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The statistics of the last four races over the past month and a half are quite remarkable.

After the Dutch Grand Prix, Verstappen was 104 points behind McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in the championship, and 70 adrift of Lando Norris. Now, he is 40 points behind the Australian, whose lead over his team-mate has been cut to just 14 points.

Verstappen expressed his own incredulity at what he had achieved. If someone had told him after Zandvoort this would happen, he said, “I would have told him he was an idiot.

“But we found a good way with the car. It’s simple as that. Of course, we put some upgrades on the car, but we just understood our car a bit better, where we wanted it to perform better.”

A 64-point gain in four races tells its own story, but how it has come about is just as remarkable.

McLaren trounced Red Bull through the summer races in Europe – until the Italian Grand Prix in early September, when an upgraded floor and front wing finally gave Verstappen the balance he had been craving all year.

Since then, the Red Bull has been the fastest car. Until this weekend in Austin, that could have been explained away through circuit characteristics – Monza, Baku and Singapore are all short, slow corners, and require good braking and traction.

The McLaren’s strengths are not in this area – they are in long-duration, medium-speed corners, where they crush everyone else.

But Austin is a “normal” circuit, a road course not a street circuit, not a high-speed outlier like Monza, with a good range of corners. And Verstappen won again.

There are five races left, two of them sprint events. If he keeps closing on the McLaren drivers at the rate he has been, he will win a fifth consecutive title, it’s as stark and simple as that.

A flat tyre meant Mitchell Mann was docked a frame after starting his British Open match against Gao Yang late – but he rallied to win 4-3.

The 33-year-old had to abandon his car and started 10 minutes late and already 1-0 down before fighting his way into the third round.

“I was on the hard shoulder and had no spare tyre, I was completely stranded,” said the world number 91.

“Luckily my friends answered my call and they came to pick me up. One of them drove me to Cheltenham and the other waited with my car for the RAC.

“I should have driven down last night, it’s a lesson learned. I have no idea where my car is now!”

Mark Allen is through to the third round with a 4-1 win against Hungary’s Bulcsu Revesz.

The Antrim man made it two wins in as many days, following his victory over Jiang Jun on Tuesday.

Allen made an excellent start by banking the opening two frames, including a break of 60 in the second.

Revesz, who shocked Ali Carter in the same tournament last year, recovered well in the third to pull a frame back.

However, the English Open winner hit back in the fourth and sealed his passage into the third round with a 69 break in the fifth.

He will now face Wales’ Mark Williams on Thursday, while fellow Antrim man Robbie McGuigan faces Ben Mertens in his third-round match following the Belgian’s 4-0 win against England’s Reanne Evans.

Judd Trump beat Leone Crowley 4-1, Shaun Murphy beat Scott Donaldson 4-1 and defending champion Mark Selby hit a 115 break in a 4-3 win over Liu Hongyu.

A MISSING girl lay dying in her flat alone after police deemed her a “medium” risk and left, an inquest heard.

Alex Duce, 18, was reported missing by her worried mum after she struggled to get in touch with her.

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A police officer went to her flat in Tredegar, South Wales, at 11am to try to speak to the beauty student but failed to get an answer.

An inquest heard PC Michael Lammert left the home because Alex was only deemed a “medium risk” because a pal told him “she does this from time to time”.

PC Lammert said: “To me I took that as she shuts off from people and doesn’t want contact with friends and family sometimes.”

This was despite Alex’s mum telling police she had been struggling with her mental health and had self harmed five weeks earlier.

PC Lammert said: “There was no immediacy. If there was a clear message relaying she was contemplating suicide then that would definitely have been a higher risk.”

The incident at that point was not deemed serious enough to allow Gwent Police to use powers of entry as there was not enough evidence that Alex was inside the flat.

The court heard police returned at 4pm to find Alex’s loved ones outside banging on the door.

But in another tragic delay, the officers had to wait for heavy equipment needed to gain entry to the flat.

At the time, there was only one entry kit per police station that contained the apparatus needed.

PC Lauren Smith, who had gone to the home, said it was common for officers not to be able to locate the kits and admitted it was “frustrating”.

The court heard it took 30 minutes to retrieve the kit – with police finally gaining entry at around 5pm.

Alex was discovered hanged in her room still showing signs of life before being rushed to hospital, the inquest was told.

She was put on advanced life support but her machine was switched off and she died five days later on September 16, 2022.

PC Smith said she began to realise more about the case after being told Alex had self harmed and in her mind the risk became higher.

She said: “That information was never made available to me. The sense of urgency increased while I was there as I gained more information.”

The inquest continues.

If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please call the Samaritans for free on 116123.

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Location, Location, Location viewers were left baffled while watching the Channel 4 show as one property hunter struggled to find a one bedroom flat in London with a hefty budget

Location, Location, Location fans were left enraged during a recent episode of the Channel 4 property show. It came after a woman with a whopping budget struggled to find a one-bedroom flat in the capital.

Hosts Phil Spencer and Kirstie Allsopp were back to help buyers find their dream homes, as Phil headed to central London to find a flat for Chloe. The medic had a generous budget of £450,000, and told the host she wanted a one-bedroom flat with parking for her motorbike.

Junior doctor Chloe had been searching for a flat for 7 months, telling cameras it had been “a bit of an epic fail.”

Viewers saw Chloe and Phil head to areas such as Tooting, Balham, and Earlsfield to find her dream home. However, fans were distracted as they left fuming with how little property hunter Chloe could get with her hefty budget.

“£475k for a one bed house, Wtaf #locationlocationlocation,” said one enraged fan, while another penned: “Nearly half a million pounds and yet still hard to find a one bedroom flat in South London with space to park a motorbike pretty much sums up how much London is f****d.”

A third called for Chloe to move out of London, by writing: “How can you have a budget of £450k and it not get you a one bed flat with a bloody front door? Just move out of rip off London!”

However, another thought Chloe was being “too picky” with her search. “To picky in London and she only has £450,000!” they exclaimed.

Despite the struggles, Phil helped Chloe to find a flat in Earlsfield for £415,000.

The episode comes shortly after duo Phil and Kirsty 25 years of Location, Location, Location. At the end of April, Channel 4 celebrated with a whole night of programming dedicated to the show, including a special containing never-before-seen bloopers and outtakes.

The series kicked off its 43rd run on 14 May, and just before, Phil and Kirstie took a look back at the changing socio economic trends of the UK property market over the period.

Speaking on their 25 years together, Phil gushed: “Although quite surreal, it’s also been fun looking back and seeing not only how we have changed through the 25 years, but also watching how our friendship developed and then strengthened across the years.

“Being able to visit every part of the four nations and support hundreds of people in their home searches has been an enormous privilege – none of which would have been achievable without so many brilliant people behind the camera.”.

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