MOTORSPORT: Webber drought now a year long

Hungary will mark a year since Webber's last GP win -- the sixth of his career. There have been 17 races since. Sebastian Vettel has won nine of them, Fernando Alonso four, Lewis Hamilton three and Jenson Button one.

At Germany's Nurburgring last night, Australian time, Webber finished third -- behind Hamilton and Alonso -- and Vettel an uncharacteristic fourth, which could easily have been fifth. Hamilton was in superb form and his McLaren-Mercedes hooked up beautifully with the track. Alonso made a couple of mistakes, rare for him, but has finished second, first and second in the past three GPs -- the best record of any driver in the championship.

Webber's third was the first time in 16 GPs that he's been classified ahead Vettel at the chequered flag. The Australian did nothing greatly wrong at Nurburgring, although his start was poorer than his rivals yet again.

The leading places were won and lost on pitstops. The last four GPs have produced four different winners. Only one of those races has been won by a Red Bull driver -- and that was Vettel. Now Webber and Vettel are demanding improvements in the RB7 car. Ferrari has made considerable improvement in recent weeks and McLaren in the fortnight since the British GP.

The Red Bull car has not got slower, but the world champion team may have lost its advantage -- more the doing of its rivals than its own. Perhaps the RB7 was simply not as well suited to the Nurburgring over a race distance. Last year the RB6 was dominant at the Hungaroring as Webber and Vettel scored a one-two finish for Red Bull.

Some are decrying that the racing now is artificial because of the tyre rules, but this author finds it enthralling. Great machinery, great drivers, but our Aussie star not shining as brightly as we'd like. Webber's not finished yet, but the statistics are starting to look ugly for a guy who has been in the equal best car for a couple of years.

Here are a few excerpts:
>> "Red Bull have lost the performance advantage they enjoyed at the start of the season. They have won only once in four GPs and, far more tellingly than that, they have been outpaced in the last two races. At Silverstone two weeks ago, Fernando Alonso‘s Ferrari was faster than the Red Bull. At the Nurburgring on Sunday the Spaniard retained that position, and McLaren leapfrogged both of them."

>> "Hamilton ... grabbed the lead at the start, and although he was passed by Red Bull's Mark Webber following a mistake on lap 12, the Red Bull was not able to get away. As Webber said, ‘the alarm bells started to ring then', and that analysis was spot on. Just as he had at the first stops, Webber came into the pits first, aiming to take advantage of the extra grip from fresh tyres. But the second time it did not work out, and the Red Bull was jumped by both Hamilton and Alonso, who then left him behind."

>> "Ferrari ... are a genuine challenge for Red Bull everywhere."

>> "The Hungarian GP next weekend will be a very telling event. Red Bull totally dominated it last year, but the evidence of the last few weeks suggests it may not be so easy for them this time around."

>> "Vettel will go there on the back of a rare off-weekend at the Nurburgring, when he was never comfortable in the car and never looking like getting on terms with Webber ... The questions over Vettel's ability when he is back in the pack remain."

"I'm disappointed not to get the win -- but it's another good result. At the end we needed to try and do something a bit different; we led the middle part of the race, but we couldn't get the tyre range around the pit stops to get the undercut on the second stop. I drove on the limit, but we were not quick enough and that was it.

"Lewis was able to cover us all the time and respond to my pace, so you couldn't get the gap. He got a good start and mine wasn't so good, but the starts aren't key to the race finishes this year. I did pretty much everything I could today -- it was very intense racing between the three of us at the front [Lewis, Fernando and Mark].

"I was pushing to the limit, but there wasn't much more we could do to challenge for the victory. We're a strong unit though -- a good team and we'll push on. We know what we need to do."

A franker version from Webber is reported by Sarah Holt, again on the BBC website: "We need to improve the car on Sundays. It's been brewing for the last two races, we need to address it soon. The last two races we've been done and we've not had much to punch back with," Webber said. "We got beaten fair and square at Silverstone ... this (Nurburgring) is the second race we've been beaten. Is it the form for the second half of the championship? It's difficult to say. We're going to a track next weekend which should be better than this track for us.

"We've got company on Saturdays (in qualifying), and Sundays (the races) are more than a handful for us. I think we were more dominant last year [when Vettel won the drivers' title at the last race of the season] but this year we've always put things together and have been there at the end. Last year we were probably more dominant, it's just that Seb had a good run this year."

"I didn't feel good all weekend and didn't have the pace that Mark did in the car," he said. "[But] the pit-stop at the end (which promoted him to fourth, ahead of Ferrari's Felipe Massa) was fantastic."

Red Bull Racing principal Christian Horner said: "Three and four from one and three on the grid isn't really the result we were looking for."

Hamilton's victory brought his tally of F1 wins to 16 -- equal with Vettel. And the German has to start all over again to try to beat the 15 GPs straight led by Michael Schumacher in his heyday and the record 17 by Jackie Stewart even earlier.

Schumacher insisted at the weekend that Mercedes was improving in F1, yet he and teammate Nico Rosberg finished a lap down in the marque's home race, with the younger man again ahead of the old timer.

Here's Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery's assessment of the German GP: "The whole race hinged on tyre strategy, as we saw Hamilton, Alonso and Webber all try to use pit stops to their advantage. Although some people were thinking that there would be a big time gap between the soft and the medium tyre, Lewis Hamilton was able to win the race in style after being the first of the front runners to change on to the P Zero White tyre.

"We saw a wide spread of strategies once more, with two drivers even delaying their final pit stop until the very last lap. Because of the cool temperatures and smooth surfaces we saw the tyres lasting for a very long time here, which makes an interesting contrast to the early part of the year when some people said that our tyres weren't lasting long enough!

"This underlines not only how quickly all the teams and drivers get to grips with their equipment in F1, but also just how complex our brief is as the tyre supplier. Despite that, we've seen three pit stops per car, which is exactly what we were aiming for."

Ricciardo said it was "good to finish" in his Cosworth-powered Hispania Racing car, even though he was three laps down on the leaders -- but a lap ahead of Indian Karun Chandok in a Lotus-Renault.

"I think we've made a good step from Silverstone (the British GP, Ricciardo's debut F1 race two weeks earlier) but there's still quite a long way to go," Ricciardo said. "It's quite a steep learning curve, but I think I've climbed a little bit of that this week. "If I can keep this way then I'm sure that in a few races time the progress will be more obvious by, hopefully, finishing a few positions further up... If I can make the same step from Silverstone for Hungary (next weekend) then it's going to look more promising. "I'm quite happy with the progress."

Hispania Racing principal Colin Kolles said Ricciaro's finish was "a positive note" for the team. "Daniel has completed his second solid race in a row. He is making good progress," Kolles said. Ricciardo's teammate Liuzzi was forced out of the race with an electronics problem before two-thirds distance.

F1 drivers' world championship after 10 of 19 rounds - 1. Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Red Bull-Renault) 216 points, 2. Mark Webber (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 139, 3. Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, McLaren-Mercedes) 134, 4. Fernando Alonso (Spain, Ferrari) 130, 5. Jenson Button (GB, McLaren-Mercedes) 109, 6. Felipe Massa (Brazil, Ferrari) 62, 7. Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 46, 8. Nick Heidfeld (Germany, Renault) 34, 9. Vitaly Petrov (Russia, Renault) 32, 10. Michael Schumacher (Germany, Mercedes) 32, 11. Kamui Kobayashi (Japan, Sauber-Ferrari) 27, 12. Adrian Sutil (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 18, 13. Jaime Alguersuari (Spain, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 9, 14. Sergio Perez (Mexico, Sauber-Ferrari) 8, 15. Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 8, 16. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil, Williams-Cosworth) 4, 17. Paul Di Resta (GB, Force India-Mercedes) 2.

F1 constructors' championship - 1. Red Bull-Renault 355 points, 2. McLaren-Mercedes     243, 3. Ferrari 192, 4. Mercedes 78, 5. Renault 66, 6. Sauber-Ferrari 35, 7. Force India-Mercedes 20, 8. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 17, 9. Williams-Cosworth 4.

Power held off hard-charging Brazilian Helio Castroneves narrow points leader Franchitti's gap from 55 to 38 points with seven races remaining. Power started second, overtook polesitter and leader Takuma Sato before quarter distance and beat Castroneves to the chequered flag by 0.8 seconds, with Franchitti a close third at the city's revised airport circuit. It was Castroneves' best result of the season, while Franchitti said he "screwed up" on a restart.

Ryan Briscoe, the other Australian racing for Penske, was in line to finish fourth but a late stop for a splash of fuel relegated him to 10th.

Power's victory was his second in Edmonton in three years and his fourth this season. It was his sixth podium of the year after two non-finishes. "It was so bloody hard there at the end with Helio and Dario pushing me along," he said. "It's good for Team Penske. To finish 1-2 is really good."

Power said his feud with Franchitti since the Toronto race two weeks earlier ended after the Edmonton race day warm-up. "He walked by, and that was the first time we made eye contact and I sort of smiled," Power said. "I guess we were both playing a bit of mind games with each other. But at the end of the day, you race how you race... I find it tough to be nasty to people. I put it behind me."

IndyCar championship (all cars Dallara-Hondas) -- Dario Franchitti (Great Britain, Ganassi) 388 points, Will Power (Australia, Penske) 350, Scott Dixon (New Zealand, Ganassi) 282, Tony Kanaan (Brazil, KV Racing) 253, Oriol Servia (Spain, Newman-Haas) 244, Ryan Briscoe (Australia, Penske) 239, Marco Andretti (US, Andretti Autosport) 232, Graham Rahal (US, Service Central) 218, Helio Castroneves (Brazil, Penske) 212, J.R. Hildebrand (Panther) 212.

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