once I got in the lead,” Verstappen said. “It was again a great race.“
Red Bull extended its record to 13 straight wins, including the final race of last season.
Hamilton came in on the penultimate lap for a tire change and the move paid off as he took the bonus point for fastest lap from Verstappen — a very minor blip for the dominant Dutchman.
It was yet another stellar weekend for Verstappen, who also won Saturday’s sprint race. The only issue was some more bickering with his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase over radio, as they continued their spat from Friday’s qualifying.
“Don’t forget Max, use your head, please,” Lambiase told Verstappen when he questioned why Perez was making his first tire change on Lap 14.
Verstappen defused any talk of tension with Lambiase.
“It’s fine. We know each other very well and we have a very good relationship,” he said. “I think it’s really important."
With some rain forecast, Verstappen boxed on the next lap and came out about 2 seconds behind Perez. Just minutes later he cruised past Perez and, as so often this season, the rest was just about control.
Perez, meanwhile, pledged to stay on the podium for the rest of the season.
“It’s been a bit of a rough patch," the 33-year-old Mexican said. "I really need this summer break, it’s been really intense. I’ll come back really strong for Zandvoort.”
Conditions were dry for the race start, in stark contrast to the two previous days, which were impacted by heavy rain at the 7-kilometer (4.3-mile) Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
Leclerc, who won his first F1 race here in 2019, made a solid start but Perez’s extra pace soon put him in front.
“I knew it was quite crucial for my race to get Charles on Lap 1,” Perez said.
Verstappen rose two places to fourth after Sainz bumped into Piastri on the first corner.
Piastri had to retire, while Verstappen overtook Hamilton on Lap 6, Leclerc three laps later and made short work of Perez just before some rain fell briefly.
Some good overtaking from Ocon moved the Frenchman up from 10th to eighth in the closing stages.
It was an early end for Piastri, who had impressed with a second place in Saturday’s sprint race.
A bad day for Sainz saw him retiring on Lap 25 and Leclerc moving above him in the standings.
“Of course the race was good on my side, a shame for Carlos as we had good pace,” Leclerc said. "When you look at the Red Bulls we still have a lot of work to do ... This was the best we could achieve today, no doubt.”
After the F1 break there will be 10 races left, but most of the competition for places will be behind Verstappen.
Alonso is one point ahead of Hamilton in third overall, with Leclerc and Russell level and Sainz seven points behind them.

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Tunisian Freediver Eyes Records and Developing the Sport

Walid Boudhiaf, Franco-Tunisian freediving world champion, stands near fishing boats before a training session at the Carthage Punic Ports near Tunis on October 17, 2024. (Photo by FETHI BELAID / AFP)
Walid Boudhiaf, Franco-Tunisian freediving world champion, stands near fishing boats before a training session at the Carthage Punic Ports near Tunis on October 17, 2024. (Photo by FETHI BELAID / AFP)
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Tunisian Freediver Eyes Records and Developing the Sport

Walid Boudhiaf, Franco-Tunisian freediving world champion, stands near fishing boats before a training session at the Carthage Punic Ports near Tunis on October 17, 2024. (Photo by FETHI BELAID / AFP)
Walid Boudhiaf, Franco-Tunisian freediving world champion, stands near fishing boats before a training session at the Carthage Punic Ports near Tunis on October 17, 2024. (Photo by FETHI BELAID / AFP)

Tunisian freediver Walid Boudhiaf, the Arab world's only international champion in the sport and a one-time world record holder at 150 meters, is eyeing new achievements and hopes to expand the sport in his home country, where "thousands practice it without even realizing.”

During a recent visit to Tunisia, the 46-year-old, who spends half the year in Colombia and the other half training in the Bahamas, shared his remarkable journey with AFP.

Though he grew up in Tunisia, where he spent most of his summers by the sea, Boudhiaf didn't discover freediving until later.

His father, a Tunisian university professor, and French doctor mother were both "sea lovers" and taught him to swim at the age of three, later introducing him to spearfishing.

By his mid-20s, freediving came to him a continent away and nowhere near the sea -- "by chance in a pool in Bogota,” the Colombian capital that sits over a thousand kilometers from the Pacific Ocean.

Boudhiaf initially took up underwater rugby, which, he said, proved "not aggressive enough.”

His coach had then noticed his ability to control his breath, which years later would help him achieve a personal record of seven minutes 38 seconds.

Boudhiaf said living in Bogota at 2,600 meters above sea level has also helped develop "excellent cardiovascular conditions" by stimulating red blood cell production due to the low oxygen levels.

He then began training up to six hours a day, he said, while balancing a job as a computer engineer.

"I stopped going out," he recalls. "All I did was train."

- World record -

Boudhiaf entered his first competition in Marseille in 2007, but it wasn't until 2012 that he was able to fully dedicate himself to freediving, following a "last job in the Canary Islands, where I went to be closer to the sea.”

Today, thanks to sponsorship from Tunisian companies, he can finally make a living from his passion and also organizes workshops and conferences based around the sport.

In Egypt in 2021, he gained international renown when he set a world record at 150 meters in the variable weight category, which requires using a pulling rope on the way down and fins to go back up.

He said he was inspired by Luc Besson's 1988 film "The Big Blue" that put freediving on the map, and the achievements of legendary diver Umberto Pelizzari.

"It was a dream that I had since I watched 'The Big Blue' and saw Umberto Pelizzari's records," he said. "One hundred fifty meters is a symbolic frontier, a testament to human potential."

Boudhiaf was also crowned world champion in 2022, diving to 116 meters in free immersion apnea timed at three minutes 54 seconds.

After collecting several medals at the Deep Blue competition in Dominica this past April -- one gold, two silver, and one bronze -- he has been training for the 2025 Vertical Blue, an elite freediving competition held in the Bahamas, which he calls "the Wimbledon of freediving".

He is hoping to beat the constant weight record of 136 meters, currently held by Russia's Alexey Molchanov, who broke Boudhiaf's variable weight record with a depth of 156 meters in March 2023.

- 'Everyone can do it' -

Beyond competing and pursuing records, which "have ups and downs and challenges to maintaining peak performance", another focus of Boudhiaf's is growing the sport in Tunisia.

"Many Tunisians are already practicing it without knowing it, through amateur spearfishing, which is a form of freediving," he said, referring to Tunisia's long-standing traditions of sponge diving and coral collecting.

Additionally, interest in pool-based freediving is growing, he added, especially at the Rades Olympic Complex near Tunis.

"I'm motivated to provide more support," Boudhiaf said, adding that the sport required little resources and equipment and that it "isn't a sport for the wealthy".

While Egypt, Greece or Türkiye are better for competition-oriented training with "very deep spots close to the shore" in the Mediterranean, according to Boudhiaf, Tunisia is still suitable for "recreational freediving”

"You don't need to dive 100 meters," he said. "At 20, 30, or 50 meters, beginners can improve and even reach an advanced level."

Freediving is also "the most natural way to observe and interact with marine life," he added.

Breathing techniques also promote good health, he said, because the exercises can help manage stress.