Weekend news roundup 24/07: Records broken in sports and cinema

Jonathan Victoria • 24 Jul 2023 News

A very sports-focused roundup today.

Red Bull breaks 35-year-old record

Red Bull won once again at the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend, even with a surprise pole position from Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton did what Hamilton does best, pulling out a magical lap at the end of qualifying on Saturday to put his car in first for the race.

However, Verstappen got the better of him heading into turn one at the race start, and once he got the place, the Flying Dutchman never let it go, comfortably winning the race by 33 seconds.

The win has now seen Red Bull break McLaren’s record of 11 consecutive wins that the British team set back in 1988. 

Their 12th win in a row now means Red Bull keeps on track to win every race this season, beating more records such as Mercedes’ record for most wins in a season (19), and Max’s own record for most wins in a season (15), as he currently has nine.

Australia retains The Ashes

Australia has retained The Ashes with a lot of help from poor weather conditions meaning limited play on Saturday and no play on Sunday.

After England put in one of the greatest performances in the series’ history in the first innings, all they needed was the rain to let up for some time so they could finish off the Aussies.

But it was not to be despite some play on Saturday, as not a single ball was bowled on Sunday, meaning the match ended as a draw, and as such, Australia will be taking the urn back home with them.

There is still one Test to be played, one that England should look to win to show that if it weren’t for the tragically bad British summer weather playing against them, they would’ve been coming away as the winners.

Harman rains victorious at The Open

Just 30 miles to the west of where The Ashes were being held, over at Royal Liverpool Golf Club, America’s Brian Harman was able to excel throughout the tough conditions to win the 151s Open Championship.

While others were struggling with the adverse conditions from Friday to Sunday, Harman shot under par in all four rounds of the weekend, including an incredibly impressive six under in the second round on Friday when the wind was the element throwing others off the most.

He finished the weekend 13 under to win by six, beating out the likes of Jason Day and Jon Rahm who finished joint-second on seven under, and tournament favourite Rory McIlroy, who finished joint-sixth with Emiliano Grillo with a score of six under.

This is without a doubt a weekend Harman will never forget, not just for winning his first major title, but in the way he did so and in the conditions he did it in.

Barbenheimer soaring at the box office

It’s not all sports today, though, as we end with the news that Barbie and Oppenheimer have performed incredibly well at the box office, combined with the latest Mission: Impossible offering to make the weekend the fourth-biggest of all time in the US box office.

Barbie took the top spot with $155m (£120m), with Oppenheimer reaching $80.5m (£62.5m). This marked the first time that one movie opened to $100m or more and one to $50m in one weekend.

More impressively, Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig, also broke the opening weekend record for a female director which was previously held by Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman in 2017, which had a $103.3m (£80.3m) domestic opening.

Having mentioned it at the start, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One did have a strong second weekend despite the double release, bringing in another $55m (£42.7m) from international markets to bring the film's foreign total up to $252.1m (£195.8m).