Listen to Sean Parker and Pierre Arries preview the Australian GP here.

The second Australian Grand Prix in four years will take place at Albert Park this weekend and interestingly it's a track where double world champion Max Verstappen has failed to register a victory. 

The track

The street circuit is made up of public roads and set next to a lake and also features a section through Lakeside Stadium's parking lot. The 5.278 km-long track was resurfaced ahead of the 2022 race, in which Ferrari's Charles Leclerc won ahead of Sergio Perez and George Russell. 

The track is searingly quick with an average speed of over 235km/h achieved by Lewis Hamilton in his 2019 pole lap. It has 14 corners with an unprecedented four DRS zones, and it has traditionally been a place where drivers have found it difficult to overtake. The new regulations introduced in 2022 have tried to make cars follow one another more closely, although what has happened in the past is a long DRS train made up of several cars. 

The first two DRS zones are located close to each other, the first one down the main straight from the final Turn 14 to Turn 1. A right-hand turn flings the cars into Turn 2 and the second DRS zone is found until the end of Turn 3. It will be interesting to see what effect the four DRS zones will have on the race on April 2.

Red Bull and Aston Martin are the in-form teams

With only two races to judge teams and drivers on, it's clear Red Bull and Aston Martin have made the biggest impression. Mike Krack, Aston Martin's Team Principal, told the F1 Nation podcast that the Silverstone-based team has more in its tank. That's an ominous warning to Mercedes and Ferrari. Mercedes introduced a few changes to the W14 in Saudi Arabia but were unable to topple Fernando Alonso off the final step of the podium. 

Alonso and teammate Lance Stroll seem very comfortable in the AMR23 and that builds confidence in terms of getting the most out of the car. They will look to Sunday's race as another chance to upset the establishment. 

Speaking of the establishment, there was a clear indication in Jeddah that Ferrari had turned down the wick on the SF-23. They had issues in Bahrain and finished sixth and seventh in Saudi Arabia. Team Principal Fred Vasseur will need to make a tough decision this weekend and decide if power is more important than reliability. 

Mercedes showed an improvement in pace in Jeddah, but the forward momentum is still not where the team expects itself to be. The silver lining is that the W14 hasn't had any reliability issues. 

We'll be keeping an eye on the Alpine duo of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon as well as Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg of Haas. We expect to see those drivers fighting amongst the top 10 and don't forget a Safety Car in Melbourne is more than likely.

Perez, Verstappen, Alonso

Fastest lap: Perez

Pole position: Perez

First to retire: Oscar Piastri

Most Team Points: Red Bull

Both Cars Qualify for Q3 Shootout: Mercedes

Free Practice 1/2/3 Winning Car: Perez/ Red Bull

Safety Car: Yes

Top 6: Gasly, Ocon

Top 10: Hulkenberg, Albon, Magnussen

The PGA TOUR has already provided plenty of drama this season but we haven't even reached the first major of the year.

It's likely a product of the new designated events as we're seeing so many more events with all the top names in attendance.

This week's Valero Texas Open won't be one of those designated events but it certainly has some fantasy-friendly names that are trying to tune up their game ahead of the Masters or play there way into the event with a win this week.

TPC San Antonio is the host course this week. It's a Greg Norman design that has played that role since the 2010 edition.

Looking at the scorecard, we see a par 72 that stretches to 7,438 yards.

Diving into the hole-by-hole view, we see four par 5s with three of them playing over 590 yards. Three of them have a birdie rate of 30 percent or less which is well below the TOUR rate for par 5s which is closer to 45 percent. So, TPC San Antonio has no easy buckets, despite it being a par-72 layout with four par 5s.

Keeping the ball in play is of utmost importance because there is rocky terrain if you miss too far offline, which can lead to some big numbers if you don't play it safe.

The deep greenside bunkers put an emphasis on short game.

The greens are bermudagrass that were overseeded with poa trivialis. The Director of Course Operations did note that some warmer weather in the last few months has allowed for some of that bermudagrass to wake up early. That puts it in a grey area for all of the stat nerds trying to plug in performance on a particular grass type.

Lastly, we are in Texas so Mother Nature is always one of the key defences for the course. We'll check on that in a bit.

Host Carl Lewis and  cricket writer Daniel Gallan discuss the biggest talking points in South African and world cricket.

The road to title contention goes through Texas as top-five bantamweights Marlon Vera and Cory Sandhagen battle it out in what promises to be an action-packed main event showdown at UFC San Antonio on Saturday night (Sunday morning SA time).

Every week football writer Zach Lowy has some of the globe's best journalists on his podcast to discuss European football's biggest talking points.

Carl Lewis and rugby punter Neal Hoogwerf preview and have the best bets for Super Rugby Pacific, Gallagher Premiership, United Rugby Championship and Currie Cup.

The Red Bull train left Saudi Arabia with its second win of the Formula 1 season, although on this occasion it was Sergio Perez who edged his teammate Max Verstappen to the chequered flag. The Dutch driver was voted F1.com's driver of the day after making up 13 places on the fast and tricky street circuit.

The Mexican secured the fifth victory of his career and was under pressure from the two-time world champion until the latter stages in Jeddah.

In a remarkable turn of events, Fernando Alonso scored his second podium in a row and the 100th of his career. The two-time world champion celebrated alongside Perez and Verstappen. The stewards decided after the chequered flag that he served his drive-through penalty incorrectly and was relegated to fourth place. Mercedes' George Russell assumed the third position. However, Aston Martin appealed the decision and after a complicated sequence of events, they proved that there was no precedent set for the jack touching the car being judged as illegal.

In the end, it was a just reward for Alonso who grabbed the lead from Perez at Turn 1 and then maintained a decent gap between Aston Martin and Russell's Mercedes after the Spaniard was passed by Perez and Verstappen.

Lewis Hamilton felt he should've been faster than Russell as he was on the medium compound. However, Russell rejected team orders and pushed on with his hard tyres to keep the seven-time champion at bay.

Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc finished sixth and seventh after a tough outing, both had reliability issues over the weekend, and left Jeddah frustrated with the result. Esteban Ocon had a strong race to finish eighth, ahead of Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly. Kevin Magnussen earned his first point of the season after squeezing Yuki Tsunoda out of 10th place. Alex Albon and Lance Stroll were the only two retirements.

The next race is in a fortnight at Melbourne's Albert Park. 

Host Carl Lewis chats with coach Grant de Smidt and award-winning journalist Lorenz Kohler about the State of South African football including Bafana Bafana and SAFA.

The panel covers the Bafana squad, Hugo Broos' tenure, player development and talent ID, SAFA leadership, SAFA's vision 2020 or now 2030.

Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has named a 23-man squad for the decisive home and away Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Liberia.

South Africa host the West African nation on Friday, 24 March (18:00) at Orlando Stadium in Soweto, and play again four days later on Wednesday, 28 March (18:00 SA time) in the Liberian capital of Monrovia.

Bafana's ticket to Ivory Coast can be booked with victories in both fixtures before their final Group K match against Morocco in June.

Last week, Broos announced a 35-man preliminary squad which he has now trimmed down ahead of the national training camp.

Broos has picked in-form Mamelodi Sundowns striker Cassius Mailula, as well as Orlando Pirates top-scorer Monnapule Saleng. Both these players are seen as candidates for the PSL footballer of the season accolade.

The training camp commences on Sunday (19 March).

Bafana Bafana 23-man squad:

Goalkeepers: Ronwen Williams (Mamelodi Sundowns), Veli Mothwa (AmaZulu), Ricardo Goss (SuperSport United)

Defenders: Sydney Mobbie (Sekhukhune United), Innocent Maela (Orlando Pirates), Nkosinathi Sibisi (Orlando Pirates), Thapelo Morena (Mamelodi Sundowns), Aubrey Modiba (Mamelodi Sundowns), Grant Kekana (Mamelodi Sundowns), Mothobi Mvala (Mamelodi Sundowns), Siyanda Xulu (Turan-Tovuz IK, Azerbaijan)

Midfielders: Njabulo Blom (St Louis City, USA), Teboho Mokoena (Mamelodi Sundowns), Luke Le Roux (Vargerb Bois, Sweden), Sphephelo Sithole (Belenenses, Portugal) 

Forwards: Monnapule Saleng (Orlando Pirates), Lyle Foster (Burnley, England), Mihlali Mayambela (Aris Limassol, Cyprus), Bongokuhle Hlongwane (Minnesota, USA), Themba Zwane (Mamelodi Sundowns), Zakhele Lepasa (Orlando Pirates), Percy Tau (Al Ahly, Egypt), Cassius Mailula (Mamelodi Sundowns).

The score will be settled once and for all when local favourite Leon Edwards makes the first defence of his welterweight title against the man he dethroned Kamaru Usman in a titanic trilogy tilt at UFC 286 in London on Saturday night. 

Two of the best and most explosive lightweights in the world, Justin Gaethje and Rafael Fiziev, will fight fire with fire in a co-headlining clash that could blow the roof off the iconic O2 Arena.

Plus, undefeated Casey O’Neill meets Jennifer Maia at flyweight, Gunnar Nelson battles Bryan Barberena at welterweight and top-10 middleweights Marvin Vettori and Roman Dolidze face off.

• Are they the ultimate club now?
• Won as many games as they did last season (19)
• Themba Zwane said they are aiming for the Points record
• Need 14 points to break but it will not be easy
• Must go W4 D2 L1 or W5 D0 L2 (3 wins won’t suffice)

Goals

• They lead the league for goals and for xG
• But the goals-gap is bigger than the xG gap
• More efficient in front of goal

Performances?

• We at season stage where results matter more than performances
• They are not keeping clean sheets, but the fall off inthe 2nd half happens all the time
• One clean sheet in eight games, no clean sheet in six

Playing young players vs last season

• Sundowns played the fewest youngsters last season from a minutes played perspective. Ofentse Mashiane got 19 minutes in the last game of the season which Sundowns won 3-2, Promise Mkhuma was the next youngest (22) who made the bench once but was unused
• 1 player U-23 last season / 24 players in 25-29 bracket / 12 Over 30

• The last thing you thought Sundowns needed was a goalscorer (most goals last season, most different scorers)
• Shalulile was injured for a while,but it was during the WC break, so he had time to recover
• Either way Mailula was ready to step up, 20 goal involvements for a 21 year old is insane

In the league, he has 9 goals from about 6xG, an overperformance of 3xG, placing him first in the league for all players. An overperformance of xG can mean many things, two of which are:

• He is the luckiest player in the division, or 
• He is the most clinical
• Touch position across 3 central channels reflected by shot locations
• His selection of shots shows a high volume of attempts at close rang
• All 9 goals come from inside box (all but one of Downs’ goals has)
• All 9 goals come from high value locations + deep in the 6-yard box.

*His league goals come from both left (4) & right (5) feet (0 headers)

Not wasteful. Of players with 20+ shots, he is second most accurate in the league (59%) behind only Ranga Chivaviro (60%) and level with Caleb Bimenyimana (59%). The difference in this is miniscule.

• It’s almost done
• The battles for 8th & relegation all we can focus on now
• Only SuperSport can catch Sundowns now
• Record title win is 2006/7 Sundowns (5 to play, I think)

Match of the Weekend: Pirates v SuperSport - conundrum for Pirates

• Lose & SuperSport probably seal 2nd

PREDICTIONS:

• 1-1 draw - Lee
• 2-1 Pirates - Alex