mercedes lock out the front of the grid. can anyone stop hamilton head of the spanish grand prix? and anything can happen. hello and welcome to sportsday. rugby union's premiership returned this weekend after a five—month coronavirus break. and there was no let up from league leaders exeter this afternoon. the chiefs outclassed leicester tigers, who fielded a largely new look side under their new head coach — former england captain steve borthwick. austin halewood reports. first steps into rugby's new normal.

new measures, new regulations and even new faces. both exeter and leicester have a different look about them after lockdown. the tigers may have lost players, but they have others to colon. more often than not, it is ford. the lockdown lay—off hasn't done his kick off any harm. a slow start for the chiefs but they soon kicked into cheer. dave ewers for the first try, a typical smash and grab score from the chiefs, but the league leaders we re the chiefs, but the league leaders were keen to show off their running game as well. stuart hogg sliding his side into the lead, a difficult start for leicester's new head coach steve borthwick and it's only got worse. a penalty try, and a bonus point for exeter. the chiefs back into their stride and extending their lead at the top. there were three other games in the premiership to tell you about. already relegated saracens were beaten on their return to action.

they lost 16—12 to bristol after the bears were awarded a late penalty try. bath moved into fourth with their first win since february. they beat london irish 34—17 at the rec. jonathan joseph with that spectacular dive to seal a bonus point. and gloucester fans will have enjoyed rugby's return, their side running in six tries on their way to thrashing ill—man worcester 44—15 in a bonus point win at sixways. meanwhile, one other bit of news for you. the former scotland captain john barclay has retired at the age of 33. he said it was the right time to call it a day after a "fairytale" career. catalan dragons scored 10 tries as they hammered wakefield trinity 58—0 to go top of super league. tom davies scored a hat trick for the dragons, his final try coming just after the half time break. while the french side were dominant, they were also helped by some sloppy wakefield play, matt whitley pouncing on a poor pass to run over

for a hat trick of his own. it's becoming an all—time familiar sight in formula one — mercedes dominating across the race weekend, and there was no change to that, in qualifying for the spanish grand prix today. world champion lewis hamiltonjust edging out teammate valtteri bottas, to lock out the front of the grid. our f1 reporterjennie gow brings us up to date. it was always going to be a good chance that mercedes would be in pole position and lock out front row and they did it once again. bearing in mind, they have done it for the previous seven years. one or other of their cars being in pole position. so that is done, not a lot we can do about that, but our hope is max verstappen when it comes to the race. he will start in third place, much like last time out of silverstone, that hopefully you can get amongst the fight and maybe even win the race and for the championship, that is what really needs to happen. he is the one pushing at the moment, 30 points behind hamilton. can you believe it?

hamilton's 92nd pole position. it is quite formidable the form that he finds himself in at the moment. and the racing points will make it a decent battle behind those in the top three drivers, really aiming to get in the mix and try and really just emphasise that they have got last yea r‘s just emphasise that they have got last year's mercedes and they can do something decent with it. it is worth bearing in mind that they are at barcelona and it isn't usual time they race there. normally, they race in april. this is round six of the world championship and it takes place in a very hot august. temperatures reaching around 33 degrees, it will be a challenge for the drivers, it will be hard work and they will be likely to stop a couple of times. that adds to the drama, add to the strategy so they never know, maybe we'll get another upset around the circuit in barcelona. ronnie o'sullivan has a 6—2 lead over kyren wilson after the first session of the snooker world championship final. fans are back in the stands at the crucible theatre as part of government plans to get

crowds back at events. there are 300 watching on in sheffield. five—time champion o'sullivan is on top, with this break of 106 one of the highlights of the afternoon. he then came from behind in a tense final frame of the session to take a four—frame lead. and here's live pictures from the crucible, where the second session has just got underway. the first frame back in the second session but wilson has a bit of a lead there, he needs a good session to stay... the final concludes on sunday — 18 frames the target. if o'sullivan wins he'll equal steve davis and ray reardon's record of six world titles — stephen hendry holds the record with seven. england's hopes of victory over pakistan in the second test are fading — with day three wiped out due to poor weather in southampton. bad light, rain and a wet outfield stopped pakistan

from resuming on 223—9 in theirfirst innings. play was abandoned just after 5.00, without a ball being bowled. the conditions aren't likely to improve over the final two days, so we're looking at a draw for this test. england lead the three match series 1—0. next, to a massive night in the champions league for manchester city. if they beat lyon, they can seal a place in the semi—finals of the competition, forjust the second time. kick—off in just a few minutes‘ time in lisbon. it could set up a tantalasing encounter with bayern munich, who destroyed barcelona 8—2 last night. city boss pep guardiola, who four years ago was in charge of the german champions, isn't getting too ahead of himself. we tried to do our best, like all the other teams. we are here, we prepare, we are prepared to go through but there are opponents, so we try to avoid mistakes, they are

going to punish as in this competition and that's all. so the pressure is always there to try and do our best and yeah, we will do it. well, what can we expect in the last of the champions league quarter—finals? football reporter adriano del monte is in lisbon and gives us his insight into the tournament. what to expect? the unexpected is my answer. these first three games have been anything but what has been expected. thrilling football here in lisbon and of course it is the fourth of the quarterfinals this evening. manchester city are expected to win but i covered the eventjuventus lyon match last week and juventus were expected to progress, that didn't happen. i have covered lyon a couple of times this season, and they drew with paris st germain after 120 minutes, nil nil. they lost on penalties, but from that match, very clear to see that they are strong defence, they have a number of attacking weapons which could... but also can be very strong

at the back and they kept the likes of neymar and di maria out for two hours that night. so i do need to be cautious of lyon and as we have seen in other results, anything can happen. but certainly for manchester city, we are expecting a positive result there for the english side and of course, that would set up one extraordinary semifinal against bayern munich. hibernian go top of the table in the scottish premiership, despite a 0—0 draw against motherwell. motherwell came the closest to opening the scoresheet with this volley from jordan white. but his celebrations were cut short by the referee as the offside flag went up. rangers play livingston tomorrow and could leapfrog hibs back into first. defending tour de france champion egan bernal has pulled out of the criterium du dauphine, the main warm—up race for the tour, with a back problem.

his team mates aren't having a great race. chris froome is down in 65th place as he attempts to prove his fitness, with the tour two weeks away, while geraint thomas is 3ist. primoz roglic must be a favourite for cycling's biggest race now — he keeps his iii—second race lead, despite a crash early in the stage. the race concludes tomorrow — lennard kamna broke away to win today's stage, the biggest victory of his career. the belgian rider remco evenepoel has crashed and fallen several metres off a bridge during the tour of lombardy one—day race. he was taken to hospital in a neck brace and in the last few minutes his team have released a statement saying he was conscious throughout and has a fractured pelvis and a bruised right lung. the 20—year—old is one of the most promising prospects in road cycling, having already won the tour of poland this year. the race was won byjakob fuglsang

of the astana team, the first danish rider to win the one—day classic. and finally, football agents everywhere are busily negotiating new contracts at the moment. not many will be agreeing to the salary adam nowa kowski is getting. he s offered to play for bradford park avenue — forjust £1 a week. wages in their division — the national league north, which is the 6th tier of english football — are often around £400 a week. he says it s to help the club in the tough financial times non—league football is going through, with fans not allowed to go to games yet. but he says his manager was a little surprised. he didn't see it coming. he did ask me ifi he didn't see it coming. he did ask me if i wasjoking he didn't see it coming. he did ask me if i was joking first. but i he didn't see it coming. he did ask me if i wasjoking first. but i said i wanted to do it. i wanted to get it done at at £1 a week so we said right, the forms are coming through to you as soon as we hang up. it's been great to me and i've been

really fortu nate been great to me and i've been really fortunate so i thought it would be great to give something back to bradford as a club. also a good message across non—league football about how difficult sometimes it will be. i was back at pre—season on tuesday night and that whole sense of non—league comets like an extended family, sport in general is, so i think supporters, fans, soon as they get back to normality, not only financially, but mentally, i think be massive. normality, not only financially, but mentally, i think be massivem looks like they are getting a deal for him, doesn't it? that's all from us. for him, doesn't it? that's all from us. see you soon. hello there. the air mass over the uk is similarto hello there. the air mass over the uk is similar to the air mass that we had last week which is a funny thing to say if you think about all of the hot and sunny weather we had last week and compare it with the rather grey and murky skies that many of us about today. but it has been very humid. and that humidity

has brought a lot of low cloud, mist and fog patches, some drizzle across the north west though, we did see the north west though, we did see the sunshine come out and it became quite warm, 25 degrees in keswick in cumbria. then, as we headed into the late afternoon and evening time, we have had some thunderstorms working into parts of eastern england, near chelmsford in essex, a0 millimetres of rain on space ofjust one hour, reign that intent is more than capable of bringing some flash flooding. overnight tonight, for many of us will stay cloudy and murky, mist and fog patches around coastal hills, extensive drizzle around a one or two heavy bursts of rain, it will continue to feel you made, temperatures 17 degrees across the south of england and wales and for sunday, still a lot of cloud across the country but we're also going to see some heavy downpours moving in from the south. i think those downpours will get south—west england quite quickly during sunday morning, but i suspect we will see another clump of storms working into the south—east as we head through into the early part of the afternoon before spreading to east anglia and

the midlands and eventually parts of wales as we head into sunday evening. the downpours again capable of bringing some localised flooding, the best of any limited sunshine is probably across the north—west of the uk but it will be a bit brighter at times across southern parts of england and the south of wales as well. monday sees the area of low moving from the south, expected to continue to be rather cloudy, occasional bright spells, heavy downpours continue to move northwards across england and wales, moving to scotland, northern ireland, dry here over recent days, looks like will see rain pushing in start of new week. when sunshine comes out, continues to feel humid, temperatures running into low to mid 20s in the warmest spot. it is only later in the week that the low pressure m oves later in the week that the low pressure moves away. low pressure comes in off the atlantic but this one will bring a change of air mass so it will stop feeling humid and that less humid out will arrive probably for most of us on thursday but looking at the week ahead, looked unsettled, cloudy skies, rain at times and eventually turning

fresher towards the end of the week.

this is bbc news, the headlines at 8pm at. prince charles at commemorations to mark the 75th anniversary of vj day, the day world war ii ended with victory overjapan at. we salute all those who remain among us at. we salute all those who remain among us and offer our most heartfelt and undying gratitude for those who have gone before. the prince of wales and veterans laid a wreath at the national memorial arboretum as part of a service of remembrance. the exams regulator arboretum as part of a service of remembrann criteria exams regulator arboretum as part of a service of remembrann criteria for 11s regulator sets out the criteria for appeals against a—levels in against downgraded a—levels in england after nearly a0% were marked lower than predictions.