MOTORSPORT: Red Bull orders scuttle Webber

Australia's F1 star Mark Webber is very definitely playing second fiddle at Red Bull Racing now, Holden continues to dominate the V8 Supercar Championship, a new role for Mark Skaife, and "war" in IndyCars

Aussie wants to race fair and square
Spanish dual world champion Fernando Alonso has given Ferrari its first win of the Formula One season while Australia's Mark Webber is embroiled in -- and the victim of -- a new team orders controversy.

Webber fluffed another start, from pole position, in the British Grand Prix but finished exceptionally strongly, challenging Red Bull Racing teammate Sebastian Vettel in the closing laps.

But, ironically in light of previous and repeated Red Bull statements that its drivers were allowed to race on their merits, Webber was ordered by Red Bull team principal Christian Horner several times not to try overtake Vettel.

So, as they both struggled on worn tyres, Vettel finished second and Webber third; 0.4 seconds behind the German.

"The team radioed me about four times, asking that I maintain the gap to Seb," Webber said. "But I wasn't happy with that, because you should never give up in F1, so I continued to push.

"If Fernando had retired on the last lap, we would have been battling for the lead.

"The team was worried about Seb and me crashing because it wanted the points for the constructors' championship. I understand that, but I wanted points for the championship too -- and we proved that we can race without making contact."

So Webber is still without a win this year but this was his fifth podium of the season and 25th of his F1 career -- one more than Australia's 1980 world champion Alan Jones (in a shorter career).

"It's nice to keep knocking up podiums because they prove that you're doing a good, consistent job, but I'd replace a few of them for a world title like AJ!" Webber said.

While it has long been clear, despite the team's statements, that Webber is No. 2 at Red Bull Racing, the orders at Silverstone amount to a public declaration of the Australian's status in the team.

But when he asked whether felt like the No2, Webber said: "Not really. I just want to race until the end. Of course I ignored the team because I wanted to try and get a place. Seb was doing his best, I was doing my best. I wasn't going to crash with anyone."

Team principal Horner was unconvincing in his comments on the matter.

"We didn't stop them racing but there comes a point when you've got a lot of points, both drivers on the podium, so it would be absolute stupidity to allow them to race it out," Horner said. "Ultimately, the team is the biggest thing. No individual is bigger than the team.

"It got very close between the two of them and we'd have looked pretty stupid if they'd have both ended in the fence.

"I can understand that sometimes a driver will be frustrated by an instruction, but there would have been absolutely no benefit with both cars coming back on a tow truck if they'd collided as we so nearly saw Massa (Ferrari's Felipe Massa) and Hamilton (McLaren's Lewis Hamilton) do on that last lap.

"The team championship is every bit as important as the drivers' championship to us and we would have risked giving away 33 points in the last three laps by allowing our drivers to fight it out. As we've seen previously, that can have dire consequences."

The irony of this latest spat is that Webber appears on the verge of a one-year contract extension with Red Bull Racing, yet he is in a no-win situation.

Vettel is the anointed one in the team, yet even if he has offers to move elsewhere -- and the talk is strong about an opening at Renault -- no other team can give Webber a car as good as he has at Red Bull.

And certainly no other car next year is going to be designed by any engineer with the genius of Red Bull's Adrian Newey.

Incidentally, the move to ban the blowing of exhaust gases over the rear diffuser of cars when off the throttle has proved a giant storm in a teacup, indeed a fiasco, and it appears it will now be dropped completely, although there will be changes to exhausts next year.

Ricciardo happy to make finish on debut
Australian rookie F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo completed his first GP at Silverstone and was feeling "quite pleased".

Ricciardo, 22, WA's first GP driver, started 24th and last in his debut F1 race and, driving for Spanish team Hispania Racing on loan from his long-time backer Red Bull, finished 19th and three laps behind the leaders.

He completed 49 of the 52 laps of the upgraded 5.891km Silverstone circuit -- or 288.650km of the full 306.227km distance, making it the longest race of his career.

"I feel quite good to finish and see the chequered flag," Ricciardo said. "It was nice to get the laps, which I think was the most important thing for me today -- for experience.

"Understanding the tyres, the pit stops and the strategy (of F1), it's really very complex and something I've never really done before, so in this respect I think it was a step forward.

"I was quite a bit off the other competitors but I think that, as I learn, I will get a bit closer... I also need to try to manage the blue flags (warning over cars approaching to overtake) a bit better -- it's not easy.

"At the end, looking at it now, I'm quite pleased with the result... Wednesday was a big introduction to F1, meeting the team (for the first time) and making the seat.

"It was never going to be easy or perfect, but to finish the race is a good result for us.

"My expectations for the next race (the German GP at Nurburgring in two weeks) are to learn and move forward, to be a bit closer to Tonio (experienced Italian teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi) in qualifying and to try to close the gap in the race... I think that is a good target for now."

Hispania Racing team principal Colin Kolles was pleased with Ricciardo's debut performance.

"Daniel was struggling a little bit with the rear tyres towards the end and therefore lost a little bit of ground on (18th-placed) Tonio and the others," Kolles said. "But, all in all, it was quite positive with no major dramas.

"Daniel did his laps and finished the race; his quickest lap time was quite a good one and the problem was that he was struggling with the tyres.

"He has to get used to the tyres obviously -- this isn't too easy when you've started just one race with new tyres and the others have already thousands of kilometres under their belts.

"This circuit was definitely not good for our car, there were difficult weather conditions, then there was the exhaust discussion which was not in our favour because we have a little bit of a different exhaust, so, all in all, this did not help.

"But, in the end, it was positive because the team worked well and that is important.

"The race was quite good for us because we had a good strategy and did good pit stops.

"Obviously our cars are not as quick as other cars; which is a little bit unfortunate.

"Otherwise we could show that we would have been much more competitive.

"The target was to finish the race with both cars, which we did, and both drivers could do some good lap times."

Formula One Drivers' World Championship after nine of 19 rounds -- 1. Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Red Bull-Renault) 204 points; 2. Mark Webber (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 124; 3. Fernando Alonso (Spain, Ferrari) 112; 4. Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, McLaren-Mercedes) 109; 5. Jenson Button (GB, McLaren-Mercedes) 109; 6. Felipe Massa (Brazil, Ferrari) 52; 7. Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 40; 8. Nick Heidfeld (Germany, Renault) 34; 9. Vitaly Petrov (Russia, Renault) 31; 10. Michael Schumacher (Germany, Mercedes) 28; 11. Kamui Kobayashi (Japan, Sauber-Ferrari) 25; 12. Adrian Sutil (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 10; 13. Jaime Alguersuari (Spain, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 9; 14. Sergio Perez (Mexico, Sauber-Ferrari) 8; 15. Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 8; 16. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil, Williams-Cosworth) 4; 17. Paul Di Resta (GB, Force India-Mercedes) 2.

F1 Constructors' World Championship -- 1. Red Bull-Renault 328 points; 2. McLaren-Mercedes 218; 3. Ferrari 164; 4. Mercedes 68; 5. Renault 65; 6. Sauber-Ferrari 33; 7. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 17; 8. Force India-Mercedes 12; 9. Williams-Cosworth 4.

Factory V8 Supercar teams on the rebound
Ahead of the weekend's round of the V8 Supercar Championship we highlighted here that the heat was on factory teams to produce results and there were strong signs in Townsville of them coming good, although in the end Triple Eight Race Engineering's Team Vodafone reinforced its supremacy.

Other than the Vodafone drivers though the Townsville podiums were filled by Ford Performance Racing and Holden Racing Team drivers.

Jamie Whincup advanced further towards a third title in four years with second place in Saturday's first 200km race on the streets of the north Queensland city, then won over the same distance on Sunday -- his sixth victory in 15 races this season.

Whincup's veteran teammate Craig Lowndes finished fourth and second in the two races to tighten his grip on second place in the series.

In the second year of campaigning Commodores with substantial Holden support Team Vodafone continues to consistently outperform long-established factory outfit HRT.

However, after its previous horror round in Darwin, the Walkinshaw Performance-run HRT's recently re-signed Garth Tander won Saturday's race.

That was Tander's second win this year and the 49th of his career, making him the third most winning driver in the history of Australian touring car racing. However, after a rear suspension failure he was only 26th on Sunday.

Tander's reigning champion teammate James Courtney, a winner for HRT at the opening round in Abu Dhabi after taking title last year in a Ford, remains in the doldrums.

Courtney qualified his Commodore 19th on Saturday but retired before half distance in the race after an incident with early leader David Reynolds.

On Sunday Courtney qualified 12th and ran as high as fourth before a drive-through penalty and an eventual 19th place, leaving him languishing 19th on the points table.

Prodrive-run FPR's Mark Winterbottom notched his fourth straight pole position in the series on Saturday -- the first driver to achieve that feat since 1998. However, Winterbottom finished that day's race fifth, two places behind his teammate Will Davison.

On Sunday Winterbottom's Falcon again was on the front row, alongside Lowndes, but wound up third, although he has jumped three places in the championship to fifth -- one point ahead of Davison, who was only 18th in the second Townsville race.

Although the season is barely half over, Holden is only two wins away from clinching the manufacturers' title in record time.

Ford has won only two races this season, both by young New Zealander Shane Van Gisbergen.

The next round is at Queensland Raceway in Ipswich, near Brisbane, on August 19-21.

V8 Supercar Championship after 15 races -- 1. Jamie Whincup (Holden) 1683 points; 2. Craig Lowndes (H) 1497; 3. Shane Van Gisbergen (Ford) 1317; 4. Rick Kelly (H) 1244;  5. Mark Winterbottom (F) 1201; 6. Will Davison (F) 1200; 7. Garth Tander (H) 1190; 8. Steve Johnson (F) 1165; 9. Alex Davison (F) 1110; 10. Jason Bright (Holden) 1043.

Skaife to head new commission
V8 Supercars has confirmed Mark Skaife will be the chairman of its new commission from after this year's Bathurst 1000.

It seems the Great Race, which Skaife won last year with Craig Lowndes, will be the final curtain on Skaife's V8 Supercar racing career.

The commission appointment presumably will mean an end to regular TV commentary too.

Incidentally, the TV numbers for the Townsville round -- averages of 290,000 Saturday and 353,000 Sunday in the five major capital cities -- were an improvement on last year but less than three quarters of the Australian audience for the first Townsville event in 2009.

The other V8 Supercar commissioners will be the organisation's chief executive Martin Whitaker, its chief operating officer Shane Howard, team representatives Tim Edwards (Ford Performance Racing), Brad Jones (Brad Jones Racing) and Ross Stone (Stone Brothers Racing) and retired Motorsport News magazine publisher Chris Lambden.

Power and Franchitti at war in IndyCars
There were fireworks at the IndyCar round in Toronto, Canada, especially between title rivals Australian Will Power and Scotsman Dario Franchitti.

Power took pole position -- his eighth straight on road/street courses -- but didn't finish the race as Franchitti won and extended his series lead as a war of words erupted between the pair.

Brazilian Tony Kanaan was punted by Power's countryman and fellow Penske driver Ryan Briscoe on the third lap of the race and that had Kanaan fuming.

Power, who was 20 points behind Franchitti entering the race, led early before a crash caused by his Brazilian teammate Helio Castroneves gave Franchitti a break. Having already pitted, Franchitti inherited the lead, while Power was forced to work his way back up through the field. He passed the Scotsman but Franchitti closed on him in turn three on Lap 57.

In a move like the one that sidelined Kanaan, Franchitti clipped the right rear of Power's car, spinning him. A report from Toronto said: "The move set off a powderkeg of emotion as Versus (TV) told viewers that Franchitti would be penalised for the manouevre. Some wondered why race control would deem Franchitti's pass/contact impermissible while Briscoe's actions with Kanaan resulted in no penalty.

However, with Franchitti challenging for the win, it was announced that he would not be penalised; in fact, Versus had misreported the incident, sending fans into a tizzy about the lack of a penalty and decrying race control.

"Having moved to the rear of the lead lap following his spin and stall, Power's day would grow worse, as Alex Tagliani got underneath the No. 12 (Power), sending him into the barriers and ending his day after 66 laps.

The frustration showed on Power's face as he laced into Franchitti and Tagliani after his medical evaluation, saying of his competition for the series title: ‘I'm not surprised he [Franchitti] didn't get a penalty, he never gets a penalty. It was such a dirty move. I'm really disappointed in Dario, I always race him clean; he always races dirty. The guy that mouths off and whinges about everyone, he's the one who's dirty.' "

Power later twittered Franchitti: "Hey princess, thanks for that nice tap today--appreciate it."

Franchitti's victory was his fourth of the year and in his defence he said: "Will outbraked himself to outbrake me and opened up the door, I went down the inside; I held the wall and Will came down. I put my nose in there, I was trying to get my nose out, but ultimately he closed the door and paid the price."

The hostilities resume in two weeks at another Canadian race in Edmonton.

IndyCar Championship standings (all cars Dallara-Hondas) -- 1. Dario Franchitti (Great Britain, Ganassi) 353; 2. Will Power (Australian, Penske) 298; Scott Dixon (New Zealand, Ganassi) 270; Oriel Servia (Spain, Newman-Haas) 232; Tony Kanaan (Brazil, KV Racing) 221; Ryan Briscoe (Australia, Penske) 219; Marco Andretti (US, Andretti Autosport) 216;  Graham Rahal (US) 208; J.R. Hildebrand (US, Panther Racing) 193; Alex Tagliani (Canada, Sam Schmidt Motorsports) 173.

Pitlane blunder costs Ambrose in Kentucky
Another hard luck story involving Australia's NASCAR racer Marcos Ambrose in the first Sprint Cup race at Kentucky Speedway.

Ambrose felt he was on course for a top 10 finish until a pitstop blunder thwarted his run in his Richard Petty Motorsports Ford. He had stopped for fuel under caution and his crew chief Todd Parrot made a late call to change only two tyres rather than four, catching the crew off guard.

Ambrose was released early from his pit bay early with little fuel, had to pit again under green and lost a lap to the leaders. While he made it back on to the leap lap three times he dropped a lap again late in the race and wound up 20th.

Toyota star Kyle Busch took victory ahead of David Reutimann in another Toyota and Jimmie Johnson in a Chevrolet.

NASCAR Sprint Cup standings -- 1. Kyle Busch (Toyota) 624; 2. Carl Edwards (Ford) 620; 3. Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet) 614; 4. Kurt Busch (Dodge) 606; 5. Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 605; 6. Matt Kenseth (Ford) 602; 7. Jeff  Gordon (Chevrolet) 552; 8. Dale Earnhardt Junior (Chevrolet) 548; 9. Ryan Newman (Chevrolet) 538; 10. Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 530; 11. Tony Stewart (Chevrolet) 527; 12. Clint Bowyer (Chevrolet) 514. Australia's Marcos Ambrose (Ford) is 22nd on 459 points.

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