MOTORSPORT: Safety alarms screeching

Massa, Alonso and Kanaan incidents have safety back in focus
A dark safety cloud hangs over motorsport after a weekend that saw three major safety scares while McLaren and Ferrari triumphed as KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems) proved decisive in a Formula One grand prix for the first time and Mark Webber moved up to second in the world championship.

Fellow Australian Will Power has scored his first IndyCar victory (his previous success was in Champ Car) today, beating his Penske teammates, Brazilian Helio Castroneves and Aussie Ryan Briscoe, and New Zealand's reigning champion Scott Dixon. Full report at indycar.com.

However, Brisbane-born Kiwi Dixon retook the series lead ahead of his Ganassi teammate, Scotsman Dario Franchitti.

And the Australian next in line for an F1 berth, Perth's Daniel Ricciardo, won a Formula 3 race at Spa in Belgium and was runner-up in another, wet race there that has given him a 37-point lead in the British F3 Championship with three rounds remaining.

But the weekend just gone will be forever remembered for the horrific incident in which a spring from the Brawn-Mercedes car of Brazilian Rubens Barrichello flew loose, bounced along the Hungaroring track, over the front of Barrichello's countryman Massa's Ferrari and into -- and through -- the helmet of the man who came within a whisker of denying Lewis Hamilton the world title last year.

For two days now Massa's condition has been described as life-threatening but stable. He is an induced coma, from which he may be removed later today.

However, he is unlikely to race again this year and there is speculation now that Spanish dual world champion Fernando Alonso will take Massa's seat for the next GP at Valencia in Spain.

Pointing to that scenario are not only Massa's head injuries but that Renault has been suspended from F1 (although it has appealed) over one of Massa's wheels breaking loose from his Renault in Hungary and bouncing into a safety wall.

That was just a week after 18-year-old Henry Surtees, son of John -- the only man to win world titles on two wheels and four -- was killed by an errant tyre in a Formula 2 race in Britain.

And, in another safety scare, the three Penske crews at the Indy race in Edmonton, Canada, early today had to rescue Andretti Green Racing's Brazilian driver Tony Kanaan as his car caught fire in the pitlane. Kanaan escaped with minor burns to his hands and chin.

Fifteen years after the death of Ayrton Senna, arguably the greatest race driver of all, at Imola in Italy, safety issues suddenly have loomed very large throughout international motorsport.

The Massa incident has highlighted the need for drastic improvements in helmet standards.

We have seen reports that Massa's Ferrari was travelling at 260.7km/h (162mph) when the spring from Barrichello's car hit his helmet -- and about 200km/h when he hit the tyre barrier.

Senna was killed not because he hit the wall at Imola but because a rod from the front suspension of his Williams pierced his helmet.

The photographic evidence of Massa from the Hungaroring is the starkest reminder that, while there have been massive improvements in the safety standards of F1 cars, much more needs to be done on helmets and visors so that they can withstand much more than they have to date.

Many in motorsport are wondering too whether it is time that an F1 car has a roof or at least a roll cage.

And wheel tethering surely needs to be revisited. How did Alonso's Renault lose that wheel when they are supposed to be tethered in F1? And why are the wheels not tethered in the new F2?

A pity though that all these issues suddenly being at the top of the safety agenda is going to coincide with the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) presidential election, in which the president of the past 16 years, Max Mosley, is going to be such a figure -- even if he is not running for election again.

Mosley has championed many fine safety initiatives during his presidency, but -- after the disgrace of his sex scandal 15 months ago and the breakdown of his relations with the F1 teams association and many others in motorsport -- it should be unthinkable that he be allowed to retain any hold on the sport's reins on the pretext of being the best, or only, person fit to address these crucial matters.

Coincidentally, too, another Mosley hobby horse, KERS, has proven decisive in the 10th GP of this year's F1 World Championship.

Lewis Hamilton won the Hungarian GP from fourth on the grid, his first victory of the season and one the reigning world champion had not expected at all this year, while Kimi Raikkonen finished second -- his best result of the year too -- from sixth at the start.

McLaren and Ferrari are the only two teams that have persevered with KERS, which recycles used energy and gives drivers short, sharp power boosts. And Hamilton drives a McLaren-Mercedes and Raikkonen a Ferrari.

While Webber did well to finish third in his Red Bull RB5 in Hungary, maintaining his qualifying position, and is now second in the championship to BrawnGP driver Jenson Button, the title is still a long shot for the Aussie.

And it is made more so by McLaren and Ferrari being back at the top of the race classifications, especially if indeed they have mastered the KERS technology.

For Webber to overhaul Button's 18.5-point lead over the remaining seven GPs the Aussie is going to need to add more victories to his breakthrough German GP triumph two weeks ago and see Button, who won six of the first seven races of the season but none of the last three, about where he finished in Hungary, seventh, or worse.

However, if McLaren and Ferrari have finally got KERS right Webber may see himself consistently relegated to fifth or worse, which will make the job of catching Button in the championship race all the harder.

There is huge irony in Webber's situation now. He has always been a brilliant qualifier, but his race results were a tale of woe until the Nurburging two weeks ago.

Yet this year he has been outqualified 9-1 by his teammate Sebastian Vettel but now finds himself ahead of the German youngster in the world championship because of more consistent race finishes. Webber has conceded that it is "a bit early" to be thinking about the world title.

"We can still fight the Brawns together with Sebastian and I," he said. "It's been a bit of a blip for them in the last few races and we hope it continues and we can take some points out of them.

"I expected us to be a little bit quicker (in the Hungarian race), but to be honest we expected McLaren and Ferrari to be around us.

"We knew it would be a more difficult venue for us and that we wouldn't have the advantage that we maybe had at the last two events so, all-in-all, I'm happy to get the result we did.

"I think we would have had a better chance to fight with Kimi (Raikkonen) if we'd made a slightly different pit stop and chose a different tyre for the middle stint, but that was my call.

"I was worried about how long the middle stint was, so it was quite difficult to know which tyre to put on.

"Overall we still have a lot of positives to take away from here -- we're still up there, we're in the hunt and know that we can take our car to a lot of venues and be competitive.

"Red Bull and Renault have a lot to be proud of -- we're still a strong force and it's a positive day."

Button wondered out aloud after the Hungarian race: "Just what is wrong with this car?

"I don't understand it. The other teams have improved for sure, but our car is just not what it was a few races ago anymore.

"I don't understand it. It is not running as it did at the start of the season."

Spanish teenage rookie Jaime Alguersuari came under fire early during the Hungarian event, with many drivers -- including Webber -- questioning whether at 19 years and 126 days, the youngest in the sport's history -- he was ready for F1.

But Alguersuari kept his nose clean and completed the race -- and ahead of his Toro Rosso (formerly Minardi) teammate Sebastien Buemi.

There has been controversy too surrounding an ex-F1 driver -- Juan Pablo Montoya, who dominated this morning's Brickyard 400 NASCAR race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway until he was penalised for speeding in the pit road.

Montoya led 116 laps of the 4km (2.5-mile) oval and had a five-second lead when NASCAR pinged him with 35 laps to go.

The penalty dropped him to 12th and he finished 11th as the Sprint Cup champion of the past three years, Jimmie Johnson, became the first driver to win back-to-back NASCAR races at the Brickyard, ahead of veteran teammate and pole position starter Mark Martin.

It was the second straight Sprint Cup 1-2 finish for Hendrick Motorsports -- and its seventh victory in 16 years of NASCAR at The Brickyard.

Associated Press scribe Jenna Fryer called Montoya's penalty "the most expensive speeding ticket in NASCAR history".

And the Colombian, who won the Indianapolis 500 open-wheeler race nine years ago before he went to F1, was at his fiery best.

"I swear on my children and my wife that I was not speeding!" he shouted over his radio. "There is no way! Thank you NASCAR for screwing my day."

Montoya's crew chief, Brian Pattie, begged him to calm down and focus on a solid finish, but the driver responded: "Don't tell me to relax, dude! We had this in the bag."

Australian Marcos Ambrose finished 22nd, repeating his debut result at the famed speedway a year ago.

But, if we Aussies reckon Ambrose has done well in his first full Sprint Cup season, Montoya has now very much made it in big-time American stock car racing.

Driving for Chip Ganassi, he could have been sixth in the Sprint Cup standings as he headed the field at Indianapolis but even now is still 10th, while Joe Gibbs Racing/Toyota superstar Kyle Busch has dropped out of the top 12 -- who will contest The Chase for the title over the final 10 rounds.

But the Brickyard penalty left Montoya with a cheque for "only" US$224,048 rather than the US$448,001 that Johnson collected.

But, as we've seen over the weekend, there are more important things in motorsport than money. Like safety.

Formula 1 Drivers' World Championship after 10 of 17 rounds -- Jenson Button (Great Britain, Brawn-Mercedes) 70 points, Mark Webber (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 51.5, Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Red Bull-Renault) 47, Rubens Barrichello (Brazil, Brawn-Mercedes) 44, Nico Rosberg (Germany, Williams-Toyota) 25.5, Jarno Trulli (Italy, Toyota) 22.5, Felipe Massa (Brazil, Ferrari) 22, Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, McLaren-Mercedes) 19, Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, Ferrari) 18, Timo Glock (Germany, Toyota) 16.

F1 Constructors' World Championship -- Brawn-Mercedes 114 points, Red Bull Racing 98.5 points, Ferrari 40, Toyota 38.5, McLaren 28, Williams 25.5, Renault 13, BMW 8, Toro Rosso 5.

IndyCar championship standings -- Scott Dixon (Ganassi) 380 points, Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) 377, Ryan Briscoe (Penske) 366, Helio Castroneves (Penske) 309, Danica Patrick (Andretti Green).

NASCAR Sprint Cup Driver standings after 20 of 36 rounds -- Tony Stewart (Chevrolet) 3054 points, Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 2862, Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 2847, Kurt Busch (Dodge) 2608, Carl Edwards (Ford) 2556, Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 2518, Ryan Newman (Chevrolet) 2506, Kasey Kahne (Dodge) 2482, Mark Martin (Chevrolet) 2471, Juan Pablo Montoya (Chevrolet) 2461, Greg Biffle (Ford) 2445, Matt Kenseth (Ford) 2429. Australia's Marcos Ambrose (Toyota) is 18th on 2175.

A peek of Gronholm's Fiesta at Pikes...
And finally, we can't help but include a link to footage of WRC ace Marcus Gronholm behind the wheel of his Ford Fiesta Rally special at Pikes Peak, here.

Image: Power - Shawn Payne for indycar.com

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