Sebastien Vettel's rivals are throwing in the towel before half distance but the fight goes on over proposed new, "greener" engines for F1 – and the Australian GP chief has thrust himself into the battle
AGP chief leads circuit rebellion against new turbos
Six wins from eight starts for Sebastian Vettel, a fourth podium of the year for Mark Webber but he admits he should have finished a place higher, and Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso concede the Formula One World Championship is Vettel's before the season is even half over.
However, the squabble about F1's future engine rules is not over – and Australian Grand Prix Corporation chairman Ron Walker has got himself involved, arguing strongly and publicly for retention of the existing 2.4-litre normally-aspirated V8s, the preferred position of F1 commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone.
The Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) voted last week to delay its introduction of "greener" engines from 2013 until 2014, and it was agreed within the FIA that the new turbocharged engines be V6s rather than four-cylinder as initially proposed.
A curious article in London's Sunday Express newspaper by Christian Sylt, author of the annual Formula Money report on F1, claims all but two circuits in the world championship have told the FIA they will not run F1 races with the proposed engines – and that they will switch to IndyCar races.
"The rebel circuits, represented by Australian Grand Prix boss Ron Walker, issued their ultimatum on Wednesday," Sylt wrote here.
"Walker says that powerful, noisy engines are a key part of the appeal of F1. He says the sound of the smaller engine 'would be like a tin can rattling'.
"'We are not going to have our customer base destroyed. I told them that the circuits would not run it. The sound is part of the brand.'
"Walker claimed the backing of F1 tycoon Bernie Ecclestone, who has said of the new smaller engine formula: 'It doesn't sound anything like Formula One.'
"The next stage in the row will be a vote on the FI engines plan tomorrow (Monday)."
It was not immediately clear who would be voting today – the circuits or the FIA's World Motor Sport Council, which has to ratify last week's decision, agreed on by Ferrari and Renault – the latter of which had been heavily committed to four-cylinder engines.
Ecclestone may yet get his way with retention of the existing V8s which, along with this year's Pirelli tyres, have produced some excellent F1 racing.
But the notion of 17 F1 circuits – those other than China and Korea – running IndyCar races is preposterous - for two reasons.
The IndyCar series already has 19 races and cannot suddenly add another 17 rounds outside North America.
And IndyCar is moving from normally-aspirated V8s to turbo V6s even earlier than is proposed for F1 – indeed next year.
The new Indy engines – from Honda, Chevrolet and Lotus – will be 2.2-litre, while those proposed for F1 are 1.6-litre.
Ecclestone and Walker have a valid point in the traditional engine noise being a key part of F1, but it should not be forgotten that there have been turbos in F1 – in the 1980s – and it was a golden era.
McLaren, Ferrari stars admit they're racing to be second best
Australia's Mark Webber is up to equal second in the F1 championship after his third place in last night's European GP at Valencia in Spain.
However, Red Bull driver Webber and McLaren's Jenson Button, each with 109 points, are 77 points behind Sebastian Vettel.
McLaren's Lewis Hamilton trails Vettel by 89 points and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso is 99 behind despite finishing between Vettel and Webber at Valencia.
Although 11 races remain, Hamilton said: "It's finished really. In the sense of the title it's almost over already."
And Alonso said: "The championship is not in our calculations. If anyone thinks we can win the championship being eight-tenths of a second behind [Red Bull] they don't understand Formula One.
"Our pace now is not enough to win races or be on pole position. But there is a clear trend, a clear direction that (Ferrari) is moving forward. We were 1.5-seconds on average [behind Red Bull] in the first three or four races of the championship. Now maybe we have halved the gap."
Alonso predicted it would be at least another two or three months before Ferrari could hope to have an aerodynamics package to compare with the Red Bull RB7.
A BBC report on the Valencia race pointed out that 23-year-old Vettel, already with one world title, is the first driver to finish first or second in the first eight GPs of a season, has dropped only 14 points all season (of a possible 200), and that the circuits that hosted the two most recent GPs "are not ideally suited to the Red Bull's strengths - in particular on high-speed corners".
The rule change at Valencia that precluded teams changing their engine mapping between qualifying and the race had little or no effect, unless it was the reason for McLaren's poorer performance – Hamilton was three quarters of a minute behind Vettel in fourth place end and Button a full minute behind in sixth.
The change to come at the British GP at Silverstone in a fortnight – banning the blowing of exhaust gases over the rear end of cars when the driver is off the throttle – is seen as being most disadvantageous to Red Bull, yet the top team is not convinced of that as other teams have copied it on this trickery.
"It's a significant change, but I'm not expecting it to shake up the order too much," Webber said.
"All of the teams have got to adapt to the new rules, not just us."
Hamilton, who continues to be talked about as a potential replacement for Webber at Red Bull next year and has said he would drive for less money if he could have a winning car, is already despondent about McLaren's chances at Silverstone.
"We've taken a step back this weekend (in Valencia) - or maybe the others have gone forward," Hamilton said.
"I think we're quite a bit down in downforce. We haven't made an upgrade on that for several weeks, especially rear downforce, and I think that in the next race we may really struggle again.
"I'm really not looking forward to Silverstone. Ferrari are a lot faster than us and the Red Bulls are on another planet."
And Alonso said: "I think second place is the maximum we (Ferrari) can have in these days."
What that amounts to is that the Spaniard reckons his Ferrari, driven to its absolute limit, can beat Webber in a Red Bull but not Vettel in the other Red Bull.
In the latest "silly season" talk Webber has been linked to a move to Renault next year.
We note that he said in an interview during OneHD's pre-GP show last night that whatever he does next year will be his decision.
Perhaps that should be taken that he will be on the move, because the decision on whether Red Bull retain him surely will be made by the energy drink company's powerful motorsport consultant Dr Helmut Marko – or at least Marko and Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner.
Webber calls it his best race of year – until the end
Mark Webber acknowledged that he made a strategic error in pitting for his final tyre change at Valencia before Fernando Alonso.
It was the difference between finishing second and third, although a gearbox problem for the Australian in the closing laps may have ensured Alonso of second place anyway.
"We should have finished second," Webber said.
"It was a good race with Fernando. I think it was my best race of the year until the last pit stop.
"I was very happy with how the race was going until the last stop and it was my fault basically.
"I was worried about Fernando getting the 'undercut' and it was not really known how the medium (compound) tyre would behave on the out lap, but it was a risk I decided to take.
"I lost out. Fernando drove a good race.
"We had a gearbox problem at the end, so we backed right off, but we had a massive gap to McLaren, so we could cruise to the end and look after the gearbox.
"Unfortunately, I was wrong (in pitting early). Fernando was able to lap faster than me and, in the end, that was enough for him to pass me.
"It was frustrating not to finish second, but there were still a lot of positives to take away from this weekend."
F1 drivers' championship after eight of 19 rounds
1. Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Red Bull-Renault) 186 points, 2. Jenson Button (Great Britain, McLaren-Mercedes) 109, 3. Mark Webber (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 109, 4. Lewis Hamilton (GB, McLaren-Mercedes) 97, 5. Fernando Alonso (Spain, Ferrari) 87, 6. Felipe Massa (Brazil, Ferrari) 42, 7. Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 32, 8. Vitaly Petrov (Russia, Renault) 31, 9. Nick Heidfeld (Germany, Renault) 30, 10. Michael Schumacher (Germany, Mercedes) 26, 11. Kamui Kobayashi (Japan, Sauber-Ferrari) 25, 12. Adrian Sutil (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 10, 13. Jaime Alguersuari (Spain, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 8, 14. Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 8, 15. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil, Williams-Cosworth) 4, 16. Sergio Perez (Mexico, Sauber-Ferrari) 2, 17. Paul Di Resta (GB, Force India-Mercedes) 2.
F1 constructors' championship
1. Red Bull-Renault 295 points, 2. McLaren-Mercedes 206, 3. Ferrari 129, 4. Renault 61, 5. Mercedes 58, 6. Sauber-Ferrari 27, 7. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 16, 8. Force India-Mercedes 12, 9. Williams-Cosworth 4.
Top five finish for Ambrose but never in victory hunt
That breakthrough win in NASCAR's Sprint Cup still eludes Australian Marcos Ambrose.
Ambrose wound up fifth in today's race on the Sonoma road course in California – one place better than last year after he infamously stalled under caution while leading.
He was relieved "to get a top five out of what could have been a very tough day" in his Richard Petty Motorsports Ford Fusion after starting eighth and dropping well back in the pack during the pitstops.
"I am looking forward to what we can do the rest of the way and when we get to the Glen (Watkins Glen, the other road course in the series)."
Kurt Busch won the Sonoma race in a Dodge for Penske Racing ahead of Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards and Clint Bowyer.
Juan Pablo Montoya came under fire for his aggressive driving, while Tony Stewart and Brian Vickers rammed each other and Stewart's day was over early – leaving him on the "bump" in the race for The Chase.
Ford driver Edwards continues to lead the championship on 573 points from Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson, with Kurt and Kyle Busch fourth and fifth and Ambrose still outside the top 20.
Power crash hands Franchitti outright Indy lead
Aussie Will Power was concussed in a crash during Saturday's night IndyCar race at Iowa Speedway and has lost his joint lead of the series.
American Marco Andretti scored his first win in five years, taking the lead from Brazilian Tony Kanaan with 18 laps to go after starting 17th.
The previous victory for Andretti – grandson of the great Mario and son of Michael – was at Sonoma in 2006.
Scotsman Dario Franchitti led much of the race but finished fifth to take a 20-point lead over Power.
Power ran into Charlie Kimball as he was leaving pit row and Kimball was arriving during the first round of stops.
Power only just stayed on the lead lap but then the rear end of his Team Penske Dallara-Honda flew open, he smacked the wall and was classified only 21st.
"It was definitely a hard hit," said Power, who had started fifth.
"The car was damaged after the incident in the pits and we just had a problem with the steering and it came around on me. It's a tough result."
However, five of the next six IndyCar races are on road/street courses on which Power is the best driver in the series, although he will have to pass a medical check before the next race in two weeks at Toronto in Canada – where he is the defending winner.
Takuma Sato became the first Japanese driver to win an IndyCar pole at Iowa and Danica Patrick started alongside him after her best qualifying performance since Nashville 2008 but she finished only 10th.
The other Australian in the race, Ryan Briscoe, started 10th for Penske and finished sixth – one place ahead of Brazilian teammate Helio Castroneves.
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