MOTORSPORT: More glory for Ford

A Falcon built by the company’s factory team Ford Performance Racing clocked the fastest lap of Melbourne’s Sandown circuit in the history of the V8 Supercar category at the weekend’s pre-season test day.

And the Blue Oval has scored its sixth straight victory in the Rally of Sweden, the second round of the world rally championship.

These moments of glory come just two weeks after Ford-engined sports prototypes swept the podium positions at American endurance classic, the Daytona 24-Hour.

The pacesetter at the V8 Supercar test day was Will Davison, starting his second season with FPR and whose family has had a long association with the Sandown track.

His grandfather, Lex, a four-time Australian Grand Prix winner (before the race was a Formula One world championship event), died in a crash there in the 1960s and his uncle, Jon, ran the circuit for two decades until a couple of years ago.

Davison lapped the 3.1km track in 1 minute 9.323 seconds little more than a quarter of an hour from the end of Saturday’s test. That was 0.22 seconds faster than Craig Lowndes in his Triple Eight/Team Vodafone Commodore.

Most impressive though with the start of the new season looming in Adelaide on the first weekend of March was Lee Holdsworth, in his first outing in a Stone Brothers Falcon after departing Garry Rogers’ Holden team. Holdsworth’s best lap was just 0.02 seconds slower than Lowndes.

“I didn’t expect so much on the first day,” said Holdsworth, who has taken the seat of Davison’s older brother Alex, now eyeing a Porsche Carrera Cup drive.

“Even when we were just cruising around we were well inside the top 10. To then put on new tyres and bank a top three times was really pleasing.”

The other notable off-season transfer, David Reynolds, was the day’s early pacesetter in the third of the FPR Falcons, entered by Rod Nash, although by the end he had slipped out of the top 10 – but was still within 0.8 seconds of Davison.

Another good sign for Ford was FPR’s long-time driver Mark Winterbottom clocking the eighth best time of the day despite still feeling some discomfort from the left ankle he broke over the summer.

Frenchman Alex Premat made his debut with Garry Rogers. He was at the bottom of the timesheet in 28th with a best lap 2.1 seconds slower than Davison’s. Premat, who had experience in the German Touring Car Championship (DTM) after an impressive open-wheeler career, is optimistic about his move into V8 Supercar racing.

He admitted it would take at least a couple of months to acquaint himself with the heavy-rear-wheel-drive Commodore but reckoned he could be a contender to win a race by the end of the season.

After announcing last Thursday that they will become Nissan Motorsport Australia with the Japanese company’s arrival under the Car of the Future regulations, Todd and Rick Kelly set the fourth and 23rd fastest times respectively.

Series titleholder Jamie Whincup was mid-pack in 17th.

“We had some really major changes we had to test, which we mostly got through, but rain interrupted a few things we would have liked to have tested,” multiple champion Whincup said of his Triple Eight/Team Vodafone Commodore.

Sandown V8 Supercar test day order and times - 1. Will Davison (Ford), 1 minute 09.3230 seconds; 2. Craig Lowndes (Holden), 1:09.5588; 3. Lee Holdsworth (Ford), 1:09.5796; 4. Todd Kelly (Holden), 1:09.8234; 5. Jonathon Webb (Holden), 1:09.8576: 6. Garth Tander (Holden), 1:09.9376; 7. Tim Slade(Ford), 1:09.9790; 8. Mark Winterbottom (Ford), 1:09.9871; 9. Steve Owen (Ford), 1:10.0505; 10. Michael Patrizi (Holden), 1:10.0736; 11. David Reynolds (Ford), 1:10.1266; 12. James Moffat (Ford), 1:10.1671; 13. Shane van Gisbergen (Ford), 1:10.1883; 14. Dean Fiore (Ford), 1:10.1907; 15. James Courtney (Holden), 1:10.2028; 16. Steven Johnson (Ford), 1:10.2526; 17. Jamie Whincup (Holden), 1:10.4671; 18. Michael Caruso (Holden), 1:10.5264; 19. Jason Bright (Holden), 1:10.5491; 20. Tony D’Alberto (Ford), 1:10.5927; 21. Russell Ingall (Holden), 1:10.5937; 22. Taz Douglas (Holden), 1:10.7369; 23. Rick Kelly (Holden), 1:10.8320; 24. Karl Reindler (Holden), 1:10.8760; 25. Fabian Coulthard (Holden), 1:10.9859; 26. David Wall (Holden), 1:11.0633; 27. Greg Murphy (Holden), 1:11.1664; 28. Alexandre Premat (Holden), 1:11.4650.

Latvala finished 16.6 seconds ahead of Hirvonen, winner of last year’s Rally Australia at Coffs Harbour for Ford, but the gap had narrowed to just 8.4 seconds after the leader’s puncture. His victory on the snow and ice-covered roads was the 50th for the Ford partnership with Britain’s M-Sport since it began in 1997.

The team had carefully managed the stud wear on 36-year-old Latvala’s Michelin tyres and he led by 35.6 seconds before hitting the rock.

“It is amazing. Four years ago I won this rally and now I got it again," Latvala said.

“The first time I won this rally I became the youngest ever winner of a world championship rally and beat my hero Henri Toivonen's record. After retiring from the first round last month (the Monte Carlo Rally), I was under heavy pressure to do well.

“After making a mistake and hitting a rock, I knew I had to summon some extra speed and attack hard through the penultimate stage. It feels like a heavy weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

“I’ve learned to stay calm when things go wrong and that paid dividends … I kept my cool.”

Latvala’s new teammate and Norwegian former world champion Petter Solberg hit the same rock on the same stage (22), costing him third place to his countryman Mads Ostberg in another Ford.

Frenchman Sebastien Loeb has won the past eight world titles but has had to bow to the Scandinavian drivers on the Swedish event and this time finished sixth, although he earned three bonus points by winning the Power Stage at the end in Karlstad.

Loeb had numerous delays, the worst of them an “excursion” costing him two minutes but he was still within three minutes of Latvala at the end -  but could not catch Russian Evgeny Novikov, who was fifth for the second time this season.

Loeb’s former Citroen teammate Sebastien Ogier was just outside the top 10 in his Volkswagen Motorsport Skoda, while Qatar’s Dakar Rally star Nasser Al-Attiyah was 21st in his Citroen DS3 and Perth-based Scotsman Alister McRae, back in the WRC after an eight-year absence, 37th in his Super 2000 Proton Satria Neo.

McRae’s Swedish teammate P G Andersson won the S2000 class in the other Proton.

The third WRC round is in Mexico on March 8-11.

World rally championship driver standings after two rounds – Sebastien Loeb (France, Citroen) 39 points; Mikko Hirvonen (Finland, Citroen) 32; Petter Solberg (Norway, Ford) 29; Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland, Ford) 26; Evgeny Novikov (Russia, Ford) 21; Dani Sordo (Spain, MINI) 18.

WRC manufacturer standings – Citroen Total WRT 65 points; Ford WRT 55; M-Sport Ford WRT 28; MINI WRT 26; Qatar WRT (Citroen) 8.

“Absolutely,” the Austrian billionaire said during a visit to last week’s Formula One testing at Jerez in Spain. “Both get the same equipment. The only change is that Mark has a new chief mechanic.”

Mateschitz has also set the bar high for Red Bull’s second team, Scuderia Toro Rosso, for which young Australian Daniel Ricciardo will race with French rookie Jean-Eric Vergne as his teammate.

“Toro Rosso will have to improve - the team should be in the midfield and fighting for fifth place with Force India, Sauber and Lotus,” he said.

Jerez test times (top 10 combined over four days) - 1. Nico Rosberg (Germany, 2011 Mercedes) 1:17.613; 2. Romain Grosjean (France, 2012 Lotus) 1:18.419; 3. Michael Schumacher (Germany, 2011 Mercedes) 1:18.561;  4. Fernando Alonso (Spain, 2012 Ferrari) 1:18.877; 5. Mark Webber (Australia, 2012 Red Bull-Renault) 1:19.184; 6. Sebastian Vettel (Germany, 2012 Red Bull-Renault) 1:19.297; 7. Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, 2012 McLaren-Mercedes) 1:19.464; 8. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia, 2012 Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 1:19.587; 9. Jean-Eric Vergne (France, 2012 Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 1:19.597; 10. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, 2012 Lotus-Renault) 1:19.670.

The next test session is in Barcelona from Feb. 21-24 with the third and last test also there on March 1-4.

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