MOTORSPORT: Power so close in Indy 500

Toowoomba's Will Power came within a car length of winning the Indianapolis 500 today, while Perth's Daniel Ricciardo notched his best Formula One finish of the year in last night's Monaco Grand Prix.

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya won the Indy 500 by 0.1046 seconds from Penske teammate Power, giving iconic team owner Roger Penske his 16th victory in America's biggest open-wheeler race, barely three months after one of his other drivers, Joey Logano, won NASCAR's major race, the Daytona 500.

Montoya came back from 30th place after early damage to his rear wing to score his second victory in the "greatest spectacle in racing", 15 years after he did it as a rookie – and after careers in F1 and NASCAR.

Even though almost a quarter of the 200 laps were run under caution, the average winning speed for the 800km (500 miles) was 260kmh!

Power's second was the best finish by an Australian in the event, bettering his two previous fifth places and the fourths of Vern Schuppan and Geoff Brabham way back before the turn of the century.

Mercedes bungled in Monaco, costing Lewis Hamilton victory in the most glamorous GP of the year, yet the tristar still triumphed as Hamilton's teammate Nico Rosberg won in the principality for the third straight year – a hat-trick only Graham Hill, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost had achieved before him.

Ricciardo finished fifth, handing fourth to his young Russian teammate Daniil Kyvat as agreed after he could not catch the top three placegetters – Rosberg, Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and Hamilton, who had been called in for a tyre change under the safety car after 17-year-old Max Verstappen's huge crash that Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff admitted was a blunder.

Volkswagen scored the maximum 122 points at the fifth round of the World Rally Championship in Portugal as Finnish driver Jari-Matti Latvala won ahead of dual world champion Frenchman Sebastien Ogier and Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen in the three latest Polo Rs. They also took a clean sweep of the Power Stage, with Ogier ahead of Latvala this time. But the latter's overall win again made Finland the most successful country in WRC history with 173 wins to France's 172. Ogier leads the championship with 105 points to Mikkelsen's 63, while Latvala has jumped from ninth to fifth on 46. Britain's Kris Meeke was fourth in Portugal in a Citroen, Estonian Ott Tanak fifth in a Ford and Spaniard Dani Sordo sixth in a Hyundai.

Australian rally champion driver Scott Pedder and co-driver Dale Moscatt had a tough initiation to the WRC2 in Portugal, battling setbacks each day and their Ford Fiesta R5's suspension snapped by a rock on the penultimate stage. They will contest another three rounds of the series.

Reigning rallycross world champion Petter Solberg won the fourth round of that sport's championship at Britain's Lydden Hill in his Citroen DS3, ahead of Swede Mattias Ekstrom in an Audi S1 and another Swede, Johan Kristoffersson, in a VW Polo RX. Norwegian Solberg's margin of victory after a puncture on the last corner was 0.4 seconds and his series lead over Kristoffersson is 29 points. Brit Guy Wilks reached the final on his World RX debut in a MINI.

Audi Sport Abt and Brazilian driver Lucas di Grassi had victory at the latest Formula E electric open-wheeler series in Berlin taken off them for an illegal nose, which they blamed on repairs. Belgian Jerome D'Ambrosio inherited the win, while Brazilian Nelson Piquet leads the series on 103 points from Swiss driver Sebastien Buemi on 101 and di Grassi 93. Three events remain in the category's first season.

At Victoria's Phillip Island the Australian GT enduro was won by German Chris Mies and Tasmanian Greg Crick in an Audi R8 LMS. They came from more than 90 seconds down with less than half an hour to go in a race shortened from 101 laps to 87 because of darkness, holding off the McLaren of Garth Tander and Tony Quinn by less than three seconds. New Zealand's Trass Family Ferrari 458 dominated much of the race.

A Mitsubishi Lancer Evo driven by young Aaron Seton and Rick Bates won Sunday's Great Southern Four-Hour at the Island by four seconds from the BMW of Grant and Iain Sherrin, while V8 Supercar driver Nick Percat was the star of the weekend's Porsche Carrera Cup racing.

And New Zealand youngster Richie Stanaway led from start to finish in a GP2 race at Monaco, beating Ferrari Academy driver Raffaele Marciello. Mark Webber's NZ protégé Mitch Evans did not make the start of that race after his car stopped on the track on the way to the grid.

The car length between first and second may have cost Power as much as US $1 million.

Montoya overtook New Zealand's pole-position starter Scott Dixon and then Power for the lead in the closing laps in winning the 99th running of the 500 at The Brickyard.

Power, who had started alongside Dixon on the front row, was 0.2 seconds behind Montoya starting the last lap but could only halve the gap over the final 4km.

It was the fourth closest finish in the classic's history.

"I just had too much push when he [Montoya] got by," Power said.

"I had to lift on that last lap.

"He was definitely better when he got behind me. That's why he got the run [and overtook with little more than three laps remaining].

"Anywhere else I'd be happy with second, but here...

"I was trying to keep the lead because I knew, with the heat, the tyres would degrade and eventually they wouldn't be able to go round.

"Montoya got that last run and maybe I was a bit nice to him into turn one and lifted.

"That was serious racing there. It was a lot of fun.

"Full credit to the team, finishing one-two. Congrats to Juan. He was very strong all day and had to come through the field."

Montoya, who had started midfield, said the thrilling finish was what racing, and IndyCar in particular, was all about – "awesome racing all the way down to the wire".

Chevrolet powered the first four finishers – American Charlie Kimball was third and Dixon fourth, both driving for Chip Ganassi – for whom Montoya won his first Indy 500 in 2000.

Graham Rahal was the first Honda-powered finisher in fifth.

Aussies Ryan Briscoe and James Davison started on the back row of the field in Honda-engined cars and Davison's clipped Briscoe's soon after the race began, without damage to either.

At almost 60 per cent race distance and with the three Dale Coyne Racing cars on the pit road at the same time Pippa Mann was leaving her pit box when Davison pulled out and they made contact. That pushed Davison's car towards Tristan Vautier's, which was parked, and two crew on the right-hand side of that car were knocked in the air. The one who had been working on the rear tyre was taken away in an ambulance.

Davison was out of the race and was classified 27th, while Briscoe – only called up in the middle of last week after James Hinchcliffe's crash – went the distance and finished 12th.

Some fun at last for Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo made a little bit of history in the Monaco GP, joining the late Sir Jack Brabham, Alan Jones and Mark Webber as Australians who have set the fastest race lap in the most famous F1 race.

Ricciardo's best lap of the street circuit in Europe's playground of the rich and famous was 1 minute 18.063 seconds, compared with race winner Nico Rosberg's best of 1:18.599 and world champion Lewis Hamilton's 1:18.676.

It was only the second time Ricciardo had set the fastest lap in a GP – the first was in Abu Dhabi at the end of last season as he fought his way through the field from 20th on the grid.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner applauded Ricciardo's "brave move" in overtaking Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari at the top of the hill into the Mirabeau corner – for which the Finn felt the Aussie should have been penalised.

Monaco was the circuit to which the under-powered Red Bull-Renaults were always likely to be most suited and Daniil Kyvat's fourth place and Ricciardo's fifth was the team's best outcome of the season.

"It was a good race and a good result for the team," Ricciardo said.

"I had some fun in the last few laps trying to get close to Hamilton and Vettel to fight for a podium position.

"I knew we were in a position to attack in the end [because of fresh super-soft tyres], which made it exciting.

"The team worked well. Dany [Kyvat] let me past to have a crack at the podium and I gave back the place on the last lap when I couldn't get past Hamilton.

"I had a little incident with Kimi [Raikkonen] and it's hard to get a clean move without a little contact in Monaco.

"I appreciate the stewards not taking any further action and I think the crowd and the fans enjoyed it.

"We'll try and keep up the pace in the next few races to hopefully stay in the top five."
The next race, in a fortnight, is in Montreal, Canada, where Riccciardo scored the first of his three F1 victories last year.

How Mercedes got it so horribly wrong
Rosberg's victory in Monaco slashed Hamilton's world championship lead from 20 to 10 points after six of 19 rounds.

Rosberg admitted he had been incredibly lucky to follow up his Spanish GP success two weeks earlier with another win as Hamilton had done "a perfect job" until the call from the Mercedes pit wall for a tyre change ruined the world champion's race.

"He [Hamilton] definitely deserved the win, but I'll take it and enjoy it. I know how horrible he must feel," Rosberg said.

When Hamilton realised he had lost the lead, and his chance of victory, because Rosberg and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel had not pitted as he thought, he asked the Mercedes chiefs on the pit wall: "I've lost the race, haven't I? What's happened guys?"

Post-race he said: "I can't express the way I feel at the moment."

Later he added, diplomatically: "The team have been brilliant all year, so I don't blame them. We win and we lose together. You live to fight another day."

But Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was acutely embarrassed by what he admitted was "a complete misjudgement".

"I am so sorry. We screwed it up for him," Wolff said.

"What a crazy day. I don't think there has ever been a more bitter-sweet feeling.

"We have won the Monaco GP and we have lost the Monaco GP all at the same time.

"First of all, we must apologise to Lewis. We win and we lose together and what I am proud of in this team is that we take collective responsibility.

"But this is a day when we simply have to say sorry to our driver, because our mistake cost him the victory here.

"What happened? In simple terms, we got our numbers wrong.

"We thought we had the gap for Lewis to take fresh tyres and come back out in the lead behind the safety car, ahead of Nico and covering off any risk of another competitor taking fresh tyres.

"But the calculation was incorrect and he came out in third place. It was our decision to call him in and our mistake, pure and simple; in these situations, a driver trusts his team.

"Lewis had driven flawlessly until then and really delivered a perfect weekend, with a stunning pole lap and a masterful race.

"There's nothing more to say other than to highlight the grace with which he handled the situation; he was a leader and a true sportsman.

"As for Nico, he didn't put a foot wrong all day, and it would be wrong if we didn't recognise his achievement: a third consecutive win in Monaco is something only three other drivers in history have achieved before.

"It is a very special moment indeed and one for him to savour.

"He didn't have the pace of Lewis today but, in this sport, you take the victories any way they come. This, too, is motor racing.

"We now need to stay calm and analyse how we made the mistake. We will be harshly self-critical behind closed doors and this experience will make us a better and a stronger team in the races ahead."

Breakthrough for McLaren-Honda
McLaren and its power unit supplier Honda scored their first world championship points together in the V6 turbo hybrid era with Jenson Button's eighth place in Monaco.

"I got everything out of the car today and the actual pace was good," said 2009 world champion Button, who two weeks earlier felt he might finish in the top 10 all year after what he called a "pretty scary" McLaren-Honda at the Spanish GP.

"My race was basically about turning quali[fying] lap after quali lap. It was flat-out."
Button's teammate, Spanish dual world champion Fernando Alonso, was one of three non-finishers – along with [surprise, surprise] Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado's Lotus and Dutch teenager Max Verstappen, who walked away from the Toro Rosso-Renault he crashed so heavily after contact with the other Lotus of Frenchman Romain Grosjean.

Alonso retired mid-race with his car overheating.

"Fernando drove very well and, had his car proved reliable, would also have scored points," McLaren racing director Eric Boullier said.

Honda entered the V6 turbo era a year behind Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari and its motorsport chief Yasuhisa Arai said: "It feels like we've now finally arrived at the start-line of the race calendar."

"That was something I was really looking forward to, the chance to rally past an estimated 100,000 spectators would have been incredible," Pedder said.

Despite the setbacks he and co-driver Dale Moscatt endured, Pedder saw some positives out of the weekend – and with the pair to do three more events in the Ford Fiesta R5, the next on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia in mid-June.

"When everything was going well [in Portugal] we were setting times half a second a kilometre off the factory Skodas," Pedder said.

"That's very encouraging for our first time out.

"It means I can now focus on the next three rallies, all of which should suit our car and tyres far more, with renewed confidence.

"We made some good advances learning the car, especially between my first run during testing a week ago and how it felt on the final day of Portugal.

"I've learnt what works with the car set-up and suspension settings.

"We head to Sardinia feeling like we'll be a lot closer to the pace.

"I was never expecting an easy time. I knew how tough it would be after we recced the very first stage.

"My aim was always to try to survive each stage and still set respectable stage times. OK, we didn't manage the first part, but I feel like I definitely managed the second.

"With no testing allowed in Sardinia, our first run will be at the shakedown. I have some ideas for the set-up of the Fiesta's diffs I'd like to test, and that will be my one and only chance before we're straight into the action."