Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper was ejected in the third inning against Pittsburgh following a furious outburst toward third base umpire Ángel Hernández on a checked strike three

University of Arizona President Bobby Robbins says until Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff gives the conference’s leaders hard numbers on a future media rights deal, any talk about schools leaving the league is premature

Katy Perry sold her entire music catalog for $225 million, Travis Hunter out three weeks, Patrick Mahomes reworked his contract and more in the Roundup.

As a two-time Formula One world champion and current championship leader, we all know how impressive Max Verstappen is in an F1 race car... But how would the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver fare at drifting? Ahead of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Verstappen got to fulfil his lifelong ambition of learning how to drift on Thursday 6 July at Millbrook Proving Centre, under the guidance of professional drift driver and Red Bull athlete ‘Mad’ Mike Whiddett. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter While Verstappen is used to being in the driver’s seat, the 25-year-old was a passenger at first as he watched a demonstration from Whiddett who is an established drift racer and record-breaker with a career spanning 16 years. After getting shown the ropes, Verstappen told indy100 how the demonstration was “pretty crazy.” “I didn't know what to expect and it was already pretty wild,” he said with a chuckle. “I just didn't expect to have that much grip you know? In the drift cars so yeah I'm curious to see how I will do it but it probably takes a bit of time.” Since this is Verstappen’s first time learning to drift, he revealed how much he has seen of this particular kind of racing before today. “I mean I've seen that clips and I've seen my friends do it a bit online you know virtual world doing a bit of drifting. “Yeah it's crazy, it’s something very different of course to what I'm doing.” Being an F1 driver, Verstappen is no stranger to racing but what makes drifting different is that drift cars are designed specifically to lose traction and slide to pull off manoeuvers. In contrast, F1 cars use advanced aerodynamics to create downforce (5gs at maximum speed, meaning five times the weight of the car will press down on the surface) to get the maximum grip on the track. He explained further why learning to drift is different from what he is used to. “I mean already just steering lock, the way the car is set up. It's really about just being able to throw the car around so the way that breaks are implemented in the cars - there are a lot of different things.” Verstappen added the reason why drifting would not be beneficial for F1 drivers. “It's just not fast,” he said. “You can drift it but the car is definitely not built for it already just to the steering lock we have, how stiff everything is made that the car really doesn't like to slide at all.” Given the differences between F1 and drift racing, Verstappen provided a modest answer when asked how confident he felt going into the challenge. “Not so much at the moment. I don't know maybe once I start driving I feel quite comfortable it comes a bit more natural but at the moment I really don't know how it's gonna go.” This challenge came ahead of the British Grand Prix in Silverstone and the Red Bull driver shared how was “looking forward” to the race weekend because “the track is great to drive,” and believed it would “suit [his] car.” Verstappen has had quite the year so far, as the two-time champ went into Silverstone with an 81-point lead in the world championship (229 points) over nearest rival and teammate Sergio ‘Checo’ Perez (148 points). Off the back of the Austrian Grand Prix, Verstappen had won five races in a row, taking his overall number of wins this year to seven and from this excellent form, he revealed his highlight from the championship so far. “I mean we had a lot of great races I think but for me probably Miami was a good race you know coming from P9 I think it was never going to be a straightforward race but I think we really manage that race well,” Verstappen said. “Of course then to win it as well was great at the time and actually since then we have been in a good flow and we had a lot of good results.” This dominant form only highlights Verstappen’s hunger to win as demonstrated at the Austrian GP. Verstappen was leading the race by more than 20 seconds and convinced his team to let him pit for soft tyres with two laps left in order for him to win the extra point for the fastest lap – and the risk paid off. “I love winning and that's what motivates me so the more I can win the more motivated I am,” he said. “I think it works the opposite for me so yeah I'm enjoying it and the more faster we are the more interested I am and at the moment of course we have a great crowd so it's really not hard to come back to a race weekend and be on top of it.” Before heading off to try his hand at drifting, Verstappen shared some of the advice he had been given by Whiddett. “I mean he was explaining to me of course what to do with brakes the clutch and the handbrake.” He added: “The weird thing for me already is that it’s on the right-hand side so everything is opposite that probably will take a bit of time for me to get used to – normally you sit on the left-hand side. “You have the gearshift for at first and then the handbrake – here it’s the opposite. So I think I just first have to get comfortable with doing it the other way around in your mind and then just see how that goes.” It was then Verstappen’s turn to get behind the wheel of Whiddett's custom-built ‘MAD BUL’ – an FD3S Mazda RX-7 with 600HP (just over half the HP to an F1 car - 1050HP) which makes performing manoeuvres while travelling sideways more difficult to execute. Plus, this challenge makes Verstappen the first person other than Whiddett himself to give this particular drift car a spin, to which the F1 driver jokingly admitted there’s “a lot of pressure on [him] to do well and not to destroy the car.” Everyone then watched on as Verstappen attempted a series of manoeuvres that put him out of his comfort zone while also testing his driving abilities, these included: high-speed doughnuts and figures of 8, before flying through a Scandi-flick. But the highlight had to be with the finale which saw Verstappen take on the ‘Horner Corner’ where he saw a familiar face in the form of life-size cardboard cutouts of the Red Bull team principal Christian Horner (with a rather enlarged hand) around the corner of the track to add an extra element of difficulty into the mix. “I didn’t really know what to expect,” Verstappen told indy100 after the challenge and joked that the cardboard Christians he knocked over had “recovered.” “I really enjoyed it, it was definitely better than I thought it would be just because I had no clue how much fun it was.” He even likened the experience to feeling “16 again and jumping into an F1 car for the first time.” While Whiddett also commented on the challenge: “We really pushed the limits with Max and I hope he’s learnt some awesome tricks he can take to the F1 track - drifting is as raw as it gets! “I’d love to try out these challenges in an F1 car and see what’s possible in Max’s seat next time.” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Gareth Southgate will likely rotate his England squad when they take on North Macedonia in a Euro 2024 qualifier at Old Trafford tonight. England romped to a 4-0 win against Malta on Friday to keep up their 100% winning run in qualifying. They sit top of Group C ahead of North Macedonia’s visit. The Three Lions can now claim a fourth successive win in Euro 2024 qualifying having already beaten Italy and Ukraine too. Questions remain over Bukayo Saka’s fitness, after he left the field at half-time against Malta, and there are a number of squad players hoping to start this evening’s game. Marcus Rashford is one, but he faces competition from Jack Grealish and James Maddison, while Gareth Southgate must decide whether to utilise Trent Alexander-Arnold in midfield once again after his superb performance in Malta last time out. Follow all the action as England take on North Macedonia at Old Trafford: Read More Marcus Rashford’s complicated England relationship could be at turning point Gareth Southgate sees a tougher test for his team at Old Trafford Midfield role my best shot of becoming England regular – Trent Alexander-Arnold

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Despite bigger fish to fry, Austin Riley and the Atlanta Braves should appeal to MLB like the Houston Astros' Kyle Tucker did on a questionable triple-and-an-error call. Tucker wants that homer, and so do the Braves to get past the 2019 Minnesota Twins.

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