Lewis Hamilton said there was something wrong with his Mercedes after he qualified only 11th for Sunday’s season finale in Abu Dhabi. As Max Verstappen put his Red Bull on pole position for the final race of his all-conquering campaign – with Charles Leclerc second and Oscar Piastri third – Hamilton was left starting at another poor performance in his underperforming machinery. The seven-time world champion, facing up to a second season without a victory, finished six tenths behind Verstappen and a third-of-a-second back from team-mate George Russell, who qualified fourth. Hamilton’s failure to progress to Q3 – as he gloomily predicted here on Friday night – leaves the fight between Mercedes and Ferrari for second place in the constructors’ championship firmly in the balance. The Silver Arrows head their Italian rivals by just four points ahead of Sunday’s finale in the desert. And Leclerc finished ahead of both Russell and Hamilton to hand Ferrari the initiative. However, Mercedes were handed a minor boost after Carlos Sainz was a surprise eliminee in Q1. A day after he crashed out in practice, Sainz bemoaned traffic for his lowly 16th grid slot. It emerged earlier this week that Hamilton’s father and one-time manager Anthony had enquired about a seat for his son at Red Bull. Hamilton has recorded just one podium in his last six appearances following Mercedes’ tumble down the grid, and he faces an uphill task to salvage a respectable result at the Yas Marina Circuit. “There is something not right with this car, mate,” said the 38-year-old as he headed back to the pits shaking his head. Hamilton is third in the standings, an extraordinary 317 points Verstappen, with the Dutchman starting Sunday’s 58-lap race as the overwhelming favourite to claim a remarkable 19th victory from the 22 rounds this year. Verstappen finished 0.139 seconds ahead of Leclerc, while McLaren’s Lando Norris was a disappointing fifth. The British driver got out of shape on his final lap in the last sector, losing him considerable time. “The whole weekend has been a struggle,” said Verstappen. “But we improved the car for qualifying so I am very happy to be on pole.” Quizzed about Ferrari’s battle against Mercedes, Leclerc said: “I hope it is going to go well. “The target is to beat them, so I hope Carlos get a good start and joins me in the fight. “Let’s look to put both of our cars in front of Mercedes because finishing second in the constructors is all that matters to me.” Elsewhere, Yuki Tsunoda impressed to take sixth spot for AlphaTauri, one place ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso. Sergio Perez’s final lap was deleted for exceeding track limits, leaving him in ninth. Read More George Russell fastest as rookies handed chance in first Abu Dhabi practice Class action lawsuit filed over farcical start to Las Vegas Grand Prix Toto Wolff fuelled by ‘personal anger’ to help Lewis Hamilton win eighth title On this day in 2010: Sebastian Vettel becomes youngest ever F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton to start down the order in Abu Dhabi as Max Verstappen claims pole F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix LIVE: Qualifying updates and times at Yas Marina

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Greg Rutherford’s fiancée Susie Verrill has shared that she had to rush the British track and field athlete to the hospital on Saturday (5 August) after an unknown illness left him “clawing at his skin and just screaming”. Verrill, a social media influencer and blogger, posted about the incident on her Instagram page on Monday morning (7 August) and described it as the “scariest time” of her life. Alongside a photograph of Rutherford, 36, sitting up in a hospital bed and appearing to grimace, she explained that the day began normally and that she went to their friend’s house for a roast dinner with their three children. Verrill said she later received a text message from Rutherford informing her that he might be having “an allergic reaction to something and felt itchy”, but she did not think it was an emergency. However, he called shortly after “screaming” on the phone, she wrote, adding: “And I mean SCREAMING. He shouted, ‘YOU NEED TO GET HERE NOW’ and so I drove back to our house while calling an ambulance, terrified I was about to get home and find him not breathing.” The blogger said she was told that an ambulance would take 40 minutes. Once home, she “ran into the house” and found Rutherford inside, “screaming” and “acting like one of those people you see in videos where they’ve taken bath salts”. “He was clawing at his skin and just screaming. Repeatedly. He ran to our car and while I rang 999 again to say I’d have to take him, we had to run every red light and I had to focus on not crashing while he screamed and tried to grab the wheel,” she recalled. “He was delirious and I looked like I was kidnapping him. I was on the phone to the 999 call handler and the poor girl just kept saying, ‘OK yeah he doesn’t sound good, please be safe but hurry’ and I was like OK well this is a nightmare because I’ve been driving like three months. It was AWFUL.” She continued her story in another slide, which showed a close-up of Rutherford’s skin on his thighs. It appeared red with raised bumps, like hives or a rash, covering the surface. Verrill said she “threw [Rutherford] out” of the car in front of the A&E and went to park her car. Once inside the hospital, she was told that staff had sent him to “Resus”, which is a term used for the resuscitation area of the department. “I think [they sent him there] mainly because he was a six-foot-three bloke acting like a psychopath and they didn’t want to scare anyone,” she wrote, adding: “They also pumped him full of steroids and antihistamines and it seemed to work pretty much immediately. Thankfully by the time I got there he’d stopped screaming and raking himself.” In the next slide, she showed Rutherford still sitting up in a hospital bed, but appearing calmer. She said that they were allowed to leave the hospital three hours after they arrived. Verrill added that she “felt close to having a heart attack” but reassured followers that she was fine otherwise. “My question is – we did nothing differently yesterday in terms of eating/drinking but the only snack Greg ate was nuts – could he have developed an allergy, do we think?” she asked her fans. “Have any of you had this? Hospital recommended we get him tested but said it could have also been viral. I appreciate rashes can appear with a viral illness but his body went MAD. The doctor who suggested the viral thing hadn’t seen how Greg had been on arrival; I can’t explain how much pain he was in.” She recalled a time when Rutherford “shrugged off a grumbling appendix” in comparison to how he reacted to the recent illness, and asked followers to let her know if they had ever experienced something similar. In her most recent Instagram Story, Verrill addressed suggestions from fans that Rutherford may have come into contact with a plant on his run that may have caused the reaction. “We don’t think it was any sort of plant because the reaction began before he went on his run (although we appreciate this may have exacerbated symptoms with the sweating),” she wrote. “Greg’s having some tests this morning so hopefully it can start the ball rolling and if I don’t get back to you just yet, I’m so sorry. I’ve had about 500 messages already! Really, really appreciate all the advice.” Rutherford, who participated in Strictly Come Dancing in 2016, also shared Instagram Stories about his experience. In one slide, showing a close-up of his skin from another angle, he wrote: “I suddenly had a massive allergic reaction to something (no idea what) and had to get Susie to rush me to hospital. Thankfully they pumped me with a load of stuff and calmed it down. But it was HORRIBLE. This rash was covering my entire body.” In a second Story, he shared a photograph of himself and added: “I’m not home. A little [itchy] still, but nothing like earlier. I was trying to get my skin off it was so bad. I’m going to get some tests done to figure out what it was, as I NEVER want to experience that again.” The sportsman thanked the hospital staff for helping him, adding: “I was screaming at one point… So apologies for that too.” Rutherford and Verrill have been together since 2012 and share a daughter named Daphne, two, and sons Milo and Rex, eight and five respectively. The couple were due to be married in May, but postponed their wedding because of the death of a family member. Read More Marina O’Loughlin is wrong – there’s joy in solo dining Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Aniston issue statements over ‘antisemitic’ Instagram post Will Smith says daughter Willow’s ‘mutiny’ changed his view on success What is Lyme disease? 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Nicki Minaj has opened up about her feelings of anxiety after becoming a new mother. The rapper, 40, is the latest Vogue cover star for the magazine’s December 2023 issue. Speaking to the publication, Minaj shared many details about her ongoing motherhood journey, after she and husband Kenneth Petty welcomed their son in 2020. Minaj and Petty, who were married in 2019, were formerly high school sweethearts and grew up together in the same neighbourhood in Queens, New York. The “Superbass” singer explained how Petty was unfazed by her level of fame, and noted that he even calls her by her real name - Onika Tanya Maraj. “Because I’ve known my husband for so long, there’s an ease we have with each other,” she told Vogue. “We make each other laugh. We’re silly. And we’re always reminiscing about some old story. If it was a guy that I met as Nicki Minaj, I think I’d feel like they liked me because I’m Nicki Minaj, and what if I don’t look like Nicki Minaj every day? And that, combined with pregnancy, would probably have made me crazy.” The pair welcomed their son, who Minaj has nicknamed “Papa Bear” on social media in order to keep his privacy, on 30 September 2020. The “Barbie World” rapper admitted that she and Petty struggled with their relationship after becoming a family of three, much like many couples do when they become new parents. “I’m not going to lie, things got testy between us. Because of our history, I think we knew we’d get past it. But there’s no such thing as confidence in parenthood,” she explained, before recalling the amount of anxiety she felt after becoming a mother. “I kind of wish that someone had told me - although I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to understand it - that there’s a level of anxiety, and you think it’s going to go away, but in fact it gets scarier,” Minaj added. “So often you think: I don’t know how to do this!” Minaj’s highly-anticipated fifth studio album, Pink Friday 2, is due for release on 8 December. The “Starships” singer previously told her millions of fans on X, formerly known as Twitter, that she had “decided to retire and have my family” just one month before she and Petty were married. However, the Grammy nominee soon realised that the studio was still calling her name - even if that meant needing to balance her family life with her professional career. “I think that deep down inside, I believed that once I had a family, I would just lose the desire to make music,” Minaj told Vogue. “I would always tell people: ‘Watch, when I have a child I’m going to cook every meal for him and bake cookies every day.’ Maybe subconsciously I hoped my focus would just be on being a mother, and I looked forward to that idea. It felt like a relief. But what happens is that you find out you have to work.” This isn’t the first time Minaj has opened up about feeling anxiety as a new mother. In an interview with E! News published in October 2022, the rapper revealed that she often feels like her “heart is being ripped out” when she is away from her now-three-year-old son. “I hate that I have more anxiety now because you’re like: ‘What if the one time I leave my child, I get that phone call?’” she said at the time. “I think moms feel like they have to be perfect.” Minaj then recalled when she was in the United Kingdom and started “bawling” over being away from her son. “And when I try to FaceTime him, I get more sad,” she said. “So, I try to hold out on FaceTiming him because to then put the phone down is so difficult.” The “Super Freaky Girl” rapper shared that she and Petty have never hired a nanny to take care of their baby. “I’m a Trinidadian woman,” she said. “Culturally, we’re not really used to nannies and strangers taking care of the babies. “It’s not a bad thing when moms do it. It’s just that I have to get conditioned. I have to get it out of my mind that it’s a weird thing, because there are tons of celebrities that are doing it and they’re raising amazing children.” Back in September 2020, Minaj announced the birth of her son by posting several photographs of handwritten notes from her celebrity friends congratulating her on the baby news. One of the pictures in the post featured a note from Beyoncé, which read: “Onika, welcome to motherhood. God bless you and your family. B.” “Thank you to Queen B, Kim & Ye, Riccardo Tisci, Winnie, Karol and everyone who sent well wishes during this time. It meant the world to me,” Minaj captioned her post. “I am so grateful and in love with my son. Madly in love. My favorite liddo boy in the whole wide world.” Read More How much water should we be drinking in a day? Irina Shayk reveals how she and Bradley Cooper make co-parenting daughter Lea ‘work’ What is silent reflux? How much water should we be drinking in a day? Irina Shayk reveals how she and Bradley Cooper make co-parenting daughter Lea ‘work’ What is silent reflux?

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