MOTORSPORT: Make or break for Webber

Australia's Mark Webber trails Alonso by 11 points (220 to 231) and needs to take the fight to the final race a week later in Abu Dhabi.

The 1992 world champion Nigel Mansell wants Webber to win the title while Australia's triple world champion Sir Jack Brabham fears that Webber's crash at the Korean GP two weeks ago may have cost him his big shot at it.

Austrian triple world champion Niki Lauda has implored Red Bull Racing to back Webber over its German youngster Sebastian Vettel, while Sir Jackie Stewart, another triple world champion, reckons Webber would make the best champion this season.

Webber cannot afford to finish any worse than fifth in Brazil if Alonso wins.

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, champion in 2008, is 10 points behind Webber and 21 behind Alonso and appears the only other serious contender now, but he is going to need luck and big results in the remaining two GPs.

Vettel, 25 points behind Alonso, cannot afford to finish behind the Spaniard at Interlagos or his hopes of becoming champion this year are over. So often on pole position, Vettel rarely converts his qualifying pace into race victories.

Jenson Button, who clinched last year's championship in Brazil when driving for BrawnGP and now with McLaren, has only a slight mathematical chance of retaining his title. Basically he needs a miracle -- and for four top drivers to strike calamity in the last two races.

All the top drivers have used the eight engines now allowed in a season without a 10-place gird penalty. However, Alonso's position may not be as bad on that score as had been thought.

It seems that one of his eight Ferrari motors has done very low mileage and could be his engine for Abu Dhabi.

Provided Webber's Renault engine from the RB6 car he crashed in Korea was not damaged it has done only about 250km, when the motors are built with a 2000km competitive life. So Webber may have the freshest engine for the final two rounds.

By rights the battle should now be very much between Alonso and Webber, but Interlagos could toss up surprises -- and rain is always a chance there, which would add further spice to an already compelling tussle.

Webber knows as well as anyone that crunch time has arrived.

"We have two races in the space of eight days, at the end of which we'll know the world champion," he said.

"It doesn't get bigger than this and I feel 110 per cent ready for the fight... I'm not going to change my approach -- I'm going to do my best and let the maths take care of itself.

"Interlagos is a fantastic venue for Formula One. It has a lot of history and in many ways it reminds me of Brands Hatch [in England]. It's built on the edge of a hill, so the crowd looks down on the action and there's always a good atmosphere.

"I've never been outqualified by a teammate at Interlagos, although I hadn't had much luck at the track until last year when I won the race.

"More than anything, I need a clean weekend. The weather forecast looks a bit iffy on Saturday, but it'll be the same for everyone."

The world championship has been decided at Interlagos the past five years -- and for the first four of those years it was the season finale, before Abu Dhabi was introduced to the championship last year.

Alonso clinched his previous titles in Brazil and if he wins a third, whether it be this weekend or next, he will have done it after coming from 47 points behind in what for much of the year has been a five-way battle.

"Alonso I think is the better equipped to do it -- he's done it twice and he knows the business," Sir Jackie Stewart said.

"He's got Ferrari and they are a very strong team under these circumstances, but I think Mark Webber would make the best world champion this year. He's 34, he's got wisdom, he's got maturity.

"Sebastian Vettel will unquestionably win the world championship in the future.

"I think that this year Mark Webber would carry it better because he presents himself well and an Australian hasn't won it since Alan Jones ... For the sport he would carry it in a bolder way, because Sebastian at 23 is quite young to do that."

Red Bull Racing's roots go back to the Stewart Grand Prix team founded by Sir Jackie in 1997 before he sold out to Jaguar at the end of 1999. He said he was thrilled at its success the past couple of seasons, especially that it is leading the constructors' championship by 27 points this year.

But Lauda reckons that Red Bull's policy of not giving priority to one of its drivers (and Webber now that he is ahead of Vettel at the season crunch-point) is a road to failure.

"Red Bull needs to establish the team hierarchy now," Lauda said.

"If they don't get behind Mark Webber, they may have to go without the title."

Lauda's only concern was that any team orders not "cheat the spectators".

If Alonso ends up winning the title by seven points or less there will be cloud over it, as the 25 points he collected for winning the German GP was seven more than for the second place he would have finished in had his Brazilian teammate Felipe Massa not surrendered the lead to him under instructions from the Ferrari team management.

In all, Alonso has had five wins this year.

Webber has won four times this season, but not since Hungary on August 1 -- more than three months ago.

If he's to become Australia's third F1 world champion (after Brabham's triumphs of 1959, '60 and '66, and Alan Jones' in 1980) he needs to win another one, preferably in Brazil, and perhaps even both.

The inaugural Targa High Country begins at Mansfield in north-east Victoria late this afternoon (Friday) and continues with another 16 stages -- and more than 200km of competition in a total distance of about 850km -- throughout the weekend.

It is the first round in a series that also includes the short Targa Wrest Point in southern Tasmania in January and the 20th Targa Tasmania in April -- all run by the Octagon company.

Targa High Country is the first multi-stage closed road tarmac rally to be held in Victoria. It includes competition for cars in early classic, late classic, early modern and showroom classes.

A field close to the capacity 225 entries will start in the 3.5km Mansfield prologue in many of the world's best performance cars -- Porsches, Lamborghinis, Nissan GTRs, Audis, Alfa-Romeos, Mitsubishi Lancer Evos and Subaru WRXs [Ed: but no Skodas].

The rally heads north to Wangaratta via Whitfield and return tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday's stages head south to Eildon via Jamieson.

Both weekend days conclude with a 16km stage up Mt Buller.

The stars are Jim Richards in a twin-turbo Porsche 911 GT2, Jason White in a 2009 Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera Type R, Steve Glenney in a factory-supported Mazda RX8 SP and Tony Quinn in a Nissan GTR.

Rising star Brendan Reeves will drive a Mazda 3 MPS ahead of stepping on to the world stage as one of six young drivers in the new Federation Internationale de l'Automobile and Pirelli-supported rallying academy contesting six WRC rounds.

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