Charles

Authorities spared no effort in preparation for the Atlantic storm after criticism following January’s Storm Kristin.

More than 300 flights in and out of Portugal have been cancelled, while businesses and all schools nationwide shut down before Storm Charles hit the country’s mainland, but the heavy rainfall and intense winds passed without causing severe damage.

Operations shut down on Wednesday across four different international airports, as well as hundreds of supermarkets and all non-essential public services across the country.

For the first time in living memory, about 8,000 of Portugal’s schools cancelled classes over the significant Atlantic storm forecast.

Streets were largely deserted when Storm Charles arrived, because the government had told people to stay at home, fearing the worst.

The national weather agency, IPMA, recorded wind gusts of more than 120km/h (75mph) in some areas.

Buses without passengers drove through the country’s capital, Lisbon, where some streets flooded due to clogged drains.

A national supermarket chain closed its stores, while the Web Summit technology conference in Lisbon, attended by about 70,000 people, called off the day’s events.

Government response

By mid-afternoon, only the southern Algarve region, a popular European tourist destination, remained on red alert, the highest level of emergency warning, which initially had covered more than half of the country.

Storm Charles had struck the Portuguese island of Madeira, off northwest Africa, on Tuesday with 130km/h (81mph) winds.

In January, the country’s centre-right government faced harsh criticism for its weak response when Storm Kristin hit central Portugal, felling thousands of trees and causing widespread property damage that is still being repaired.

In February, a 70-year-old man died in the southern region of Alentejo after flooding swept his vehicle off a street in the aftermath of Storm Leonardo.

Prime Minister Luis Montenegro chaired a crisis unit along with eight government ministers and other officials to monitor the storm.

Interior Minister Luis Neves, who oversees public safety, dismissed suggestions that authorities had overreacted, saying the government organised its response in accordance with the weather forecast.

Storm Charles was forecast to head later into Spain, where workers staged a general strike Wednesday. Strike organisers cancelled or postponed demonstrations in some southern cities, including Cordoba, Huelva and Cadiz.

Lewis Hamilton says Ferrari “have to have some serious talks behind closed doors” after fighting between their two drivers cost them victory in the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Leclerc cut a chicane on the first lap to take the lead from Hamilton, who then lost second place to Max Verstappen as a consequence of his team-mate’s attack.

Verstappen went on to win the race with Hamilton second as Kimi Antonelli finished third to become the youngest world champion in Formula 1 history.

“Ultimately, that lost us the win today,” said Hamilton. “We have to have some serious talks behind closed doors.”

During a red-flag period in the race caused by a crash for Valtteri Bottas’ Cadillac, Hamilton had said over team radio: “We’ve got big problems. Big, big problems.”

When informed Hamilton was unhappy, Leclerc said: “I will speak with Lewis. We both didn’t make the corner. I don’t know if Lewis’ point was for me to get P3 but having the Red Bull second I felt it was worth it to keep the position and see what happened. That’s what I did.

“I could be also unhappy with how much he pushed me off track out of Turn One, but it is racing. When you are fighting for a win it is the way it should be.”

Hamilton’s point is that if the Ferraris had worked together on the first lap, they would have been running one-two and could have controlled the race from there and likely finished in those positions.

The incident was the latest and arguably most serious of a series of tensions between Hamilton and Leclerc this season.

It follows Leclerc pushing Hamilton off track at the first corner of the Italian Grand Prix.

The race before that, Leclerc ignored a team order to let Hamilton by when they were on different strategies.

In Singapore last month, there was another incident when Hamilton felt he should have been let by when they were on different tyres, but Ferrari refused to make the call.

More to follow.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc headed McLaren’s Lando Norris in Friday practice at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli, who is poised to clinch his first world title on Sunday, was fourth fastest behind team-mate George Russell.

Only a victory by Russell or Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton can theoretically stop Antonelli becoming champion on Sunday. Even then, Antonelli only needs ninth place if Russell wins and 10th if Hamilton does.

Leclerc, who topped both sessions on Friday, was 0.103 seconds quicker than Norris, with Russell just 0.003secs further adrift.

Antonelli was 0.217secs off the pace, and ahead of the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar.

Leclerc’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton was 11th overall after stopping on track with a technical problem before completing his qualifying simulation runs on the soft tyre.

Behind Hadjar, Racing Bulls duo Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson sandwiched Pierre Gasly’s Alpine, while McLaren’s Oscar Piastri completed the top 10.

Verstappen and Lawson face a trip to the stewards after a collision in the stadium early in the session.

“I don’t think it’s called unlucky,” said Verstappen. “Maybe not very smart behaviour what he was trying to do there.

“At the end of the day it is not going to change my weekend, but if I were him I would act a little smarter and when you’re fighting for your seat it’s not very smart behaviour.”

Lawson is one of three drivers competing for two seats at Racing Bulls, Red Bull’s junior team, next year, alongside current team-mate Arvid Lindblad and Bulgarian Formula 2 front-runner Nikola Tsolov.

Verstappen added: “When he saw me coming, he suddenly started to accelerate. I don’t know what was going through his head, that he wanted to drive me off the track in the hairpin.

“That’s not very sensible behavior from someone in his position, to pick a fight with me.”

The first session was marked by 10 of the 11 teams running ‘rookie’ drivers in their cars.

One of them was Cadillac’s Colton Herta, who the team are considering promoting to a race seat in place of Valtteri Bottas next season.

Initially, the team felt his running in Mexico had given him enough points under the F1 system to earn a ‘superlicence’, which is required to race in F1.

But further investigation by governing body the FIA revealed the American nine-time Indycar race winner is still one point short and will have to complete one further practice session this year to secure his licence.

The team plan to do that before the end of the season.

Protecting this region from climate change is a theme of the King’s trip and was the focus of his visit to the Bonefish Pond National Park. The site was once a rubbish dump but has been redeveloped and now protects 1,235 acres of mangroves.

The King walked along a new boardwalk through the wetlands to see the conservation work being done to protect this vulnerable, low lying island from climate change.

He met students carrying out field work in the wetland waters asking them about their exams and ambitions to be marine biologists.

“We’ve so been looking forward to this,” said Joanne Smith, president of the Bahamas National Trust Council.

“We want more Bahamians to get involved in our national parks so they can use it to better themselves… we are so pleased to have the King here, this is really significant for us.”

Then it was on to the Junkanoo, where the King could be seen dancing alongside attendees dressed in feathered headdresses and bright costumes.

The history of the Junkanoo is not clear but it’s believed it emerged out of the slave trade when enslaved men and women were given time off to mark Christmas.

A small protest near the parade, which had activists holding placards with the words “Pay us what you owe us”, was moved on by the police.

The small group of protesters were from the Bahamas National Reparations Committee.

The King acknowledged the “great suffering of the past” when he first arrived in the Bahamas, as he faced calls for slavery reparations.

Noelle Nicholls, chair of the reparations committee, said :”We are demanding an apology for those crimes, and reparations for the harm that was done.”

Nicholls said the protesters’ presence “amidst the pomp and pageantry of the celebrations… are for us also a sombre occasion, because this is the King returning in a way that has still not atoned for the sins of the past.”

The King has confirmed that Commonwealth leaders will discuss the legacy of slavery at a major summit in Antigua next week.

Ferrari have an upgrade on their car this weekend, focused on a new floor, but Leclerc was downplaying expectations.

“It felt good but it is not the gain I have seen or heard about,” Leclerc said. “It is small gains but we could still see them on the car. It is a small step forward and we started the weekend on the right foot with a good balance and that is the outstanding thing with this Friday.

“It has been a very clean Friday for me, but the others seem to be gaining more than us from Friday to Saturday and seeing the little gap there is, it is not going to be so easy tomorrow.”

Leclerc picked up on Verstappen’s complaints about the track surface on Thursday by saying: “It was very poor. The first sector is particularly poor and very bumpy.”

McLaren’s Lando Norris was seventh fastest, although the world champion did not set a time on his qualifying simulation run on soft tyres after making a mistake at Turn 16.

Norris was the fastest on the long runs, at about 0.2secs on average faster than Verstappen, but cannot be compared as he was running the hard tyre.

McLaren have introduced the first of three consecutive planned upgrades this weekend, but he was not happy with his performance.

“Difficult,” Norris said. “The pace is not bad. We seem a step away from Red Bull and Ferrari, probably Mercedes as well, but the car is very difficult to drive, too difficult to be consistent and get a nice feeling consistently.

“To get the car be quick we just have to try so hard to be perfect and you can’t be perfect. I am sure everyone has similar problems in a way but we are just not quick enough yet to be there consistently enough.”

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was eighth quickest, ahead of Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar and Haas driver Oliver Bearman.