MOTORSPORT: High fives but no cigars

Aussies go well in classics but no podiums
The big ones -- the Monaco Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500 -- have been run and won, without the ultimate success we'd hoped for from the Australians competing.

But Mark Webber finished fifth at Monaco and Will Power fifth at Indianapolis, while Ryan Briscoe led a little more than 5 per cent of the distance in the US classic.

Briscoe went a lap down when he suddenly slowed as a fresh tyre lost pressure but he charged back through the field to second before he had to make a late stop for fuel, which dropped him to an eventual 15th.

Jenson Button's win at Monaco was his fifth from six GPs this season, while Rubens Barrichello made it the third 1-2 finish for the new Brawn GP team -- formerly Honda.

While Honda pulled the plug on Formula 1, it powered all 33 Dallara cars in this morning's Indy 500 so it was assured of glory there.

In the World Rally Championship, Ford scored a 1-2 after French superstar Sebastien Loeb's domination of the earlier five rounds for Citroen.

No. 3 for Castroneves gives Penske 15th Indy 500 win
Brazilian Helio Castroneves scored his third Indy 500 victory at The Brickyard barely five weeks after he faced going to jail in a multi-million tax evasion case in the US.

A final charge of conspiracy against him was only dismissed last Friday.

While Castroneves was overcome with the emotion of his remarkable comeback from what had seemed like hell during his court case, climbed the catch fence (as did many of his crew), and drank the traditional milk in Victory Lane, the significance of his latest success is that it delivered a 15th Indy 500 win in the world's major open-wheeler race to "The Captain", team owner Roger Penske.

While the seven-figure cheques for conquering The Brickyard will be handed out tomorrow, within days Penske's road car will sport the number plate "I Won Indy 15". What an operator!

For more on the Penske-Castroneves success and what the team's pair of Aussie drivers had to say about the great race, see here.

Danica Patrick's third place for Andretti Green Racing was the best finish for a woman in Indy 500 history.

Castroneves' winning margin was 1.9819 seconds over Panther Racing's British driver Dan Wheldon, who won the 2005 Indy 500.

All four former Indy 500 race winners in this year's race finished in the top seven, with Chip Ganassi's defending winner, Brisbane-born New Zealander Scott Dixon, sixth and 2007 winner Dario Franchitti seventh.

Pitstop issues dropped the Ganassi pair back after they dominated the middle stages of the classic, while American Townsend Bell took a creditable fourth place in a one-off for KV Racing ahead of Aussie Power, who at one stage challenged Castroneves for the lead but now faces an uncertain future -- with no guarantee of any more drives this year.

Franchitti set the fastest lap of the race -- an average of 222.044 mph (357.34kmh) -- on lap 187. He also now leads the Indy Racing League standings with 122 points -- five more than Castroneves, with Briscoe a close third.

Twenty of the 33 cars that started today's race finished, and finished on the lead lap -- a record for the event. Dixon led twice for 73 laps, the most of any of the four leaders. Castroneves led first and last for 66 laps. Franchitti led once for 50 laps and Briscoe led once for 11 laps.

Over 60 of the 200 race laps -- more than 30 per cent -- were under caution because of eight crashes.

Canadian Alex Tagliani, well known to Australians through having raced regularly at the Gold Coast Indy, was the top rookie in the 500, finishing 11th for Conquest Racing after starting last in the car qualified by Brazilian Bruno Junqueira.

Fellow Canadian Paul Tracy, back at The Brickyard for the first time in seven years, ran as high as fourth before finishing ninth after starting 13th.

Indianapolis 500 race results
1. Helio Castroneves (Penske) 200 laps
2. Dan Wheldon (Panther) +1.9819s
3. Danica Patrick (Andretti Green) +2.3350s
4. Townsend Bell (KV) +2.7043s
5. Will Power (Penske) +3.6216s
6. Scott Dixon (Ganassi) +4.2988s
7. Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) +4.9159s
8. Ed Carpenter (Vision) +5.5096s
9. Paul Tracy (KV) +6.5180s
10. Hideki Mutoh (Andretti Green) +7.3312s
11. Alex Tagliani (Conquest) +10.5351s
12. Tomas Scheckter (Coyne) +10.9874s
13. Alex Lloyd (Schmidt/Ganassi) +11.1944s
14. Scott Sharp (Panther) +11.4259s
15. Ryan Briscoe (Penske) +12.6695s
16. AJ Foyt IV (Foyt) +15.4867s
17. Sarah Fisher (Fisher) +15.9774s
18. Mike Conway (Dreyer & Reinbold) +16.3488s
19. John Andretti (Dreyer & Reinbold/Petty) +18.0868s
20. Milka Duno (Dreyer & Reinbold) +1 lap
21. Vitor Meira (Foyt) +27 laps
22. Raphael Matos (Luczo Dragon) +27 laps
23. Justin Wilson (Coyne) +40 laps
24. EJ Viso (HVM) +61 laps
25. Nelson Philippe (HVM) +70 laps
26. Oriol Servia (Rahal Letterman) +102 laps
27. Tony Kanaan (Andretti Green) +103 laps
28. Robert Doornbos (Newman/Haas/Lanigan) +115 laps
29. Davey Hamilton (Dreyer & Reinbold) +121 laps
30. Marco Andretti (Andretti Green) +144 laps
31. Graham Rahal (Newman/Haas/Lanigan) +145 laps
32. Ryan Hunter-Reay (Vision) +181 laps
33. Mario Moraes (KV) +200 laps

Indy Racing League points after four of 17 rounds -- Dario Franchitti 122 points, Helio Castroneves 117, Ryan Briscoe 114, Scott Dixon 111, Tony Kanaan 110, Danica Patrick 109, Dan Wheldon 106, Will Power 99, Ryan Hunter-Reay 84, Marco Andretti 83.

Brawn goes marching on in Monaco
Not a lot of passing on the narrow streets of Monaco in last night's Grand Prix, but what a delight to see 20 of the world's best drivers racing between those narrow barriers at such speed against such a marvellous backdrop.

Jenson Button is now out to a 16-point lead over Brawn teammate Rubens Barrichello in the world championship.

German wonderboy Sebastien Vettel, the only driver apart from Button to have won a GP this season, screwed up in Monaco, crashing out of the race early, but remains third in the championship ahead of Australian teammate Mark Webber.

Good to see Webber finishing higher (fifth) last night than he qualified (eighth) -- a reversal of the tradition of his previous seven seasons in F1.

With 19.5 points this year Webber is averaging a little over three a race -- or an average finish of a little better than sixth place.

While that is better than in previous years, Red Bull will be hoping for even better with him in a car that has been consistently the second best this season -- and which he has said should go better at upcoming tracks.

There were signs of a Ferrari revival in Monaco, with Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa finishing third and fourth.

But the woe continued for reigning world champion and last year's Monaco winner Lewis Hamilton, who made a mistake in qualifying, damaged his McLaren-Mercedes, started last on the grid and finished only 12th -- a lap down for the second GP in a row.

Hamilton's teammate, Finn Heikki Kovalainen, was another early retirement last night. Adding to the ignominy for McLaren, Brawn is using the same Mercedes engines as it.

It was another shocking weekend for BMW-Sauber, with Robert Kubica still without a point this season, while Toyota -- third in the constructors' championship -- put in a bad one, with its two cars starting back with Hamilton.
 
Formula 1 drivers' world championship after six of 17 rounds -- Jenson Button (Great Britain,  Brawn-Mercedes) 51 points, Rubens Barrichello (Brazil, Brawn-Mercedes) 35, Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Red Bull-Renault) 23, Mark Webber Australian (Red Bull-Renault) 19.5, Jarno Trulli (Italy, Toyota) 14.5, Timo Glock (Germany, Toyota) 12, Fernando Alonso (Spain, Renault) 11, Kimi Räikkönen (Finland, Ferrari) 9, Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, McLaren-Mercedes) 9, Felipe Massa (Brazil, Ferrari) 8, Nico Rosberg (Germany,  Williams-Toyota) 7.5, Nick Heidfeld (Germany, BMW-Sauber 6), Heikki Kovalainen (Finland, McLaren-Mercedes) 4, Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 3, Sebastien Bourdais (France, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 2.

F1 constructors' world championship -- Brawn-Mercedes 86 points, Red Bull-Renault 42.5, Toyota 26.5, Ferrari 17, McLaren-Mercedes 13, Renault 11, Williams-Toyota 7.5, BMW-Sauber 6, Toro Rosso-Ferrari 5.

What Webber and Ferrari's Aussie had to say
Here's what Mark Webber had to say about the Monaco race:
"We're pretty happy with fifth to be honest, to get a few points after a challenging qualifying session is pretty good.

"There were a few more people that came in on the act this weekend, so for us to still come away with a few points is good for us in the constructors' championship.

"The guys worked like hell this weekend to fit a lot of new parts so it was important for us to get some points. At other venues we'll be stronger again."

And here's the take of Ferrari's Australian chief engineer, Chris Dyer:
"That was a very interesting race. In the end, we are a bit disappointed, but that's a good sign, both because it shows how much we want to get back to being ahead of everyone and also because, when you begin to think you should have been able to do better than a third and fourth place finish, it means that you are back to being really competitive again.

"If we had not lost position at the start, probably we could have attacked Rubens, if we hadn't encountered a problem changing the right rear wheel at Kimi's second pit stop.

"What is reassuring is the pace shown by the F60, especially in the second part of the race when, despite having more fuel than the leaders, we were always quicker.

"We are very happy with the performance of the car and we are confident we can improve it further with coming developments."

F1 teams and Federation Internationale de l'Automobile president Max Mosley and F1 commercial supreme Bernie Ecclestone reportedly are progressing towards an agreement to end the crisis over next year's technical rules and costs. The BBC's report on the matter is here.

Ford wins rare one against Citroen and Loeb
Ford has ended Citroen and Sebastien Loeb's unbeaten run in this year's WRC, with the Blue Oval's Jari-Matti Latvala winning Rally Sardinia.

Latvala  -- who had started his season with a raft of mistakes, including one in Portugal in which his Focus rolled 17 times down a cliff -- led countryman and teammate Mikko Hirvonen in a Ford one-two ahead of Loeb.

However, Loeb has been relegated to fourth in the event, behind Petter Solberg -- now a Citroen privateer. Loeb was in strife for a seat belt infringement immediately before he stopped to change a punctured tyre on Saturday.

Loeb's teammate Dani Sordo was never a factor in Sardinia due to turbo problems on all three days and hitting a rock on the opening day.

Drivers' WRC standings after 6 of 12 rounds -- Sebastien Loeb (France, Citroen Total WRT C4 WRC) 55 points, Mikko Hirvonen (Finland, BP Ford Abu Dhabi Focus RS WRC 08) 38, Daniel Sordo (Spain, Citroen Total WRT C4 WRC) 31, Henning Solberg (Norway, Stobart Ford Focus RS WRC 08) 21, Petter Solberg (Norway, PS WRT Citroen Xsara WRC) 20, Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland, BP Ford Abu Dhabi Focus RS WRC) 19, Matthew Wilson (Great Britain, Stobart Ford Focus RS WRC 08) 15,  Federico Villagra (Argentina, Munchi's Ford Focus RS WRC) 9, Sebastien Ogier (France, Citroen Junior Team C4 WRC) 5, Mads Ostberg (Norway, Adapta Subaru WRC) 5, Chris Atkinson (Australia, Citroen Junior Team C4 WRC) 4 (from one round), Evgeny Novikov (Russia, Citroen Junior Team C4 WRC) 4.

Manufacturers' standings -- Citroen Total WRT 89 points, BP Ford Abu Dhabi WRT 61, Stobart VK M-Sport Ford RT 44, Citroen Junior Team 20, Munchi's Ford WRT 11.

Image: Dana Garrett for indy500.com 

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