WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2016 SPORTS Maldonado hoping for 2017 return to F1, says manager LONDON: Venezuelan driver Pastor the split was amicable. oil prices and economic crisis in The team are due to hold a news con- than a 30-year-old race winner like Maldonado has not given up on Formula Maldonado announced on Monday, Venezuela, which is in recession and ference in Paris on Wednesday to Maldonado. One and hopes to be back next year in a statement posted on Twitter, that he where annual inflation has risen to announce their line-up, managerial Manor, who need their drivers to after being dropped by the Renault- would not be on the starting grid when almost 150 percent. structure and future plans. bring substantial sponsorship to make owned Lotus team, his manager Nicolas the season starts in Australia on March “I don’t want to go into the details of Manor, Formula One’s smallest team up the team budget, have been linked to Todt said yesterday. 20. The only Venezuelan to win a grand the contract,” said Todt “The agreement who competed as Marussia last year and Indonesian rookie Rio Haryanto who is “I don’t see any concrete opportunity prix, with Williams in 2012, the driver did was terminated in a friendly manner finished last overall with no points, are trying to raise $16 million to secure the for Formula One this year,” the not say what he planned to do or give with Renault so no hard feelings. They the only ones yet to contract any drivers seat. Mercedes’s German reserve driver Frenchman told Reuters. “We will try to any reason for his absence. behaved very fairly.” for 2016 but Todt ruled out Maldonado Pascal Wehrlein is another leading candi- bounce back in 2017.” Media reports indicated, however, Denmark’s Kevin Magnussen is set to going there. date now that the champions are pro- The Frenchman, son of International that his backers, the Venezuelan state oil replace Maldonado, with the team The Frenchman, who was also man- viding Manor with engines. Automobile Federation (FIA) president company PDVSA that has paid tens of expected to be renamed as Renault fol- ager to the late Marussia driver Jules “Manor are not really an option,” said and former Ferrari team principal Jean millions of dollars in sponsorship, had lowing the French carmaker’s takeover Bianchi and represents Brazilian Felipe Todt. “After five years at Williams and Todt, said the decision to replace missed scheduled payments to the of the Lotus team in December, along- Massa at Williams, said Manor were a Lotus...with all due respect to Manor, it Maldonado had come late in the day but team. PDVSA has been hit by plunging side British rookie Jolyon Palmer. better fit for a young driver starting out makes no sense for Pastor.” — Reuters McIlroy inspired by ‘unreal’ Djokovic DUBAI: Four-time Major winner Rory and that’s a gold medal.” McIlroy can’t beat Novak Djokovic at his own game but he can share Olympic gold FOND MEMORIES medal victory honours with the Serbian ace McIlroy spent yeserday on the Emirates later this year in Rio de Janiero. Club practice range and putting green but This would be McIlroy’s Brazil dream without taking to the course ahead of when golf returns to the Summer Olympics Thursday’s defence of his Dubai Desert in August. McIlroy was firstly in awe watch- Classic title. ing TV coverage last week of Djokovic’s He spent last week at the nearby Els clinical four sets Australian Open semi-final Club working on his game following a third defeat of Roger Federer and he gleaned place finish in the Abu Dhabi HSBC further inspiration from the Serbian’s three- Championship before posting a 71 last set demolition of Andy Murray to win an Sunday to finish T4th in the Abu Dhabi 11th Grand Slam title. Invitational. It was the 28-year old Djokovic’s sixth “The time I spent this past week at the Australian Open title and his fifth in the Els Club was good but then I also took a past six years as he closes in on Federer’s few days off to chill a little bit, as the weath- all-time best of 17 Grand Slam titles. er wasn’t great but overall my game feels McIlroy still has some catching-up to do good,” he said. having won four Majors, but he is looking “But after contesting the Abu Dhabi forward to completing his own golfing HSBC Championship I did need to work on career Grand Slam in April’s Masters at certain aspects of my game and I’ve man- Augusta National. aged to get them sorted out. McIlroy said he had been introduced to McIlroy will tee-up Thursday with very Djokovic when dating former fiancÈe fond memories of the Emirates Course hav- Caroline Wozniacki. ing first contested the event in 2006 as an “I know Novak well and living in amateur and then, after completing his first Monaco, as he does, I got to know him round, being handed a long-lens camera when I found myself also spending a bit of by one of the accredited photographers to SAN DIEGO: Brandt Snedeker holds the Farmers Insurance Open trophy and a ceremonial surfboard after the final round of the Farmers time there,” said McIlroy. “But then his per- walk inside the ropes following then world Insurance Open golf tournament Monday, in San Diego. Snedeker finished his final round Sunday before it was suspended because of formance in the Australian Open was unre- number one Tiger Woods, who competed inclement weather and did not have to play Monday. — AP al, unreal. in the afternoon. “For the first two sets in the semi against McIlroy captured a maiden pro career Federer, I’ve never seen tennis like it and it title winning the 2009 Dubai Desert Classic was just incredible. “Novak is just on anoth- and sealed success again a year ago. Worth wait as Snedeker er level at the moment and from where he “I have so many fond memories as I basi- was when he won his first ‘Slam’ in 2008 to cally commenced my career here, I got my where he is now, is just amazing. first pro victory here and now I’m back this “So I find watching the tennis he played year as the defending champion, so a lot of lifts Torrey Pines trophy in Australia very inspirational given the good stuff has happened to me here,” he dedication he’s shown to his game along said. “The good thing also is I have won out with his work ethic. at Jumeirah Resort twice before in the DP LOS ANGELES: American Brandt Snedeker won surreal atmosphere as players picked their way “Everything worked out perfectly for me. You “And it would be nice in going to Rio for World Tour championship and it would be the weather-hit Farmers Insurance Open without between gum trees felled by the winds, and cannot make up the extreme events that had to the Olympic Games to hopefully come nice this week to win back-to-back out here hitting a shot on Monday as his closest pursuers competed in funereal silence due to the absence happen for me to have this chance. They all fell away what he more than likely should earn, in Dubai.” —AFP succumbed to brutal conditions in southern of spectators who were barred from the course in line for me perfectly. I hate watching this stuff California. due to the dangerous conditions. because I am in no control. Snedeker carded a brilliant three-under-par Nobody could match the score posted by “I would not have guessed it this morning Japan Tour keen to spread 69 on Sunday, completing his round shortly Snedeker who finished at six-under 282 for his when I woke up. I would have thought best-case before play was halted due to unplayable condi- eighth career victory on the PGA Tour. He fin- scenario was a playoff.” wings without structural change tions at Torrey Pines outside San Diego. ished one stroke ahead of South Korean KJ Choi Snedeker’s victory came after he made the He was one stroke behind on-course leader who missed a long birdie putt at the last that cut with nothing to spare on Friday, the first time SINGAPORE: The Japan Golf Tour PGA Tour of China in 2014. Jimmy Walker at the time and thought it most would have forced a playoff. a player has gone on to win from such a position Organisation (JGTO) are keen to increase unlikely his score would hold up for victory. But Walker tied for fourth, three shots back. After since 2010. their involvement in co-sanctioned events FIRST MAJOR Snedeker caught a lucky break when the winds a nervy, sleepless night, Snedeker passed time Half of his PGA Tour victories have come in abroad but remain opposed to any radical “As you know, the domestic Japan tour- that buffeted the field on Sunday continued to on the practice putting green in case he was California, two at Torrey Pines and two at Pebble changes to Asia’s organisational structure, a naments start in April. During the winter, its whip across the course on Monday, causing hav- needed for a playoff, watching bits of the action Beach, and he has now won seven times since senior director told Reuters. too cold to have a tournament in Japan. It oc among those who had to complete the on a television monitor.