MOTORSPORT: New delay on WRC calendar

Australia now won’t know until next month whether it will be on the World Rally Championship calendar next year.

Announcement of the 2020 WRC schedule has been postponed for a third time.

While no reason has been given, there appears to be a major difference of opinion between the world governing body of motor sport, the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), and the company to which it delegates the promotion of the championship, the Red Bull-associated WRC Promoter, over whether Kenya’s Safari Rally is ready for a return to the championship.

WRC Promoter clearly wants it, while the FIA appears to have grave concerns about safety.

The Safari has been expected for months to be on next year’s WRC calendar for the first time since 2002, along with a new asphalt rally in Japan, while there has been a tussle between Australia – which has hosted the finale in recent years at Coffs Harbour and will do so again this year on November 14-17 – and New Zealand.

WRC Promoter has been unhappy about the small crowds at Rally Oz because of its distance from a major city, while NZ – once a regular fixture on the calendar, but not part of the WRC since 2012 – has been angling to regain the Antipodean round, if only for a year until a new Australian location is found.

Lewis Hamilton has won the British Grand Prix for a record sixth time and extended his Formula 1 World Championship lead, while Daniel Ricciardo finished in the points for the first time in three races with seventh place.

It was Hamilton’s seventh victory in 10 GPs this year and the 80th of his career – just 11 short of Michael Schumacher’s record.

After Max Verstappen’s win for Red Bull-Honda two weeks earlier in Austria, normal service was resumed at Silverstone last night as Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas finished second, having outqualified him and traded the lead early on.

Young Frenchman Charles Leclerc continued to be Ferrari’s best performer in third place, but half a minute behind Hamilton, while Sebastian Vettel crashed into the back of Verstappen and copped a time penalty that left him only 16th in the race classification and apologetic.

Verstappen somehow recovered to finish fifth, behind Red Bull teammate Pierre Gasly, who had his best race of the season.

Ricciardo started and finished seventh in his Renault, hounding – but unable to pass – the McLaren with a similar Renault engine of Spaniard Carlos Sainz Junior in the closing laps.

“All in all, I think it was a good race,” carsales.com.au global ambassador Ricciardo said.

“Initially I thought my start wasn’t bad but Lando Norris (McLaren) just managed to get me after some clean racing.

“We got him back on the undercut (pit stops) but then the safety car played into Carlos Sainz’s hands with a ‘free’ pit stop and that was a bit frustrating.

“We hunted him down towards the end but couldn’t mount a real attack to get past.

“It feels positive to be back in the top 10.

“Our single-lap and race pace has certainly been a solid turnaround in a short period of time.”

Hamilton, who set the fastest lap last night – on the final lap with 30-lap-old tyres – to gain the bonus points, has 223 points as he charges towards a sixth world title, Bottas 184, Verstappen 136, Vettel 123 and Leclerc 120. Ricciardo is 10th with 22 points, while Renault teammate Nico Hulkenberg, who was 10th at Silverstone, has 17.

Heading to Germany’s Hockenheim for the next GP on July 28, Mercedes has a commanding lead in the constructors’ championship with 403 points to Ferrari’s 243, Red Bull’s 191, McLaren’s 60 and Renault’s 39.

Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud has scored his third IndyCar win of the season, ahead of New Zealander Scott Dixon and Alexander Rossi in Toronto, Canada, while Australia’s Will Power wound up two laps down in 18th after causing two cautions.

Power was involved in an opening-lap tangle and 1½ hours later the race finished under caution because Power’s Penske-Chevrolet ended up in a tyre barrier.
“Not the way I should be driving,” Power said later.

However, he remains fifth in the series, albeit 128 points behind his American teammate Josef Newgarden, Rossi, Pagenaud – whose wins have included the Indianapolis 500 – and Dixon, with another round next weekend at Iowa Speedway.

Another Frenchman, Jean-Eric Vergne – once Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 teammate at Scuderia Toro Rosso – has clinched successive titles in Formula E electric open-wheeler racing, driving for the Chinese team with a Citroen connection, DS Techeetah.

However, Sebastien Buemi from Switzerland (Nissan e.dams) and Robert Frijns of The Netherlands (Envision Virgin Racing) won the two races at the weekend’s double-header finale in New York.

Vergne is Formula E’s first back-to-back champion in its five seasons, while DS Techeetah’s team title is its first after Audi Sport Abt Schaefller’s success the previous season.

Renault e.dams was the top team the first three seasons.