Life at Sea's three-year round-the-world cruise sets sail from Istanbul in November. However, for any stragglers, the cruise will now allow newcomers to join the ship at any stage, continuing the journey indefinitely -- making it the "cruise that never ends."

Max Verstappen has beefed up his personal security as he prepares for a hostile reception at Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez’s home race in Mexico. Verstappen was jeered by Perez’s supporters at last weekend’s podium presentation in Austin as the triple world champion celebrated his 15th win of the season. Chants of “Checo, Checo” – in support of Perez – were also audible during the Dutch national anthem. A crowd of nearly 400,000 are expected at the high-altitude Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez over the course of the weekend, with practice starting on Friday and it is understood Verstappen will be flanked by multiple security guards in the paddock. Perez’s fans are unhappy Verstappen did not help the Mexican secure second place in last season’s championship after he ignored a team order at the penultimate round in Brazil. Perez has won only twice this season – his last victory in Azerbaijan on April 30 – with Verstappen racing to his third title in as many years. The paddock in Mexico City has become one of the most manic on the calendar, with drivers mobbed as they make their way from the motorhome to the garage. And Perez is also expected to have a bigger entourage than normal to cover-off his enthusiastic fanbase. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and the team’s motorsport advisor Dr Helmut Marko will also be accompanied by security guards. Speaking after last weekend’s race in Austin, Horner said: “I don’t think Max is going to get the warmest reception in Mexico, but that is water off a duck’s back to him. “One year you are the villain and the next year you are the hero.” Perez heads into this weekend’s round 206 points behind Verstappen. However, he is 39 points clear of third-placed Lewis Hamilton, who was disqualified from second at the Circuit of the Americas for running an illegal floor on his Mercedes.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff believes Max Verstappen’s dominance of the sport is so one-sided that he is making the rest of the grid look like they are racing in a junior category. Verstappen took his ninth win of the season, extending Red Bull’s unbeaten streak to 11 from 11 this year with just one race remaining before the summer break. The Dutchman, now a staggering 110 points clear in the championship, finished more than half-a-minute clear of his rivals following another supreme showing in his supreme Red Bull machine. McLaren’s Lando Norris was runner-up – scoring consecutive podium finishes for the first time in his career – with pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton only fourth and his Mercedes team-mate George Russell sixth. “It was like a bunch of Formula Two cars against a Formula One car,” said Wolff. “In the F2 gang, our car was quick. The F1 car won by 33 seconds. “We had the second quickest car today, and obviously we can talk it up and say we could have been second, but that’s irrelevant because you have a car that finished 39 seconds ahead [of Hamilton], and was probably cruising a lot of the time. “We are going to fight back and win races and championships, but we saw the pace Max had, and that’s the bitter reality. “But it’s a meritocracy, and as long as you’re moving within the regulations, then we need to acknowledge Red Bull has just done a better job.” Hamilton has now gone 34 appearances without a victory – the longest streak of his career – while Verstappen has triumphed 24 times during the same period, moving him to 44 career wins. Verstappen’s Red Bull set a new record of 12 consecutive wins on Sunday, with Mercedes’ unprecedented 19 victories in a single campaign under threat. At the midway stage of this 22-round campaign, the world champions also remain on course to become the first team to complete the perfect season. However, speaking ahead of this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps – which includes a sprint race and the possibility of rain – Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was keen to guard against complacency. Horner said: “How long can we keep this winning run going? Who knows? “We’ve got another challenge next weekend, a sprint race, with the variable conditions of Spa. Anything can happen, so we’re really just taking it pretty much one event at a time.”

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One of the world’s oldest whiskies will be auctioned off after being discovered in a Scottish castle. The whisky was found behind a cellar door at 750-year-old Blair Castle, Perthshire, the ancestral home of the Dukes of Atholl. Around 40 bottles of the rare Scotch whisky, said to be one of the oldest in the world, were discovered in late 2022 when Bertie Troughton, a resident trustee at Blair Castle, happened upon them in the cellar. They are believed to have been distilled in 1833, bottled in 1841, then later rebottled in 1932.