MOTOR RACING ROUNDUP : Hill Wins While Schumacher Sits

Damon Hill drew closer to leader Michael Schumacher in the world drivers title race Sunday, guiding his Williams-Renault to a 4.9-second victory over Gerhard Berger’s Ferrari in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

The British driver scored his seventh career Formula One victory--and his second in a row at the Monza autodrome--by taking the lead at the halfway mark and holding off a challenge from Berger in the 53rd and final lap.

The victory, Hill’s fourth this season, narrowed his deficit to Schumacher in the world championship standings to 11 points. Schumacher did not compete while serving the first half of a two-race suspension.

The German driver also will sit out the Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril on Sept. 25. Schumacher, who was punished for ignoring a black flag during the British Grand Prix, will be eligible to return for the Grand Prix of Europe in Spain on Oct. 16.

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Jacques Villeneuve outfoxed Paul Tracy and Al Unser Jr. to win the Texaco-Havoline 200 Indy-car race at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis., as Unser clinched his second PPG Cup championship.

Villeneuve, 23, son of the late Formula One star Gilles Villeneuve, took the lead with a daring pass that moved him from third to first on a restart only 15 laps from the end of the 200-mile event on the four-mile, 14-turn road circuit.

The second full-course caution flag of the 50-lap race came out on lap 32 when Arie Luyendyk slid off-track, hit a barrier and wound up stopped sideways across the track.

When the green flag waved again for the start of lap 36, Tracy, who started from the pole and led from the start, was challenged by teammate Unser on the outside.

Villeneuve, whose uncle Jacques, Gilles’ brother, earned his only Indy-car victory at Elkhart Lake in 1985, took advantage of the situation, driving to the inside. He moved alongside the momentarily distracted Tracy and passed him.

The Indy-car rookie, who lives in Monte Carlo, held off Tracy until an engine failure put Tracy out of the race on lap 44, then kept Unser behind him to the end, earning the first victory of his career. His previous best had been second place--behind Unser--at the Indianapolis 500 in May.

Unser’s points victory gave team owner Roger Penske his ninth series title, but first since Danny Sullivan won in 1988.