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- Valtteri Bottas won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday (April 28) to retake the Formula One world championship lead from team mate Lewis Hamilton after a stunning fourth successive one-two finish for Mercedes.
- The Finn, who started on pole position, crossed the line 1.524 seconds ahead of Hamilton to make up for the agony of 2018 when he was denied victory in Baku by a late puncture.
- The pair are now separated by just one point with 17 races remaining, with Mercedes 70 points ahead of Ferrari in the constructors' standings.
- Sebastian Vettel in his Ferrari was a distant third as the Italian pre-season favourites again failed to convert their promise into a result.
- The win around the streets of capital Baku was the fifth of Bottas' career and he became the first driver this season to win from pole.
- Like Hamilton, he now has two wins and two second places from the first four races but is ahead thanks to the extra point he scored for setting the fastest lap on his way to victory in the Australian season opener.
- Mercedes are the first two-car team in Formula One's 70-year history to open a season with four straight one-twos.
- Max Verstappen was fourth for Red Bull ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
- The Monegasque, the pole-position favourite who started eighth after crashing in qualifying, led the race at one point after staying out longer than rivals on softer tyres.
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- Stephanie Frappart became the first woman to referee a French Ligue 1 match on Sunday (April 28).
- The 35-year-old Frappart took charge as Amiens hosted Strasbourg, where she was called into action numerous times, handing out yellow cards to the likes of Strasbourg's Ibrahima Sissoko and Ludovic Ajorque.
- Frappart is not the first woman to officiate a top-flight men's game in Europe's top leagues.
- Germany's Bibiana Steinhaus became the first woman to officiate a Bundesliga match in 2017 when Hertha Berlin drew 1-1 with Werder Bremen.
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- World number three Petra Kvitova beat Estonian Anett Kontaveit 6-3 7-6(2) to win Stuttgart's Porsche Grand Prix on Sunday (April 28) for her second title of the year as she prepares for next month's French Open.
- Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion, broke her opponent to go 4-2 up in the first set and served out the set a little later on the quick indoor clay courts in Stuttgart.
- The Czech had to work much harder in the second set as she had to save two set points at 5-4 as Kontaveit had her pinned to the baseline.
- However, the Estonian, who received a walkover into the final after top seed Naomi Osaka pulled out from their last four clash due to injury,missed her chances and allowed Kvitova to come back.
- Kvitova raced to a 6-0 lead in the tiebreak before sealing victory two points later.
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- Lebanon's capital Beirut has set a new Guinness World Record for the number of national flags raised in a city for 24 hours.
- The Beirut Alive Association in the national capital on 28th April raised a total of 26,852 Lebanese flags breaking New York's Waterloo record of 25,599 flags, Xinhua reported.
- The event was organised under the patronage of Prime Minister Saad Hariri, represented by MP Rola Tabsh, at the Nejmeh Square in downtown Beirut, in the presence of Economic and Social Council Member Mohammed Al-Jouzou and independent witnesses from "Al-Ittihad Law firms" and various prominent figures.
- After raising the flag that broke the world record, MP Tabsh congratulated the Beirut Alive Association for this remarkable individual and national initiative by excellence, adorning Beirut with thousands of Lebanese flags and entering the Book of Guinness.
- "Today they were capable of raising thousands of Lebanese flags to enter the Guinness book.
- This is a national initiative which reflects Beirut's role and which implicates no flag other than the Lebanese will be raised in Beirut," Tabsh said.
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