McLaren chief executive Zak Brown has said meetings will take place to discuss whether to prioritise Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri for the remainder of the season. 

The issue arose following last week's Hungarian Grand Prix, which saw Piastri's maiden win in Formula One overshadowed by Norris' radio spat with the pit wall. 

Piastri had led much of the race before a bizarre pit-stop call by McLaren allowed Norris to take the lead, but was ordered to give the lead back to his team-mate. 

Norris initially refused to do so, but with three laps remaining, handed the place back to the Australian as McLaren secured a first one-two since Monza in 2021. 

Piastri's win at the Hungaroring made him the seventh different winner in 2024. It is the 16th different year with at least seven winners, the first since 2012 (eight).

But one of Norris' protestations before giving the position back was his battle with Max Verstappen in the Driver's Championship. 

Despite scoring his eighth podium of the season in Hungary, the Brit remains 76 points behind the three-time world champion. 

Brown, who wasn't on the pit wall in Hungary but is back for this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, said the decision would ultimately fall to team principal Andrea Stella.

He told Sky Sports F1: "That's ultimately going to be Andrea's call. We want to get through the first half of the season, see where we end up this weekend.

"I think the Constructors' Championship, while it's definitely not going to be easy, is well within reach.

"I think the challenge on the drivers' front is Max's bad days are second and third places, so (it's difficult) to make those claw backs that we're making on the constructors' that we can do because (Sergio) Perez is struggling at the moment, we also know he's capable of turning it on at any moment.

"That will be something I think we discuss over the summer break."

McLaren's recent pace and form has seen them have a driver on the podium in the last nine races, cutting the gap to Red Bull in the Constructor's Championship. 

The British team have another excellent opportunity to cut the gap in Spa, with Norris' championship rival Verstappen receiving a 10-place grid penalty for Sunday's race by exceeding his engine allowance for the season.

But the Dutchman topped the first practice on Friday, with Piastri finishing 0.531 seconds behind with Norris down in ninth, 0.512secs off his McLaren team-mate.

And Verstappen's showing has left Brown refusing to rule out the possibility of the three-time world champion claiming an eighth win of the season. 

"It's a tricky track with how much downforce you want versus speed," Brown said.

"You have to assume Max is on for pole, which is P11.

"It would be a big mistake to think he can't go from P11 to P1 but we have to take every advantage you can."

Max Verstappen's 10-place grid penalty for Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix was confirmed as he took a new power unit in practice at Spa-Francorchamps on Friday.

Under Formula One's regulations, drivers are permitted to use a maximum of four internal combustion engines (ICEs) throughout the 2024 campaign.

Verstappen took his fifth new ICE of the year for Friday's first practice session, triggering the automatic penalty for Sunday's race. 

He proceeded to set the pace in first practice with a fastest lap of 1:43.372, going half a second faster than Oscar Piastri, who won the Hungarian Grand Prix last week.

The three-time world champion will also drop five places if he takes a new ICE at any other race this year. 

RB's Yuki Tsunoda, meanwhile, will start at the back of the grid in Belgium after taking a fifth ICE as well as additional engine parts.

With his penalty confirmed, Verstappen will now be desperate to perform in qualifying, having only taken pole at one of the last six races. 

He did, however, win the recent Spanish and Canadian Grands Prix when not starting at the front. His 29 race victories when not starting on pole are the fourth-most by any driver in F1 history.

The penalty does represent an almighty blow to Verstappen's hopes of avoiding a third straight race without winning, though. 

He last went more consecutive races without a victory in 2020, failing to win in 11 outings from Spain to Sakhir.   

Magda Linette rounded off her Olympic preparations in style as she claimed her third WTA title with a comfortable win over Magdalena Frech at the Prague Open. 

Linette, who beat Viktoriya Tomova and Linda Noskova on her way to the final, won in straight sets 6-2 6-1 as she now heads to Paris to face Mirra Andreeva. 

The world number 41 was in the ascendency from the off, forcing a break in the fourth game and never looking back. 

Despite the best efforts of Frech, who saved one set point, Linette continued to apply the pressure and another break put her a set up.

Linette would again break in the fourth game of the second set, winning three games on the bounce to secure her first career win over her compatriot. 

Data Debrief: Linette prevails in first all-Polish affair

The final in Prague between Linette and Frech was the first all-Polish WTA level final in the Open Era. 

Linette's triumph over her opponent was her first, having lost in the pair's previous encounter in Saint-Malo back in 2022. 

During the contest, the world number 41 gave nothing away, saving all four of the break points she faced while converting three of the seven she had against Frech. 

Lewis Hamilton was left surprised by the stewards' interpretation of his clash with Max Verstappen at the Hungarian Grand Prix last week. 

Hamilton, who finished in third at the Hungaroring to claim a 200th podium finish, was involved in an incident with the reigning world champion on lap 63 in Budapest. 

The pair made contact heading into Turn One, with the Dutchman attempting to go up the inside but in doing so locked up his front tyres, briefly sending him into the air. 

Although neither driver was penalised for the incident, the stewards suggested that the seven-time world champion could have done more to avoid the collision. 

"I was really, really surprised by it," said the Mercedes driver of the full stewards' judgement, which was issued several hours after the end of the race.

"I think already I was very relaxed about the situation and just saying 'look, it's just a racing incident, let's just move on'.

"But considering one car was in control and one car was not in control at the time - obviously when all the wheels are locked, you're not in control - and if you look at the replay at the end of the move I'm very, very far from the apex, so there's a lot of room on the right-hand side.

"So I was very, very surprised by the stewards. I don't know who typed it up but… that will be a question when I speak to them at some stage."

Verstappen, who has the opportunity to become the third driver to win four times in a row at Spa this weekend, endured a difficult race last time out. 

The Dutchman finished in fifth in Budapest and is without a win in his last four races, the last time he failed to win four meetings was back in 2020. 

His frustrations at the Hungaroring boiled over, repeatedly expressing his frustration and anger at his team's strategy and his car's performance over the radio.

"You have to be a team leader, a team member," said Hamilton. 

"Maybe not such a team leader, just always remember you are a team-mate with lots of people and you have to act like a world champion."

When asked to elaborate on that latter point, Hamilton replied: "That is a good question… Not like it was last weekend."

Hamilton, who has won the Belgium Grand Prix four times in his career, arrives at Spa full of confidence following his recent displays. 

Having endured a difficult start to the season, but three podium places in his last four races, including ending his 945-day wait for a win following a record ninth triumph at Silverstone, has seen the Brit back to his best. 

Mercedes remain fourth in the Constructor's Championship, but have closed the gap to Ferrari to 81 points, with upgrades expected on their car this weekend, including a new front wing, floor and beam wing, something that has excited Hamilton. 

"I still feel so much youth, am energised, driven and love working with the team.

"We have got some upgrades this weekend, so I can't wait to see how that feels on the track. Hopefully it's another step in the right direction and I'm excited for the next part of the season."

Randy Arozarena is on the move,

The Seattle Mariners are reportedly acquiring Arozarena in a deal with the Tampa Bay Rays.

As part of the trade, which was reported late Thursday by multiple sources, the Mariners are sending the Rays outfielder Aidan Smith, right-hander Brody Hopkins and a player to be named later.

Arozarena was named to his first All-Star team last year, but is struggling a bit this season.

He is batting a career-low .213, but does have 15 home runs, 19 doubles and 16 stolen bases in 99 games.

His .717 OPS, however, is higher than any of Seattle's everyday players.

The Mariners are in need of a jolt with their offence suddenly struggling.

After leading the AL West by 10 games on June 18, Seattle has lost 20 of 29 and now trails the Houston Astros by one game for the division lead.

The offence has been the biggest culprit for the recent slide, as the Mariners have plated exactly one run in each of their last three games and have scored two or fewer in seven of their last eight.

Seattle is also in need of another outfielder with star centre fielder Julio Rodríguez sidelined until August with a high-ankle sprain sustained Sunday.

Two years ago, Dylan Cease came within one out of throwing a no-hitter.

Against the Washington Nationals on Thursday, he finished the job, recording all 27 outs without allowing a hit.

Cease threw the second no-hitter in San Diego Padres franchise history, baffling the Nationals during a 3-0 win.

Cease improved to 10-8 and struck out nine in his nine sterling innings of work to win his third straight start.

Despite walking three batters, Cease faced only one over the minimum, with the Nationals caught stealing in the first inning and grounding into a double play in the fourth.

He threw 71 of his 114 pitches for strikes en route to joining Joe Musgrove as the only San Diego pitchers to throw a no-hitter. Musgrove's came against the Texas Rangers on April 9, 2021.

Baseball's latest no-no is the second of the season after the Houston Astros' Ronel Blanco threw one against the Toronto Blue Jays on April 1.

Cease's achievement also helps take away some of the sting from his near no-hitter from two years ago. 

While pitching for the Chicago White Sox on September 3, 2022, he was one out away from no-hitting the Minnesota Twins, when current teammate Luis Arraez broke it up with a single to right-centre.

In this one, he got CJ Abrams to hit a flyout to right field for the final out.

Cease is in his first year with the Padres after beginning his career with the White Sox, and after a rocky June, has been pitching brilliantly lately.

In his last three outings, he has not allowed a run, while surrendering just two hits and seven walks over 22 innings while piling up 30 strikeouts.

His latest gem helped San Diego to its fifth consecutive win.

The Padres (55-50) didn’t need much offence against the Nationals (47-56) to back Cease, with Ha-Seong Kim plating all three runs on a first-inning single off Patrick Corbin.

Kershaw makes season debut in Dodgers' win over Giants

Clayton Kershaw permitted two runs over four innings in his first start of the season and the Los Angeles Dodgers went on to beat the San Francisco Giants 6-4.

The game was tied 4-4 until Nick Ahmed and Shohei Ohtani homered on consecutive pitches in the eighth inning to lead the NL West-leading Dodgers (62-42) to their sixth win in seven games since the All-Star break.

Ohtani's homer was his 31st of the season and his second in the last five games. He also doubled to give him four doubles since the All-Star break.

Kershaw allowed six hits and two walks with six strikeouts, while throwing 47 of his 72 pitches for strikes in his first start since Game 1 of last October's NL Division Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The three-time NL Cy Young Award winner had shoulder surgery four weeks later.

Ohtani signed with the Dodgers a month later and this was the first game the Japanese superstar and Kershaw played together.

Heliot Ramos led the Giants (49-55) with three hits and drove in a run while Jorge Soler singled twice.

Logan Webb yielded four runs and nine hits, and now has surrendered 15 runs and 25 hits with eight walks over 16 innings in his last three starts.

Mets beat Braves in 10 innings to stay hot

Jeff McNeil drove in the winning run with a 10th-inning hit on a ball Ramón Laureano misplayed in the New York Mets' 3-2 win over the Atlanta Braves.

McNeil's hit was just the third of the game for the Mets, and possibly could've been caught had Laureano not overrun it. The ball was hit hard down into the right-field corner and Laureano raced to track it down but ran too far and couldn't catch it as he reached his glove back across his body.

Jose Iglesias scored from second base, giving New York (54-48) its fourth straight win, and 10th victory in 13 games.

The Braves (54-47), meanwhile, lost their fifth straight game, as the Mets moved within one-half game of them for the NL's top wild-card spot.

McNeil and Francisco Lindor have been leading the charge for New York.

McNeil has driven in six runs in the last four games, and is hitting .417 with four home runs and nine RBIs in seven games since the All-Star break.

Lindor homered for the fifth time in four games, and is batting .359 with 14 RBIs during a 10-game hitting streak.

Atlanta squandered another stellar outing from Chris Sale.

The eight-time All-Star yielded two runs, two hits and a walk while striking out nine over 7 1/3 innings. It marked the eighth straight start in which he allowed two runs or fewer.

San Diego Padres starter Dylan Cease threw MLB’s second complete-game no-hitter of the season, baffling the Washington Nationals during a 3-0 win on Thursday.

Cease improved to 10-8 and struck out nine in his nine sterling innings of work as the Padres won their fifth consecutive game.

The Houston Astros’ Ronel Blanco had the season’s first no-hitter on April 1 against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Despite walking three batters, Cease faced only one over the minimum, with the Nationals caught stealing in the first inning and grounding into a double play in the fourth.

Cease threw 71 of his 114 pitches for strikes as he won his third straight start.

Cease has not allowed a run in his last three outings, surrendering just two hits and seven walks over 22 innings while piling up 30 strikeouts.  

Cease is in his first year with San Diego after beginning his career with the Chicago White Sox. After a rough June, Cease’s ERA sat at 4.24 on July 2, but his recent hot streak – punctuated by Thursday’s no-hitter – brought that number down to 3.50.

In 2022, while with the White Sox, Cease had a no-hitter broken up with two outs in the ninth by current teammate Luis Arraez, who was then with the Minnesota Twins.

The Padres didn’t need much offence Thursday to back Cease, with Ha-Seong Kim plating all three runs on a first-inning single off Patrick Corbin.

San Diego (55-50) are seven games back of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West but are in the thick of a crowded NL wild-card race.

Max Verstappen has hit back at critics following his radio frustration during the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Verstappen, who has won each of the last three races at the Belgian Grand Prix, which comes up this weekend, became increasingly frustrated at the Hungaroring last week as he finished in fifth place following a coming together with Lewis Hamilton late on.

The three-time reigning Formula One world champion is set for a 10-place grid penalty at Spa this weekend after exceeding his engine allowance for the season. 

Verstappen has not won any of the last three races, and has seen his lead at the top of the Driver's Championship cut to 76 points by Lando Norris.

The Dutchman's recent frustrations boiled over in Hungary, spiralling into an X-rated rant at Red Bull engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.

But Verstappen has no regrets.

"People that don't like my language, don't listen in or change the volume down. I'm very driven for success. I've proven that already," said Verstappen.

"I always want to optimise stuff. People can argue that you might not be so vocal on the radio, but that's their opinion.

"My opinion is that it needs to be said at the time to maybe also try and force [things]. That's how it goes.

"We are very open-minded. We are very critical of each other as a team, and that's been working for us very well, so I don't expect that to change."

The last time Verstappen failed to win in four races in a row was in the 2020 season, but Red Bull are showing signs of vulnerability.

And he will face an enormous task to triumph for a 62nd time in the competition, although he is ranked as the fourth driver in F1 history with the most wins without starting from the front of the grid (29). 

Verstappen made light work of the power unit components penalty he sustained at the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix, making his way from 14th to win the race. 

Should he emerge victorious this time around, he will become only the third driver to win four in a row on Belgian soil after Ayrton Senna (1988 to 1991) and Jim Clark (1962 to 1965). 

"If you look at our last few races where we haven't particularly been the fastest, I wouldn't say that with 10 places extra, we have a chance of winning," said Verstappen.

"But a race can always be turned upside down with moments, so you have to be open-minded, try to make the best of it and that's all we will try to do.

"We also don't know how competitive we will be. There's new tarmac, so we need to see how the tyres respond to that as well.

"There's a lot of unknowns with the weather too. Quite a bit of rain is expected tomorrow and Saturday, so we need to follow the weather and our progression this weekend to see how competitive we are."

DRIVERS TO WATCH

Charles Leclerc - Ferrari

Despite being beaten in both qualifying and the main event in each of the last two races by team-mate Carlos Sainz, Leclerc will be keen to get points on the board in Belgium. 

Leclerc has not been among the podium places since his maiden triumph at Monaco in May, but the omens are in his favour with the Italian team achieving more victories (14), more pole positions (12) and more podiums (41) at Spa. 

Ferrari have enjoyed recent races in Belgium, taking pole in the last two editions, with Leclerc doing so in 2023.

Should they repeat the trick, it will be the second time they have done so after 1974 (Clay Regazzoni at Nivelles), 1975 and 1976 (Niki Lauda in both at Zolder).

Leclerc and Sainz will contest their 79th race as Ferrari team-mates, making them the seventh-highets pair with the most races with the same team in F1, surpassing the 78 of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg for Mercedes.

Lando Norris - McLaren

While a radio spat of his own at the Hungarian Grand Prix overshadowed an eighth podium place of the season, Norris will be eyeing another impressive run at Spa.

And he now has a fantastic opportunity to close the gap on Verstappen.

The Brit has taken pole position in two of the last four races, after taking just one in his previous 113 starts in F1.

Excluding Hamilton, who did it twice in 2012, Norris could be the first McLaren driver to take back-to-back pole positions since Kimi Raikkonen in 2006 (Germany and Hungary).

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

Drivers

1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) - 265
2. Lando Norris (McLaren) - 189
3. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) - 162
4. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) - 154
5. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) - 149

Constructors

1. Red Bull - 389
2. McLaren - 338
3. Ferrari - 322
4. Mercedes - 241
5. Aston Martin - 69

Quarterback Kirk Cousins was on the field for the Atlanta Falcons' first training camp practice after being cleared to participate by the team's medical staff.

Head coach Raheem Morris told reporters Thursday that Cousins, recovering from a torn right Achilles tendon sustained in October, will be under slight restrictions during camp but is still expected to handle the majority of first-team reps during team drills.

"Obviously, we'll do some sort of our own modifications [like] some of the things we did with Kirk during the spring, but he's ready to go," Morris said.

"He's fired up, the team's fired up. The limitations for him, you won't notice."

Cousins suffered the injury on Oct. 29 in what turned out to be his final game with the Minnesota Vikings. The four-time Pro Bowl selection signed a four-year, $180 million contract with the Falcons in March to address the team's most glaring need, a top-tier starting quarterback.

The soon-to-be 36-year-old is expected to open the season as Atlanta's starter despite the Falcons selecting former University of Washington star quarterback Michael Penix with the eighth overall pick of this year's draft.

Cousins did take part in some drills during the Falcons' offseason training activities in May, but was mainly limited to individual work.

"I think the precaution [in OTAs], I think was pretty much helpful for how we go about the business of keeping people away from him," Morris said. "Now there will be people to be around him, and we feel comfortable with that moving forward and doing some of those things.

"Obviously, some of these limitations will come in our individual drills, making sure we don't wear him out to the point where we want to get all the team reps with him."

Cousins was in the midst of another strong season in 2023, as he was leading the NFL in touchdown passes (18) at the time of his injury in Week 8. The 12-year veteran completed 69.5 per cent of his passes for 2,331 yards with five interceptions in eight games, though the injury prevented him from likely reaching 4,000 passing yards for a fourth straight season.

Morris is also in his first season as the Falcons' permanent head coach, though he went 4-7 as the team's interim coach in 2020 after Atlanta fired Dan Quinn during the season.

Atlanta has finished 7-10 in each of the last three seasons and has missed the playoffs in six consecutive seasons, tied with the Carolina Panthers for the longest active drought among NFC teams.