MOTORSPORT: Webber's woe a big worry

Webber admitted he was "in a different race" to world champion teammate Sebastian Vettel in Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

After qualifying 0.866 seconds slower than Vettel on Saturday, Webber lost an average of 0.658 seconds a lap in the 59-lap race to the 23-year-old from the other side of the Red Bull Racing garage, finishing a distant 38.171 seconds behind him.

Fifth 10 years ago in Melbourne on debut with Minardi was like a victory.

In 2005 the same place at the same venue was an encouraging start to his time with the Williams team that utlmately bore so little fruit.

But as a world championship challenger last year Webber was generally within 0.1-0.2 seconds of Vettel and at times ahead of him, winning four GPs and leading the standings longer than any driver in that super-competitive season.

However, Webber's results fell away in the last third of the season – some will offer a shoulder injury in the final four races as an excuse, although Webber didn't – but at the Abu Dhabi finale the gap between the Red Bull pair blew out in qualifying.

Then in the race at Abu Dhabi the Australian finished eighth, 44.2 seconds behind victorious Vettel, as he and Alonso were unable to find a way past Russian Vitaly Petrov – a hero in Melbourne on Sunday with his, and his country's, first F1 podium for third place behind Vettel and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton.

It would be premature to write off Webber, but Sunday's AGP performance was not what he needed at the start of a new season.

In particular, a continuation of his Abu Dhabi and Melbourne form will not help him in any negotiations in coming months with Red Bull for another year's extension on his contract.

"I'm 100 per cent focused on finding out why I've struggled for pace all weekend," Webber said.

"The telemetry after the race gave us a few pointers, but we really need to strip the car down to see if there was something seriously wrong. I won't be lining myself up for races like the one I've just had every weekend.

"I'm pretty self-critical and at Albert Park I was a long way off getting the result that the car was capable of. It was very frustrating.

"Seb drove a good race, in terms of what the car can do, but it's not normal for me not to go and match the rhythm at the front. I should be able to stay with these guys, but I finished a long way behind.  It was a tough race and I was pushing as hard as I could, but to finish that far behind is not really usual. I was in trouble with the tyres much sooner than Seb was (and needed three stops for fresh rubber to Vettel's two), so we need to have a look why.

"Let's stay cool, though - it's the first race," mused Webber.

"I'm looking forward to going to Malaysia (the second round of the championship on April 10). I wish the race was tomorrow already. I'm expecting the tyre situation to be very different in Malaysia and I expect to take a step forward."

RBR team principal Christian Horner said:  "Unfortunately things didn't work out for Mark at his home GP and we need to understand why. We took a slightly different strategic route with him running the harder tyre second, as his degradation seemed to be higher than Sebastian's. It's something we need to look into on Mark's car, as it was an unusual difference between them this weekend that we don't normally see between them. I'm sure that will be back to normal for Malaysia."

The changes for this year – Pirelli tyres in place of Bridgestones, driver-adjustable rear wings (for only 600m on the Albert Park straight) and the return of KERS (Kinetic Energy Recover Systems) for short bursts of extra power, and which Red Bull chose not to use anyway – did not make the racing any more exciting.

Rather this latest Australian GP will be remembered for Vettel's dominance, Petrov's podium (and comprehensive outperformance of experienced new teammate Nick Heidfeld) and the seventh place on debut of 21-year-old Mexican Sergio Perez – even though he and his eighth-placed Sauber teammate, Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi, were disqualified later for a rear wing infringement.

McLaren's performance – especially Lewis Hamilton's second in qualifying and the race – was much better than pre-season testing had indicated.

Conversely, Ferrari performed below expectations. Fernando Alonso soldiered through to a fourth place finish but Felipe Massa was erratic and crossed the line ninth (which became seventh when the Saubers were excluded) yet clocked the fastest lap of the race.

It was an even worse weekend for the Mercedes factory team with Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg both out by one-third distance after Schumacher failed to make the top 10 in qualifying.

A big positive for Australia was the form of 21-year-old Perth driver Daniel Ricciardo in his debut in Friday practice with the second Red Bull team, Scuderia Toro Rosso. Ricciardo was 16th in that first 90-minute session and close to Toro Rosso race driver Sebastien Buemi – and with eight more experienced drivers behind him on the timesheet.

Ricciardo will run again in Malaysia on the Friday morning and also in China the following week, with Red Bull motorsport supremo Dr Helmut Marko deciding that rather than have the Perth star compete at the opening round of the World Series by Renault in Europe.

Toro Rosso's STR6 car confirmed its pre-season testing potential, with Buemi qualifying and finishing in the top 10 – despite teammate Jaime Alguersuari driving into him at the first corner. Buemi's 10th in the race became eighth after the disqualification of the Saubers.

Formula One drivers' world championship after first of 19 rounds - Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Red Bull-Renault) 25 points, Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, McLaren-Mercedes) 18, Vitaly Petrov (Russia, Renault) 15, Fernando Alonso (Spain, Ferrari) 12, Mark Webber (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 10, Jenson Button (GB, McLaren-Mercedes) 8, Felipe Massa (Brazil, Ferrari) 6, Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 4, Adrian Sutil (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 2, Paul Di Resta (GB, Force India-Mercedes) 1.

F1 constructors' world championship – Red Bull-Renault 35 points, McLaren-Mercedes  26, Ferrari  18, Renault 15, Toro Rosso-Ferrari 4, Force India-Mercedes 3.

The highlight though was the reappearance in the top level of V8 Supercars of Jason Richards, still suffering cancer and without his hair and minus considerable weight yet taking an amazing second place to Tander on Saturday evening.

Whincup's two victories were his first at Albert Park and Tander's was his seventh there - leaving him just one short of Russell Ingall's eight – and he was second and third in the other two.

Richards just had "a fantastic, amazing weekend", while Stone Brothers Racing/Ford drivers Shane van Gisbergen and Alex Davison each had a visit to the podium with third places, while Holden veteran Greg Murphy sandwiched himself between Whincup and Tander on Sunday.

The pile-up in that third race has left Triple Eight and Dick Johnson Racing in particular with big repair jobs on the cars of Craig Lowndes and Steve Johnson, although they will race spares at the third championshop round at New Zealand's Hamilton street race on April 16-17.

Several drivers, including Australia's other Penske driver Ryan Briscoe, required extensive repairs after a chaotic start which began with Brazilian Castroneves nudging Marco Andretti.

Briscoe finished five laps down in 18th place, while New Zealander Scott Dixon was just two places ahead and four laps down. There was no American driver among the first 10 finishers, which must be a worrying sign for the IndyCar organisers. Danica Patrick was 11th for Andretti Autosport. Round two of the series is at Birmingham, Alabama, on April 10.

Australia's Marcos Ambrose started 13th in his Richard Petty Motorsports Ford but finished two laps down in 28th. Ford driver Carl Edwards leads the series with 187 points after five rounds, from Ryan Newman (Chevrolet) on 178, Kurt Busch (Dodge) 177, Kyle Busch 176, Jimmie Johnson 173 and Tony Stewart (Chevrolet) 170. Ambrose is 18th on 121. The Sprint Cup now goes to Martinsville Speedway in Virginia.

-- Australian David Brabham had double trouble at the opening round of the FIA GT1 world championship at Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi. Brabham and co-driver Jamie Campbell-Walter had qualified their Nissan GTR eighth for the Sumo Power team but were given a five-place grid penalty for Brabham going through a red light.

Then in the race, won by an Aston Martin, Brabham was penalised for "abusing the track limits" by going off the circuit as he battled during the opening laps.
He was given a drive-through penalty and dropped to the back of the field.

He and Campbell-Walter, who regularly drives one of the Minardi two-seater F1 cars at Yas Marina, finished 32 seconds behind winners Clivio Piccione and Stef Dusseldorp in ninth place. Others cars in the field include Lamborghinis and Chev Corvettes. The second round of the championship is at Zolder in Belgium on April 10.

It was the second straight victory for Ogier in Portugal and came after his costly crash recently in Mexico. He and Loeb gave Citroen its first one-two finish in this year's World Rally Championship.

The third-placed Ford of Finn Jari-Matti Latvala was almost three minutes behind Loeb, with fourth-placed Mikko Hirvonen, another Finn in a Ford, almost another three minutes further back.

Matthew Wilson was fifth in another Ford, ahead of Norway's Petter Solberg in a Citroen that finished more than 10 minutes behind Ogier. The 2007 F1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen was seventh in a Citroen.

Loeb is now level with Hirvonen at the top of the standings with 58 points after earning three bonus points from the final 31km "power stage" in Portugal's southern Algarve region.

Latvala, second on that stage and who has been on the podium at all three rallies so far this season, collected two bonus points and is third in the series on 48 points. Ogier, who now has three career wins in the WRC, earned the final bonus point for being third fastest on the final stage and is fourth in the championship on 41 points. The fourth round of the WRC is in Jordan on April 14-16.

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