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Damon Hill hails 'best of all time' Lewis Hamilton

Former Formula One driver Damon Hill has described Lewis Hamilton as "a great champion" and "the best of all time" following the Mercedes driver's record-equalling seventh World Championship.

Latest stories

  • Tensions rise on Canary Islands as thousands of migrants seek new route into EU

    Peering down from their balconies at the luxury Waikiki hotel, more than a thousand migrants gaze out towards the sea that carried them on their desperate journey fleeing Africa. Their rickety fishing boats lie piled up on docksides waiting to be scrapped. Smashed hulls still bob in the water, a reminder of the eight lives claimed this week off Lanzarote as hundreds more migrants reached Spain’s Canary Islands. The survivors’ safety in hotel accommodation amid the sprawling resorts of southern Gran Canaria is testament to local islanders’ proud benevolence. But generosity is running thin as tempers fray amid a growing crisis that has split Canarian leaders from their mainland colleagues, and reopened old wounds in Europe's hopeless attempt to control migration. The Canary Islands has seen arrivals increase tenfold in a year to around 20,000 by late November. Plans are now afoot to build one of Europe's largest migrant camps, housing 7,000 across three islands. Around 6,000 are currently living in 15 hotel complexes after a deal was struck between hoteliers and the Spanish government.

  • Royal Stoke hospital declares ‘major incident’ after 38 Covid patients on ventilators

    Hospital has 322 coronavirus patients and seven ventilators left

  • Trump news – President complains about daytime TV amid claims he will hold spoiler event during inauguration

    All the latest from the White House and beyond

  • No-deal Brexit is 'underpriced', No 10 warns

    Britain could be just seven days away from leaving the European Union without a trade deal, Downing Street warned on Saturday night. In a candid assessment issued "at the start of what may be the final week of trade negotiations", Number 10 warned that a "significant gap" still exists on fisheries, adding: "No deal is arguably underpriced." The comments mark a toughening of the UK's position on the talks which have dragged on for months and have seen various deadlines missed.

  • Coronation Street's Leanne vows to leave the cobbles after Oliver's death

    Will she really leave the country?

  • Swedish government sidelines epidemiologist who steered country's no lockdown experiment as deaths rise

    The high-profile epidemiologist who led Sweden's no lock-down strategy in the spring appears to be being sidelined by the government after his prediction that greater immunity would mean a lighter second wave proved badly wrong. Anders Tegnell's biweekly press conference was on Thursday pushed into the shade by an overlapping press conference fronted by Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, where new scenarios prepared by the Public Health Agency were announced. "There's certainly a split, and I'm pretty sure that many in the government have rather lost faith in the Public Health Agency," said Nicholas Aylott, an associate politics professor at Stockholm's Södertorn University. "By some counts, we've now got exactly the same level of spread of the virus that we had in the spring, and that's about as clear a refutation of Tegnell's strategy as you could wish for." Dr Tegnell has always insisted that his Public Health Agency has never pursued a herd immunity strategy, but he repeatedly suggested in the summer that his counterparts in Norway, Finland and Denmark would face a tougher task over the winter because of lower levels of immunity in their populations. This month, though, the number of deaths in Sweden has again begun to soar above that of its Nordic neighbours, with 630 deaths so far registered as a result of Covid-19. That is about ten times the per capita death rate in Norway -- where just 30 Covid-19 deaths were registered between October 28th and November 25th.

  • Oxford controversy is the first shot in international battle over vaccine efficiency

    Oxford controversy is the first shot in international battle over vaccine efficiency. Trials will not reveal all the facts on prevention for each new drug – that process could last for years

  • Former security officials warn Donald Trump won’t keep state secrets

    Former security official said it was ‘easy to imagine’ that Trump would be refused further intelligence

  • Scottish fishermen take aim at 'bullying' EU over Brexit talks

    The European Union is behaving "like the bully who steals your lunch every day and expects the UK to be grateful for a few crumbs he hands back" over the Brexit talks, the leader of Scotland's fishermen has said. Elspeth MacDonald, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen Association, said the EU had to "wake up and smell the fish" after its negotiators offered to give the UK fish "of which we now the legal owner". The fishermen spoke out as Michel Barnier, the EU's chief negotiator, started fresh talks about a Brexit trade deal in London with his UK counterpart Lord Frost. That came after well-sourced reports in Brussels that Mr Barnier told member states the EU had offered to return between 15 per cent and 18 per cent of fish stocks caught by EU fleets in British waters. The tortured talks about a EU/UK Brexit trade deal are set to come to a conclusion within the next week with either a trade deal or both sides walking away. Writing for The Telegraph, Ms MacDonald attacked the EU's stance and its "paltry" offer on fisheries to the UK. She said : "Let's cut to the chase. The EU is playing a dangerous game over fishing and it is them who would get hurt most." "If trade is in balance, access to waters is not. They rely on fishing in our rich waters much more than we do in theirs. When it comes to access, there is a gross imbalance on how the fish are shared. "The threat of making the UK pay a ransom for merely acting in a way that the EU itself acts in its relations with other countries or Coastal States is the wrong way round. "They say that if we don't give them what they want, the lion’s share of the quotas in our waters and unlimited access to catch it, then we can forget about selling them our fish. No. They are at it. And they’ve got it wrong."

  • Coronavirus: New list reveals who will get vaccine first

    Care home residents and staff are top of the list – although plans could be upended by storage logistics

  • Migrant crossings into UK from France to be curbed as Priti Patel annouces new Channel clampdown

    The number of police officers patrolling French beaches will double from December 1

  • COVID-19: Boris Johnson tells Tory MPs tiered restrictions 'have a sunset of 3 February'

    Boris Johnson has said the new coronavirus tiers have "a sunset" clause - or expiry date - of 3 February, as he tries to fight off a backlash from Tory MPs. The prime minister has angered some of his party with a plan to impose stringent restrictions across much of England when the national lockdown ends on Wednesday. In a letter to colleagues ahead of a Commons vote on the restrictions on Tuesday, Mr Johnson insisted the tiered measures for local areas will be reviewed every fortnight.

  • Trump supporter who gave $2.5m to fight election fraud wants money back

    Trump supporter who gave $2.5m to fight election fraud wants money back. Businessman Fredric Eshelman sues pro-Trump ‘election ethics’ group citing ‘disappointing results’ of effort to expose cheating

  • French police facing 'worst moral crisis in their history' after string of scandals and controversial ID law

    French police are going through the “worst moral crisis in modern history”, according to one of the country’s leading law enforcement experts, following a string of violent incidents in which officers have been accused of misconduct, brutality and racism. Decades of refusal by successive French governments to introduce UK-style independent oversight and systemic reform have brought its police to a perilous breaking point with swathes of an already sceptical population, according to eminent criminologist Sebastien Roché at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CRNS. The French have long felt ambivalent about their force, which has come a long way since the dark days of 1961 in which officers under the command of police chief Maurice Papon, later convicted of crimes against humanity, massacred an estimated 200 Algerian protesters. “You’ll be covered,” he notoriously told his men. Hailed as heroes in the wake of terror attacks, they have been equally vilified as heavy-handed and trigger-happy in recent mass demonstrations, notably during the “yellow vests” revolt where intensive use of stun grenades and rubber bullets maimed dozens. However, in the past two weeks, the image of the French force has taken a battering of rare intensity, bringing to the fore long-held accusations of discrimination towards minorities, violence and a sense of impunity.

  • Friendly whale shark floats over to fishermen

    This is the astonishing moment a friendly whale shark swam over to fishermen in Thailand.

  • Hollyoaks spoiler pictures show Diane turn against Edward

    Has Edward been caught out?From Digital Spy

  • How to prevent catalytic converter theft from cars

    An increase in catalytic converters thefts has particularly affected hybrid cars such as the Prius. Here's how to stop your cat being stolen. The post How to prevent catalytic converter theft from cars appeared first on Motoring Research.

  • Mike Tyson v Roy Jones Jr LIVE stream: What TV channel, UK price and how to watch online tonight

    Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr will look to relive former glories when they get back into the ring in an exhibition bout tonight. Former world heavyweight champion Iron Mike, 54, who has not boxed professionally for 15 years, has shed an impressive six stones for a scheduled eight-round contest on Thanksgiving Day at the Staples Center. Jones Jr's comeback has raised fewer eyebrows.

  • Earl Spencer sourced Martin Bashir’s fake bank statements, BBC report claimed

    An internal BBC report on the Panorama scandal, written by former director general Tony Hall, claimed that Earl Spencer was the source of Martin Bashir’s fake bank statements, rather than the target, it has emerged. Bashir is accused of falsifying documents into order to persuade Lord Spencer to introduce him to his sister, Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1995. He has been accused of preying on both siblings’ insecurities by creating statements that suggested trusted confidantes were in the pay of the security services. However, a documentary to be broadcast on Channel 4 on Monday night highlights the fact that Lord Hall, then the BBC’s head of news, told the board of governors, after conducting an internal inquiry into the allegations, that Lord Spencer had fed Bashir with information, giving the reporter a bank statement to copy. The report, released under Freedom of Information laws, said that while Bashir was in discussions with Lord Spencer, “Martin took information he had got from the highest level and made them into a graphic using the bank statement Spencer had given him.” The report was accepted at a BBC board of governors meeting in April 1996, which concluded Bashir was “an honest man” who had been “foolish.” The Diana Interview: The Truth Behind the Scandal, also raises fresh questions about a letter apparently written by the Princess to the BBC, exonerating Bashir of anything untoward.

  • Boris Johnson’s unpleasant similarities with Trump are chilling

    Reading the new book by prominent Republican Stuart Stevens’, it’s apparent how the Conservative Party has been pulled in a similar direction to the GOP