MOTORSPORT: IndyCar driver critical after horror crash

The weekend’s international racing has produced a couple of stark reminders of the inherent danger of motorsport.

IndyCar driver Justin Wilson is in a coma, in a critical condition with a head injury, after a flying nose cone from the crashed car of rival Sage Karam hit his helmet.

Meantime, four-time Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel is fuming after the right rear Pirelli tyre on his Ferrari exploded on the second last lap of Belgian Grand Prix. It cost Vettel a podium but he was more concerned that it might have cost him his life had it happened a couple of hundred metres earlier at Eau Rouge, the hariest section of track in F1.

Pirelli has blamed the incident on excessive wear as Vettel was the only driver in the race to have made a single pitstop to change tyres and had done almost 30 laps on his second set. This is despite the fact Pirelli had indicated pre-race, the tyre might have been good for 40 laps.

There were other tyre issues at Belgium’s Spa-Francorchamps too, although Pirelli said Nico Rosberg’s similarly high-speed incident in Friday practice was the result of a cut from something beside the track rather than wear.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull-Renault expired mid-race with an apparent electrical failure, while Frenchman Romain Grosjean in a Lotus-Mercedes made the podium for the first time in almost two years. He finished third behind the dominant Mercedes factory cars of Lewis Hamilton and Rosberg.

Volkswagen almost certainly will clinch its third straight World Rally Championship at Rally Australia at Coffs Harbour on September 10-13 after its one-two-three finish in Rally Germany.

The success on asphalt roads around Trier in the Rhineland ended VW’s jinx in its home event. Its French stars Sebastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia are set to clinch their third straight driver and co-driver world titles in Oz too, with Finnish teammates Jari-Matti Latva and Miika Anttila their only challengers.

The French-Swedish outfit Peugeot-Hansen has taken the lead in the World Rallycross Championship team standings from Ford Olsbergs MSE after its Swedish driver Timmy Hansen and French teammate Davy Jeanney finished first and second in a pair of 208s at the eighth round at Hell in Norway.

Reigning World RX champion Petter Solberg still leads the series despite not making the final there.

Super Swede Mattias Ekstrom was another not to advance beyond the semi-finals.

Penske-Ford driver Joey Logano won the latest round of NASCAR’s Sprint Cup on the short oval at Bristol, Tennessee, and teammate Brad Keselowski was fifth as series leader, Kevin Harvick, notched his 10th runner-up finish of the season in his Chevrolet for Stewart Haas Racing.

Australian James Davison was second in the latest round of the Pirelli World Challenge (PWC) at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah in his Nissan GT-R, beaten by 1.271sec by the Cadillac ATS-VR of American Johnny O’Connell. The PWC is on again next weekend at the IndyCar finale at Sonoma in California.

Power still a remote chance to keep title
Australia’s Will Power remains an outside chance to retain his IndyCar title. He’s in fourth place and trailing Penske-Chevrolet teammate Juan Pablo Montoya by 61 points going to Sonoma, where double points – with 100 for the win – will be awarded.

But of more immediate concern is the condition of lanky Englishman Justin Wilson after today’s race at Pocono, Pennsylvania. Wilson’s Honda-powered Andretti Autosport car veered to the left after and into an inside safety wall after a strike from flying wreckage from Sage Karama’s Chip Ganassi Racing entry.

Wilson’s helmet was struck by what appeared to be the nose-cone of Ganassi car.

The race was not stopped but the cars continued in single file under caution as Wilson was removed and flown to hospital by helicopter.

Wilson, 36, has competed in American open-wheel racing since 2004 after a brief F1 career.

One of his Andretti Autosport teammates, American Ryan Hunter-Reay, won the Pocono race under caution but was subdued at a solemn victory presentation.

Associated Press has reported that Hunter-Reay was told that Wilson was “unconscious and not responding” when he was airlifted from the track.

Another American, Josef Newgarden, finished second in the race and Colombian Montoya third after starting 19th, while his main title rival, Honda-powered Graham Rahal, dropped from nine to 34 points behind him.

New Zealander Scott Dixon is third in the points and one of five drivers who mathematically can still beat Montoya to the crown.

Kyvat’s fourth place, after second at the previous GP in Hungary, has lifted him to seventh in the championship on 57 points to Ricciardo’s 51.

Horner said the failure in Ricciardo’s car was “a shame… he would have been challenging for a podium”.

“It was a lost opportunity, but overall a reasonable weekend for the team,” Horner said.

Ricciardo, who qualified sixth, was promoted to fifth on the grid, jumped to third soon after the start and said the race had been “going okay”.

“We didn’t have a great balance with the prime [tyre], I was struggling a little, but we were hoping to come on strong with the option and have a good last stint,” Ricciardo said.

“It’s disappointing not to finish. We are not sure what the issue is but the team are investigating.

“I lost power going into the chicane, everything switched off, including the dash… It looks like it’s electrical but we’ll see what the investigation brings.”

Lewis Hamilton is now 28 points clear of Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg after his sixth win of the season, the 39th of his career and his 80th podium – equalling the podium tally of his idol, the late Brazilian triple world champion Ayrton Senna.

But tyres were the talking point of Spa, especially as the next GP is at an even faster circuit – Italy’s Monza.

Sebastian Vettel said of his right-rear tyre’s explosion: “Things like that are not allowed to happen. Full stop. If it happened 200 metres earlier I am not standing here now.

“What’s upsetting for one thing is the result [12th place instead of third]. The other thing is, if this happens earlier then I’m f….. .”

Drivers were reported to have raised concerns at a pre-race briefing, with the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) race director Charlie Whiting reportedly defending Pirelli.

Apart from the incidents involving Vettel and Rosberg, there was the farce at a Williams pitstop when the crew fitted one medium-compound tyre and three with the soft compound on Finn Valtteri Bottas’ car, incurring a drive-through penalty.

VW trio deliver on front doorstep
Volkswagen’s Polo Rs won all but two stages of Rally Germany, but most important was the overall victory that ended the jinx that denied the German manufacturer success in its home event in its two previous seasons in the World Rally Championship.

It comes to Australia now poised to seal manufacturer, driver and co-driver titles at Coffs Harbour in three weeks.

VW notched its fourth one-two-three finish of the season in Germany, with Sebastien Ogier 23 seconds ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala, while Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen was within 2 minutes of Ogier too.

The Hyundai i20s of Spaniard Dani Sordo and Belgian Thierry Neuville were fourth and fifth, the Ford of Welshman Elfyn Evans sixth and the first Citroen that of Norwegian Mads Ostberg in seventh.

New Zealander Hayden Paddon was ninth in another Hyundai.

Ogier has equalled Finnish great Marcus Gronholm as the second-most winning driver in WRC history with 30 victories – behind only his great French compatriot Sebastien Loeb.

Ogier will claim his third world title in Australia if he finishes ahead of Latvala, who collected three bonus points for winning the Power Stage in Germany.

Volkswagen has now won every round on the calendar since it entered the WRC in 2013 and headquarters was delighted with the home result in front of a claimed 225,000 spectators.

“Ideal preparation, maximum concentration and a huge amount of team spirit are what made this triumph possible,” said VW’s board member for technical development, Heinz-Jakob Neuer.

The Polo has won 30 of the 35 WRC events in which it has competed.