Tom Pidcock wanted to “stop racing” after saying that two of his team-mates were hit by a police vehicle travelling the wrong way down the course at the Tre Valli Varesine in Italy.

Pidcock finished second at the one-day race in Varese but was left “mad” after Pinarello-Q36.5 team-mates Marcel Camprubi and Thomas Gloag were knocked off their bikes with six laps of the finishing circuit to go.

Spain’s Camprubi was able to continue in the race but Pidcock’s fellow Briton Gloag stopped and required stitches on his knee.

“First of all, I wanted to stop the race, stop racing myself,” Pidcock told Eurosport after the race, which was won by Belgium’s Jarno Widar in a sprint finish.

“I was mad. I had guys all riding in front of me, for me, and then two of them are on the floor.

“This shouldn’t happen. But we continued and got back into the race and I’m happy that I could be on the podium.”

BBC Sport has contacted race organisers and local police for comment.

In August, two-time Olympic mountain bike champion Pidcock won his second cross-country world title at the Mountain Bike World Championships.

He dedicated that win to British cyclist Finlay Tarling, 19, who died on 14 August during the Volta a Portugal following a high-speed collision with a van that had strayed on to the closed road.

Camprubi posted a picture of a broken bike on Instagram Stories, with a caption that read: “Sad that you have to risk your life to race, one month after a tragic accident.”

Lewis Hamilton is urging Ferrari to improve the performance of their power unit for the 2027 Formula 1 season as the 41-year-old eyes a shot at a record eighth world championship next year.

A first Ferrari grand prix victory for Hamilton in Barcelona in June provided hope that he could launch a 2026 title challenge, but an underwhelming run after the summer break saw his deficit to Mercedes’ championship leader Kimi Antonelli grow beyond 100 points.

Hamilton ended a streak of six races without a podium by finishing third at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia on Sunday, with only a poor choice of starting tyre costing him the chance to use his impressive pace to battle Red Bull’s Max Verstappen for victory.

Following that encouraging display, he explained why he has confidence in his team going into next year.

Hamilton told Sky Sports F1: “I think fundamentally we’ve got a great car, and that’s down to an amazing group of people back at the factory, who are really intelligent and have made the right decisions.

“As I’ve said before, we have been innovators this year. We’ve had things on the car that everyone else has often followed.

“It’s just that we know we’re down on power, and that’s something that we just live with. We have to catch up for next year. We live with that deficit for the rest of this year.”

With seven rounds of the 2026 season remaining, starting with a first ever Sprint event in Singapore this weekend, Hamilton is hopeful he’ll have the pace to compete for more victories.

“But still, the car is improving, and I think we’ve got races coming up ahead that hopefully we’ll still be able to get maybe a little bit closer,” he added.

“We just keep trying. And I’m enjoying the racing still. I still feel fit, still feel focused.”

Hamilton hopeful ‘negative chatter’ goes away

The build-up to the Bahrain Grand Prix was dominated by speculation over Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur’s future, after former Red Bull chief Christian Horner had expressed an interest in the position.

Ferrari publicly backed Vasseur ahead of the event, while Hamilton criticised a “negative narrative” around the team.

Asked whether he thought a strong overall result, which saw team-mate Charles Leclerc finish a place behind him in fourth, would reduce negativity, Hamilton added: “I hope it’s not too negative chatter after Malaysia.

“We still got good points with third and fourth.”

Vasseur retained a philosophical outlook as he said it was easy reacting to a strong performance, but more important to ensure the team remain “solid” when things don’t go to plan.

“You know perfectly the weekends are much easier to manage when you are doing a strong performance,” Vasseur said.

“The most important thing is to be solid when it’s not the case. Sometimes it won’t be the case.

“It will happen to everybody. It was a tough weekend for McLaren. They came with a lot of expectations. It was difficult for them.

“But it’s also in this situation that you have to react as a team and to stay together.

“It’s always easy to deal with a good weekend.”

Formula 1 heads straight to Singapore for the last Sprint weekend of the season with track action starting this Friday, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime

Race to Dubai leader Patrick Reed says becoming the second American to be crowned European No 1 would mean “a lot” and insists he has “no excuses” as he looks to extend his advantage over Rory McIlroy after returning from a shoulder injury.

Reed will tee it up at the Open de Espana from Thursday in his first appearance since withdrawing during the second round of the flagship BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth last month.

The 36-year-old – aiming to follow in the footsteps of compatriot Collin Morikawa, who won the Race to Dubai in 2021 – is around 300 points clear of McIlroy with five DP World Tour events remaining.

McIlroy is not playing in Spain this week but is set to appear at the DP World India Championship in New Delhi from October 15.

Reed has topped the standings since February after victories at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic and Qatar Masters sandwiched a play-off defeat at the Bahrain Championship, with the 2018 Masters champion also recording three further top-10 finishes.

The Texan said: “I’ve always prided myself as being that American that likes to play around the world. To have the opportunity to come over here, not only just play on this tour, but also to have a chance to win the Race to Dubai, it would mean a lot.

“[Gary Player once told me], ‘if you want to be a worldwide player, you’ve got to go out and play outside of the PGA Tour’.

“Once I got the opportunity to come over and play, I really enjoyed it. Hopefully I can bring more Americans over and more of the top players come out and play around the world, help grow the game.”

I’ve always wanted to earn my spot rather than having a spot given. Those guys on LIV, there are pathways, whether it’s to here on the DP (World Tour) or to the PGA Tour. I feel the only way you should be able to get back is by going out there and letting the clubs do the talking.”

Reed ‘uncomfortable’ but ‘able to perform’

Reed, runner-up to Shane Lowry at the Amgen Irish Open in September, said of the injury he sustained at Wentworth: “Never saw it coming. It was my first time withdrawing during a round of golf due to injury. I would rather shoot a million than withdraw.

“When I went in, the hand was all swollen. Any time it was touched, I was in a lot of pain, so they thought I might have broken something inside the hand. The hand was OK and it ended up being a shoulder issue. The good thing is it only set me back one week.

“It might be uncomfortable but at the same time I’m able to perform and do what I’m supposed to do in swinging the golf club.

“So no excuses – go out there, continue grinding and hopefully finish off the year strong.”

Three-time Open de Espana champion Jon Rahm will not play in his home tournament with Spanish media saying the 31-year-old is in the USA awaiting the birth of his daughter.

England’s Marco Penge is the defending champion in Madrid, while the field also includes Lowry, Justin Rose, Ludvig Åberg and Sergio Garcia, as well as Eugenio Chacarra, who sits third in the Race to Dubai standings behind Reed and McIlroy.

Reed, who quit LIV Golf earlier this year in order to pursue a return to the PGA Tour from 2027, has not played in the Ryder Cup since the 2018 edition in France, at which he criticised captain Jim Furyk’s decisions as America tumbled to a heavy defeat to Europe.

Furyk is back as US skipper for the 2027 tournament in Ireland and asked at a year-to-go press conference on Tuesday whether Reed was in his plans, he said: “We are going to put the best 12 guys, the best team of 12. If Patrick Reed is one of those, that’s great.”

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