World autosport digest

Formula 1

Singapore Grand Prix which took place last week-end brought almost no surprises. Despite the rainy season, ‘the weather gods’ decided to stay away like they did during the previous years and the race was held on the dry track. Pirelli brought two types of tires for the participants — Supersoft and Medium which were really different in speed. In fact the right tire choice and the right time to change it during the race became crucial in the podium struggle. Except for the first place. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing) swept the pole-position even refusing to make the final attempt during the qualifying held on Saturday. He was the first to start and did not lose this position during the entire race. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) was the second to cross the finish line and Kimi Räikkönen (Lotus) came third. It probably took more effort for Kimi to achieve this result as he started from the 13th position having some issues with his back, which had not fully recovered after the previous injuries.

As it often happens — and this season in particular — nobody was surprised by the victory of the obvious favourite of the race. At the same time a wide response was evoked by the events which took place after the end of the race. Vettel’s team-mate Mark Webber retired on the last lap with an overheating engine. On his victory lap Fernando Alonso gave Mark a ride on the wing of his car bringing him to the pits. It was made in a rather dangerous location and all in all the marshals don’t welcome such ‘taxi rides’. As a result both pilots were reprimanded and as it has already been the third reprimand for Webber, he will have a 10-place grid penalty for the next race in South Korea.

Background

It’s fair to say that it was not the first time when participants gave each other a ride during the Royal races. Here are a few most famous ‘taxi rides’.

The most massed ‘ride’ — 1986 Mexican Grand Prix
Philippe Alliot gave a lift to Stefan Johansson and René Arnoux on his Ligier-Renault. When his car ran out of fuel, Nelson Piquet found room for all three of them on his Williams and brought them safe to the paddock.

A very unpleasant situation happened to Vettel again during the Grand Prix in Singapore. He was booed by a part of the audience during the podium ceremonies. Sebastian drives confidently winning all the time and leaving other pilots trophyless which causes resentment among some of the fans. Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner advised the pilot not to pay attention to such behaviour and addressed the audience with indignation: “You will never see a Red Bull mechanic jumping with joy at the misfortune of another competitor. That is not sporting. Everyone understands how unfair the situation is. Of course Sebastian says it doesn’t affect him but he is a human being at the end of the day. He just did what he could. I don’t think such behaviour of the audience is right or sporting. He produced a stunning performance, showed an impressive speed, and that should be cheered. It shouldn't be booed.” Though some experts say that the repeated booing situation is the consequence of Vettel’s act in Malaysia where he disobeyed team orders and passed his team-mate Mark Webber for the win in the closing stages, which led to a serious fans’ attitude change towards the current Championship leader.

A debutante round in New Jersey, USA might still be added to F1 2014 calendar. The preliminary calendar has June 1 2014 set as the date for the American round. For the last few weeks the United States Grand Prix organizers have been putting in a titanic effort to arrange all the procedures and it appears that those efforts were successful. The race at the foot of the skyscrapers is likely to be held next year. But in this case the teams will have some logistics problems as they will be taking part in three Grand Prix in different parts of the world: Monaco, New Jersey and Canada. So there still might be some calendar changes before FIA’s final approval.

WTCC

The WTCC round held in Suzuka, Japan on September 21 and 22 was rather eventful. Norbert Michelisz (Honda) claimed victory in the first race of the week-end. The short version of the track is very narrow and there are not many overtaking opportunities. That is why it is so important to make a good start. The Hungarian pilot was able to take advantage from pole position and made absolutely fantastic first two laps creating a rather big margin still present on the finish line. Yvan Muller passed Tom Chilton (his RML Chevrolet team-mate) on the opening lap and tried to attack Alex MacDowall who was taking the second position. But as stated by the newly-minted champion he was not going to take unnecessary risks. All in all MacDowall got the silver showing the best result in his entire career. Muller was quite satisfied with the third position. The only one who could keep him from being ‘crowned’ was Gabriele Tarquini, who was running fifth. But he suffered a puncture and had to pull into the pits securing Muller’s 2013 World Touring Car Championship title.

The new champion crashed into Michelisz on the very first lap making both of them drop out of the race. Mehdi Bennani and Tom Coronel, both driving BMWs, broke away from others in the very beginning of the race and were competing with each other. All in all Coronel was able to defeat the Moroccan and claimed the victory. The third and fourth places were taken by Honda pilots — Tiago Monteiro and Gabriele Tarquini. Initially Tarquini was holding the third position but gave it away to his team-mate. The next WTCC round will be held in the first week-end of November in Shanghai.

The Swedish Volvo might come back to WTCC. Polestar team will take part in the next touring round in Shanghai with the Scandinavian champion Thed Bjork behind the wheel of the Volvo. The former Formula 3000 pilot won 9 out of 12 rounds of the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship. Participation in the World Series round is both a prize for a successful season and testing the waters before the return of the Swedish team to the WTCC. Thed will be driving a Volvo C30, the same car that Robert Dahlgren drove quite successfully in the 2011 WTCC season. “We are entering this race to check the pulse of WTCC, as well as celebrating Thed Bjork’s amazing performance in the STCC this year,” said Alexander Murdzevski-Schedvin, Volvo Cars’ Motorsport Commercial Director, in his interview to Autosport. “We still think WTCC represents possibly the best value for money and one-fits-all global motorsport solution if you want to race with a smaller C-segment car. Consequently, we are keen on staying closely informed and this is precisely our objective with Shanghai, not outright performance and results.”

In 2014 season Robert Kubica might become a member of the Citroën team and be behind the wheel of Citroën C-Elysée in a few WTCC rounds. It was stated by the Team Principal Yves Matton. Continuing cooperation with the team Kubica might also take part in the World Rally Championship and help the team in the development of the touring project. «He is not interested in doing a full championship. But Robert is interested to drive in general and helping us with some advice and giving us some of his experience — he is interested in that”, said Matton. Also he did not rule out the possibility that Kubica will start testing before the end of this year.

WRC

A meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council will sign off the changes in 2014 calendar. There will not be Greece's Acropolis Rally anymore but the Rally of Poland is coming back. All in all there are 13 races planned and the only difference from the current season would be the change of the Greek race to the Polish one. Volkswagen team principal Jost Capito gave the following comment regarding this reshuffle: «Firstly, Poland was a great event last time it ran and there is no reason why it should not be on the calendar. On the other hand, I don't think it's nice to have Greece out. The Acropolis is an iconic event. It was always a good, challenging rally that the drivers were all looking forward to all season.” As part of a three-year deal the Australian round will be held for the second time despite all criticism the organizers received from the participants.

Chris Atkinson was signed up as a brand ambassador by Hyundai Australia. The South Korean brand is taking the leading sales position on this market leaving Ford behind. The manufacturer‘s motor sport program involving its i20 WRC prototype is spinning up. This way the pilot is trying to get back to the World Championship. Right now Chris Atkinson is a test driver at Huyndai Motorsport. Team’s line-up has not been announced yet and no decision is expected until the end of October. Hyundai Australia's Bill Thomas noted that the national importer of course wanted to see its countryman behind the wheel of the South Korean car on the World Championship tracks but the decision will be made by the sports team. And Chris is working hard to become a part of this team next season.

Rallycross

Timur Timerzyanov became the European Rallycross Champion. The Russian pilot finished fourth in the final round of the European Rallycross Championship in Germany but scoring enough points to claim the victory in the most prestigious SuperCars category.

Photo: www.f1fanatic.co.uk, www.fiawtcc.com, www.wrc.com, www.rallycrossrx.com