MOTORSPORT: High five for Mercedes in F1

Will Power set the pace on the opening day of practice for the Indianapolis 500, for which a third Australian, James Davison, has been confirmed as the fourth driver for last year’s winning team, KV Racing Technology.

But in manufacturer terms the weekend was all about Mercedes and Volkswagen.

Mercedes continued its dominance of Formula One this year as the World Championship began its European season, with the cars driven by Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg and now christened W05 Hybrids only 0.636 seconds apart at the end in Barcelona – with Ricciardo’s Red Bull-Renault RB10 more than three quarters of a minute away in third. While 20 of the 22 cars on the grid finished, only three more were on the lead lap at the chequered flag.

Volkswagen’s victory in Rally Argentina was its ninth straight in the World Rally Championship with its Polo R – bettering Citroen’s eight in a row in 2011.

It was Finn Jari-Matti Latvala triumphant this time ahead of VW’s French world champion Sebatien Ogier, while Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen was fourth in another VW.

Northern Irishman Kris Meeke was third in a Citroen DS3, but almost six minutes behind the winning Polo.

Latvala’s victory was his second this season, 10th in the WRC and third with VW. He finished almost one and a half minutes ahead of Ogier, who had tyre and overheating issues mid-event and did not chase hard in the thick fog and deep mud on the final leg as another Finn, Mikko Hirvonen won three of the last four stages in a Ford Fiesta RS. While Hirvonen only wound up ninth, Belgian Thierry Neuville finished fifth in his Hyundai i20 ahead of Polish ex-F1 driver Robert Kubica in a Ford.

Nine-time WRC champion Sebastien Loeb notched his maiden feature victory in the World Touring Car Championship in a Citroen, but the race at the Slovakia-Ring was cut short by rain and a later race cancelled.

Australia’s major tarmac rally, Targa Tasmania, was won by Tasmanian driver Jamie Vandenberg in a Nissan GT-R after earlier leaders Steve Glenney (Nissan GT-R), Jason White (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX) and another frontrunner, Matt Close (Audi TT RS) fell by the wayside, either through mechanical failures or accidents. Even Vandenberg, of Burnie on the island state’s north-west coast, limped to the finish with his GT-R smoking over the final stages.

In America’s NASCAR, four-time champion Jeff Gordon won the night round at Kansas ahead of Kevin Harvick and Kasey Kahne in a Chevrolet clean sweep, with Joey Logano fourth in a Ford in front of Dale Earnhardt Junior’s Chev and Carl Edwards in a Ford.

Danica Patrick’s seventh place in her Chevrolet was her best finish in the Sprint Cup, while Australia’s Marcos Ambrose finished three laps down in 24th and has dropped to 19th in the points. Gordon leads the series by 15 points from Toyota driver Matt Kenseth, whose teammate Kyle Busch is another six points back in third with Earnhardt fourth.

Rosberg, winner of the season-opening grand prix in Melbourne, felt “a bit gutted” after last night’s Barcelona race but claimed he might have passed Hamilton had there been another lap.

Despite the best efforts of the TV commentators to make it exciting, it was yet another processional GP at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Daniel Ricciardo, having qualified third, had to sit behind the more powerful Williams-Mercedes of Finn Valterri Bottas in the opening laps but regained his position in the first round of pitstops.

It then became a lonely drive to his podium finish – and this time he gets to keep the trophy after his RB10 was excluded from his brilliant second place in Melbourne for having exceeded the 100kg/hour fuel-flow limit.

Ricciardo’s world champion teammate of the past four years, Sebastian Vettel, charged from 15th on the grid – after little practice Friday, a gearbox failure in the final part of qualifying and a five-place grid penalty for changing that gearbox – to fourth at the finish, more than 76 seconds behind the Mercs and 27.688 seconds behind Ricciardo.

It was a superb performance by the German and his fastest lap was more than a second better than Ricciardo’s.

Vettel was publicly optimistic that Red Bull and Renault will rein in Mercedes later in the season, but said: “Mercedes is very strong, they have a phenomenal engine, a very good car and two very good drivers. They deserve to be in that position, but from our point of view we hope that their dominance can come to an end.”

Hope, not confidence.

Ricciardo said: “I think we need a lasso on the back of the Mercedes and let them tow us along. It is a massive gap, but I am sure we will get there. We all know what Adrian Newey [Red Bull technical director] is like, as well as the 600 other people at the team.”

Wishful, rather than genuinely confident about overhauling the difference this season.

Spanish dual world champion Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari finished sixth in Barcelona, behind Bottas’ Williams, and was almost lapped, while his Finnish teammate Kimi Raikkonen, another world champion, was lapped.

It is now a year since Alonso, arguably still the best driver in F1, has won a race and he has said the performance gap Mercedes has established at the start of the hybrid era is “amazing”.

“They [Mercedes] are showing the potential of these cars. We need to raise our game,” Alonso said of Ferrari, which already has changed team principal this season.

Alonso remains third in the championship but only four points ahead of Vettel now, with Ricciardo another six points back.

Raikkonen was peeved that Ferrari changed Alonso’s tyres earlier than his, even though the Finn was ahead at that point and normally would have had the right to the team’s first pitstop.

On the slowdown lap Raikkonen queried his crew over the radio on “Who made these calls?”, protested that he “seemed to be getting second choice” and, even after cooling down, said he wanted “to clarify a few things”.

Alonso said his tyres had degraded quickly and the strategy had been to try to keep Vettel behind the Ferraris. “Between Kimi and me, whoever finished first was not the priority. It was to stop Vettel and we didn’t manage it,” he said.

While Frenchman Romain Grosjean gained the first points this season for Lotus by finishing eighth, it was the third straight race that McLaren – the sport’s second most successful team behind Ferarri – has gone pointless, with 2009 world champion Jenson Button and Danish rookie Kevin Magnussen only 11th and 12th.

That after not having a podium last year and starting this season promisingly, with Magnussen and Button classified second and third in Melbourne after Ricciardo’s disqualification.

Yet McLaren’s new racing director, Frenchman Eric Boullier, ex-Lotus, has claimed “the trend is in the right direction” for the team sitting sixth in the constructors’ championship – behind Williams, another once-mighty British outfit that had become a tailender before this season.

Hamilton’s decision to switch from McLaren to the Mercedes factory team last season has proven a master stroke, with no other team in its league at the minute – or likely to be in a hurry. Not even the genius of Adrian Newey can change this picture rapidly.

The young Brabham started from pole position in his Andretti Autosport car and withstood the pressure of Brazilian Luiz Razia, a former GP2 racer in Europe.

Colombian-American Gabby Chaves, who won two earlier races in the Indy Lights championship, had challenged him too early, even taking the lead briefly. Brabham managed his advantage and his tyres perfectly in the closing stages.

His latest success comes after winning the US F2000 and Mazda Pro titles the past two seasons.

KV Racing Technology confirmed at the weekend that 27-year-old James Davison, from Melbourne and cousin of V8 Supercar drivers Will and Alex Davision, has been entered for the May 25 Indianapolis 500 in a fourth car from the reigning champion team at The Brickyard.

Davison will begin practice on Thursday, days after the other 32 drivers entered, with qualifying next Saturday and Sunday. He said the Indy 500 was “the childhood dream of mine”.

“There’s no need to take any significant risks [in practice], but just get up to speed and focus on getting in the race and on race set-up,” he said.

“Race day is pay day and getting a finish is what it’s all about.”

Davison was second in the 2009 Indy Lights championship, winning two races, but his only IndyCar starts were two road races last year for Dale Coyne Racing.

Most recently he has been racing sports cars in America.

His Indy 500 campaign has been backed by an automotive performance business with which actor Paul Walker, killed in a road accident in the US last year, was involved.

The other two Aussies in the 500, Will Power and Ryan Briscoe, finished sixth and eighth respectively in an IndyCar round on The Brickyard’s road course on Saturday.

Frenchman Simon Pagenaud won the race, his third in IndyCar, ahead of Brazilian Helio Castroneves, a Penske teammate of Power, and American Ryan Hunter-Reay, who has closed to within a point of Power’s series lead.

Pagenaud is now third, six points behind Power, with Castroneves and New Zealander Scott Dixon a distant equal fourth.

Canadian James Hinchcliffe was concussed after he was hit on the helmet by flying debris from Englishman Justin Wilson’s broken front wing in a chaotic restart during the race.

Hinchcliffe missed the opening day of oval practice for the 500, which Team Penske led with Power, 2000 winner Juan Pablo Montoya and Castroneves at the top of the timesheet.

Eighteen of the cars entered for America’s greatest open-wheeler race have Honda power, while the other 15 have Chevrolet engines.

Formula One World Champion driver standings after five of 19 rounds - 1. Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, Mercedes) 100 points; 2. Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 97; 3. Fernando Alonso (Spain, Ferrari) 49; 4. Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Red Bull-Renault) 45; 5.  Daniel Ricciardo (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 39; 6. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 37; 7. Valtteri Bottas (Finland, Williams-Mercedes) 34; 8. Jenson Button (GB, McLaren-Mercedes) 23; 9. Kevin Magnussen (Denmark, McLaren-Mercedes) 20; 10. Sergio Perez (Mexico, Force India-Mercedes) 20; 11. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, Ferrari) 17; 12. Felipe Massa (Brazil, Williams-Mercedes) 12; 13. Romain Grosjean (France, Lotus-Renault) 4; 14. Jean-Eric Vergne (France, Toro Rosso-Renault) 4; 15. Daniil Kvyat (Russia, Toro Rosso-Renault) 4.
      
F1 constructor standings - 1. Mercedes 197 points; 2. RedBull-Renault 84; 3. Ferrari 66; 4.  Force India-Mercedes 57; 5. Williams-Mercedes 46; 6. McLaren-Mercedes 43; 7. Toro Rosso-Renault 8; 8. Lotus - Renault 4.

World Rally Championship driver standings after five of 13 rounds - 1. Sebastien Ogier (France, Volkswagen Motorsport) 112; 2. Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland, Volkswagen Motorsport) 88; 3. Andreas Mikkelsen (Norway, Volkswagen Motorsport) 48; 4. Mads Ostberg (Norway, Citroen Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team) 48; 5. Mikko Hirvonen (Finland, Ford M-Sport) 40; 6. Kris Meeke (Great Britain, Citroen Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team) 32; 7. Thierry Neuville (Belgium, Hyundai Motorsport) 31. Australia’s Chris Atkinson (Hyundai Motorsport) is 15th on 6 points after just one event.     

WRC team standings - 1. Volkswagen Motorsport 187 points; 2. Citroen Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team 90; 3. M-Sport World Rally Team 68; 4. Hyundai Motorsport 55; 5. Volkswagen Motorsport II 52; 6. Jipocar Czech National Team 24; 7. RK M-Sport World Rally Team 12.