MOTORSPORT: Ferrari finally topples the Mercs

Ferrari is back in Formula 1’s winner’s circle after a drought almost a year long, but celebration of Charles Leclerc’s breakthrough victory was muted by the death of one of his junior contemporaries a day earlier.

Daniel Ricciardo had considered not racing in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa after the horror F2 crash that claimed the life of 22-year-old Frenchman Anthoine Hubert.

Damage from a first-lap melee ultimately cost the carsales.com.au global ambassador any points after having qualified an excellent sixth, although he started mid-pack because his Renault team had already incurred an engine penalty.

Will Power has won the penultimate round of the IndyCar Series, while the World Rally Championship calendar for 2020 is finally expected to be announced any day – without an Australian round.

Rallying has been abuzz with talk that New Zealand will return to the WRC for the first time since 2012 at the expense of the event at Coffs Harbour, making this November’s Rally Oz the last for now.

Charles Leclerc became the third-youngest winner in F1 history and Ferrari now heads to its home ground next weekend with high expectations of ending the five-year domination of the Italian GP at Monza.

Leclerc, from Monaco and six weeks short of his 22nd birthday, had been fastest throughout the weekend at Spa and his maiden victory came in his 34th GP start and his 13th for the sport’s most famous team.

He held off Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes – thanks to some delaying tactics from Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel – by less than a second at the chequered flag.

Another lap or two and the five-time world champion may have nabbed him.

Vettel claimed the fastest lap late in the race on fresh tyres but finished fourth, while the best laps of Hamilton and third-placed Valtteri Bottas in the other Merc also were faster than Leclerc’s, leaving some doubt that the red cars will be quick enough to beat the Silver Arrows at Monza.

Leclerc is the fourth driver to win in F1 this season and he has outqualified Vettel six races in a row, but the mood was sombre at Spa.

“This one is for Anthoine,” Leclerc said.

“It feels good, but it is difficult to enjoy a weekend like this. On one hand I have realised a dream, but on the other hand it has been a difficult weekend.

“I have lost a friend, so I would like to dedicate my win to him. We have grown up together (racing in karts initially in 2005). It is a shame what happened yesterday, so I cannot enjoy my first victory.”

Hubert – the reigning GP3 champion, twice a victor in F2 this year and a member of Renault’s junior driver program – was killed in a 275km/h crash in which another driver, Ecuadorian-American Juan Manuel Correra, broke both his legs and suffered a minor spinal injury.

A minute’s silence was observed twice on Sunday and the F1 cars ran with ‘Racing for Anthoine’ stickers – and Leclerc pointed to his as soon as he alighted his cockpit.

Hamilton, who had crashed in final practice but still qualified third behind the Ferraris, has gone 65 points clear of Bottas, 268-203, and is on course to wrap up his sixth world title well before the remaining eight races are over.

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, winner of two of the previous four GPs with Honda power, remains third on 181 despite a first-lap retirement at Spa after barging into Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo at the first corner.

Vettel is fourth on 169 and Leclerc fifth on 157.

British-Thai rookie Alex Albon was fifth for Red Bull last night in his first race after the swap with Pierre Gasly and having started 17th, but the star of the day was another British rookie. Lando Norris would have been fifth but for the failure of the Renault power unit in his McLaren with a lap to go.

Daniel Ricciardo shed tears before the Belgian GP and said he “absolutely” thought about not racing after Hubert’s death.

“You question, ‘Is it really worth it?’, Ricciardo said.

“Yeah, it’s our job and it’s our profession and it’s our life, but it’s still just racing cars around in circles.

“Seeing some of his family [mother Nathalie and brother Victhor] here today gave me more strength than anything else.

“I could not imagine being in their position. I felt they were a lot stronger than any of us.

“Our race was pretty much shaped after the lap-one, turn-one incident.

“I got hit from behind and had big damage to the floor. We had to pit – I actually thought we might retire the car – but we put the medium-compound tyres on and the car was a bit of a handful.

“We kept going, held our place in the top 10, and I thought at one stage we might pick up some points [but he was classified 14th, a lap down].

“I was proud to hold on for that long and I know we couldn’t have done any more.

“I’m glad today is over. It was tough to be here and put on a brave face, but I’m glad I gave it my best.”

Renault team principal Cyril Abiteboul said Ricciardo had done “an extremely good job considering the very significant damage to his car – at least half a second per lap”.

Teammate Nico Hulkenberg finished eighth, almost one minute 47 seconds behind Leclerc, and now has 21 points to Ricciardo’s 22.

Renault remains sixth in the constructors’ championship with 43 points. Mercedes has 471, Ferrari 326, RBR 254, McLaren 82 and Toro Rosso 51.

While Will Power has won for the second time this year, Penske-Chevrolet teammate Josef Newgarden is in the box seat to claim his second IndyCar title in three years.

Power inherited the race lead at Portland, Oregon, after New Zealand’s five-time and reigning champion’s Honda-powered Chip Ganassi car suffered a suspected battery failure at half-distance.

The Toowoomba star finished almost 2.8 seconds ahead of Swede Felix Rosenqvist, with American Alex Rossi third. Fellow American Newgarden was fifth and goes to the double-points final round at Laguna Seca, California, in a fortnight 41 points clear of Rossi.
Frenchman Simon Pagenaud, the third Penske driver, is another point back, with Dixon fourth – and a mathematical chance of a sixth title – and Power fifth but, trailing Newgarden by 124 points, no chance of repeating his 2014 title.

While the November 14-17 Rally Oz now appears odds-on to be the last at Coffs Harbour, RallySport Magazine says it “understands that New Zealand’s deal is only for one year and that Australia may return to the calendar in 2021”.

Announcement of the 2020 calendar, originally due in June, is expected this week, with speculation that NZ will be the fourth-last round – probably in August or September.

WRC organisers have been concerned that Coffs Harbour does not draw enough spectators and has wanted the Australian event – originally based in Perth for almost 20 years, then held in northern NSW before the move to the Coffs region – closer to a major city.

Canberra, a stronghold of Australian rallying and for a long-time host of an Asia-Pacific championship round, has been mooted as a future home, while there has been renewed talk this year of making the Gold Coast a base for Rally Oz in future.

The French round on Corsica as well as Turkey are expected to be dropped from the 2020 calendar to make way for the return of the Safari Rally in Kenya and a new finale in Japan.