Mark Webber can be F1 world champion but he needs to win next Sunday's finale with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso no higher than third -- and the Aussie probably needs a little help from teammate Sebastian Vettel, without instruction from Red Bull.
Abu Dhabi decides whether Webber's world champion
The Formula One world championship will go down to the wire in Abu Dhabi next Sunday with Aussie Mark Webber still a chance to be champion -- but to be sure of it he needs to win the race and still have a few other things go his way.
After Red Bull Racing's fourth one-two finish of the year in today's Brazilian GP, with German youngster Sebastian Vettel ahead of Webber, the Australian has narrowed Fernando Alonso's championship lead to eight points. If Webber wins the race in Abu Dhabi he cannot afford Alonso and his Ferrari to finish higher than third.
Vettel is 15 points behind Alonso and if he wins in Abu Dhabi with Webber second the German could be world champion -- the Red Bull pair would have the same number of points but Vettel five wins for the season to Webber's four. However, Vettel won't be champion in that scenario if Alonso finishes fifth or better.
McLaren's Lewis Hamilton remains an outside chance to repeat his 2008 title, but -- 24 points behind Alonso -- needs a miracle. McLaren's other driver, Jenson Button, champion last year with BrawnGP, is out of the running now.
These five filled the top five finishing positions at Sao Paulo's Interlagos circuit this morning -- Vettel, Webber, Alonso, Hamilton and Button -- and have been the class of field in what has been the most enthralling championship in F1 history.
Alonso, champion with Renault in 2005 and '06, is in the box seat to become, at 29, the sport's youngest triple world champion.
Webber, who led this championship longer than anyone but lost that advantage when he spun and crashed into a safety wall at the new Korean GP late last month, reckons he's "still absolutely in the hunt".
"It was very good for me to come back [in Brazil] after a bad race in Korea. I took a few points off Fernando today, so it's still all to play for in Abu Dhabi," Webber said.
"The (Red Bull) team's philosophy is that we race (each other) and we will work to that. Seb deserved the win today -- it was a close fight... Both of us need to finish ahead of Fernando in Abu Dhabi, so let's see what happens there."
Red Bull has won the constructors' championship in only its sixth season as an F1 team, but it is the drivers' title that counts. There is still no sign from Red Bull that it will break from its very public policy that it won't impose team orders. Yet this stance could deny it having the world champion driver this year.
If Vettel wins again in Abu Dhabi -- where he was victorious last year, and he's won two of the past three GPs this season and dominated the other until his Renault engine blew -- and Webber is second, with Alonso third, then the Spaniard will be world champion a third time.
But if the race finishing order were to be Webber, Vettel and Alonso then Webber would be champion -- and Red Bull would have the world champion driver as well as the constructors' world championship.
While Red Bull steadfastly says it won't impose any orders on its drivers, there has been just the slightest hint from Vettel after the Brazilian GP that he may be prepared to help Webber if he can't be champion himself.
He said the pair "will have to judge according to the situation (in Abu Dhabi)".
"I think both of us know how to act," he said.
Perhaps, after all the fuss that reached even new heights on the eve of the Brazilian race, Webber has a teammate rather than an enemy in the team's other car. Yet if Alonso were to finish sixth or worse in Abu Dhabi then Vettel could still be champion himself, if he and Webber finish in the same order they did today again next Sunday.
In that case they would be tied on points but Vettel would take Alonso's mantle as F1's youngest champion with more wins in the season than Webber.
The great irony is that, while Red Bull won't use team orders, the instruction Ferrari gave its Brazilian driver Felipe Massa at the German GP to surrender the race lead to Alonso -- and the extra seven points the Spaniard scored as a result -- could now be decisive.
Ferrari escaped that episode with a US$100,000 fine -- for breaching the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) rule forbidding such tactics -- yet there was no points penalty imposed either on the team or its drivers.
Even if Red Bull now had a change of heart about its stance, any blatant manipulation by it now of Sunday's finishing order in Abu Dhabi would cast a cloud over any drivers' title and perhaps trigger months of legal action.
Alonso has come back from 47 points adrift in this championship at one point to be the favourite going into the finale. As much as Australian hearts will want Webber to join Sir Jack Brabham and Alan Jones as a world champion, the odds must favour the Spaniard to become a triple champion.
Formula One drivers' world championship after 18 of 19 rounds: Fernando Alonso (Spain, Ferrari) 246 points, Mark Webber (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 238, Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Red Bull-Renault) 231, Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, McLaren-Mercedes) 222, Jenson Button (Great Britain, McLaren-Mercedes) 199.
F1 constructors' championship: Red Bull-Renault 469 points, McLaren-Mercedes 421, Ferrari 389, Mercedes 202, Renault 145.
Scoring system: 25 points for win, 18 for second, 15 for third, then 12, 10, eight, six, four, two and one (for 10th place).
Toyota driver takes lead in NASCAR'S Sprint Cup
Toyota is close to snatching its first NASCAR Sprint Cup. Toyota driver Denny Hamlin won at Texas today for the second time this season to take the lead in the closest three-way Chase for the Sprint Cup yet, with just two races left.
Hamlin took the lead today with 29 laps to go, then got a push from Matt Kenseth's Ford on the final restart with three laps to go. Kenseth got ahead briefly but Hamlin regained the lead to score his eighth victory of the season.
Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet's champion of the past four seasons, had a 14-point lead before the Texas race but left 33 behind Hamlin, with another Chevrolet driver, Kevin Harvick, third -- 59 points behind Hamlin.
Australia's Marcos Ambrose finished 12th in Texas in his third last race driving a Toyota for JTG Daugherty Racing before his scheduled switch back to a Ford with Richard Petty Motorsports next season.
The story of the Texas race, the finishing order and series pointscore are all at nascar.com
Atkinson ends Asia-Pacific rally series with podium
Australian rally ace Chris Atkinson notched a podium at the final round of the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship in China, driving a Proton Satria Neo.
Young Japanese driver Yuya Sumiyama won the rally in a Mitsubishi ahead of Atkinson's Proton teammate, Alister McRae -- the Perth-based brother of late Scottish world champion Colin McRae.
It was an encouraging end to the season for Proton after its drivers had led rallies but failed to finish. They were the first APRC-registered drivers to finish in China, while Sumiyama won the Asia Cup.
Japan's Katsu Taguchi won the Asia-Pacific title for India's Team MRF in a Mitsubishi with Australian Chris Murphy as his co-driver.
Glenn MacNeall, another Australian partnering Taguchi's Indian teammate Gaurav Gill, won the co-drivers' championship as Murphy missed a round when unable to fly out of Britain in April because of the Iceland volcano.
Taguchi and Murphy and Gill and MacNeall retired on the first day of the Chinese event.
Lambo triumph at first Targa High Country
Victory in Victoria's first Targa High Country -- the first round of the new national targa championship -- went to a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera, but there was confusion about which one it was.
Initially, Tasmanian Jason White was handed the trophy as it was believed he had crossed the finish line 6 seconds ahead in a gruelling final day tussle. But South Australian Kevin Weeks asked for a review of times on Sunday's fifth stage and it was found he had been wrongly allocated a time.
With the corrected time Weeks became the winner, 20 seconds clear of White and a further 1 minute 21 seconds in front of third placegetter, eight-time Targa Tasmania winner Jim Richards.
"It is unfortunate that the error happened, but these things can occur in such logistically complicated events like a Targa and it's just one of those things," Weeks said.
"It's been a fantastic rally -- the roads [in and around Mt Buller] are amazing and take so much commitment."
The showroom competition was won by Peter Brown in a Mazda3 Diesel, while former touring car driver Andrew Miedecke won the Shannons Classic Outright section in a 1970 Ford Capri Perana.
The next round of the Australian Targa Championship is the Hobart-based Targa Wrest Point on January 29-30, with the 20th Targa Tasmania in April.
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