MOTORSPORT: Seasons of runaway champions

Mark Webber couldn't repeat last year's Spanish GP victory, but a famous name is back in the winner's circle – Brabham

Monday motorsport report
May 23, 2011
Vettel equals Sir Jack's tally of GP wins

It's not even June yet but already it looks as though the two motor racing championships of most interest to Australians, Formula One and V8 Supercars, could be decided well before the end.

Sebastian Vettel is 41 points clear in the F1 world championship after his fourth win in five races this year.

Vettel now has 14 grand prix victories to his name – the same number as Australia's Sir Jack Brabham, who was approaching his 44th birthday when he last won in South Africa in 1970. Vettel is still six weeks away from his 24th birthday!

Jamie Whincup almost doubled his V8 Supercar Championship lead over the weekend at Winton in Victoria and has a stranglehold on a third title in four years.

After a decade of trying, Brad Jones Racing now has had two race wins this month, with veteran Jason Bright delivering again yesterday on the team's home track and jumping to fourth in the championship.

Also at Winton, Sir Jack Brabham's grandson, Matthew, won the second round of the Australian Formula Ford Championship, including two race victories – the second of them by 10 seconds – even though he's a schoolboy not contesting the whole series.

In America, Australian IndyCar drivers Will Power and Ryan Briscoe have qualified for the 100th anniversary Indianapolis 500 next Monday morning, Australian time, although not as well as expected driving for Team Penske.

F1 now turns to Monaco in a hurry, with Australia's Mark Webber the defending winner there and particularly keen to win again after a mysterious fourth place in the Spanish GP at Barcelona last night after his first pole position of the year.

Webber became the first driver in 11 years not to win from the pole in Barcelona.
Weird and wonderful Barcelona but not for Webber

There is a lot of cynicism around today about Webber's performance in Spain, but – as he has said - he did not make a "hideous" start but rather Fernando Alonso "got a phenomenal one".

Thereafter Webber spent more than half the race trapped behind Alonso, although there were times that he had the fastest car on the track.

Nonetheless, Webber finished almost 48 seconds behind victorious teammate Vettel, has had only two podiums this season in the sport's best car, and it is now 12 races and almost nine months since he won a GP.

Still, while Alonso looked super-human at the start, and his drive was described by Ferrari as that of "a lion", the Spaniard wound up a lap down in fifth in his home race as he lost 3 seconds a lap on hard tyres late in the race.

Along with Vettel (and Alonso's heroics), the star of the race was McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, who pressured the young reigning world champion in the closing stages to be just 0.6 seconds behind at the chequered flag.

For Webber the race became "a bit of a chess game". He spent 38 of the 66 laps looking at the rear end of Alonso's Ferrari.

"I was quick when I had a clear track ahead of me," Webber said. "But I quickly found myself behind other cars and the damage to your tyres is exponential when you're in dirty air.

"In years gone by you could race hard when you were behind people, but that's not the case in 2011 due to the (new Pirelli) tyres."

Not only Alonso but Vettel was ahead of Webber as they exited the first corner.

"My reaction to the lights was good and I got away reasonably well," Webber said. "But Fernando had an absolute flyer and he got the jump on everyone. I got done by Seb under braking, which wasn't great, but I still thought I could challenge for the win at this stage."

Webber said he would have benefited from pitting for the first time on lap nine to get the "undercut" on the cars ahead of him, but Vettel – as Red Bull's lead car - got priority.

"I spent the next two stints behind Fernando," Webber said.

"I lost KERS (the kinetic energy recovery system) in the middle of the race and that made it very difficult to pass him because the DRS (drag reduction system, or driver-adjustable rear wing) zone wasn't that effective.

"We were on the rev limiter from halfway down the pit straight, which made it difficult to execute a pass. By the time I cleared Fernando on lap 39, I was too far behind Jenson Button to challenge for the final podium position.

"It's bizarre that Fernando finished eight seconds behind the winner in Turkey (two weeks earlier) and he was lapped here, having led the race for 18 laps.

"But that was the thing about this race - we saw different cars and drivers poles apart in terms of performance. It was as though some cars were involved in a different formula."

A mystery indeed, but a better performance from Michael Schumacher, who finished sixth and ahead of Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg for the first time in a year.

And Renault's Nick Heidfeld made it to eighth at the end from the back of the grid after a fire prevented him taking part in qualifying.

There are only four days until Monaco gets underway, with practice on Thursday before the Ascension Day public holiday in the principality.

Formula One drivers' world championship after five rounds – 1. Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Red Bull Racing-Renault) 118 points; 2. Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, McLaren-Mercedes) 77; 3. Mark Webber (Australia, Red Bull Racing-Renault) 67; 4. Jenson Button (Great Britain, McLaren-Mercedes) 61; 5. Fernando Alonso (Spain, Ferrari) 51; 6. Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 26; 7. Nick Heidfeld (Germany, Renault) 25; 8. Felipe Massa (Brazil, Ferrari) 24; 9. Vitaly Petrov (Russia, Renault) 21;  10. Michael Schumacher (Germany, Mercedes) 14; 11. Kamui Kobayashi (Japan, Sauber-Ferrari) 9; 12. Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland, Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 6; 13. Adrian Sutil (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 2; 14. Sergio Perez (Mexico, Sauber-Ferrari) 2; 15. Paul di Resta (GB, Force India-Mercedes) 2.

F1 manufacturers' championship – 1. Red Bull Renault-Renault 185 points; 2. McLaren-Mercedes 138; 3. Ferrari 75; 4. Renault 46; 5. Mercedes 40; 6. Sauber-Ferrari 11; 7. Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 6; 8. Force India-Mercedes 4.
Another weekend of Whincup and Bright glory

A year ago Jamie Whincup lost the lead of the V8 Supercar Championship at Winton to James Courtney, never regained it and missed out on a hat-trick of titles.

But at the weekend Whincup went a long way to putting a stranglehold on a third crown in four years.

He arrived at Winton in north-east Victoria with a 142-point lead in the championship and left Sunday night with his advantage stretched to 262 points.

On Saturday he scored his fifth victory in 10 races in this year's championship and on Sunday he was headed for another win for Team Vodafone in his Triple Eight Race Engineering Holden Commodore until veteran Jason Bright, on a different strategy and fresher tyres, overtook him to take the chequered flag first.

That was Bright's second win this month – he was victorious in the second of three races in Perth three weeks earlier – and second for Brad Jones Racing, which also fields Holden Commodores but acquired from Walkinshaw Performance.

Brad Jones, now retired from race driving, was a champion when Australia had American-style stock car racing in the 1990s and for Audi in 2-litre Super Tourer racing and he came close to winning the Bathurst 1000 a couple of times.

But in 10 years of operating a V8 Supercar team with his co-owner brother Kim he never won a race in Australia's premier series, yet now has seen Bright win for the team twice in the past four races.

Winton is the home circuit for the Jones brothers as they operate from Albury.

If Bright's victory in Perth on May 1 was emotional, so was Sunday's at Winton as he hauled up to the podium the team's popular New Zealand driver Jason Richards, who is fighting a rare form of cancer but still racing occasionally – although not in the V8 Supercar Championship.

Karl Reindler, whose hands were burnt in the fireball at the start of one of the Perth races that destroyed another Brad Jones Commodore, raced at Winton in the Holden he drove last year and finished 20th and 23rd in the 120km and 200km races respectively.

Team Vodaone's Craig Lowndes remains closest to teammate Whincup in the championship.

Lowndes has had a good record at Winton but it was only at the weekend that he scored his first pole position there but he finished only 11th and seventh in the two races.

James Courtney's V8 Supercar title defence has become a nightmare after switching from a Ford Falcon with Dick Johnson's Jim Beam Racing to the Toll Holden Racing Team.

Courtney is struggling in qualifying and finished only eighth and seven laps down in 25th after getting caught up in a multi-car crash at Winton, leaving him 618 points behind Whincup and 13th in the championship.

Holden continues its dominance over Ford in the two-make championship – the Blue Oval has won only one of the 11 championship races this season (and 14 including the three non-championship races at the Australian GP).

Its only driver on the podium at Winton was Steven Johnson with third place for Jim Beam Racing on Saturday, while Lee Holdsworth was sandwiched between him and victor Whincup for Garry Rogers' Fujitsu Racing Holden team.

On Sunday it was Courtney's Toll HRT teammate Garth Tander in third place, keeping him third in the championship ahead of Bright.

New Zealand youngster Shane Van Gisbergen, who won at Hamilton in his homeland in April for Stone Brothers Racing, remains Ford's top driver in the championship – in fifth place.

Ford Performance Racing's Mark Winterbottom had pole position on Sunday but finished only 19th after 10th on Saturday.

Winterbottom has dropped to 10th in the championship, two places behind his new teammate this season, Will Davison, whose older brother Alex is seventh for Stone Brothers Racing.

Yet two Ford teams – Stone Bros and FPR – are in the top three in the teams' championship, ahead of HRT.

The next round of the championship is at Darwin in the Northern Territory on June 18-19.

Australian V8 Supercar Championship after 11 of 27 races - 1. Jamie Whincup (Holden) 1234 points, 2. Craig Lowndes (H) 972, 3. Garth Tander (H) 935, 4. Jason Bright (H) 920, 5. Shane Van Gisbergen (Ford) 913, 6. Rick Kelly (H) 887, 7. Alex Davidson (F) 825, 8. Will Davison (F) 813, 9. Steve Johnson (F) 808, 10. Mark Winterbottom (F) 797.

V8 Supercar teams championship – 1. Team Vodafone 1972 points; 2. Stone Brothers Racing 1561; 3. Ford Performance Racing 1529; 4. Toll Holden Racing Team 1442; 5. Jack Daniel's Racing 1318; 6. Brad Jones Racing 1225; 7. Jim Beam Racing 1173; 8. Fujitsu Racing GRM 1114.
Drivers down no through road with cash call

A couple of the highest profile V8 Supercar drivers lamented at the weekend that they are not participating in the bonanza team owners and Sports & Entertainment Ltd are about to enjoy with Archer Capital buying 60 per cent of V8 Supercars Australia.

Team owners will reap about $4 million per Racing Entitlement Contract, while SEL will collect an estimated $75-80 million for its 25 per cent.

A report in News Ltd Sunday newspapers by veteran scribe Paul Gover said Craig Lowndes and Russell Ingall acknowledged they did not have the same stake as team owners but felt the importance of drivers to the show had been overlooked - and they renewed calls for a drivers' association.

"We really have been left out of the whole thing," Lowndes was quoted saying.

And Russell Ingall was quoted saying: "It's a shame the face of the sport is left out of the picture. The personalities have a lot to do with this."

Interesting that these gripes have surfaced in public after the "horse has bolted", but that other team members are not considered to be worth a slice of the pie as well.

In any case, it is the team owners who have shouldered the business risk – it is their investment that has been on the line, not that of "employees", whether they be on or off the track.
Poor audiences for Winton in two biggest cities

After signs of improvement this season, the TV numbers for the Winton V8 Supercar round were ordinary – an average of 272,000 in the five major capital cities on Seven for Saturday's race and 304,000 for Sunday's race.

Brisbane again had more viewers than either Sydney or Melbourne both days, with neither of the two biggest cities averaging more than 70,000 either day.

Brisbane averaged 84,000 viewers Saturday and 122,000 Sunday.

Sydney's numbers were 64,000 and 68,000 respectively and Melbourne's 65,000 and 69,000.

In announcing Archer Capital was acquiring 60 per cent of V8 Supercars last week V8SA said an average 470,000 viewers in the five capitals watched Sunday races over the course of last season.

The latest Sunday's 304,000 for Winton's second race of the weekend was less than 65 per cent of that 2010 season average.

It also was less than 29 per cent of the 1.05 million average audience for last year's Bathurst 1000.

Sunday night's Spanish Formula One Grand Prix telecast on OneHD averaged 274,000 viewers in the five capitals – 30,000 less than that day's Winton race even though it started at 10pm eastern Australian time.
Indy qualifying a hard road for Aussies

Will Power will start the Indianapolis 500 from fifth and Ryan Briscoe 27th, making it through Bump Day in a back-up car after crashing what was to have been his race car on Saturday.

There is no American driver on the front row for the 100th anniversary of this American classic, with Canadian Alex Tagliani, New Zealander Scott Dixon and Spaniard Oriol Servia the top three qualifiers.

Power is on the second row, sandwiched between American Townsend Bell and Brit Dan Wheldon.

Last year's winner and two-time victor Dario Franchitti will start ninth after missing his shot at pole when he ran out of fuel on his last four-lap (10-mile, 16km) run.

Five former winners are in the field of 33 – Dixon, Wheldon, American Buddy Rice in seventh spot, Franchitti and Brazilian Helio Castroneves, who will start 16th as he shoots for a fourth victory with Team Penske.

Five rookies have made the field – Californian JR Hildebrand in 12th, Canadian James Hinchcliffe in 13th, Brit Jay Howard in 21st, Californian Charlie Kimball in 29th and Englishwoman Pippa Mann in 32nd.

Three other women have made the race this year – Switzerland's Simona De Silvestro in 24th, American fan favourite Danica Patrick in 26th and Brazilian Ana Beatriz in 33rd.

The full starting line-up is here, while Ryan Briscoe comments on making the cut after his dramas are here. And Will Power commented after qualifying the previous day here.

Among drivers to miss out on making the field were Brit Mike Conway, winner of this year's Long Beach street race in California and fourth in the IndyCar championship, and American Ryan Hunter-Reay.
Ambrose misses shot at the million

Marcos Ambrose narrowly missed making NASCAR's All-Star Race at Charlotte, North Carolina – and the chance to win $1 million in prizemoney.

Ambrose qualified sixth for a two-part, 40-lap shootout and finished third – but needed to be in the first two finishers to make the feature race. Ambrose also came up short in a vote, which was the other way to get a place in the race.

Dale Earnhardt Junior got the final starting position on the fan vote. The race did not carry points towards NASCAR's Sprint Cup but championship leader Carl Edwards won what was described as a tame affair in a Ford at his sixth All-Star start.

Edwards is the 19th different winner of the event, which has been run 27 times.

There have been different winners in each of the past eight years. Kyle Busch in a Toyota finished second to Edwards and collected more than $250,000.

Ambrose said he felt "stung" to just miss making the race.

"We'll take a lesson out of this and be better the next time," he said. "We were the fastest car at the end (of the shootout), so we learned a lot. We were just unlucky. We seemed to have the wrong starting lane each time and I just had to keep fighting back through spots.

"We got there, but not fast enough. It was a real shame."
Raikkonen reckons NASCAR a lot of fun

The 2007 F1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen finished 15th in a field of 36 in his NASCAR debut in the third-tier pick-up truck category at Charlotte.

Driving for race winner Kyle Busch, Raikkonen scraped the wall twice but said it was "more fun than I expected".

Raikkonen, now competing regularly in the world rally championship, is the most successful F1 driver to try NASCAR and his intentions and future are not clear.

There is talk he may race in the second-tier Nationwide Series at Charlotte this weekend and the premier Sprint Cup's road races at Sonoma, California, and Watkins Glen in upstate New York later in the season.

The New York Times reports on Raikkonen's NASCAR adventure here. The Sprint Cup resumes this weekend at Charlotte, with the Coca-Cola 600 – the longest race in the series - to be run at night, just hours after the Indianapolis 500.
Atkinson chases Rally Australia drive

Australia's top rally driver, Chris Atkinson, is trying to arrange a drive in September's Rally Australia at its new Coffs Coast home in NSW. Atkinson, who had 67 world rally championship starts and drove for Subaru's factory team from 2005 until it was disbanded at the end of 2008, is talking to Citroen, Ford and the new MINI team about an entry for the September 8-11 Rally Oz.

He is now driving for Malaysia's Proton in the Asia-Pacific championship but said he was determinted to return to the WRC and a start at Coffs Coast would be a step in that direction.

Atkinson said the new route for the event would make it "a level playing field", although he is unfamiliar with the latest WRC cars.
Meanwhile, the Coffs Coast Advocate has reported the Rally Oz route will finally be revealed soon.