Motorsport wrap: Schumi going out on top

Schumacher confirmed that he will bow out at the end of this season -- and says he made the decision after winning at Indianapolis in July.

As expected, Kimi Raikkonen (second at Monza last night after outqualifying Schumacher by 0.002 seconds and leading the early stages of the race) will leave McLaren for Ferrari as Felipe Massa's teammate.

Alonso, cruelly relegated to the fifth row of the grid at Monza for allegedly blocking Massa, was on course for third place in the race until his Renault engine exploded.

Aussie Mark Webber finished 10th in his Williams, without points for the 11th race in a row, after starting 19th.

Sauber-BMW's Polish youngster Robert Kubica was on the podium with third place in just his third GP. The team's even younger German, Sebastien Vettel, has been setting the pace in Friday practice sessions.

Schumacher's 90th GP win gives him 106 points this season to Alonso's 108, with three races remaining -- in China on October 1, Japan a week later, and Brazil on October 22.

Of his retirement decision, the German said: "It has naturally been difficult in a way, but at one moment I simply knew. All the effort, all the energy, all the motivation you need in order to be competitive -- and that is the only reason I want to be here - I can't say I'm going to have that for future years.

"It has been such a good time and there is no point just hanging on. I don't want to be going on when I am over the hill, but it is not as if I am lacking anything. I believe I am at the top level, so I don't see any reason to have a problem in the last three races."

Ferrari has overtaken Renault in the constructors' championship, 168 points to 165. Renault team boss Flavio Briatore and Alonso are fuming.

Briatore is in strife with the FIA for saying: "This is a world championship which has already been decided at the table (of the sport's authorities). We have understood how things go, it has all been decided. They have decided to give the world championship to Schumacher and that is what will be."

Alonso said after his qualifying penalty: "I am a sportsman, I love sport, I love the fans. I don't consider F1 any more like a sport." After retiring from the race he said: "I feel the same. We have been seeing very, very strange decisions in the last months and I think it is enough."

After the late August announcement of the 2007 MotoGP calendar foreshadowed a conflict on the first weekend of October next year, Auto Action magazine quoted V8 Supercar chief Tony Cochrane chief saying: "That's just rank stupidity and dumb. That will have the MotoGP's TV ratings down with Fred Flinstone cartoons."

MotoGP chief Carmelo Ezpeleta will meet Australian Grand Prix Corporation officials this week at Phillip Island, where the 2006 Oz MotoGP is being held a month early to beat the final prohibition on tobacco sponsorship in Australia from October 1, to find a new date for '07.

"We need to look at the Australian date. We will have to adapt the calendar -- not just for this, but perhaps also for F1 when their dates are finalised."

Speculation that Qantas may buy Linfox raises the question of what would happen with the Phillip Island circuit. Reckon the Fox family would want to keep it.

Dunkerton defends Targa West title
West Australian rally legend Ross Dunkerton won Targa West in 2005 and again at the weekend, both times in Mitsubishi Ralliart Lancers -- this year an Evolution IX, last year an Evo VIII.

Calls are mounting in the wake of Peter Brock's death in the event on Friday for a crackdown on tarmac rallying. Jim Richards, the most successful driver in Australian tarmac rallying although he hasn't competed in Targa West, said. "There are fatal accidents on the road every day but you don't hear people calling for us to ban motor cars. I think it is ridiculous to ban or stifle an event just because someone has been killed."

CarPoint-sponsored Team MINI's two Cooper Ss and the Mitsubishi Ralliart and Subaru entries were withdrawn from Targa West after Brock's death, but Dunkerton -- with co-driver Alan Stean again -- still beat a host of exotic marques.

And in other news...
Heikki Kovalainen, the Finn who will replace Fernando Alonso in the Renault team when the Spaniard moves to McLaren next season, has a special qualification. He beat Michael Schumacher and world rally champion Sebastien Loeb in a Race of Champions in Paris in 2004. Kovalainen has been a Renault development driver since 2002 and won the World Series by Nissan title in '04.

Red Bull magnate Dietrich Mateschitz, rather than Bernie Ecclestone, is the richest man in F1, according to subscription magazine, Business F1. Russian-born 36-year-old Canadian Alex Shnaider, who has just sold the Midland team (formerly Jordan) to the Dutch car company Spyker, was ranked third, ahead of Mansour Ojjeh, the half French Saudi Arabian who owns 30 per cent of McLaren (like Ron Dennis) and half-owns TAG. Michael Schumacher is No. 8 with a fortune estimated at US$335 million. Eddie Irvine, once Schumacher's Ferrari teammate, is on the list at No. 13 thanks to his success in real estate.