MOTORSPORT: Webber fires his big world title shot

Head to motoring.com.au for the full photo gallery of winner Mark Webber in Monaco F1 GP

This eighth GP victory for Webber may not have been as emphatic as a couple of his wins in 2010 or as joyous as his maiden triumph in 2009, but this was the proof that he's a very genuine contender for this year's world title -- and how big a crack he's going to give it.

The other Aussie victor in international competition at the weekend was Chris Atkinson, on Australian soil, at the third round of the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

Ryan Briscoe finished fifth in the Indianapolis 500 after starting from pole position while Will Power crashed just before the 80th of the 200 laps of America's "Greatest Spectacle in Racing". The Honda-powered cars of Scotsman Dario Franchitti and New Zealander Scott Dixon came from midfield to quinella the classic for team owner Chip Ganassi after Chevrolet-engined cars filled nine of the top 10 starting positions.

Marcos Ambrose's quest for his first oval-track victory in NASCAR's Sprint Cup at Charlotte's Coca-Cola 600 faltered just after half distance when his left front wheel hub failed. He wound up 33 laps down in 32nd.

At Monaco the other Australian in F1, Daniel Ricciardo, withdrew late in the race, finding his Toro Rosso car unsafe because of steering damage after clipping a kerb.

French rally great Sebastien Loeb claimed his 71st victory in the World Rally Championship ahead of his Citroen teammate, Finn Mikko Hirvonen, in Greece's Acropolis Rally.

And in the Australian Rally Championship round that ran in conjunction with the Asia-Pacific round in Queensland Honda's factory team driver Eli Evans completed a hat-trick of victories this season in his Jazz.

Webber's eight career GP wins compare with Australian 1980 world champion Alan Jones' 12 (he claims 13 and once had the trophies to reflect that) and the 14 of triple champion Sir Jack Brabham. Webber doesn't have a world title to join the elite “club” with Brabham and Jones, but -- after finishing third in the championship the past two years -- he's in with a big chance this year after many had written him off.

This author must admit he doubted Webber would be a genuine challenger again after last season, when he failed to come to grips with the tyres in the first year of Pirelli as the sole supplier, although a long history (through the lower ranks and then 10 years of F1) told him (author) never to write off Webber.

Approaching a 36th birthday, his second Monaco success was the work of an incredibly experienced, mature and motivated GP driver. He started from pole position after top qualifier Michael Schumacher was relegated to sixth on the grid because of a five-place penalty carried over from the Spanish GP two weeks earlier.

Webber capitalised on that pole, getting off the start line perfectly ahead of Nico Rosberg and he was pretty much in command the whole race, withstanding Rosberg's intense pressure at the end, while Alonso was within 1 second of him and Vettel little more than 1.3 seconds away.

As Vettel went much further into the race on his first set of tyres than virtually everyone had contemplated and led for about 10 laps there were suspicions among many watchers that Webber was “backing up” the rest of the field as part of a Red Bull strategy to ensure the German won.

However, this author saw it as Webber controlling his pace rather than working for the benefit of his teammate. At the end Webber completely dictated the pace, demonstrating mastery of the adage that the job in racing is to win at the slowest possible pace.

Rain fell twice during a race that was enthralling without a lot of overtaking, but it was not enough to warrant wet-weather tyres.

Rosberg said after his second place that he felt he had the best car on the day but that he couldn't get past Webber. While Red Bull now has two wins this season, and there was much talk of a challenge to its curious little rectangular hole in the floor of its two cars (but without official protest), Schumacher's pole and Rosberg's comments may indicate that the Mercedes is the car of the moment.

The Ferrari most certainly is not, yet Alonso rings the ultimate from it -- and Brazilian teammate Felipe Massa was much stronger than he has been for ages throughout the Monaco weekend, finishing sixth -- on the tail of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and with 6.2 seconds of Webber. Without a win this year Hamilton somehow is fourth in the championship on 63 points -- 10 behind Webber and Vettel -- and four ahead of Chinese GP victor Rosberg.

McLaren teammate and Australian GP winner Jenson Button had another horror race, has scored only two points in the past three rounds and languishes seventh in the championship on 45 points -- six behind Lotus man Kimi Raikkonen.

Spanish GP winner Pastor Maldonado started from the back of the grid in Monaco after two penalties earlier in the weekend and was out on the opening lap with a wrecked Williams car.

Schumacher's "pole" lap was a delight in a season of so many highlights, something even his enemies would have to acknowledge, but again it did not translate into a great race result. He survived some buffeting on the opening lap but low fuel pressure put him out 14 laps from the end.

Maybe a podium, even a 92nd race win, may come for the 43-year-old seven-time world champion in this third year of his comeback if the Mercedes is so good, but for now his two championship points -- after two 10th places and four retirements -- leaves him equal with 22-year-old Aussie Ricciardo in a Toro Rosso car.

"There were different parts of the race where I had to be incredibly focused and make sure we really capitalised on the positioning we had," Webber said. "A good friend of mine sent me a text message in the morning saying, 'You're in charge, you're in front and in charge' and we were, but you can get bitten here very quickly.

"There were a few key stages around the stops that were interesting... Sebastian had his tyres very hot and was quick at that point and I couldn't get mine going, but once he pitted I reverted my attention back to Nico and just looked after the rears until the end of the race.

"Then the rain came [again], which around here is very, very tough, but we had composure and experience and great teamwork on the pit wall... t's a tough nut to crack this race, but we did it again.

"I had both hands on it today and I wasn't going to let go."

Team principal Christian Horner said it was "a fantastic result" for Red Bull Racing to achieve a third consecutive victory in Monte Carlo.

"Mark drove an immaculate race and, after a very clean getaway, he controlled the race from the front," Horner said. "We weren't sure if it was going to be a one or two-stop strategy heading into the race, but Mark did such a good job on the soft tyre that he brought the option to make a one-stop really work and delivered the pace when he needed to.

"Despite some heart-stopping moments in the last few laps, he controlled his pace fantastically well and never looked under threat."

There might just be a world title in our Webber yet.

"I thought I had the job [pass] done, but he just kept pushing and didn't give me enough room, so that I was well below the white line," Sato said.

Franchitti was dismissive, saying Sato just "got loose underneath me".

Winners are grinners, especially in the Indy 500. On his first pitstop Franchitti had been bumped into a spin by Venezualan E.J. Viso but then charged from the back of the field to win again and drink the traditional milk, although he only took one swig, then tipped the rest over himself on the hottest day in the race's history. He dedicated his win to last year's (and 2007's) victor Dan Wheldon, killed in that horrific crash at Las Vegas at the end of the last year's IndyCar championship.

The race had 34 lead changes among 12 drivers, with Aussie polesitter Ryan Briscoe in front four times for 15 laps.

Marco Andretti led the most laps, 59, but crashed 13 laps from the finish, while Franchitti's teammate Scott Dixon led 53 laps -- and headed the race more times (9) than any driver. While delighted for the Ganassi Target team, Dixon -- a two-time victor at The Brickyard -- was gutted to have to settle for second to Franchitti.

Brazilian Tony Kanaan was third and the top finisher with Chevrolet power, driving for the KV Racing Technology team part-owned by expatriate Australian tycoon Kevin Kalkhoven. It was Kanaan's fourth top five finish at The Brickyard.

Foreign drivers again dominated this most American of races, with Spaniard Oriol Servia fourth, Aussie Ryan Briscoe fifth, Canadian James Hinchcliffe sixth and Brit Justin Wilson seventh. Briscoe's result was his best at The Brickyard with Team Penske and equaled his fifth with the much smaller team of Roger Penske's son Jay in 2007.

The Lotus-powered cars of Jean Alesi and Simona de Silvestra that started from the back row today were black-flagged out of the race within 10 laps of the start when they couldn't circulate within 105 per cent of the lead pace.

However, Indianapolis newcomer Alesi -- a Grand Prix winner, veteran of more than 200 F1 starts, and the oldest rookie in Indianapolis history, turning 48 in two weeks -- vowed to return next year.

Another F1 veteran, Rubens Barrichello, was the top finisher among this year's rookies in 11th.

Despite his crash, Australia's Will Power continues to lead the IndyCar championship courtesy of his wins in the previous three rounds.

Chevrolet driver Kasey Kahne won ahead of the Toyotas of Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch, the Ford of Greg Biffle, the Dodge of Brad Keselowski and the Chevrolets of Dale Earnhardt Junior, Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick, the Fords of Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth, with five-time series champion Jimmie Johnson 11th in his Chevrolet.

Driving a Skoda Fabia for India's MRF team this season Queenslander Atkinson eased off on the final leg of the International Rally of Queensland on the Sunshine Coast but still doubled his lead to almost four minutes at the finish. Atkinson called it "a perfect weekend" and said his Skoda had been "faultless".

"After the last two years when we [he and Belgian co-driver Stefan Prevot] had been leading here [in Protons] and then had problems on the final day it's a bit of a relief to win," Atkinson said.

Atkinson and Indian teammate Guarav Gill won 16 of the event's 19 stages, with Gill taking seven of the eight on Sunday. A broken electrical wire stopped Gill early on Saturday's leg.

Reigning Asia-Pacific champion Alister McRae won two stages for the weekend in his Proton on the way to second place, his first podium this season and despite a misfiring engine.

McRae's Swedish teammate Per-Gunnar Andersson was the only other stage winner for the weekend but was dogged by mechanical problems.

However, New Zealand veteran Brian Green took third place in the event in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo.

Honda driver Eli Evans' victory in the Australian Rally Championship round's two-wheel-drive category came after South Australian privateer Jack Monkhouse won the first leg on Saturday in his Nissan Sylvia S15.

Monkhouse retired on Sunday with a broken suspension. "That was unfortunate for Jack Monkhouse, but Queensland is a tough event and you have to have the right machinery to get you to the end," Evans said. "We [Evans and co-driver Glen Weston] had a bad start and were down eight minutes after the second stage [on Saturday] due to a flat tyre... We went to change it and the car fell off the jack twice, so we lost a lot of valuable time."

Evans and Weston ended up winning by more than eight minutes from the Nissan 200SX of Alan Roe. Evans' elder brother, four-time national champion Simon, will give a new Mazda 2 its debut at the next round, Rally South Australia, on July 28-29.

In the four-wheel drive category in Queensland, NSW driver Michael Boaden had his first round win after dominating the second leg in his Mitsubishi Evo. Boaden finished almost four minutes ahead of the young West Australian who had won the first two rounds, Tom Wilde, and has taken a two-point lead in the championship.

Tony Sullens finished third in a Subaru WRX STi, while multiple ARC champion Neal Bates scored his second straight victory in the Classic Rally Challenge series in his Toyota Celica RA40.

In the WRC, Sebastien Loeb's fourth win of the year came after Ford star Petter Solberg crashed early on the final day of the Acropolis Rally. There had been only 10.2 seconds between the pair at the start of the last day, but Solberg's demise -- he tore a rear wheel off the Fiesta RS after striking a tree -- enabled Citroen to notch its third quinella of the season as Finn Mikko Hirvonen inherited second place.

The Ford factory team's Finn, Jari-Matti Latvala, finished third in his return from a broken collarbone and won 10 stages, but Norwegian Ford driver Mats Ostberg's fourth place elevated him to third in the championship.

Head to motoring.com.au for the full photo gallery of winner Mark Webber in Monaco F1 GP

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