Red Bull Motor Sports Racing

Webber, Stoner and Whincup in Sydney race-off. Formula One is cool. So is MotoGP, and V8 Supercars. But how about all three racing at the same time, in Sydney? And with racing gods Mark Webber, Casey Stoner and Jamie Whincup doing the driving? Aussie motorsport stars Webber, Stoner and Whincup face off in a world-first race against Formula One, Superbike and V8 Supercar in Sydney.
Dubbed the "Aussie Speed Showdown", Webber raced his Red Bull Formula One car against Stoner, riding a Honda CBR1000RR superbike (not a MotoGP one), against V8 champion Whincup, driving his Red Bull-branded V8 Supercar. The three raced around Sydney Motorsport Park's north circuit. It will be the first time since his retirement that Stoner has publicly ridden a motorcycle before he embarks on a career in V8 Supercars.
Stoner will also faced of against multiple Bathurst winning V8 legend Craig Lowndes in a special segment called "Fish Out of Water". Stoner strapped into Lowndes's V8 Supercar, while Lowndes will jump aboard a superbike, racing each other in a series of challenges.

Image credits: Topgear

Vettel was second just ahead of his team-mate Mark Webber, who put in an exceptional performance to take third after starting 18th on the grid. Lewis Hamilton took a brilliant victory in the Chinese Grand Prix, passing Sebastian Vettel within the final five laps to win an engrossing race in Shanghai. Jenson Button lost out to Webber on the penultimate lap, with Nico Rosberg fifth and Felipe Massa sixth.
It was an odd race, that began with Button and Hamilton leading from Vettel, before Vettel repassed them as the first pit stops were made. He jumped Hamilton just before his stop on Lap 13, but admitted he was somewhat bemused when leader Button initially drove into the Red Bull pit before frantically being waved through to McLaren next door!

Rosberg had stopped on Lap 12 and then had a spell in the lead for Mercedes from Lap 17 until he stopped again on Lap 25. That put Vettel back in the lead until he stopped for the second and last time on Lap 31, whereupon Massa had a spell in front. The Brazilian was right back on form, comfortably outpacing team mate Fernando Alonso this day.


Such are the characteristics of the Pirellis that the form of races is not established until the final stints, and by Lap 40 Vettel was out front, 3.6s ahead of Massa with Rosberg third from Hamilton, who had overtaken Button. Steadily Massa reeled in Vettel, but it was the McLarens that were on the move. Hamilton took Rosberg on Lap 42, Massa on 44, and then slashed a 3.7s deficit to Vettel before forcing his way by in Turn Seven on the 52nd lap.



For a while it seemed that Button might follow suit, but Webber had the freshest tyres. He ran the primes until Lap 10, then switched to the softer options and, having made his final stop on Lap 40, was flying. As Button began to move in on Vettel, having passed Massa and Rosberg, Webber was stalking him and dived by on the penultimate lap to make the podium after a superb effort.

Three-stopping Rosberg was left fifth, ahead of the disillusioned Massa and Alonso for whom two-stop strategies had not worked out, while a decent afternoon's work left Schumacher eighth. Renault's two-stop strategy didn't do the trick either, but Vitaly Petrov took ninth place from Paul di Resta on the 52nd lap, and Kamui Kobayashi pushed the Scottish rookie out of the points for the first time in his short Formula One career soon afterwards.

By the finish Di Resta was under heavy pressure from Nick Heidfeld too, after the German had had an adventurous race trapped in the midfield. He held off the Renault, however, but was disappointed to miss out on a point after yet again being Force India's faster driver.


Rubens Barrichello was 13th for Williams after a race spent dicing mainly with Heikki Kovalainen's Lotus, while Toro Rosso's promising afternoon evaporated right at the start as Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi dropped back. The Spaniard became the race's sole retirement when he lost the righ-rear wheel after his first pit stop, while Buemi had to be satisfied with 14th after a deeply disappointing afternoon.

The Swiss driver headed home Adrian Sutil, who was involved in a collision for which Sauber's Sergio Perez was given a drive-through penalty. The Mexican finished 17th, behind Kovalainen, and ahead of Williams' Pastor Maldonado and Jarno Trulli in the other Lotus, who had relatively uneventful races. Jerome D'Ambrosio was again Virgin's faster runner, heading home Timo Glock in 20th and 21st places, while Tonio Liuzzi caught and passed HRT team mate Narain Karthikeyan on the final lap after having to make up a lot of ground following a drive-through penalty early on for jumping the start.

Vettel now has 68 points from Hamilton's 47, with Button third on 38 from Webber's 37, Alonso's 26 and Massa's 24. Red Bull still lead the constructors' championship, with 105 points to McLaren's 85, Ferrari's 50 and Renault's 32.

Mark Webber got his season off to the best possible start by topping the times during the first free practice session of his home Australian Grand Prix. As predicted, the Red Bull looked quick with Sebastian Vettel second fastest - 0.327 off Webber's 1:26.831 - and Fernando Alonso's Ferrari nearly a second adrift. However, the times should not be taken too literally as fuel loads are completely unknown and the drivers only ventured out on hard tires, saving their set of softs for the second session.


But for Webber it was the start of the mind games with his team-mate, as the Australian clocked the fastest lap on his very last attempt after Vettel had looked set to finish on top. It will only be a minor victory in the grand scheme of things, but a confidence booster nonetheless.



The tires look likely to play a major part in the story of Sunday's race as drivers experienced pretty serious wear, with chunks of rubber shedding from the surface. Vettel's first set looked in particularly bad shape after 16 laps of running, but the Pirellis should have an easier time once the track surface has been rubbered in and temperatures increase over the course of the weekend.
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Content credits: ESPN f1

Sebastian Vettel led home team-mate Mark Webber for a Red Bull 1-2 as their team wrapped up the constructers' championship at the Brazilian Grand Prix.More importantly for the drivers, it keeps both of their title hopes very much alive heading to the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with Fernando Alonso finishing third ahead of Lewis Hamilton. The result means that Alonso leads Webber by only eight points with Vettel a further seven behind his team-mate. Lewis Hamilton, who finished fourth, is now very much an outsider for the title as he is now 24 points behind Alonso. But Jenson Button's championship challenge is now over after he could manage to finish no higher than fifth.
Both Vettel and Webber made short work of pole-sitter Nico Hulkenberg at the start, Alonso also finding a way past the Williams car within a few laps of the start. But Lewis Hamilton was unable to do likewise and found himself stuck behind the young German, losing valuable ground on his title rivals before eventually passing for fourth.
The race then followed something of a procession until a late crash by Tonio Liuzzi into turn 2 brought out a late safety car to bunch up the field. But the Red Bulls were again able to stretch away from their rivals to set up a grandstand finish in Abu Dhabi.

Credits: ESPN F1

Red Bull’s championship leader Mark Webber has sounded a warning to his title challengers by confidently predicting that his car will be “very competitive” at Suzuka next weekend, although the Australian admitted that his closest competitor, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, is the man with the momentum. Alonso has claimed three victories in his last five races to move to within 11 points of Webber at the top of the standings. On top of which, the Spaniard can count on his team-mate, Felipe Massa, to act as a rear gunner during the run-in with the Brazilian now too far back to challenge for the title himself.
"The momentum is currently with Ferrari going into the race, as they have had two victories on the bounce, but the points situation is still very open,” Webber said. “I'm optimistic we can do well in Japan and the team did well there last year.
“I think we will be very competitive; we need to go there and get the maximum out of what we have."
Webber leads Alonso by 11 points with four races left this year – although the status of the Korean GP is still shrouded in mystery with the new circuit not yet signed off by the governing body.
“It's nice that I have a little buffer,” Webber said. “It's not very big but it's something I would rather have than not. Suzuka is a track that all the drivers love and I'm looking forward to it."
Webber’s team-mate, Sebastian Vettel, is a further 10 points behind Alonso and the 23 year-old German is also confident that the Red Bull car will shine around Suzuka’s high-speed corners.
"Suzuka should suit our car, but we still have to go there and prove it," he said.
"I think we have a very competitive car this year on all circuits, so we can be confident. Last year was very good and I think we should get a good result again.
"Ferrari has made a step forward in the last couple of races, so they will be strong and don't forget McLaren. There are still a lot of drivers fighting for the title and they are very close to each other, it's tight and a lot of things can still happen.
"We need to make sure we get the best out of ourselves and then we will see."

Credits: Tom Cary - Telegraph UK

Mark Webber put his disappointment of yesterday behind him with a barnstorming performance to win the British Grand Prix, dominating from the moment he beat team-mate Sebastian Vettel into the first corner. The gap between him and second-place Lewis Hamilton was five seconds, but had it not been for a safety-car period it would have been far bigger.

In trying to ensure Hamilton did not pass him, Vettel touched wheels with the McLaren in the first corner and headed off with damage to his rear wheel. He battled back through the field to finish seventh.

Behind Webber, who reeled off a succession of fastest laps, Lewis Hamilton exceeded his expectations by taking second, while Jenson Button produced if anything a better drive in taking fourth after starting in 14th and yesterday describing his car as "undriveable".

Nico Rosberg separated the McLarens in taking the third podium spot, keeping out of trouble from start to finish after a good getaway from the grid. Rubens Barrichello impressed to finish fifth for Williams at its home race, ahead of an equally heartening performance by Kamui Kobayashi in the Sauber.

Vettel's drive through the field to seventh was impressive and required bold overtaking manoeuvres on Adrian Sutil, Michael Schumacher and Nico Hulkenberg among others. He was undoubtedly helped by the safety car bunching up the pack, but did very well to manage a set of hard tyres for the entire race. Sutil finished eighth ahead of Schumacher, who again struggled and fell back down the field after a good start.



Not for the first time Fernando Alonso was left fuming after stewards hit him with a controversial drive-through penalty for cutting a corner when passing Robert Kubica. The Ferrari team were then told that Alonso had to let the Renault back through but by that time Kubica had retired with a seized differential. As a result the stewards decided the best course of action was to issue Alonso with a penalty, but the situation was made several times worse for the Spaniard when the safety car came out and bunched up the pack behind him. As a result, when he came into the pits to serve his punishment he dropped down to 15th and out of contention for points.

He then started a spirited drive back through the field, but even that was cut short when Tonio Liuzzi tagged his left-rear tyre as he passed him and punctured it. Felipe Massa in the other Ferrari also had a terrible race, after contact with Alonso at the start shredded his right-rear tyre. He made some progress back through the field but a spin 12 laps from the end forced him to pit again for tyres and meant he finished the race 15th. As if to prove a point, Alonso set the fastest lap of the race on his last lap.

Behind Massa, the two Lotuses finished a lap down but ahead of Timo Glock in the Virgin and the two HRTs of Karun Chandhok and Sakon Yamamoto. Among the DNFs, Pedro de la Rosa retired with disintegrating rear bodywork (which caused the safety car), Jaime Alguersuari beached his Toro Rosso in the gravel at Luffield and Lucas di Grassi retired with a mechanical problem.

Credits: ESPN F1