MOTORSPORT: WRC to the fore

Aside from Max Verstappen’s miraculous drive in Shanghai and Daniel Ricciardo getting his first points of the season in the other Red Bull car, Formula 1 is a two-horse race between Mercedes and Ferrari.

But the World Rally Championship, which also introduced quite different cars this year, has four competitive manufacturers, with Hyundai on the top step of the podium on the Mediterranean island of Corsica at the weekend.

Belgian driver Thierry Neuville’s success for the Korean manufacturer came after earlier victories this season for Ford, Toyota and Citroen.

And there was a second Hyundai i20 driver in the top three on Corsica, with Spaniard Dani Sordo only nudged out of the runner-up spot by the brilliance of multiple world champion Sebastien Ogier in his M-Sport Ford Fiesta on the final stage.

In IndyCar, minnow teams are beating ‘big boys’ Penske, Ganassi and Andretti, with Canadian James Hinchcliffe victorious on the streets of Long Beach in California for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports ahead of Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais for Dale Coyne Racing.

Both drive Honda-powered Dallara cars and Bourdais heads the points table after his earlier win in the opening round at St Petersburg in Florida.

Will Power’s Penske-Chevrolet tangled with Charlie Kimball’s Ganassi-Honda on the opening lap at Long Beach, relegating Australia’s 2014 IndyCar champion to the rear of the field and he could only recover to 13th and is 17th on the points table. Power’s new American teammate Josef Newgarden was third in California.

Honda also scored a quinella in the main race at the opening round of the World Touring Car Championship at Marrakech in Morocco, with the Civics of Portual’s Tiago Monteiro and Hungary’s Norbert Michelisz heading home the Polestar Cyan Racing Volvo S60s of Argentina’s Nestor Girolami and Dutchman Nick Catsburg.

The British Touring Car Championship was already headed by Scottish triple champion Gordon Shedden in another Civic Type R after the previous weekend’s opening round at Brands Hatch, with the next at Donington Park over Easter.

Yet in F1 the Honda-powered McLaren sits last of 10 teams after another horror weekend for the Japanese manufacturer in China, where Fernando Alonso had a driveshaft failure after Belgian teammate Stoffel Vandoorne had already retired with a fuel problem.

The earlier WTCC race at Marrakech was won by a Chevrolet driven by another Argentinean, Esteban Guerrieri, who also set the fastest lap of the weekend after starting the second race from the pitlane and copping a drive-through penalty.

Chevrolet, traditionally the dominant manufacturer in NASCAR, has won its third race of this season’s Monster Cup to bring it equal with Ford, while Toyota has the other victory from the seven rounds so far.

And, if Max Verstappen’s drive from 16th on the Shanghai grid to finish third – including passing nine cars on the opening lap – was masterful, Jimmie Johnson came from the back of the 40-car NASCAR field at Texas Motor Speedway to win.

But Johnson didn’t have to contend with a damp track as Verstappen initially did. And he’s not 19 – he’s 41 and a seven-time champion in the American stock car series.

Kyle Larson, this year’s points leader in another Chevrolet, finished second for the fourth time this season – and he has one win – while Joey Logano was third in a Penske Ford.

Ryan Blaney won the first two stages of the 500-mile (800km) race in the Wood Brothers Ford Fusion and gave the oldest active team in NASCAR its longest time in the lead of a race – 148 laps – in 35 years, although 23-year-old Blaney was 12th at the finish.

And, while New Zealander Fabian Coulthard starred in the Supercars at Tasmania’s Symmons Plains, a younger Kiwi, Liam Lawson, heads the Australian Formula 4 Championship after the first two rounds at Sandown.

One of six drivers for Team BRM this season, Lawson – only recently turned 15, from Pukekohe, and the reigning NZ Formula Ford champion – has 122 points to the 112 of West Australian Nick Rowe, who won three races over the two days for AGI Sport. Zagame Autosport’s Ryan Suhle is third on 65 points and leads the rookie of the year standings.

Better day for Ricciardo, but in Verstappen’s shade
It was a much better grand prix for carsales.com.au global ambassador Daniel Ricciardo in Shanghai after the misery of Melbourne two weeks earlier.

While not as spectacular as Verstappen’s drive through the field, Ricciardo finished one place higher than he qualified and close on the tail of his Red Bull teammate.

“Mixed emotions … it’s obviously disappointing to miss out on the podium as it was so close, but as a team it’s a good result to finish third and fourth,” Ricciardo said.

“I lost a lot of time in the first stint as I struggled to keep my front tyres alive and that pretty much put us out of a podium position.

“After the first pit stop I had good balance and speed, which meant I could claw some time back and close the gap to the leaders.

“Towards the end of the race I could see that Max was struggling with his tyres, but as soon as I got close to him I also began to struggle with mine.

“The team let us race, but even though I was in the DRS zone (to use the drag reduction system – i.e. manipulate the rear wing for more downforce) I was not really close enough to pull off a convincing move.

“I had a look but the inside lines were still quite slippery into the hairpin and I was honestly never really close enough to make a move stick.

“It was also quite noticeable that the DRS effect is far less on the cars this year which didn’t help.

“As a team we should be pleased with the result and we learnt a lot today, but we still have some work to do to close the gap to Mercedes and Ferrari.”

The Renault-powered Red Bull RB13s finished more than 45 seconds behind victor Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes, which was 6.25 seconds ahead of Melbourne winner Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari.

Nonetheless, Verstappen overwhelmingly was the driver of the day.

“That was a very special race,” the teenager said.

“When I woke up this morning I never expected to be on the podium [after having been eliminated in the first of the three parts of qualifying with a power unit problem].”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner called Verstappen’s performance, just months after that in a much wetter Brazilian GP, “remarkable, mighty, brilliant”.

“He appears to have almost a sixth sense in the wet,” Horner said.

“He doesn’t seem intimidated by it in any way and he is prepared to explore all of the boundaries of the circuit available to find where the grip is.

“There was one move he made on the outside of turn six where he just went straight down the outside of two or three cars and then cut back – it was very, very impressive.”

Meanwhile, F1 drivers were shown a third cockpit protection device – called the Shield, a partial canopy featuring a clear material to help deflect debris and small objects away from a helmet – during the Chinese GP weekend.

A decision on cockpit protection for next season is expected later this month. The Mercedes and Ferrari-inspired Halo, preferred over the Aeroscreen designed by Red Bull, was to have been introduced this year, but that was deferred.

This year’s Malaysian F1 GP on October 1 will be the last in that country, with the sport’s new owners, Liberty Media, releasing the Sepang circuit from its contract a year early.

However, Liberty says French and German GPs will return next season as part of a 21-race calendar.

Formula 1 World Championship driver standings after two rounds – 1. Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, Mercedes) 43 points; 1. Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Ferrari) 43; 3. Max Verstappen (Netherlands, Red Bull-Renault) 25; 4. Valtteri Bottas (Finland, Mercedes) 23; 5. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, Ferrari) 22; 6. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 12; 7. Carlos Sainz Junior (Spain, Toro Rosso-Renault) 10; 8. Felipe Massa (Brazil, Williams-Mercedes) 8; 9. Sergio Perez (Mexico, Force India-Mercedes) 8; 10. Kevin Magnussen (Denmark, Haas-Ferrari) 4; 11. Daniil Kvyat (Russia, Toro Rosso-Renault) 2; 12. Esteban Ocon (France, Force India-Mercedes) 2.

F1 constructor standings – 1. Mercedes 66 points; 2. Ferrari 65; 3. Red Bull-Renault 37; 4. Toro Rosso-Renault 12; 5. Force India-Mercedes 10; 6. Williams-Mercedes 8; 7. Haas-Ferrari 4.

Hyundai’s Kiwi left behind on tarmac
While two Hyundais were on the podium at the WRC round in Corsica, New Zealander Hayden Paddon admitted he was in “no man’s land” in the third i20 on the asphalt rally.

Paddon finished more than 2¼ minutes down on victorious teammate Thierry Neuville in sixth place and more than a minute behind the Toyota of Finn Jari-Matti Latvala and Citroen C3 of Irishman Craig Breen.

“It’s been a learning weekend … we must now look ahead to the next rally (in Argentina on April 27-30), the start of a run of five on gravel,” Paddon said.

Another Citroen, driven by Northern Irishman Kris Meeke, who had won the previous round in Mexico, dominated early in Corsica but retired with an engine failure mid-event.

WRC organisers are thrilled at the evenness of this year’s competition, with four manufacturers winning in the first four rounds.

“This is exactly what we hoped the new cars and regulations would deliver,” FIA rally director Jarmo Mahonen said.

“We haven’t seen such a level playing field in many years and to go into every event with no idea which team or crew could win is fantastic for the championship.

“Citroen, M-Sport, Hyundai and Toyota have produced dynamic and individual cars, the action has been spectacular and I firmly believe we will continue to see this level of openness throughout the whole season.”

While Sebastien Ogier still tops the drivers’ championship, 13 points ahead of Latvala, Neuville’s victory has elevated to third.

M-Sport, representing Ford, continues to head the manufacturers’ championship, but Hyundai has overhauled Toyota for second and now has 24 stages wins for the season.