MOTORSPORT: Pendulum swings Holden's way

Ominous signs when both top teams field Commodores
That thrilling finish to the 500km V8 Supercar race at Phillip Island has whet the appetite for next month's Bathurst 1000, as it should. But there's one thing in particular that will stick in our mind as we head to Bathurst – and beyond that into next year.

What we saw in those closing laps at the Island was a Holden battling a Ford. Two terrific V8 Supercar drivers -- Garth Tander and Craig Lowndes -- with terrific teammates, Will Davison and Jamie Whincup. The top cars and drivers in the championship – and the top teams. Holden Racing Team, the official Holden factory team, and Triple Eight Race Engineering/Team Vodafone, winners of Bathurst the past three years; the reigning champion team; and again the leading team this season -- all with Ford Falcons.

Next year both of these teams are going to be running Holdens. There have even been suggestions that Triple Eight might roll out a Commodore before the end of this year. Even if it doesn't, these are very clearly the two top teams in this sport at the minute, a cut above the rest – and next year they are both going to be running Holdens.

The best of the other teams fielding Fords, Ford Performance Racing and Dick Johnson/Jim Beam Racing, are not really in the same race. Stone Brothers Racing, the second of only two teams financially supported by the Ford factory these days (along with FPR), is even further away – seventh in the teams championship – behind also Holden-equipped teams Garry Rogers Motorsport and Kelly Brothers/Jack Daniel's Racing.

The V8 Supercar results have been good for Ford in recent seasons – three straight Bathurst wins, last year's championship, and most probably another championship this year -- all courtesy of Triple Eight/Team Vodafone. But next year Triple Eight/Team Vodafone will be running Holdens. It is consistently the best team in the business – and it's changing sides.

The next best team in the business, consistently, is HRT. Yesterday it came out on top.

Triple Eight/Team Vodafone's switch next season is unlikely to change its ability to achieve results. V8 Supercars these days are a template. The Commodores and Falcons are the same other than the bodyshells. We can see a new era of Holden domination coming.

Not because the Commodore is any better than the Falcon, but because Holden will have the two best teams in its camp. We saw this coming when Holden announced a few weeks ago that it had snared Triple Eight/Team Vodafone.

What we saw yesterday at Phillip Island confirmed just what we'd thought. Forget about FPR's pole position at the weekend. What counts is race results. The pendulum has well and truly swung back Holden's way.

Yesterday was HRT's day. A great result for Tander, Davison, HRT... And for Holden. We just wonder where this is going to leave Ford a year down the track. And how it's going to extract better value/results from the teams it's now supporting.

Bathurst may yet toss up a surprise, but it's hard to see that the game's going to change greatly in the near future from having two teams doing almost all the winning.

And they're not going to be coming back to the field; the others are going to have catch up. And fast unless Ford is prepared to cop a whitewash next year.

V8 Supercar Championship driver standings after 17 of 26 races: Jamie Whincup 2254 points; Will Davison 2083; Garth Tander 1738; Craig Lowndes 1725; Steven Johnson 1590; Mark Winterbottom 1574; James Courtney 1370; Russell Ingall 1364; Rick Kelly 1336; Lee Holdsworth 1310. V8 Supercar team standings: TeamVodafone 3833 points; Toll Holden Racing 3727; Jim Beam Racing 2936; Ford Performance Racing 2737; Garry Rogers Motorsport 2582; Jack Daniels Racing 2333; Stone Brothers Racing 2166; Brad Jones Racing 2117; Walkinshaw Performance 2066; Wilson Security 1914.

Ricciardo's six wins this year are one more than Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari won to claim the British F3 title last year. Alguersuari is now racing in F1 and Ricciardo is intent on getting there too.

The young Perth star knows that may not be next season, but he wants his opportunity within a couple of years. He is likely to test for the Red Bull F1 team before Christmas.

Ricciardo is the fourth Australian to have won the British F3 crown, and the three before him - Tim Schenken in 1968, Dave Walker in 1970 and '71, and David Brabham in 1989 – all made it to F1. Ricciardo aims to become the fourth Australian – after Sir Jack Brabham, Alan Jones and Mark Webber – to win a GP, and – like Brabham and Jones – a world champion. Lofty ambitions, but youngsters racing abroad need to reach for the sky.

Ricciardo is already among eight international rising stars in the Red Bull driver development program that produced Sebastian Vettel, the German who won three GPs before he turned 22.

Ricciardo took maximum points in the first race of the weekend's British F3 round at the new Algarve circuit in Portugal and claimed fourth place in race two - enough to put the title beyond the reach of the only rivals with any chance of denying him it, Dutchman Renger van der Zande and Austrian Walter Grubmuller.

Two of several invitational drivers from the European F3 series finished ahead of him in the first race and three did the same in the later race, but they (including Frenchman Jules Bianchi, who crossed the finish line first in both races) were ineligible to score British championship points.

Ricciardo's title gives Volkswagen its first international championship victory as an engine supplier in the modern era of motorsport – and against its German rival Mercedes-Benz. Ricciardo's VW motor fitted to a Dallara chassis is entered by Carlin Motorsport.

Competing against 28 other aspiring F1 drivers from around the world at Algarve, Ricciardo had to control a mishandling car because of a broken front wing from a tangle with Bianchi on the opening lap of the race in which he sealed the title.

"This is everything I've wanted since the start of the season," Ricciardo said.

"For it to come around a bit early (with two races to go next weekend at Brands Hatch) makes it a bit sweeter.
"We had some bad rounds... But we never lost faith, kept believing and working hard for it.

"It hasn't quite sunk in yet that I've won the championship... If I can now follow in Jaime Alguersuari's footsteps that would be great. I'm not saying I'll be in F1 next year, but I'd like to be there in the near future. That's my dream," Ricciardo said.

F1 title a battle between Brawn teammates
Two months ago Mark Webber won the German GP – his long-overdue first F1 win. Two weeks later he finished third in the Hungarian GP. In the three races since he hasn't scored a world championship point.

Sad to say, Webber's world title chances are in tatters -- he's now 28.5 points behind BrawnGP's Jenson Button again. Rubens Barrichello, meantime has narrowed the gap between him and teammate Button to 14 points with last night's win at Monza.

Webber's teammate Sebastian Vettel picked up a point in Italy, but only because of Lewis Hamilton's late exit from what was going to be third place – and which gifted a podium to Kimi Raikkonen and Ferrari. Vettel remains third in the championship, but he's 26 points behind Button – whose Monza podium was his first in the past six GPs.

The Brawn cars finished one-two for the fourth time this season. It was a superb performance from a team that looked to be losing its edge to achieve this quinella when both its cars started on the third row of the grid.

The other sterling performance at Monza was from German Adrian Sutil for the Force India. He finished fourth, after Giancarlo Fisichella was second in Belgium for Force India, which has made drastic improvement with its Mercedes-engined cars recently.

Fisichella was a disappointment in his Ferrari debut, having replaced Luca Badoer as the substitute for the injured Felipe Massa. ‘Fisi' qualified only 14th and finished ninth. Much better than Badoer was doing, but not up to scratch when driving a Ferrari – and when Raikkonen was so much closer to the mark.

Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi was impressive in his return to F1 racing as Fisichella's replacement at Force India, qualifying seventh and looking good in the race until forced to retire.

While the Italian GP brought confirmation of Spanish bank Santander committing huge money to become Ferrari's primary sponsor, there was no word on when Spain's dual world champion Fernando Alonso will join the red team.

In the meantime he was fifth at Monza for Renault, which has to sweat for another week until the World Motor Sport Council hearing of the allegation that it ordered Nelson Piquet Junior crash at last year's first Singapore night GP to help Alonso win that race.

That matter is turning even uglier, with Renault team manager Flavio Briatore instigating criminal proceedings against Piquet and his triple world champion father, Nelson Senior. Briatore is accusing them of blackmail, while that pair say they are not going be intimidated. It's the dark side of F1 at its darkest.

F1 drivers' world championship standings after 13 of 17 rounds: Jenson Button 80 points; Rubens Barrichello 66; Sebastian Vettel 54; Mark Webber 51.5; Kimi Raikkonen 40; Nico Rosberg 30.5; Lewis Hamilton 27; Jarno Trulli 22.5; Felipe Massa 22; Heikki Kovalainen 20. F1 constructors' world championship standings: Brawn-Mercedes 146; Red Bull-Renault 105.5; Ferrari 62; McLaren-Mercedes 47; Toyota 38.5; Williams-Toyota 30.5; BMW-Sauber 20; Renault 20; Force India-Mercedes 13.

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