MOTORSPORT: Charging of the Red Bulls

But things are shaking up behind them, with the new Nissans and even the Mercedes now on the move up.

Brad Jones Racing remains the No 2 team in the series – and its Jason Bright was second overall at the WA round, despite squandering a pole position.

But the Fords are flying, even if Will Davison has lost the lead to Whincup and Mark Winterbottom is still without a win this season.

Ford Performance Racing-backed new boy Chaz Mostert made a stunning debut at Perth’s Barbagallo Raceway, finishing in the top 10 in the weekend’s third race for Dick Johnson Racing.

Normal service also resumed in the World Rally Championship at the weekend, with nine-time world champion Sebastien Loeb – now a part-timer – victorious in Argentina for the eighth straight time.

In sports car racing Audi stepped up its quest for yet another victory in the Le Mans 24-Hour in France next month with a clean sweep of the podium at the Spa Six-Hour in Belgium.

Audi’s R18 e-tron quattros – including a new long-tail version in third - pounded Toyota’s TS030 hybrids into submission, with the Japanese manufacturer’s latest model retiring in the fourth hour with a failure of its energy-retrieval system that caused the brakes to overheat.

But while it was situation normal in most categories at the weekend, Australian IndyCar driver Will Power’s victory drought stretched beyond a year as his Team Penske Dallara-Chevrolet caught fire as he charged through the field from his lowly 22nd starting position on the streets of Sao Paulo.

“Man, I was passing a car a lap,” Power, who had won all three previous races there, lamented as he dropped to 18th in that championship.

Canadian James Hinchcliffe became the first two-winner in IndyCar this season, overtaking Japan’s Takuma Sato at the last corner of the race – but Sato takes the championship lead to the Indianapolis 500 in three weeks ahead of Marco Andretti, who was third in Sao Paulo.

In NASCAR Aussie Marcos Ambrose finished a rain-interrupted race at Talladega 14th in his Ford – behind Richard Petty Motorsports teammate Aric Almirola as “Cinderella” Ford team Front Row Motorsports claimed a shock quinella with David Ragan and David Gilliland first and second.

Ambrose moved up two places in the points to 21st after 10 rounds of the Sprint Cup.

Whincup is the first driver to have won three races this season and goes to the new American round in Texas in a fortnight with a 65-point lead over Will Davison.

Roland Dane’s Triple Eight Race Engineering, now sporting Red Bull livery, chalked up its 100th V8 Supercar race win at the WA round and is now reasserting its traditional upper hand over its rivals, even though Dane quite rightly points out that the racing has become more competition with the introduction of the Car of the Future this year.

Five teams had already won races at the three earlier rounds.
Whincup said Triple Eight had been “slowly improving” this season and that “hopefully this (the WA clean sweep) is the start of something big”.

Davison bagged what he called “solid points” in the west despite losing his series lead while Ford Performance Racing teammate Mark Winterbottom moved up into the top 10 with two podiums – which could well have been three if not for the embarrassing repeat of the sticking wheel nut that hurt him at Adelaide’s opening round.

“I was right on Jamie when I came in from second (in race 12) but I dropped to 21st and that was our race done,” Winterbottom lamented after fighting his way back to 12th.

“It’s disappointing, but we aren’t doing much wrong – we just need a bit of luck.”

Although Holden continued to dominate the race wins – it now has 11 out 12 – the Ford camp had plenty to be pleased about from Perth, including the improved showings of David Reynolds and Alex Davison – and especially Chaz Mostert’s debut with Dick Johnson Racing.

The 21-year-old Queenslander qualified 10th on Saturday and 11th the other two times and finished 15th twice before Sunday’s excellent 10th.

“I’m really pleased, but now I have to learn more about the tyre management in the next few rounds,” Mostert said.

FPR team principal Tim Edwards congratulated Mostert on “a very fine effort all weekend”.

“His performance shows why we signed him and I am glad he has this opportunity (with DJR) to showcase his talents,” Edwards said.

Another highlight of the WA round was James Moffat’s three top 10 finishes in one of the four Nissan Altimas.

“This is by far the best result that I’ve had at Barbagallo,” Moffat said.

“It’s one of the hardest places on tyres, which shows how well the (Nissan) chassis is performing.

“The car was very good in all the races.

“It’s a great race car and we know where our weaknesses are and the team (Nissan Motorsport) is working as hard and as fast as they can to improve them.”

While the three Erebus Motorsport AMG Mercedes E63s are still down on power compared with the Holdens, Fords and even Nissans, Lee Holdsworth said the engine upgrades since the previous round in New Zealand had “worked wonders”, enabling midfield finishes now.

“A lot of positives this weekend – and I’m looking forward to Texas,” he said.

European import Maro Engel did a brilliant job to qualify his Merc ninth on Saturday.

“That was a milestone, but unfortunately in the races things didn’t quite go to plan,” he said.

“Getting all three cars in the top 15 for the start of the final race was great and, most importantly, we take away new information that we can put to good use in order to make further progress.”

But it was a frustrating 200th V8 Supercar event and home round for Holden Racing Team’s Garth Tander as he lost three places in the championship to seventh – but still ahead of teammate James Courtney.

V8 Supercar Championship after 12 races: 1. Jamie Whincup (Holden) 958 points; 2. Will Davison (Ford) 893; 3. Craig Lowndes (H) 843; 4. Jason Bright (H) 797; 5. Shane Van Gisbergen (H) 720; 6. Fabian Coulthard (H) 712; 7. Garth Tander (H) 689; 8. James Courtney (H) 674; 9. Mark Winterbottom (F) 666; 10. Scott McLaughlin (H) 589.

Ogier won five of the first six stages but then went off the road for 40 seconds, allowing Loeb to overhaul a 17-second deficit to take the lead in his DS3.

Ogier punctured the left front tyre on his Polo R on the next stage and Loeb motored to his 78th WRC event victory almost a minute clear of his younger French countryman, with Finn Jari-Matti Latvala third in another VW ahead of Russian Evgeny Novikov in a Ford Fiesta RS, with Begian Thierry Neuville (Ford) fifth and Finn Mikko Hirvonen (Citroen) sixth after a puncture and electrical troubles.

Greece’s Acropolis Rally is the next round at the end of this month while Loeb’s farewell to the WRC will be his home event on asphalt in October.

Rally Australia in mid-September will be the 10th round of the championship.

Ogier – with a hat-trick of wins before Argentina and twice runner-up to Loeb this season – is well on the way to his first world title, leading the championship by 54 points.

World Rally Championship driver standings after five rounds: 1.Sebastien Ogier (France, Volkswagen) 122 points; 2. Sebastien Loeb (France, Citroen) 68; 3. Mikko Hirvonen (Finland, Citroen) 57; 4. Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland, Volkswagen) 49; 5 Mads Ostberg (Norway, Ford) 38.

WRC manufacturers standings: 1. Volkswagen Motorsport 154 points; 2. Citroen Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team 140; 3. Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team 73; 4. Qatar World Rally Team 46; 5. Abu Dhabi Citroen Total World Rally Team 29.

IndyCar Championship after four rounds: 1. Takuma Sato (Japan, Dallara-Honda) 136 points; 2. Marco Andretti (US, Dallara-Chevrolet) 123; 3. Helio Castroneves (Brazil, Dallara-Chevrolet) 116; James Hinchcliffe (Canada, Dallara-Chevrolet) 112; Scott Dixon (New Zealand, Dallara-Honda) 101; 6. Ryan Hunter-Reay (Dallara-Chevrolet) 94. Australia’s Will Power is 18th on 68 points.

NASCAR Sprint Cup after 10 rounds: 1. Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 383 points; 2. Carl Edwards (Ford) 342; 3. Dale Earnhardt Junior (Chevrolet) 324; 4. Clint Bowyer (Toyota) 316; 5. Brad Keselowski (Ford) 314; 6. Kasey Kahne (Chevrolet) 299.

Australia’s Marcos Ambrose is 21st on 225. Ambrose’s Richard Petty Motorsports teammate Aric Almirola is seventh on 293.

Images: www.V8supercars.com.au

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