As untimely as Mark Webber's exit from the new Korean Grand Prix was, it's not the end of his world title quest. Far from it. And this is said not simply out of patriotism.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso has taken the Formula One world championship from Webber with two races to go - in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

Alonso's victory yesterday on the drenched Yeongam circuit was masterful. The London Sun has headlined it, as only the London Sun could, "Best win of my Korea".

Webber's Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel also drove superbly, off the pole position and never headed once the field was set free after almost 20 laps behind the pace car as officials waited for the weather to allow racing. But Vettel was cruelled by an engine failure.

And, even though Alonso is now on top of the table, has won five GPs this season (more than any driver), and four of the past five, he too has a huge engine worry. We have alluded to it here previously and, on the eve of the Korean event, Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali admitted it.

Alonso has used eight engines this season. If, as seems likely in the two remaining rounds, Ferrari needs to install a fresh, ninth engine in his car, he will incur a 10-place penalty on the grid.

It's unlikely that even Alonso - already up with the greats of F1, with two world titles (with Renault), 26 career victories now, and having established himself as the clear Ferrari team leader in his first season with the sport's most famous team - could win from such a severe disadvantage. Perhaps not even pick up many points from so far back at the start in either of these remaining races.

Which means that Webber, just 11 points behind the Spaniard - 220 to 231 - is still a huge chance to win the championship. Perhaps he's even in the box seat - certainly if Alonso cops that penalty for an engine change.

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, second to Alonso in Korea, is still in the hunt as well, 10 points behind Webber on 210 - while Vettel has dropped to fourth on 206.

Reigning champion Jenson Button is out of contention now, stuck on 189 - 42 behind Alonso with a maximum 50 left to be scored.

Domenicali conceded that, if Ferrari has to give Alonso a ninth engine, "it will be tremendously difficult to fight to the end".

"We cannot really have any problems," he said. "We need to be careful not to overheat anything, that in terms of temperature we are not aggressive.

"This is something we need to sure above all for the hot races (in Brazil and Abu Dhabi)."

Webber promptly 'fessed up that his spin into a wall so soon after the safety car let the field loose yesterday was entirely his mistake.

But he has declared: "I absolutely believe that I can win the title.''

"The RB6 is a great car and I'm going to relish these last two races. To be racing against guys of Fernando's calibre is very rewarding - and beating them is what sport at this level is all about."

Webber won in Brazil last year - it was his second F1 victory - and Vettel did likewise in the Abu Dhabi finale.

So the Red Bull cars should remain the pacesetters in the remaining races this season.

Yet if Webber is to triumph, he most likely will have to do it off his own bat.

Unlike Ferrari, Red Bull is publicly opposed to manipulating results in favour of either of its drivers - or at least in Webber's favour.

Only if it is mathematically impossible for Vettel to claim the title after Brazil would it contemplate asking him to assist Webber in the battle with Alonso and Hamilton.

While the rain strung the Korean GP out for almost three hours, it ultimately made for an exciting race.

Indeed, it was a reminder that wet tracks ought to be compulsory in F1 - that if the heavens don't open of their own accord the course should be sprayed artificially, as Ferrari's Fiorano test track can be.

Closer to home, the V8 Supercars produced plenty of excitement, too, at the shortened Gold Coast street circuit over the weekend, even though the forecast rain stayed away.

There were heaps of crashes - too many for the purists, and not all the fault of guest international co-drivers inexperienced in the heavy sedans - but the closing laps of Sunday's race was the best competition in the category for yonks.

Young New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen earned enormous kudos for his hard charging behind - and alongside - dual champion Jamie Whincup, and rightly so.

But Whincup's guile in holding off a driver behind who was quicker than him was proof of what a champion he is.

Whincup has narrowed James Courtney's championship lead from 125 points to 71, with three rounds and six races remaining - at Tasmania's Symmons Plains, Melbourne's Sandown and Sydney's Homebush.

The title is now likely to go to the wire - and, for the sake of the category and the success of the Homebush street race, it needs to.

However, the scoring system - tweaked so much in the past, and which had seemed finally to be pretty right - perhaps needs further adjustment.

While Courtney has had a fine season too, he has won just four races out of 20, while Whincup has won nine.

Surely the driver who is so much more the dominant victor throughout the season is the more deserving champion.

But if trailing Courtney at the moment is Whincup's biggest headache it pales into insignificance against that of former V8 Supercar champion Marcos Ambrose in America's NASCAR.

Ambrose qualified second in the field of 43 at NASCAR's shortest oval track - barely 800 metres, at Martinsville, Virginia - at the weekend, but had another horror race in his Toyota.

But Ambrose didn't even want to be in that car there. He had sought a release from the JTG Daugherty team to switch quickly back into a Ford entered by Richard Petty Motorsports (RPM) - the team for which he has signed a contract to race next year.

A vacancy came up early after 11-time Sprint Cup race winner Kasey Kahne quit RPM last week.

There are huge problems at RPM, which bears the name of NASCAR's greatest legend, Richard "The King" Petty - who retains only a minor financial interest in the team these days, although he is still its front man.

RPM's majority shareholder is George Gillett, who recently lost control of British soccer club Liverpool to fellow American tycoon John Henry.

That was a very bitter struggle. Perhaps even worse for Gillett is that Henry, best known as the owner of the Boston Red Sox, also is the man with the money behind NASCAR's top Ford team, Roush Fenway Racing (RFR). And RPM gets its Fords from RFR.

It seems that Henry might not be averse to making sporting life even tougher for Gillett, putting a squeeze on the supply of those cars - creating doubt that RPM will survive and massive uncertainty for Ambrose.

"My team for 2011 is going through a rough patch, but I'm fully committed to it," Ambrose has said. "I've told everybody at RPM that as long as the boat is floating I'm on it standing with them.

"(But) as soon as they tell me the boat is sunk I'll jump off and swim to shore.

"Hopefully it works out."

If it doesn't, the shore to which Ambrose might have to swim might be back here in Oz.