Motor Racing

Ferrari’s Gerhard Berger of Austria claimed the pole for today’s Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril after a determined effort by Damon Hill of Great Britain fell just short Saturday.

Hill, needing a victory today to close to within a point of suspended Formula One leader Michael Schumacher of Germany, drove his Williams-Renault to a speed of 121.462 m.p.h. But his clocking of 1 minute 20.766 seconds at the 2.725-mile Fernando Pires da Silva circuit was 1.58 seconds slower than that of the Austrian, who averaged 121.700 m.p.h. in preliminary qualifying 24 hours earlier.

Starting third Sunday will be Hill’s teammate and fellow Briton David Coulthard. Fourth on the grid will be the McLaren-Peugeot of Finn Mika Hakkinen.

Miscellaneous

Irving Mitchell Felt, who spearheaded construction of a new Madison Square Garden in the 1960s, died at his home at age 84. It was under Felt’s direction as president that Madison Square Garden Corp. bought the NHL’s New York Rangers, the NBA’s New York Knicks and other entities.