Monday motorsport report
May 9, 2011
Countdown…
Fifth, fourth, third, second … Mark Webber’s results have improved each race in this year’s Formula One world championship. Now the series moves on to Barcelona and Monaco, circuits at which the Aussie dominated last year.
The one thing that stands between Webber and victory this season is his young world champion teammate, Sebastian Vettel.
Also today, there are reports that Sydney private equity firm Archer Capital will be the buyer of a controlling stake in V8 Supercars Australia, with each team (or more specifically licence for each car) getting $4 million.
That would value V8SA at about $300 million. Under the deal, the teams would retain 40 per cent of the business, Sports & Entertainment Ltd dispose of its 25 per cent for $80 million, and Tony Cochrane remain in charge.
While a sale appears imminent, Cochrane has told The Australian newspaper: “we have not, and will not, comment until the process is complete”.
Auto Action last week had reported that Asian sports marketing firm World Sport Group and Russian-backed Convers Sports Initiatives (which now owns the commercial rights to the World Rally Championship) were more likely buyers ahead of Archer Capital, a low-profile investment outfit.
In rallying, French great Sebastien Loeb scored his second world rally championship victory of the year (and the 64th of his career) in Sardinia, Italy, in his Citroen DS3 WRC -- 11.2sec ahead of Finn Mikko Hirvonen’s Ford Fiesta RS WRC.
Norwegian Petter Solberg notched his first podium of the year in his privateer Citroen, close behind Hirvonen, and felt that, with an ounce of luck, he could have won. MINI’s John Cooper Works WRC car finished sixth on debut, driven by Spaniard Dani Sordo, after overcoming electronics problems on day two.
In NASCAR, Regan Smith achieved his first Sprint Cup win at Darlington, South Carolina, the sport’s oldest speedway, at his 105th start. Smith had crossed the finish line first at Talladega in 2008 only to be stripped of victory when NASCAR officials ruled he dipped below the yellow “out-of-bounds” line in passing Tony Stewart on the last lap.
This time Smith took the chequered flag in his Chevrolet ahead of the Ford of series leader Carl Edwards. Brad Keselowski (Dodge), Casey Kahne (Toyota) and Ryan Newman (Chevrolet) completed the top five.
Australia’s Marcos Ambrose finished 13th in his Ford and is 23rd in the points after 10 of the 36 races.
Toyota driver Kyle Busch, third in the series behind Edwards and Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet), had a stoush after the race with Kevin Harvick, fifth in the points in a Chevrolet -- a week after a big row between Juan Pablo Montoya and Ryan Newman at Richmond, Virginia.
And Australia’s David Brabham was on the podium in the GT1 world championship round at Algarve, Portugal, at the weekend with two third places in the Sumo Power team Nissan GT-R he shares with Scotsman, Jamie Campbell-Walter
Peter Dumbreck and Richard Westbrook won both the qualifying and championship races for JR Motorsports in another GT-R.
Nissans filled all three podium places in the first race but the Aston Martin DB9 of ex-McLaren F1 tester Darren Turner and Stefan Mucke was sandwiched between GT-Rs in the second.
The front upper wishbones of the Nissans later were discovered to be below the minimum required weight but stewards said it was a “formal mistake” and imposed 5000-euro fines on each of them and ordered that the parts be replaced for next weekend’s round at Sachsenring, Germany.
Meanwhile, Toll Holden Racing Team has announced 22-year-old Nick Percat as two-time Bathurst winner Garth Tander’s co-driver for this year’s Phillip Island and Bathurst endurance races. Veteran Cameron McConville will partner reigning V8 Supercar champion James Courtney in the other HRT Commodore.
Percat won the 2009 Australian Formula Ford Championship with a record 22 race victories and has been driving in the V8 Supercar development series for Walkinshaw Racing since. He co-drove with Andrew Thompson in last year’s Phillip Island 500.
But back to F1 …
Webber gives Red Bull first 1-2 of year
Mark Webber gave Red Bull Racing its first one-two finish of this year’s world championship when he finished 8.8sec behind teammate Sebastian Vettel in Turkey – a result that healed some of the wounds from last year’s collision between the pair there.
Red Bull motorsport supremo Dr Helmut Marko was seen congratulating Webber while RBR team principal Christian Horner said the quinella “exorcises the demons from last year”.
“It’s a great result for the team,” Webber said.
The Aussie qualified second to Vettel and said that second in the race was “the maximum I could get”.
It was Vettel’s third win in four races this year. He has won six of the past eight GPs, and has 13 victories in his F1 career – yet doesn’t turn 24 until July 3.
Webber said of the Turkish race: “I lost a load of time behind Nico Rosberg (third-place starter in a Mercedes) after he got the jump on me and by the time I’d found a way past him, Seb [Vettel] had enough daylight to control the race from the front.
“It was already clear, however, that Fernando Alonso’s race pace was very good in the Ferrari and I had to focus on racing him. We had a good battle.”
Webber and Alonso were never more than a few seconds apart throughout the 58-lap race.
Just before half distance, Alonso overtook Webber in the zone along the back straight where drivers were allowed to adjust their rear wings and Webber had to call on some Aussie grit to regain the position.
“I had a new set of prime tyres for my last stint and the car felt good,” Webber said.
“On lap 51 I got a run on Fernando in the DRS [drag reduction system, or driver-adjustable rear wing] zone and we were side-by-side through turns 12, 13 and 14. I was ahead by the time we came on to the start-finish straight, but all the ‘marbles’ off-line made the racing line very narrow. It was very slippery, but Fernando’s not in his first GP and we gave each other enough room.”
Tyre wear again was a feature of the race. The tyres were punished through the long, high-speed Turn Eight, where the cars pull high lateral loads for seven seconds, and there were a record 80 pit stops in the race.
All the top eight drivers except McLaren’s sixth-placed Jenson Button made four stops.
Alonso gave Ferrari its first podium of the year, while McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton (the only driver to have beaten Vettel this season) was fourth but 40sec behind the winner. He was followed by Rosberg.
While Hamilton remains second in the championship, Webber has narrowed the gap between them to four points ahead of the Spain-Monaco double-header.
“I like Barcelona and Monaco and I hope the car will be good at both tracks. Success breeds success, but we’ve got to keep working - heads down, arse up!” said Webber.
Michael Schumacher qualified eighth for Mercedes, collided with Renault’s Vitaly Petrov, finished 12th and is just 11th in the championship with six points, while his younger German countryman Vettel has 93 of a possible 100. Even worse is that the Williams team still has not scored a point this season, although Brazilian veteran Rubens Barrichello still looked mighty fast at times in the race.
Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Swiss driver Sebastien Buemi was impressive in Istanbul from 16th on the grid. He lost two places in the last two laps due to vibrations from his front tyres but finished ninth on his three-stop strategy and has six championship points.
Toro Rosso’s other race driver Jaime Alguersuari had heavy oversteer in his final stint due to degrading rear tyres after his fourth stop, finished 16th and still without a championship point.
Australian Daniel Ricciardo was eighth in Friday morning’s wet practice in Algueruari’s car – ahead of Buemi and 15 other drivers. Toro Rosso team boss Franz Tost praised the 21-year-old Perth driver’s effort and confirmed that the plan is for Ricciardo to race for the team next year.
“The situation is that he is driving for Toro Rosso the first practice on Friday [at every GP],” Tost said.
“He should learn the team, all the racetracks, to work together with the engineers, get a little bit of knowledge about the press work, about the marketing and this should be the preparation for him to race for Toro Rosso in 2012.”
There has been speculation that Ricciardo might be installed as a race driver mid-season, if Buemi or Jaime Alguersuari do not meet Red Bull’s expectations. However, Tost said: “No, currently not.”
Formula One drivers’ world championship standings after four races: Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Red Bull-Renault) 93 points, Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, McLaren-Mercedes) 59, Mark Webber (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 55, Jenson Button (GB, McLaren-Mercedes) 46, Fernando Alonso (Spain, Ferrari) 41, Felipe Massa (Brazil, Ferrari) 24, Nick Heidfeld (Germany, Renault) 21, Vitaly Petrov (Russia, Renault) 21, Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 20, Kamui Kobayashi (Japan, Sauber-Ferrari) 8, Michael Schumacher (Germany, Mercedes) 6, Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 6, Adrian Sutil (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 2, Paul di Resta (GB, Force India-Mercedes) 2.
F1 constructors’ championship standings: Red Bull-Renault 148 points, McLaren-Mercedes 105, Ferrari 65, Renault 42, Mercedes 26, Sauber-Ferrari 8, Toro Rosso-Ferrari 6, Force India-Mercedes 4.
Aussie scores WRC Academy stage wins
Young Australian rally driver Brendan Reeves has scored his first two stages wins on a WRC course, during the second round of the WRC Academy in Sardinia, but otherwise it was a tough weekend for him and fellow 23-year-old Aussie Molly Taylor.
Reeves retired his Ford Fiesta R2 with mechanical problems (an oil cooler was damaged on a transport stage) on the first of two days but fought back on the second day with his two stage wins, finishing fifth overall and third in the series standings.
Taylor retired on day one with engine sump damage caused by a rock that claimed seven other competitors in identical Fiesta R2s. She retired on day two with damaged cooling after a heavy landing.
The next WRC round (without the Academy participants) is Rally Argentina on May 26-29. Reeves and other Academy drivers’ next WRC outing is Rally Finland.
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