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Season 1 – The Grand Tour

Where to watch, the grand tour — season 1.

Watch The Grand Tour — Season 1 with a subscription on Prime Video.

What to Know

The Top Gear trio reunite to embark upon The Grand Tour and get a great deal of mileage out of their rakish chemistry and gear head exploits that they've honed like a fine-tuned engine.

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Jeremy Clarkson

Richard Hammond

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Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May are back with a show about adventure, excitement and friendship... as long as you accept that the people you call friends are also the ones you find extremely annoying. Sometimes it's even a show about cars. Follow them on their global adventure.

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• Content Issues 9

Season 1 (2016)

← back to season list, episodes 13.

The Holy Trinity

Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May start their brand new car show with hundreds of cars, thousands of people, a fire spitting metal scorpion and a squadron of jets in the California desert, plus three amazing hybrid hypercars and a brilliant BMW.

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Operation Desert Stumble

Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May bring the traveling Grand Tour tent to The Cradle of Humankind near Johannesburg in South Africa. In this show, the three hosts are forced to become special forces soldiers with an all action challenge at a top secret training base, deep within Jordan. Also in this episode, Jeremy introduces the 800 horsepower Aston Martin Vulcan to the Grand Tour test track, and James is sent to investigate an unusual form of motorsport called spinning.

Opera, Art and Donuts

The travelling tent lands on the quayside in Whitby, England where Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May introduce a modern take on the traditional Italian grand tour featuring an Aston Martin DB11, a Rolls-Royce Dawn and an uninvited guest. Also in this show, Jeremy faces the consequences of a foolish bet and Simon Pegg is the star guest.

Enviro-mental

The studio tent is back in Whitby, England as Jeremy Clarkson introduces an almost impartial test of the Porsche 911 GT3 RS against the BMW M4 GTS, and the three hosts attempt to make cars from sustainable materials. Comedian Jimmy Carr is the celebrity guest.

Moroccan Roll

The Grand Tour studio arrives in Rotterdam where Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May introduce a lightweight sport car test featuring the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, the Mazda MX5 and the Zenos E10 in the stunning landscapes of Morocco. Also in this show, Hammond and May play a traditional board game using cars and Dutch band Golden Earring are the guest stars.

Happy Finnish Christmas

The Grand Tour tent is in Kakslauttanen, Finland, deep within the Arctic Circle with a show in which Richard Hammond and Jeremy Clarkson compare the Ford Mustang V8 and the Ford Focus RS, James May recounts the bitter 1960s battle for endurance racing supremacy between Ferrari and Ford, and the presenters run through some ideal Christmas gifts for car fans.

The Beach (Buggy) Boys - Part 1

In the first of two special shows, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May are challenged to complete an epic journey across Namibia in three beach buggies, each built to their personal spec. What starts off as a simple determination to win an argument with their boss turns into an amazing adventure across some of the most incredible desert scenery Africa has to offer.

The Beach (Buggy) Boys - Part 2

In the second show of a two-part special, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May are battling across Namibia in a quest to prove that beach buggies are brilliant. Having survived the challenges of the desert, the trio must now brace themselves for even greater hardship involving rough roads, camping, rhino conservation and a rather unusual river crossing.

Berks to the Future

This week, The Grand Tour arrives in Stuttgart, the home of Porsche and Mercedes-Benz. In this show, James May takes the new Honda NSX supercar to the Eboladrome to push its cutting-edge hybrid technology to the limit and Richard Hammond immerses himself in the world of doomsday preppers as he constructs a ‘bugout’ vehicle that will allow him to survive a bleak future of nuclear winters, alien invasions and massed herds of zombies. Meanwhile, in a less realistic attempt at engineering, Jeremy Clarkson invents a new kind of fashionable SUV. Also in this show, the hosts attempt to meet the future demands of electric cars by harnessing power from the currently untapped actions of everyday life.

Dumb Fight at the O.K. Coral

The Grand Tour: Dumb Fight at the O.K. Coral sees the tent travelling to Nashville. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May introduce their attempt to save the world's coral reefs. In the interests of conservation, the three travel to Barbados and begin an earnest attempt to establish a new reef using only some car bodyshells as a foundation. Their efforts start badly and then get worse, involving inept crane driving, useless boat steering, and an embarrassing moment with a local hotel. Also in this show, Jeremy finally indulges his series-long Alfa Romeo obsession with a test of the new, 500 horsepower Giulia Quadrifoglio.

Italian Lessons

From the shores of Loch Ness in Scotland, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May introduce their attempts to buy used Maseratis for a bargain price and then use them to tour the drizzle flecked landscapes of the North of France. Also in this programme, Richard takes the Abarth 124 Spider to the Eboladrome, Jeremy comes up with a way to install cutting edge features in an older car, and Olympic cycling champion turned car racer Sir Chris Hoy is invited to try Celebrity Brain Crash.

[censored] to [censored]

The Grand Tour tent is once again in Loch Ness, Scotland after a monster discovery since the last show. This week, the hosts tour central Europe in a Jaguar F-Pace, a Bentley Bentayga and a Range Rover Autobiography, arguing over which is the best SUV and trying not to giggle at road signs. Also in this show, Jeremy kills preconceptions as he laps the Eboladrome in a Lexus GS F, the hosts examine the point of launch control, and Hollywood legend Tim Burton is invited to play Celebrity Brain Crash.

Past v Future

Jeremy Clarkson and James May introduce a battle between their own, personal cars. Jeremy champions the past with his Volkswagen Golf GTI while James makes a case for the future with his electrically powered BMW i3. Meanwhile, Richard Hammond is in France learning how to drift a car like a pro, and James is sent to a damp part of England to take part, against his will, in a strange sport called winching. Plus, the recently deceased Bugatti Veyron takes part in a drag race against the current hypercar speed champion, the Porsche 918 Spyder.

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The first season of the Amazon Prime motoring show  The Grand Tour , starring presenters  Jeremy Clarkson ,  Richard Hammond , and  James May alongside test driver Mike "The American" Skinner premiered on the 18th of November, 2016 and finished on the 2nd of February, 2017. It was the first of three seasons initially agreed upon during the trio's initial contract signing with the company, and would result in a second season being produced later that year, in addition to a third season the year after. It marked the trio's return to presenting a car program following Clarkson's dismissal from BBC's Top Gear in March 2015, and was backed by a heavy advertising campaign.

• 2.1 Studio Segments
• 3 Reception

Episodes [ ]

Production [ ].

As the show would not yet exist, pre-planning for The Grand Tour would have formed the original cut of Top Gear Series 23 , with the Holy Trinity of supercars as one of the most fleshed-out ideas. Filming began in October 2015 at the Algarve Circuit in Portimao, Portugal, with the rest of the pre-recorded segments continuing through to the end of 2016.

Studio Segments [ ]

The first studio segments, for the show's second episode, were filmed in Johannesburg, South Africa in July 2016. The studio segments for the show's premiere episode, however, were filmed in September 2016 in the region of Southern California. The studio segments concluded on Dubai in December 2016.

Reception [ ]

After the airing of 'The Holy Trinity' in November, the show received almost universal praise from fans and critics alike. The show's IMDb page rated the series at 9.7 out of 10 at that time. However, this was almost immediately followed by 'Operation Desert Stumble' a week later, which as of 2019 remains the lowest rated episode of the series and quickly divided fans. The series went on to achieve an 8.2 rating for the whole series, indicating a positive reception overall.

• 1 Hammond's Rimac Crash
• 2 Mike Skinner

The Holy Trinity | The Grand Tour Season 1 – Episode Guide, Recap & Fun Facts

[column size=one_half position=first ][button color=”red” size=”big” alignment=”none” rel=”follow” openin=”samewindow” URL=www.grandtournation.com/thegrandtour/season1 ] ←SEASON 1[/button][/column][column size=one_half position=last ][button color=”red” size=”big” alignment=”none” rel=”follow” openin=”samewindow” URL=www.grandtournation.com/thegrandtour/season1/episode2 ]EPISODE 2 →[/button][/column]

The episode begins with a film of Clarkson leaving the BBC and meeting Hammond and May in Los Angeles, America to the song,  “I Can See Clearly Now” by the Hothouse Flowers. The three presenters drive three Ford Mustangs over the California desert to Rabbit Dry Lake, accompanied by a large group of incredible cars worth a reported £3 million and a fly-over from the Breitling Jet Team.

They roll up to a large crowd of people and cars with the band ‘Hothose Flowers’ playing ‘I Can See Clearly Now’,

They also introduce the new touring tent where in this episode Jeremy Clarkson gives the American audience a lesson in English and linguistics. It ends with the audience chanting ‘USA’ with the three presenters hiding behind their table.

The Holy Trinity

The presenters meet at Algarve International Circuit in Portugal to compare the McLaren P1, Porsche 918 and Ferrari LaFerrari, known as the Holy Trinity of cars – a selection that was hoped to appear on Top Gear but never did.

They drag race the cars several times, with each race resulting in a different result.

To settle the dispute of which one is faster, Jérôme d’Ambrosio performs timed laps in the hypercars with the following times:

Ferrari LaFerrari 1:54.4

Porsche 918 1:54.2

McLaren P1 1:55.5

Jeremy bets his house that the P1 would come first in the timed laps, but as you can see from the times, he lost the bet. The results of this will come later in the season.

The Eboladrome

Clarkson introduces The Grand Tour’s new track named the Eboladrome where he laps a Ferrari 488 and a BMW M2 to kick-off the lap time board. Read about the Eboladrome here.

SUPPORT THE EBOLADROME WITH A T-SHIRT!

He also introduces The American, who you can read about here.

[button color=”red” size=”big” alignment=”center” rel=”follow” openin=”samewindow” url=”https://grandtournation.com/5809/american-will-not-return-season-2-grand-tour/”]The American[/button]

Celebrity Brain Crash

Armie Hammer, Jeremy Renner, and Carol Vorderman are all killed before making their interview, beginning the joke by James May : “Does that mean they’re not coming on then?”

[button color=”red” size=”big” alignment=”center” rel=”follow” openin=”samewindow” url=”https://grandtournation.com/3406/the-deaths-of-the-grand-tour-celebrity-brain-crash-a-look-back-in-memoriam-mh1211/”]All The Celebrity Brain Crash Deaths[/button]

• Cast & crew

Episode list

The grand tour, s1.e1 ∙ the grand safari, s1.e2 ∙ florence: medici masterpiece, s1.e3 ∙ golden isles: millionaire getaway, s1.e4 ∙ the golden age of hollywood, s1.e5 ∙ imperial hotels of vienna, s1.e6 ∙ the american riveria, s1.e7 ∙ kingdom of glamour and chance, s1.e8 ∙ high society in the golden age of travel, s1.e9 ∙ the gold coast, s1.e10 ∙ puttin on the ritz, s1.e11 ∙ railway hotels of the canadian rockies, s1.e12 ∙ romantic palaces of venice, s1.e13 ∙ san francisco city of silver & gold, s1.e14 ∙ st maritz, contribute to this page.

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Here Are the Contenders Primed to Challenge Cycling’s Dominant Duo in the Giro and Tour de France

[table-of-contents] stripped

As we grow nearer to Grand Tour season, the story is no doubt going to center around cycling’s two biggest names: Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard. Can Pog pull off the Giro/Tour double? If he’s going to, he’ll have to vanquish Vingegaard, the only rider who’s been able to go toe-to-toe with Pogačar. On the other side of the coin, can Vingegaard go three-for-three, becoming just the ninth rider to win at least three Tours (and the sixth to win three consecutively)?

But what about the other riders in the peloton who have a real chance at dethroning the two-headed monster? Surely there are more names to watch than just Pogi and Jonas, more riders who— like Sepp Kuss did in last year’s Vuelta —can shock the world by taking down the giants.

Here are the contenders primed to challenge cycling's dominant duo in the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France :

Remco Evenepoel

There’s no denying that Evenepoel is one of the most talented riders in the WorldTour ranks. And with a pair of Liège-Bastonge-Liège wins and a Vuelta win, he already has a palmarès that most riders dream of. But after a bitterly disappointing Giro abandonment last season and years of answering questions about when he’s going to race the Tour, the time may be here for Evenepoel to exorcize some of the demons and answer the questions that always seem to be following him around.

Yes, he’s won a Grand Tour, but it wasn’t the Grand Tour. Maybe 2024, his Tour debut, is the year to rectify that for and with his Soudal-Quick Step team.

Primož Roglič

With a new team in Bora-Hansgrohe, Roglič will once again be looking to avenge one of the most bitter losses in cycling history: to recapture the Tour de France win that he was just one heartbreaking stage away from in 2020.

That 2020 loss, combined with Vingegaard’s unexpected ascension, pushed Roglič to the fringes of the Grand Boucle. Now, he’ll head into France as the undisputed team leader. And while Roglič’s had a less-than-stellar season thus far, according to Bora’s performance director Rolf Aldag, all eyes are on the Tour for Roglič and his team.

Cian Uijtdebroeks

Just twenty years old, Ujitdebroeks is heading into the Giro with expectations that are simultaneously high and reasonable. Early reports are that the Visma-Lease a Bike all-rounder will be chasing both stage wins and the pink jersey.

Uijtdebroeks finished eighth in last summer’s Vuelta a España and none of the seven riders ahead of him are slated to start the Giro. Of course, it’ll help his cause that he’ll have Wout van Aert, perhaps the world’s greatest domestique, working for him throughout Italy.

Ben O’Connor

Last year, Ben O’Connor asked his French team, Decathlon-AS2R La Mondiale, if he could shift his focus from the Tour de France to the Giro d’Italia. After two consecutive Tours marred by crashes, sickness, and just plain bad luck, O’Connor is hoping to right his ship with a go at the pink jersey.

To the surprise of many, AG2R acquiesced and, as O’Connor has the most WorldTour points of any Giro entrants as of this writing, early returns say they may have made the right move.

Geraint Thomas

Like Pogačar, Ineos Grenadiers’ Geraint Thomas is targeting the Giro/Tour double. He’ll be the team’s sole GC hunter in Italy, as he aims to avenge the pink jersey he lost to Primož Roglič on the penultimate stage of last year’s Giro.

The picture in France gets a bit murkier, as Ineos will be sending Tom Pidcock and Carlos Rodríguez both to the start line in June, making Thomas’s hunt for a second yellow jersey—he won the Tour 2018—a far less straightforward proposition.

Alexsandr Vlasov

The 27-year-old Bora-Hansgrohe rider raised plenty of eyebrows at the dawn of this season when he said he would let the road decide whether he would race for or against his new teammate—and presumed team leader—Primož Roglič.

Well, the reality of that statement might come to a head sooner rather than later. Vlasov has been looking strong this spring, with his most eye-catching performance coming in Paris-Nice, where he finished fifth overall, seventh in the points classification, and fourth in the KOM race. Roglič, on the other hand, finished that race tenth, eleventh, and tenth in those very same classifications.

Simon Yates

Whereas so many riders are bolstered by hype, Simon Yates’s chances for a surprise Tour victory are supported by the fact that he just always seems to be there, near the front, toe-to-toe with the best and the brightest. The Jayco-AlUla leader, who finished fourth overall in 2023, will be making his seventh Tour appearance, so he knows the race as well as just about any of the other contenders. But more than anything, he’ll likely need a few breaks to roll his way.

Jai Hindley

The 2022 Giro champion is expected to ride in support of Roglič in the Tour. But we all know how mercurial Roglič can be, which means Hindley may be presented with a sudden and unexpected chance to fight for the yellow jersey.

Sepp Kuss, Juan Ayuso, and Adam Yates

I’m combining these three, as their longshot potential to make a run at GC would depend on Vingeaard and/or Pogačar blowing up or abandoning, neither of which either does very often. Kuss has shown that he has the strength and the grit to win a Grand Tour, but his shot at the yellow jersey would wholly depend on whether or not Vingegaard is at or near the front.

The same goes for Ayuso and Yates, who will both ride in support of Pogačar this summer. Yates finished third in last year’s Tour, proving that he’s much more than just another domestique. Meanwhile, all signs have been pointing to UAE Team Emirates grooming the 21-year-old Ayuso to be something of a 1A to Pogačar.

Verstappen wins again. This time he takes first Formula 1 sprint race of the season

SHANGHAI — Max Verstappen, continuing his dominance in Formula 1, took Saturday’s first sprint race of the season — the prelude to the full-blown Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday.

Verstappen passed Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes on the ninth of 19 laps and stretched out his lead to win by 13 seconds ahead of Hamilton. Sergio Perez of Red Bull was third and Charles Leclerc of Ferrari was fourth.

“The first few laps were quite hectic,” Verstappen said. “Once I got in the lead the car was handling pretty well.”

It was his eighth victory in an F1 sprint.

Red Bull’s Verstappen is the three-time defending F1 champion and is almost unbeatable in any format.

He now has 85 points to lead of the overall season standings. Perez is second with 70 followed by Leclerc with 64 and Carlos Sainz of Ferrari with 59.

Second place was like a consolation victory for Hamilton. The seven-time champion has not been a factor the last several seasons. His last GP win was in 2021 in Saudi Arabia in the second-last race of the season.

“I forgot what he felt like to be out ahead,” Hamilton said. “It felt good for the short while that I had it. I was grateful for the moment.”

Verstappen will be the favorite to win Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix, which is the fifth race of the season. Verstappen has won three of the first four GP races and 22 of the last 26.

Lando Norris of McLaren and Hamilton of Mercedes started on the front row with Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin and Verstappen on the second row.

The sprint — F1 will run six this season — is about one-third the distance of a full race. The winner gets eight points with seven for second, six for third and so forth.

Saturday’s race was run on a dry track, unlike the wet and slippery qualifying session on Friday.

Verstappen likened the sprint qualifying on Friday to “driving on ice.” Verstappen was among several drivers who ran off the track in a chaotic, wet session exacerbated by the track, itself.

The track is the great unknown going into Sunday’s race. This is the first Formula 1 race in China in five years. The circuit has had a thin “seal coating” applied, described as liquid asphalt. F1 tire supplier Pirelli said it was not fully aware of the changes heading into the race.

Two small grass fires broke out on at the edge of the track in Friday practice. The circuit was built on a marshy area, and a methane gas leak is suspected.

AP Formula 1: https://apnews.com/hub/formula-one

The Five: Absurd stats that explain Scottie Scheffler’s dominance

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HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – A sly smile emerged as Brian Harman sat Tuesday for his pre-tournament press conference at the RBC Heritage. A reporter was starting to ask about Scottie Scheffler, the hottest golfer in the world.

“Is any part of you surprised that Scottie is playing this week with everything going on, and is there a part of you that hopes he doesn't?” the report asked.

Harman chuckled. “Yeah, there's lots of parts of me that hope he doesn't play,” he said.

Scheffler is the new benchmark with which the rest of the PGA TOUR measures itself. The rest of the TOUR knows it. Harman’s response was part joke, part honest admission. Scheffler only needs his “B” game to contend and win, Harman continued. That’s a scary proposition.

Scheffler has won three times this year, including THE PLAYERS Championship and the Masters. He’s the first since Tiger Woods to win those two high-profile tournaments in the same season and the first since Woods to win them both multiple times.

The Scheffler-Woods comparisons are growing more frequent with every tournament Scheffler wins. It’s not that Scheffler is as dominant as Woods. He’s just the most dominant since Woods.

Players talk about Scottie Scheffler's dominating season

And it doesn’t seem to be slowing down. As Scheffler looks to build on his historic season with more victories at Signature Events and major championships, it’s an excellent time to take stock of the history in the making. Here are The Five stats that explain Scheffler’s dominance.

1. Locked at the top of the world ranking

Scheffler has already spent the last 47 weeks atop the Official World Golf Ranking, and he’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

With his win at the Masters, Scheffler further stretched his lead to a point that is likely insurmountable in 2024. The win elevated Scheffler’s average point total to 13.99, with more than a six-point lead over No. 2 Rory McIlroy.

The minutiae of the point totals are hard to follow, so here’s the necessary context to understand the feat: Scheffler’s gap over No. 2 is larger than any world No. 1 has had since Tiger Woods in 2009 when Woods held an eight-point lead. Woods amassed that lead during his record 281 consecutive weeks at world No. 1.

Scheffler has a long way to go to reach that sustained level of dominance, but what he’s doing right now is on par with any stretch of golf played in the modern era.

Calculating OWGR projections can be a bit fickle. There are so many variables week-to-week about field strength and eventual outcomes, but world ranking expert Nosferatu put it in the context of what is needed to dethrone Scheffler. Nosferatu wrote on social media this week that McIlroy would need to win “three majors plus some extra” to overtake Scheffler. That also assumes Scheffler isn’t playing well.

So, get used to Scheffler at the top. It’s going to stay that way for a long time.

2. It’s been years since Scheffler’s last poor iron performance… literally

Scheffler’s ball-striking is his superpower on the golf course. There have been weeks when the putter has failed him or his driver has been wayward. Finding a week when Scheffler’s iron play has abandoned him is nearly impossible.

It’s what makes him special. Every top player has a superpower, but Scheffler’s is more consistent than any other player’s.

In fact, the last time Scheffler lost strokes to the field with his approach play was the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship. That’s a streak of 36 events spanning more than 600 days.

Scottie Scheffler's top eight shots since 2023 Masters

To put it in perspective, McIlroy is widely considered the best off-the-tee game on TOUR. He lost strokes off-the-tee at THE PLAYERS last month. Collin Morikawa, one of the players thought to rival Scheffler’s approach play, has lost strokes with his approach play in three events this season. Hideki Matsuyama, the TOUR leader in SG: Around the Green, has lost strokes in that category twice this year. Taylor Montgomery, the TOUR leader in SG: Putting, has had two weeks where he lost strokes on the green.

No player more consistently gets more out of their best skill than Scheffler. It’s the reason he has such an incredibly high floor.

3. Best of both worlds

Scheffler leads the PGA TOUR in both birdie average (5.43 per round) and bogey avoidance (1.6 per round). It’s a lethal combo that further explains why Scheffler’s scoring average (68.8) is a full shot lower than No. 2 Xander Schauffele (69.9).

It’s made possible because of the specific type of dominance Scheffler deploys. He is the best iron player in the world. He also has one of the best short games, a borderline unfair combination. Scheffler hardly ever puts himself in a spot of bother. When he does, he is better equipped than any to get up and down for par.

Scheffler upends the widely accepted notion that a byproduct of making birdies is running into bogeys along the way. Scheffler is the only player on TOUR inside the top 10 in both birdie average and bogey avoidance. While others need to be aggressive to notch five birdies a round, Scheffler runs into birdies by the sheer, consistent force of his ball-striking.

Scottie Scheffler's eagle hole-out from 92 yards is the Shot of the Day

Sure, Scheffler could attack pins that others don’t dare take on. That happens occasionally, but Scheffler is making the smart play more often than not. He’s hitting the fat sides of greens, keeping the ball underneath the hole and assuring he doesn’t hit it near the trouble. It is death by 1000 paper cuts. He leads the PGA TOUR in Greens in Regulation and is sixth in Proximity to the hole. Putting statistics be damned, with those numbers Scheffler finds birdies regardless of whether the putter is cooperating.

4. Always in the red

The Masters cumulatively played 568 over-par across four rounds. Scheffler didn’t contribute. He hasn’t at any point this season, not for a tournament or a round. Scheffler has carded zero over-par rounds this season. His second-round 72 at Augusta National Golf Club was his worst score of his season. He has more wins (three) than rounds over par (zero).

Here’s how Scheffler stacks up to some of his peers:

McIlroy – Eight rounds over par

Schauffele – Four rounds over par

Wyndham Clark – Six rounds over par

Hovland – Five rounds over par

It’s an encapsulation of the Scheffler experience. He doesn’t have bad rounds often and when he does, by his standards, he knows how to manage them.

5. FedExCup frontrunner

Scheffler finished second in the 2022-23 FedExCup Regular Season standings, amassing 3,146 points before the Playoffs last August. Second only to Jon Rahm, Scheffler held an 800-point advantage over McIlroy in third. That was unquestionably a dominant season, and somehow, it’s not even close to as impressive as this season.

Scheffler has already outpaced his 2022-23 season-long points total. After his Masters victory, Scheffler has amassed 3,215 points. He’s accumulated in nine events what it took him 20 events to do a year ago. Then there’s how it looks compared to the rest of the FedExCup. Scheffler has more than double the FedExCup points than No. 2 Clark. Scheffler has more than triple the points of No. 8 Byeong Hun An.

Clark would need to win multiple more Signature Events (and then some) to reach Scheffler’s current point total.

At this pace, it won’t be the race to the FedExCup; it will be a slow march to King Scheffler's coronation.

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Max Verstappen wins first F1 sprint race of season at Chinese Grand Prix

• World champion beat Hamilton by 13 seconds in Shanghai Sprint
• Red Bull driver now leads Formula One standings by 15 points

Red Bull’s triple world champion Max Verstappen won the first sprint race of the Formula One season at the Chinese Grand Prix on Saturday. Verstappen beat Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton by 13.043 seconds in the 19-lap race at the Shanghai International Circuit to extend his championship lead over teammate Sergio Perez, who finished third.

Verstappen passed Hamilton on the ninth of 19 laps and then stretched out his lead to continue his F1 dominance in all formats. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finished fourth and fifth.

“The first few laps were quite hectic,” Verstappen said. “Once I got in the lead the car was handling pretty well.”

The 26-year-old will be the favourite to win the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday, the fifth race of the season, after winning three of the first four races this year. Verstappen has also finished first in 21 of the 22 races last season.

Lando Norris of McLaren and Hamilton started on the front row in the Shanghai Sprint, with Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin and Verstappen on the second row.

The sprint – the first of six that F1 will run this season – is about one-third the distance of a full race. The winner gets eight points with seven for second, six for third and so forth.

Verstappen earned eight points for victory in the Chinese sprint to climb to 85 points in the driver standings, while Perez added six to stay in second place on 70 points.

Second place was like a consolation victory for Hamilton as the seven-time champion has not been a major factor for several seasons. His last GP win was in 2021 in Saudi Arabia in the second-last race of the season. “I forgot what it felt like to be up ahead and it felt good for the short while that I had it, so I was grateful for the moment,” Hamilton said. “To be on the front row, I don’t remember having had that view for a long time.”

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The sprint race on Saturday was run on a dry track, unlike the wet and slippery qualifying session on Friday. Verstappen likened the sprint qualifying on Friday to “driving on ice”, when the Dutch driver was among several drivers who ran off the track in a chaotic, wet session exacerbated by the track itself.

The track is the great unknown going into the first Formula 1 race in China in five years. The circuit has had a thin “seal coating” applied, described as liquid asphalt. F1 tyre supplier Pirelli said it was not fully aware of the changes heading into the race.

• Formula One
• Max Verstappen
• Charles Leclerc
• Lewis Hamilton
• Daniel Ricciardo
• Mercedes GP

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