MOTORSPORT: Champions in full flight

Third in F1 world championship still in Webber’s sights
The formalities are almost over in Formula One. Sebastian Vettel, already a four-time world champion for three weeks, won his eighth F1 Grand Prix in a row today and could make it a record nine in a season in Brazil next Monday morning, Australian time.

Mark Webber was third today in the United States GP and could still finish third in the world championship. He’s only two points behind injured Kimi Raikkonen and six adrift of Lewis Hamilton. But the end of the Aussie veteran’s F1 career can’t come quick enough for him now.

“The enjoyment factor is dead,” Webber said after waving goodbye to fans at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

Jimmie Johnson is NASCAR’s champion for the sixth time in eight years after finishing ninth in the 36th and final race of this year’s Sprint Cup today at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Driving an SS Chevrolet that is a Holden Commodore design for Hendrick Motorsports, Johnson finished the season 19 points ahead of Toyota driver Matt Kenseth, who led 144 of 267 laps in the final race – ironically the Ford EcoBoost 400 - but wound up second behind Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin.

Mid-race contact between the championship’s two main contenders had dropped Johnson to 23rd – the lowest he could have finished to be assured of the title that leaves him just one short of legends Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt – but he made up 14 places by the chequered flag.

Australia’s Marcos Ambrose in a Ford Fusion finished the race 26th – 10 places behind his Richard Petty Motorsports teammate Aric Almirola.

For the season Ambrose ended 22nd, immediately behind Juan Pablo Montoya – who has been dumped by Chip Ganassi and will return to IndyCar racing with Roger Penske – and four spots behind Almirola.

Last year’s champion Brad Keselowski was 14th this season.

Volkswagen dominates 2013 World Rally Championship season
Volkswagen ended its debut WRC season at Rally Great Britain in Wales with its 10th win in 13 rounds and its second straight one-two.

Its French world champion driver Sebastien Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia headed Finns Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila, with Belgians Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul third in their final outing in a Ford Fiesta RS for the M-Sport team before joining Hyundai’s new campaign next season.

Fifth place by Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen and Finn Mikko Markkula in a third VW Polo R completed the German manufacturer’s best result, while Neuville has ended up second in the drivers’ championship.

Volkswagen has reported that WRC rounds this season have attracted an average five million German viewers a round compared with “around 50,000” last year before its entry to the competition. That’s a huge – and massively impressive – jump, if correct.

“The final weekend of the WRC also saw Volkswagen set a new record on social networks: over the course of 2013 one million fans pressed the ‘Like’ button on facebook.com/Volkswagen.motorsport,” VW said.

Honda bows out of ARC on top
Honda’s participation in the Australian Rally Championship ended at Rally Victoria with a record 12th straight round victory by Eli Evans and Glen Weston in a Honda Jazz G2.

The combination was not beaten in two seasons.

Youngster Brendan Reeves in a Mazda2 took second place in the Victorian event, this time with veteran Glenn Macneall as his co-driver, while Renault Clio driver Tom Wilde leapfrogged teammate Scott Pedder into second in the championship.

At Interlagos in Sao Paulo in the early hours of next Monday, Australian time, Vettel could equal the nine straight of Alberto Ascari, but the Italian did it across the 1952-53 seasons rather than in a single world championship.

There’s just no stopping the 26-year-old Vettel at the minute, although on his cool-down lap at Austin he did remind his Red Bull Racing crew – amid his joy – that they can’t go on winning forever.

Next year’s rules, introducing V6 turbocharged engines, could level the playing field or toss up another dominant team, at least in the first year.

But for those still wondering what it is that makes Vettel better than others, especially his retiring Aussie teammate Mark Webber, an explanation – and illustration of it – has been found.

It’s in a post on the blog of Australian-raised veteran British journalist and commentator Peter Windsor, peterwindsor.com, dated November 6 and headlined ‘Why Seb is so quick’.

There Windsor has drawn attention to two pictures by Alastair Staley of the renowned LAT photographic agency taken at the recent Abu Dhabi GP of Webber and Vettel taking the same corner.

The Webber photo shows “Our Mark” lifting the right front wheel of his RB9 and his head leaning with the corner as he grafts through it.

At the same spot Vettel has all four wheels on the bitumen, his car is travelling more comfortably, while the driver is already looking ahead to the next corner – which is in the opposite direction.

It is evidence that, while Webber is a nine-time GP winner (10 if he can pull off a win at Interlagos next Monday), Vettel is one of those rare F1 talents who is at yet another level.

The top post on Windsor’s blog now is his take on today’s Austin race, in which Vettel’s superiority was on show again as he beat Frenchman Romain Grosjean by almost 6.3 seconds, with Webber another couple of seconds back in third.

That was Webber’s fourth podium in the past seven GPs, and seventh of the year.

Grosjean’s result was his best result and his sixth podium this season.

Lewis Hamilton’s fourth and Nico Rosberg’s ninth stretched Mercedes’ hold on second place in the constructors’ championship (already won by Red Bull) to 15 points over Ferrari, whose Fernando Alonso finished fifth.

Alonso has gone five GPs now without a podium but there were a couple of flashes of his magic at Austin, a reminder that – like Vettel – he is one of those superhuman talents.

Despite badly worn rear tyres, Alonso held off the impressive Nico Hulkenberg’s Ferrari-engined Sauber in an enthralling dice.

Mexican Sergio Perez, dumped by McLaren for next season in favour of young Danish driver Kevin Magnussen, finished seventh – his third straight finish in the points.

McLaren teammate Jenson Button, a world champion, scored his first point in three races – but only after overtaking the Toro Rosso of young Aussie Daniel Ricciardo in the closing stages.

“It was a tough end to the day – really tough,” Ricciardo said.

“I didn’t have enough left in the tyres … in the last five laps I lost pretty much all the grip I had.”

Young Finn Valtteri Bottas scored the first points of his F1 career – four for eighth place, to take his Williams team’s tally for the season to five points.

As pleasing as that was for Bottas and Williams, that eighth place and the seventh and 10th by Perez and Button in the McLarens are a reminder of how these British teams – which not so long ago formed the “big three” with Ferrari – have fallen.

Not so long either those finishing places would not have been rewarded with any points.

Heikki Kovalainen, the recalled Finn deputising for his injured countryman Kimi Raikkonen at Lotus, qualified in the top 10 but finished 15th – 95 seconds behind Vettel and almost 90 behind the other Lotus of Grosjean, much of that attributable to a kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) failure.

Grosjean came closest to threatening Vettel’s winning streak today but the German wonder surely had more in reserve. Many fear that Vettel’s supremacy is damaging for F1.

Perhaps an Indian interviewed by the Times of India (TOI) after the retirement of that country’s greatest cricketer Sachin Tendulkar at the weekend has the answer.

Ekam, 23, told TOI: “I feel Sachin should take to Formula One in a Ferrari.”

The bad news for Ekam, which he obviously hasn’t caught up with, is that Kimi Raikkonen has taken the only spare seat that was going at Ferrari for next year.

Formula One World Championship driver points after 18 of 19 rounds - 1. Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Red Bull-Renault) 372 points; 2. Fernando Alonso (Spain, Ferrari) 227; 3. Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, Mercedes) 187; 4. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, Lotus-Renault) 183; 5. Mark Webber (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 181; 6. Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 161; 7. Romain Grosjean (France, Lotus-Renault) 132; 8. Felipe Massa (Brazil, Ferrari) 106; 9.  Jenson Button (GB, McLaren-Mercedes) 61; 10. Paul Di Resta (GB, Force India-Mercedes) 48; 11. Nico Hulkenberg (Germany, Sauber-Ferrari) 47; 12. Sergio Perez (Mexico, McLaren-Mercedes) 41; 13. Adrian Sutil (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 29; 14. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 19; 15. Jean-Eric Vergne (France, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 13; 16. Esteban Gutierrez (Mexico, Sauber-Ferrari) 6; 17. Valtteri Bottas (Finland, Williams-Renault) 4; 18. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela, Williams-Renault) 1.

F1 constructors’ championship standings - 1. Red Bull-Renault 553; 2. Mercedes 348; 3. Ferrari 333; 4. Lotus-Renault 315; 5. McLaren-Mercedes 102; 6. Force India-Mercedes 77; 7. Sauber-Ferrari 53; 8. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 32; 9. Williams-Renault 5.

Australia’s part-time WRC competitor Chris Atkinson (Abu Dhabi Citroen Total World Rally Team) was 16th with eight points while Nathan Quinn was 26th with his four points from Rally Australia.

WRC teams championship points - 1. Volkswagen Motorsport 425; 2. Citroen Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team 280; 3. Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team 190; 4. Qatar World Rally Team 184; 5. Jipocar Czech National Team 65; 6. Abu Dhabi Citroen Total World Rally Team 63; 7. Volkswagen Motorsport II 50; 8. Lotos WRC Team 20.

Australian Rally Championship final driver standings after six rounds – 1. Eli Evans (Honda) 508 points; 2. Tom Wilde (Renault) 362; 3. Scott Pedder (Renault) 326; 4. Brendan Reeves (Mazda) 293; 5. Mark Pedder (Honda) 230.