MOTORSPORT: All-clear on team orders and 'tanking'

Yet it is apparent that at the top-level of international motorsport both these practices are now perfectly acceptable.

Both factory teams competing in the new Rally Australia on NSW's Coffs Coast at the weekend imposed team orders.

Ford ordered one of its Finnish drivers, Jari-Matti Latvala, to slow down and surrender the lead to teammate and countryman Mikko Hirvonen, who duly won the 10th round of the World Rally Championship.

Citroen ordered the younger of its two French drivers, Sebastien Ogier, to slow down – indeed he even halted – to let its seven-time world champion Sebatien Loeb claim 10th, and the final point from the event, on Sunday after both had crashed out of contention for victory on Friday.

Television viewers have seen - or will see - some of this for themselves, and a press release from Rally Australia headquarters explained precisely what happened.

"Citroen … ordered Sebastien Ogier to drop back on the penultimate stage. To do this Ogier started the second run through the 30km Plum Pudding stage five minutes late to incur a 50-second penalty and fall behind Loeb on the road before parking up nearing the end of the stage for almost 10 minutes."

Ogier had said before the event that he would follow team orders, after having objected to them three weeks earlier in Germany, but
he was disappointed when he had to forego a points finish at Coffs that would have been reward for his fightback from his Friday crash.

"I received a team order and I respected this," Ogier said.

The upshot is that Hirvonen is now just 15 points behind Loeb in this year's world championship with three rounds remaining, each carrying 25 points for a win.

Ogier remains in contention too, but is now 29 points behind Loeb rather than the 25 before Rally Oz.

It is good for the championship that it is a three-way tussle, but what the events of the weekend told us is that motorsport is more for the benefit of the participating teams/manufacturers than the fans.

It was less than 14 months ago that there was a huge fuss in Formula One when Ferrari orchestrated its Brazilian driver Felipe Massa giving way to its Spaniard Fernando Alonso, who went on to win the German GP.

Ferrari was fined US$100,000 by the stewards of that race and the penalty was subsequently affirmed by the Federation Internationale de l'Autmobile's World Motor Sport Council, which said it was important for it – the world governing body of motorsport – to "protect the sporting integrity" of the F1 world championship, and "to ensure the podium finish has been achieved by genuine on-track racing".

At the WMSC hearing on September 8, 2010, Ferrari argued that there was a grey area between impermissible "team orders" and legitimate team strategy and tactics, and the FIA acknowledged that "the primary objective of any team is for one of their drivers to win".

What is easily forgotten out of that case is that Article 39.1 of the FIA's Sporting Regulations prohibiting team orders has been deleted and the WMSC has left the hot potato in the lap of the "F1 Sporting Working Group".

There were instances last year when Australian F1 driver Mark Webber was thought to have been disadvantaged by team orders from Red Bull Racing.

Two months ago the issue raised its head again when Webber admitted defying an order to stay behind world champion teammate Sebastian Vettel in the British GP, although he found he couldn't overtake the German anyway.

Webber drought extends to 20 GPs
There was not the slightest need for Red Bull team orders at Sunday's Italian GP. Webber started fifth, while Vettel had pole position for the 10th time this season, and the Aussie was out of the race after just five laps – his first non-finish of the season.

The worry for Webber is that he has slipped from second in the championship to equal third with McLaren's Jenson Button - and he has now gone 20 GPs without a win, driving for the sport's top team.

Vettel has won 11 times in those past 20 GPs.

Webber already has a contract to continue with Red Bull next season, but he needs to be finishing at least second to Vettel in the championship in an identical car, even if McLaren and Ferrari have improved throughout the year and have the brilliance of Button, his teammate Lewis Hamilton and Alonso.

"Then there was the restart after the safety car (which came out because of Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi crashing HRT car into Russian Vitaly Petrov's Renault and also cruelling Nico Rosberg's Mercedes).

"I got a good one that time and managed to pass Jenson straight away. Then, on the next lap, I was lining up Felipe (Massa), breaking around the outside for turn one, trying to get the inside line for turn two.

"I probably wasn't quite far enough to get completely inside, but when I tried to come out of the move … the kerbing on the inside is obviously pretty high. As soon as I touched that I unfortunately made contact with Felipe and that was that.

"I then tried to get back to the pits, trying to lose the minimum time possible. The car wasn't too bad for the first part of the lap, but at some stage the wing got caught underneath, so I couldn't turn the car or brake.

"I went straight out of Parabolica and that was the end of my race."

Ricciardo's HRT car stalled on the grid and his mechanics pushed it back to the garage.

It took 18 minutes for the mechanics to refill and bleed the water system after the pressure release valve was activated before Ricciardo could join the race.

"The race started as bad as it could - for some reason the car went into anti-stall, jammed in third gear and then the engine switched off," Ricciardo said.

"I couldn't get restarted and had to get the car back into the box (pit).

"The mechanics got it going again and I was back on track, but the engine temperature rose and they called me back to check it - and it took us a few more minutes until we could rejoin the race.

"I went straight into a bit of traffic, which made it hard to get a bit of rhythm. But at least in the second stint at the end of the race I was able to get in quite a few good laps and we got some data out of that.

"A little bit is better than nothing but I need to keep pushing for a better result in Singapore (the next GP on September 25)."

While he has every reason to be happy at Red Bull Racing driving Adrian Newey-designed cars, Vettel said that the one thing that might have made standing on the top step of the Monza podium sweeter "is probably wearing a red suit".

That was obviously a big hint that at some point he wants to be a Ferrari driver, although last year's Monza victor and last weekend's third placegetter, Alonso, is contracted to the Prancing Horse until the end of 2016.

Lewis Hamilton was held up by Michael Schumacher for half the Monza race but closed hard on Alonso at the end for fourth, with Schumacher fifth.

While Hamilton refrained from criticising Schumacher for his defensive tactics, McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh said "the one (move) where he had Lewis on the grass was scary as hell".

It was the first time the first five finishers in a GP were all world champions.

Bruno Senna scored his first points in F1 – two for ninth place with Renault in his second race since replacing German Nick Heidfeld.

It is the first time the Senna name has appeared in the points since Senna's legendary uncle Ayrton's last GP victory at Adelaide in November 1993.

Both Toro Rosso cars were in the points at Monza, with Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari seventh – his best finish – and Swiss Sebastien Buemi 10th despite a knock at the first corner.

Formula One World Championship driver standings after 13 of 19 rounds
1. Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Red Bull-Renault) 284 points, 2. Fernando Alonso (Spain, Ferrari) 172, 3. Jenson Button (Great Britain, McLaren-Mercedes) 167, 4. Mark Webber (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 167, 5. Lewis Hamilton (GB, McLaren-Mercedes) 158, 6. Felipe Massa (Brazil, Ferrari) 82, 7. Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 56, 8. Michael Schumacher (Germany, Mercedes) 52, 9. Vitaly Petrov (Russia, Renault) 34, 10. Nick Heidfeld (Germany, Renault) 34, 11. Kamui Kobayashi (Japan, Sauber-Ferrari) 27, 12. Adrian Sutil (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 24, 13. Jaime Alguersuari (Spain, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 16, 14. Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 13, 15. Paul Di Resta (GB, Force India-Mercedes) 12, 16. Sergio Perez (Mexico, Sauber-Ferrari) 8, 17. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil, Williams-Cosworth) 4, 18. Bruno Senna (Brazil, Renault) 2, 19 (Venezuala, Pastor Maldonado, Williams-Cosworth) 1.

Hirvonen began the final day at Coffs Harbour 22.7 seconds behind teammate Jari-Matti Latvala finished 14.7 seconds ahead after the team orders.

"I have to say a big thank-you to my team and also to Jari-Matti for slowing down," Hirvonen said.

Norwegian Petter Solberg's third place in his privateer Citroen was the 2003 world champion's second podium of the year.

New Zealander Hayden Paddon clinched the Production WRC title with sixth outright in his Subaru Impreza.

Now not due to be held again for another two years, the event needs Australia's two best-performed rally drivers, Chris Atkinson and Cody Crocker, in the field next time.

WRC manufacturers' championship – 1. Citroen Total World Rally Team 347 points, 2. BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team 285, 3. Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team 117, 4. Petter Solberg World Rally Team 98, 5. Ice 1 Racing 48.

Smart looked to have the second heat and overall rally wins in his grasp but a failed driveshaft four stages from the finish cost him his 1 minute 23 second lead to Shepheard, who triumphed by 1 minute 3.5 seconds .

"My dad won his first ARC title the year I was born in 1971, so its taken 40 years for the Shepheard name to be at the top of an ARC score sheet again," Steve said.

Eli Evans posted another podium following his third place in the Honda Civic Type R at the previous round, bringing the front-wheel-drive car home 1 min 36.8 seconds behind Smart.

Smart has a handy lead over Justin Dowel (Evo IX Lancer) heading to the final round in Victoria on November 11-12.

Dowel had led the series after a win in the previous round in South Australia but a crash on day one at Coffs Harbour cost the Victorian any points from the first heat and dented his title hopes as he wound up fifth for the weekend - behind NSW husband-and-wife team John Mitchell and Jo Cadman in another Evo IX.

Charlie Drake and Ben Atkinson were sixth outright and won the Premier League category in an Evo IX, while Bruce Fullarton and Hugh Reardon-Smith won Group N in their Evo IX and Mick Gillet and Harvey Smith took the Eco Challenge class in their Hyundai i30 turbo Diesel.

In the Australian Junior Challenge, Tom and Nerida Wilde from Nannup, Western Australia, recovered from early problems on day one in their Subaru Impreza to take victory in the four-wheel-drive section, winning funding support for an entry in the final round of the ARC. The two wheel drive section was won by Will Orders in a Nissan Silvia, gaining him a funded drive in an Unrestricted Rallyschool.com.au car at the final round.

Ambrose was involved in four incidents during the 26th round at Richmond, Virginia – including a 13-car pile-up on lap eight, but the worst being rammed by Brian Vickers.

"Right from the start it was just not going to be our night," Ambrose said.

He started 33rd, finished 21st and moved up a place to 20th in the championship.

Kevin Harvick won the Richmond race, which had a record 15 cautions, ahead of Carl Edwards, while Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin claimed the two wildcards among the 12 drivers in The Chase (see standings below), which starts from next weekend's round at Chicagoland Speedway.

NASCAR Sprint Cup after 26 of 36 races (top 12 qualify for The Chase) 
1. Kyle Busch (Toyota) 2012 points, 2. Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet) 2012, 3. Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 2009, 4. Matt Kenseth (Ford) 2006, 5. Carl Edwards (Ford) 2003, 6. Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 2003, 7. Kurt Busch (Dodge) 2003, 8. Ryan Newman (Chevrolet) 2003, 9. Tony Stewart (Chevrolet) 2000, 10. Dale Earnhardt Junior (Chevrolet) 2000, 11. Brad Keselowski (Dodge) 2000, 12. Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 2000. Australia's Marcos Ambrose is 20th in the series.