MOTORSPORT: Ricciardo second fiddle to Ferrari

Daniel Ricciardo has had his best Formula 1 race of the year, finishing second in Singapore's spectacular night grand prix – sandwiched by the two Ferraris, while usually-dominant Mercedes was strangely uncompetitive there.

Red Bull Racing's divorce from Renault is now official, with that marriage to be annulled at the end of this season – a year short of the scheduled contract expiry.

Red Bull energy drink tycoon Dietrich Mateschitz has said that Ferrari power units will be "very acceptable" for RBR and its junior team Toro Rosso for the next two or three years.

Irish ex-F1 team owner Eddie Jordan, now a BBC commentator, claimed at the weekend that "the fundamentals of a deal" for the sale of the Red Bull team to Volkswagen have been agreed.

VW participation in F1 has been mooted for years but was never going to happen under the group's former chairman Ferdinand Piech. However, Piech was ousted in a boardroom power struggle this year and his replacement, Martin Winterkorn, may be better disposed to entering GP racing.

VW has plenty of hybrid technology expertise within its group which could be invaluable if it were to take on Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault and Honda in F1, but the question then is which of its many brands it would utilise for such participation.

The head of Audi's sports car racing program, Chris Reinke, said last week that F1 would be a step down for it, in terms of technological advancement and innovation, from the Le Mans 24-Hour and World Endurance Championship sports car racing it has dominated this century.

Porsche, another VW brand now, has upstaged Audi in that sphere recently with its 919 Hybrids, winning three straight races – Le Mans and subsequent six-hour races at Nurburgring in Germany and, at the weekend, the Circuit of the Americas in Texas. Australian Mark Webber has been one of the three drivers in a victorious 919 at the past two starts.

Might VW choose to take Porsche back into F1, or use its own brand?

On another F1 team front, financially-embattled Lotus has been given just this week to conclude its sale back to Renault, or be put into administration.

The deal involves Renault taking two-thirds ownership in the team, which is majority owned by Luxembourg financial outfit Genii Capital. While Genii is believed to be agreeable to the deal, a stumbling block may be a minority shareholder, British tycoon Andy Ruhan.

Aussie F1 star ponders what might have been
Daniel Ricciardo felt he might have beaten Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel in the Singapore GP if not for two safety-car interventions – the second of them when an apparently drunk spectator made his way on to the Asian city-state's street circuit as cars raced by at almost 300kmh.

Having qualified on the front row of the grid alongside Vettel and been left in the German's wake at the start, as was the entire field, Ricciardo managed his tyres well and was confident he could have caught the victorious Ferrari.

Proof of his pace was that he set the fastest lap of the race at the finish, but whether he could have overtaken Vettel would have been another matter.

"Thanks to the guy on the track ... appreciate it!" Ricciardo said sarcastically of the intruder.

"I was tempted to swerve ... [and] clip him.

"[But] we have to be pretty happy with this weekend.

"The pace we showed all weekend was strong, the race pace was good and I think we matched Seb.

"If it wasn't for the [second] safety car we would've gotten very close."

Vettel's victory was his third in his first season at Ferrari, his fourth in Singapore and the 42nd of his career – taking him one past Ayrton Senna and leaving him behind only Michael Schumacher's 91 and Alain Prost's 51. Vettel's tally has come from just 152 starts – several less than Senna.

Last night was the first time since early 2013 that both Ferrari drivers had been on the podium together, with Kimi Raikkonen finishing third – crossing the line more than 17 seconds behind Vettel and almost 16 seconds after Ricciardo.

Mercedes factory pair Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were outpaced all weekend, qualifying only on the third row and never challenging in the race – seemingly struggling with their tyres, perhaps because of the new tyre pressure rules but also because the circuit had 23 corners and no long straights to play to their horsepower advantage.

Hamilton retired midrace after a sudden loss of power, although he had felt he could have challenged the leaders at the end. Rosberg was fourth, cutting Hamilton's championship lead to 41 points, while Vettel trails him by 49 with a maximum 150 points to be scored in the remaining six GPs.

"If we have more weekends like this, yes we can catch Mercedes," Vettel said.

"Maybe we can make the impossible possible."

The next test comes this weekend at Suzuka, which should suit the Mercs much better again, show whether Ferrari truly has caught them, while the long straights won't favour the Red Bulls.

Renault, which has copped so much flak over its power units falling way short of the performance of Mercedes and Ferrari, was quietly proud of having all four cars using its equipment in the points in Singapore.

Ricciardo's teammate Daniil Kyvat was sixth, and somewhat unlucky to be that far back, while teenager Max Verstappen was eighth after stalling at the start and declining to let trailing Toro Rosso teammate Carlos Sainz through to challenge the Mercedes-powered Force India of Sergio Perez at the end.

Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost was quick to absolve Verstappen for ignoring a team order, saying Sainz was not close enough to warrant the instruction to move aside.

The McLaren-Hondas of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button were more competitive on a tighter track but both fell victim to gearbox issues.

The best Mercedes-powered Williams could do was fifth with Valtteri Bottas, ahead of Red Bull's Kyvat, after teammate Felipe Massa collided with Nico Hulkenberg's Force India.

New American driver Alexander Rossi finished 14th and ahead of his Marussia teammate, Brit Will Stevens.

Formula 1 World Championship driver standings after 13 of 19 rounds – 1. Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, Mercedes) 252 points; 2. Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 211; 3. Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Ferrari) 203; 4. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, Ferrari) 107; 5. Valtteri Bottas (Finland, Williams-Mercedes) 101; 6. Felipe Massa (Brazil, Williams-Mercedes) 97; 7. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 73;
8. Daniil Kvyat (Russia, Red Bull-Renault) 66; 9. Sergio Perez (Mexico, Force India-Mercedes) 39; 10. Romain Grosjean (France, Lotus-Mercedes) 38; 11. Max Verstappen (Netherlands, Toro Rosso-Renault) 30; 12. Nico Hulkenberg (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 30; 13. Felipe Nasr (Brazil, Sauber-Ferrari) 17; 14. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela, Lotus-Mercedes) 12; 15. Fernando Alonso (Spain, McLaren-Honda) 11; 16. Carlos Sainz Junior (Spain, Toro Rosso-Renault) 11; 17. Marcus Ericsson (Sweden, Sauber-Ferrari) 9; 18. Jenson Button (GB, McLaren-Honda) 6.

Webber gave the car a lightning start against its sister Porsche at the Circuit of the Americas, but the penalty imposed later in the race left the other 919 in the box seat to win until an electrical issue 35 minutes from the chequered flag.

"I had a super start, got the braking point for turn one perfectly right and passed Neel [Jani in the other 919]," Webber said.

"Everything went really well except for my second pit stop [with a half-minute lead].

"In the very wide pit lane I overshot our garage. No excuse."

Two Audi R18 e-tron quattros filled the other podium positions, the second of them a lap down, while the best of the Toyota TS040s finished two laps down. Porsche leads the manufacturer standings with 220 points to Audi's 184 and Toyota's 101.

Webber and co-drivers Brendon Hartley of New Zealand and Timo Bernhard of Germany are a clear second in the drivers' championship, 10 points behind Audi's leading trio – Switzerland's Marcel Fassler, German Andre Lotterer and Frenchman Benoit Treluyer.

Nissan, which has not raced its radical front-wheel-drive GT-R LM NISMO coupe since Le Mans in June and will skip next month's race in Japan but perhaps return for the last two in China and Bahrain, will resume testing tomorrow at the Circuit of the Americas.

Next year's WEC will have an extra round, in Mexico, making nine.

Three wins keep Solberg clear in World RX
Reigning rallycross world champion Petter Solberg has won his third round of this year's championship in his Citroen DS3 to stretch his lead to 35 points.

Swedes Johan Kristoffersson and Timmy Hansen were second and third to the Norwegian superstar at the weekend's round in Barcelona, Spain, driving a Volkswagen Polo and a Peugeot 208 respectively.

It was 22-year-old Hansen's sixth podium in a row.

Team Peugeot-Hansen leads Ford Olsbergs MSE by 77 points in the teams' championship.

Three rounds remain – the next in Istanbul, Turkey, on the first weekend of October.