MOTORSPORT: Webber back in the box seat

Five GPs to go and Webber heads the F1 field
Mark Webber is in the lead of the Formula One world championship for the third time this year. The old firm of Craig Lowndes and Mark Skaife are the top dogs in V8 Supercar racing after the first enduro.

Marcos Ambrose has notched his best oval track result in NASCAR's Sprint Cup. However, Sebastian Loeb has to wait a little longer for his inevitable seventh straight world rally championship, but it will most likely be on his home soil in France.

Webber regained the F1 championship lead by finishing sixth at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza after his main title rival, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, was out on the opening lap after banging wheels with Ferrari's Felipe Massa and surrendering his narrow season advantage.

Webber recovered from a bad start that dropped him to ninth at the end of the first lap after starting fourth on the grid -- an excellent qualifying position for him considering the power difference between his Red Bull RB's Renault engine and the extra 20-30 horsepower of Ferrari and Mercedes-engined cars.

While Webber made a couple of superb passes in the race -- on Michael Schumacher's Mercedes and young German Nico Hulkenberg's Williams-Cosworth -- he lost a lot of time held up behind Hulkenberg late in the race.

Webber's teammate Sebastian Vettel had an engine scare on lap 20 and saw Webber fly past him. However, Vettel's problem reportedly turned out to be with his brakes and he recovered to a brilliant fourth place by waiting until the last lap to make his compulsory pitstop to change tyres.

Vettel said it was "our maximum today" but he saw himself drop to fifth in the standings even though he narrowed the gap to Webber.

Red Bull stretched its lead over McLaren-Mercedes in the constructors' championship to three points from one.

While frustrated by Hulkenberg, Webber was pleased to come away from Monza with eight points while Hamilton got none.

"We could have got more points, so it's a bit disappointing, but at least we got some," Webber said. "We lost out on the start and the first lap and later I lost a lot of time behind Hulkenburg -- he seemed to spend every second lap going through the chicane -- but the stewards left him alone, which was frustrating.

"I got him in the end, but I lost a lot of time. I've had a better day than Lewis and got more points, but Fernando Alonso won the race.

"It's good to get some points, but you always want a bit more. It could have been worse for us. I'm sure I'll be pretty happy when I think about it."

Alonso's first Italian GP as a Ferrari driver produced his second Monza victory, third win of the season and the 24th of his career -- equalling the tally of the legendary Juan-Manuel Fangio.

It was Ferrari's 18th Italian GP win and came after Spaniard Alonso scored its first F1 pole position since 2008.

Alonso jumped from fifth to third in the championship, while Massa finished third -- behind McLaren's Jenson Button -- but remains sixth in the standings and out of title contention.

The top five drivers are separated by just 24 points now -- less than the 25 available for a victory -- with five races remaining.

Nico Rosberg was sandwiched between the Red Bulls at the end as again he outclassed his teammate Schumacher, who was classified ninth.

Williams had both its cars score points for the fourth time this season, with Hulkenberg seventh and Rubens Barrichello 10th.

Hamilton admitted his mistake at the famous track on which he is yet to win -- and that it was the kind of thing that could cost him a second world title.

"The championship is not over, but it's mistakes like I made today that lose world championships," Hamilton said. "It's my fault.  I'll take the blame. I got a good start, but don't know what I was thinking."

Hamilton's teammate Button, running an unusual high-downforce set-up and having qualified second to Hamilton's fifth, led from the start until he pitted at the end of lap 36.

Alonso pitted a lap later and, after a lightning stop, returned to the track just in front of Button and stayed ahead to take the chequered flag 2.9 seconds ahead.

"There was one lap to push and rely on the mechanics. I think the lap was more or less okay, nothing special, but the pit stop was superb," Alonso said.

Formula One world drivers' championship standings after 14 of 19 rounds -- Mark Webber (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 187 points, Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, McLaren-Mercedes) 182, Fernando Alonso (Spain, Ferrari) 166, Jenson Button (GB, McLaren-Mercedes) 165, Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Red Bull-Renault) 163, Felipe Massa (Brazil, Ferrari) 124, Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 112, Robert Kubica (Poland, Renault) 108, Michael Schumacher (Germany, Mercedes) 46, Adrian Sutil (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 45, Rubens Barrichello (Brazil, Williams-Cosworth) 31, Kamui Kobayashi (Japan, Sauber-Ferrari) 21, Vitaly Petrov (Russia, Renault) 19, Nico Huelkenberg (Germany, Williams-Cosworth) 16, Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy, Force India-Mercedes) 13, Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 7, Pedro de la Rosa (Spain, Sauber-Ferrari) 6, Jaime Alguersuari (Spain, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 3.

F1 constructors' world championship standings -- Red Bull-Renault 350 points, McLaren-Mercedes 347, Ferrari 290, Mercedes 158, Renault 127, Force India-Mercedes 58, Williams-Cosworth 47, Sauber-Ferrari 27, Toro Rosso-Ferrari 10.

Tried and true combination takes V8 Supercar enduro
The first V8 Supercar endurance race at Victoria's Phillip Island proved to be a day for the veterans rather than any of the new line-ups.

Craig Lowndes scored his 75th career win and semi-retired Mark Skaife his 88th -- and they set the fastest lap of the L&H 500 in their Triple Eight Race Engineering/Team Vodafone Holden Commodore.

After the other Team Vodafone car, shared by dual series champion Jamie Whincup and Steve Owen which had been running second, had a broken splitter mount cause a vibration to the engine oil cooler, second place was picked up by the Ford Performance Racing Orrcon Ford Falcon of Mark Winterbottom and Luke Youlden.

Jason Richards and Andew Jones took an excellent third place for Team BOC/Brad Jones Racing, perhaps a little unlucky not to be second, while Rick Kelly and Owen Kelly were fourth for Jack Daniel's Racing and Tim Slade and Jack Perkins finished fifth in a Ford -- the latter having his first start in a car bearing the Blue Oval logo.

Championship leader James Courtney goes to next month's Bathurst 1000 with a bigger lead, 179 points now, despite finishing 12th yesterday in his Jim Beam/Dick Johnson Racing Falcon with Warren Luff.

Courtney gained another 59 points as title rival Whincup lost nine laps in the pits and was classified only 29th.

Yet it was Team Vodafone's day as Lowndes and Skaife reunited for their first win together in 10 years -- back in their Holden Racing Team days.

"Both our (Team Vodafone) cars ran strong all weekend and when we got our last stop out of the way, car 888 was working really well," Lowndes said. "When you have a gap of six seconds, you can really look after the car.

"On the last lap I was just making sure we got to the finish line as fuel was tight. Twelve months ago we were robbed on the last lap, so I had to make sure it didn't happen again.

"Today was sensational. Mark was always going to start the race and it was good to see him get away with a clean position.

"After re-fuelling, it was a crucial time in the car for Mark and he did a fantastic job."

Skaife, who had won two of the last three Phillip Island enduros (he was victorious there in 2008 with Garth Tander for Holden Racing Team),  said of his latest success:

"I was more nervous than I've probably ever been. In those last couple of laps you're just not sure what's going to happen.

"I had the ultimate faith in Craig being able to do the job and he drove fantastically. We've had a lot of fun since we announced we were going to pair up.

"The whole thing couldn't have been better. It's definitely a fairytale for me."

Whincup, so obviously shattered by the problem in the other Team Vodafone Commodore, said: "It's better that we learn about the splitter issue now rather than 10 laps from the finish at Bathurst.

"The car feels sensational, Steve did a sterling job this weekend and the team takes good confidence heading towards the grand final of motor sport in Australia."

Courtney went into the ninth championship round of the series with a 120-point lead over Whincup and scored 154 points while Whincup only collected 95.

Luff drove the opening two stints in the Falcon and was fifth when he handed over to Courtney on lap 47.

Courtney was forced to make an extra pitstop after flat-spotting a tyre when trying to overtake Paul Dumbrell's Falcon. After recovering to seventh, Courtney lost more ground in the closing stages when he had an excursion through a gravel trap.

"Today was a 'shocker', but championship-wise we got lucky with Jamie having his own problems," Courtney said. "Our car wasn't great, and then I flat-spotted tyres and fired off into a gravel trap.

"You have races like that every season, but we survived and finished. To come away from such a tough weekend with more than 150 points was great because it could easily have been much worse.

"We tried some more changes to the car in today' warm-up, but we couldn't nail the right set-up all weekend. The car was pushing and loading the tyres on the high-speed corners, especially the right front. The tyres were really bad for the last few laps, and that's when I went off and dropped some places.

"The good thing is we know our car will be much better at Bathurst and the next five tracks we go to."

TV numbers for the event were down both days -- an average of 284,000 across the five major capital cities on Saturday afternoon, compared with 302,000 last year (when a 250km first leg of the enduro was run on the Saturday), with 348,000 yesterday -- down 58,000 or 14.28 per cent on the Sunday last year.

Worrying too was that the average audience on Channel Seven did not reach 100,000 in any city either day.

The breakdown of the five cities yesterday was Sydney 85,000, Melbourne, 92,000, Brisbane 84,000, Adelaide 59,000 and Perth 29,000.

On Saturday it was Sydney 78,000, Melbourne 60,000, Brisbane 82,000, Adelaide 43,000 and Perth 22,000.

The Italian F1 GP, which began at 10pm eastern Australian time Sunday, drew 380,000 viewers in the five capitals -- 32,000 more than the afternoon telecast of the V8 Supercars.

The F1 audience was split 273,000 for the live telecast on OneHD and 107,000 for the delayed screening on Channel 10.

V8 Supercar Championship driver standings after 17 of 26 races -- James Courtney (Ford) 2101 points, Jamie Whincup (Holden) 1922, Mark Winterbottom (F) 1862, Craig Lowndes (H) 1739, Shane Van Gisbergen (F) 1689, 6. Garth Tander (H) 1680, Rick Kelly (H) 1574, Lee Holdsworth (H) 1439, Michael Caruso (H) 1358, Paul Dumbrell (F) 1314.

Ambrose's high five in Sprint Cup
Australian's NASCAR driver Marcos Ambrose notched his best oval-track finish -- fifth -- in the Sprint Cup at Richmond, Virginia, as Denny Hamlin earned his sixth win of the season to take the top seed into The Chase over the final 10 rounds.

Hamlin led 251 of the 400 laps at the three-quarter mile track in his Toyota as he gave the Joe Gibbs Racing its fourth victory there in the past two years.

The Chase -- the "playoffs" for the top dozen drivers -- starts next weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Ambrose described his night at Richmond in his JTG Daughterty Toyota was "a lot of fun" and jokingly suggested he was having second thoughts about switching to Petty Motorsports next season.

"I'm coming of age racing up there with those guys (the Sprint Cup leaders)," Ambrose said. "My car got better throughout the race and it was the best it had been there at the end.

"When you do well at a place like this it makes you feel proud. We've had tough times, but we're just really excited after this race.

"We are now hitting our stride. A top 10 last week and a top five tonight is pretty awesome -- looking forward to New Hampshire."

NASCAR Sprint Cup driver standings after 26 of 36 rounds -- Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 5060 points, Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 5050, Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet) 5030, Kyle Busch (Toyota) 5030, Kurt Busch (Dodge) 5020, Tony Stewart (Chevrolet) 5010, Greg Biffle (Ford) 5010, Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 5000, Carl Edwards (Ford) 5000, Jeff Burton (Chevrolet) 5000, Matt Kenseth (Ford) 5000, Clint Bowyer (Chevrolet) 5000. Australia's Marcos Ambrose (Toyota) is 24th in the series on 2565 points.

French youngster upstages master Loeb
Citroen's new rallying ace Sebastien Ogier scored his second world championship event victory in Japan at the weekend as his rivals -- including superstar teammate Sebastien Loeb -- faltered on the final day.

Six-time champion Loeb, who needed to win and have his main rivals finish lower than sixth to wrap up his seventh straight title -- has to wait until his home rally in France in early October before he can complete that feat.

Ogier began the last day third, 5.4 seconds behind the leader, Norway's former world champion and Citroen privateer Petter Solberg.

However, 26-year-old Ogier -- winner in Portugal in May and now installed in the main Citroen factory team alongside Loeb -- took a 15.7-second victory after the champion and Finland's second-placed Mikko Hirvonen, in a Ford Focus, encountered problems with their cars.

Loeb finished fifth and still leads Ogier by 43 points in the championship with three events left.

Solberg had battled a fever throughout the event but began the final day with a 3.7-second lead over Hirvonen and was chasing his first victory since 2005, but a damper issue and steering problem ruined his chances.

"I never thought it would go so well after the fever because I was terrible at the start of the rally," Solberg said. "But I had a very good feeling -- it's just unfortunate we had a problem with the car."

Hirvonen had a gearbox problem which allowed Ogier to leap ahead of him on the short Bisan stage and the Finn eventually finished sixth, while his countryman and Ford teammate Jari-Matti Latvala took third place.

Kimi Raikkonen's first Japanese rally ended when his Citroen slid off the road halfway through the Bisan stage.

World rally drivers' championship standings -- Sebastien Loeb (France, Citroen) 201, Sebastien Ogier (France, Citroen) 158, Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland, Ford) 132, Petter Solberg (Norway, Citroen) 118, Daniel Sordo (Spain, Citroen) 107, Mikko Hirvonen (Finland, Ford) 94, Matthew Wilson (Great Britain, Ford) 56, Henning Solberg (Norway, Ford) 31, Federico Villagra (Argentina, Ford) 30, Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, Citroen) 21, Mads OEstberg (Norway) 16.

WRC constructors' championship standings -- Citroen Total WRT 345, BP-Ford Abu-Dhabi WRT 250, Citroen Junior Team 183, Stobart VK M-Sport Ford WRT 130, Munchi's Ford WRT 46.