MOTORSPORT: High hopes abroad

Webber, Ricciardo, Power, Briscoe and Ambrose go for glory in classics overseas

Aussies up for Monaco magic

The Monaco Grand Prix is Formula One’s crown jewel – certainly its most glamorous race, although the Brazilian GP usually is the most watched because so often it is the world title decider.

Mark Webber has won in Monaco twice in the past three years with impeccable drives for Red Bull Racing on the narrow circuit between unforgiving barriers. He also won there in Formula 3000, way back before the decade he has spent in F1.

This week Webber ranked the Monaco GP “up there with Augusta (US Open golf, won at last recently by Aussie Adam Scott) and Wimbledon (British tennis Open)”.

Daniel Ricciardo, the younger Aussie in Red Bull-owned Scuderia Toro Rosso and striving to prove he’s worthy of Webber’s seat if the veteran exits it at the end of this season (and Kimi Raikkonen doesn’t come across from Lotus-Renault to fill it), has had two wins in Monaco too – in the World Series by Renault in 2010 and 2011.

Now seemingly with the upper hand over Toro Rosso teammate Jean-Eric Vergne and with almost two years of F1 under his belt, Ricciardo’s sights now are on finishing well up in the points at GPs – as he did with seventh in China six weeks ago – rather than the occasional point for 10th place.

Australia’s triple F1 world champion Sir Jack Brabham scored his maiden GP win in Monaco in 1959, but 1980 world champion Alan Jones never stood on the top step of its podium.

The Mercedes cars of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton have been pacesetters at recent GPs but have been unable to maintain that edge in races. They led practice last night – Monaco’s first day always is Thursday, with Friday the Ascension Day public holiday – and if they qualify up front again will be better placed to convert that to race results as overtaking is extremely difficult on the principality’s streets.

Tyres, such a hot issue this season because of Pirelli’s rubber wearing so fast, are unlikely to be such a factor this Sunday. The race is shorter in distance – 260km instead of 300km – if not in time (generally almost the full two hours allowable), the surface is not particularly abrasive, and only two stops for new soft or super-soft tyres will be scheduled for most drivers, and some will try to make only one, after the four many had in Barcelona a fortnight ago.

Webber, one of the most vocal critics of this year’s Pirellis, made only one stop in winning at Monaco a year ago, although that day he “was nursing the tyres for 72 of the 78 laps”.

Most years this classic is won by a driver starting on the front row of the grid. “You need to qualify well and then make a good start. If you’re out in front you can control and look after your tyres,” Webber said.

Lewis Hamilton agreed that Monaco’s is “the most important qualifying session of the year” and that in the race “you need to be inch-perfect for 78 laps” while averaging a gear change every 50 metres.

Ferrari has not won in Monaco since 2001 but Fernando Alonso has had two victories for the marque in the five races so far this season (as has Webber’s teammate Sebastian Vettel). Already a victor on these famous streets for Renault and McLaren, Alonso could become the first driver to win there for three teams.

McLaren has won most in Monaco – 15 times – but it is still struggling with its MP4-28. The Mercedes, Red Bulls, Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus-Renault, Alonso and even Felipe Massa in the other Ferrari, third in Spain two weeks ago, are at much shorter odds.

Big challenge of America’s big ovals

Australia’s fortunes have not been as good on the other side of the Atlantic, but we’re in with chances at the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600.

Will Power and Ryan Briscoe have each raced at Indy several times now but neither has finished higher than fifth.

Although starting sixth, on the outside of the second row, this time in a Team Penske Dallara-Chevrolet, Power clocked the fastest lap in practice at The Brickyard – faster than American Ed Carpenter’s pole position speed and the best there for a decade, at an average 229.808mph (369.84kmh) around the 2.5-mile (4km) oval.

Ryan Briscoe, in a one-off drive for Chip Ganassi in a Dallara-Honda, will start 23rd in the field of 33.

Vern Schuppan remains the highest Australian finisher in the Indy 500 – he was third in 1981, while Geoff Brabham was fourth in 1983 – and has a teenage son, Matthew, now climbing through the junior ranks of Indy racing.

Indy’s Borg-Warner Trophy and the traditional drink of milk for the winner of the 500 have eluded Australians to date, but at least we’re in with big shots on Monday morning.

And soon after Marcos Ambrose will have another crack at NASCAR’s longest race – 600 miles or 960km in the night air at Charlotte’s 1.5-mile (2.4km) higher-banked superspeedway – in his Ford Fusion.

Last year Ambrose started on the outside of the front row, alongside Richard Petty Motorsports teammate Aric Almirola, but a broken wheel hub wrecked his race.

He has done countless kilometres on America’s oval tracks now but victory on one still eludes him. He is 23rd in the Sprint Cup points this season, while Almirola is eighth, and the dual V8 Supercar champion is still regarded in the US as a road racing specialist, a reputation strengthened by two NASCAR victories at the famous Watkins Glen road course.

“We have continued to show speed at the 1.5-mile (oval) tracks but haven’t had the finishes to show for it, and were a little ‘off’ in the All-Star race (at Charlotte) last weekend,” Ambrose’s crew chief Drew Blickensderfer said this week,

But, unlike Monaco, it’s not essential to start up front at Charlotte (or Indianapolis) and Ambrose is in with a shot on Monday morning too.

History indicates that if you do enough NASCAR oval races you’re almost bound to win one eventually, so why not the biggest other than the Daytona 500 – and the longest?

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MOTORSPORT: High hopes abroad

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