Sebastian Vettel now leads the Formula One world championship following his 25th career victory in the Korean Grand Prix.
By winning the race – his third consecutive for Red Bull and the team’s first one-two with Mark Webber taking second – the reigning world champion now has a six-point advantage over Fernando Alonso, who had led the majority this season.
Pole sitter Webber immediately lost the lead to his team-mate right off the line, and after fending off the Australian’s attempted retaliation at Turn 3, the 25-year-old German was free to pull away. His lead got up to around ten seconds before he focused on nursing his tyres to the chequered flag.
Fernando Alonso muscled his way up to third position in a busy opening lap, but was unable to match the superior race pace from the flying Red Bulls, to take the final step on the podium.
McLaren had a disastrous race, as Jenson Button was taken out on the first lap when Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi hit both Button and Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes at Turn 3.
Lewis Hamilton ran fourth behind Alonso in the first stint before losing pace on his second set of tyres. The McLaren driver was overtaken by both Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen before switching to a three-stop strategy.
That left Hamilton back in tenth, his efforts to recover positions wasn’t successful when he picked up a large piece of astroturf in the final laps.
Having overtaken Hamilton, Massa closed in on his Scuderia team-mate. The Brazilian received a radio message requesting to hold formation and duly finished fourth, ahead of Raikkonen’s Lotus.
Nico Hulkenberg drove an excellent race in the Force India to take sixth position, delivering one of the most exciting moments if honest tedious race when he passed both Romain Grosjean and Hamilton in one sweep as the Lotus and McLaren diced. Grosjean eventually finished in seventh.
Toro Rosso also had a superb race with Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo coming through from their lowly grid positions to eighth and ninth. Although the pair switched places late on as Ricciardo’s tyres faded away… Hamilton’s astroturf drama meant the McLaren fell back after putting the Toro Rosso duo under heavy pressure.
As for Mercedes, this was a disappointing race from the Silver Arrows with Michael Schumacher lacking pace throughout while Nico Rosberg was forced to retire early following a hit from behind by Kamui Kobayashi.
So not a classic Korean Grand Prix but in terms of the world championship it is quite significant. Sebastian Vettel’s victory means he now leads with 215 points, with Fernando Alonso now on 209 followed by Kimi Raikkonen with 167, Lewis Hamilton on 153 and Mark Webber with 152 points.
In the constructors’ standings, Red Bull Racing extend their lead with 367 points with Ferrari moving up ahead of McLaren with 290 over 284.
Korean Grand Prix race results, after 55 laps:
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h36:28.651
2. Webber Red Bull-Renault +8.231
3. Alonso Ferrari +13.944
4. Massa Ferrari +20.168
5. Raikkonen Lotus-Renault +36.739
6. Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes +45.301
7. Grosjean Lotus-Renault +54.812
8. Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1:09.589
9. Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1:11.787
10. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes +1:19.692
11. Perez Sauber-Ferrari +1:20.062
12. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes +1:24.448
13. Schumacher Mercedes +1:29.241
14. Maldonado Williams-Renault +1:34.924
15. Senna Williams-Renault +1:36.902
16. Petrov Caterham-Renault +1 lap
17. Kovalainen Caterham-Renault +1 lap
18. Glock Marussia-Cosworth +1 lap
19. Pic Marussia-Cosworth +2 lap
20. Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth +2 laps
Fastest lap: Webber, 1:42.037
Not classified/retirements:
De la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 17 laps
Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 17 laps
Rosberg Mercedes 2 lap
Button McLaren-Mercedes 1 lap
World Championship standings, round 16:
Drivers:
1. Vettel 215
2. Alonso 209
3. Raikkonen 167
4. Hamilton 153
5. Webber 152
6. Button 131
7. Rosberg 93
8. Grosjean 88
9. Massa 81
10. Perez 66
11. Kobayashi 50
12. Hulkenberg 45
13. Di Resta 44
14. Schumacher 43
15. Maldonado 33
16. Senna 25
17. Vergne 12
18. Ricciardo 9
Constructors:
1. Red Bull-Renault 367
2. Ferrari 290
3. McLaren-Mercedes 284
4. Lotus-Renault 255
5. Mercedes 136
6. Sauber-Ferrari 116
7. Force India-Mercedes 89
8. Williams-Renault 58
9. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 21
Next race: Indian Grand Prix, New Delhi. October 26-28.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel has admitted that his start was the key in winning the Korean Grand Prix. Autosport.com has the story.
Sebastian Vettel believes his start to the Korean Grand Prix was crucial in securing his third consecutive win of the season.
The German Red Bull driver qualified in second position behind team-mate Mark Webber, but a better start than the Australian got him ahead at the first corner.
From then, Vettel controlled the race to perfection to secure his fourth win of the season and move into the championship lead after Fernando Alonso finished third.
A delighted Vettel admitted his only scare of the race came when he locked up his right front tyre near the end, forcing him to take it easy on the final laps.
“Fantastic. I am very, very happy. It was a fantastic race,” said Vettel.
“The foundation was to have a good start. I wasn’t sure as I was starting on the dirty side, but I had a reasonable start and a good launch. Mark had a bit of slip so I could get side-by-side and had a good exit after the third corner.
“We had two brilliant pitstops. The only mistake was locking up the front right at Turn 3. It was a bit of a mistake on my side, but luckily I had cushion to the pack. At the end I was quite worried about tyres.”
Vettel, who has turned a 39-point deficit into a six-point lead in just three races, is hopeful there is still more to come from Red Bull in the final four grands prix of the season.
“I have to thank the boys for these ones,” he said. “The boys have been flat out each night, working very hard on the car. We have another step and that is exactly what we need and hopefully we can carry the momentum through to the next races.”
He added: “The championship has gone up and down. We have to focus on ourselves, we need to have our best possible results and we go from there.
“At the end of the year if we have enough points there will be lots of people telling us so we don’t have to worry about it ourselves.”
Despite losing the championship lead, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso is predicting a ‘beautiful’ title battle in the final four races this season. Autosport.com has the news story.
Fernando Alonso was defiant in the face of losing his Formula 1 world championship lead to Sebastian Vettel in Korea, predicting a “beautiful” battle to the end of the season.
Vettel and Red Bull’s third consecutive win saw the German depose Alonso at the head of the standings.
The Ferrari driver had been 37 points clear after Monza, but Vettel’s subsequent hat-trick, coupled with Alonso’s Suzuka retirement, leaves the Spaniard six points adrift with four races to go.
But after finishing third behind the Red Bulls at Yeongam, with team-mate Felipe Massa just behind, Alonso was adamant that Ferrari only needed a small improvement to get back on top.
“I think we have to be happy with our performance today,” said Alonso.
“We finished third and fourth behind Red Bull, who at the moment are difficult to beat. And we overtook McLaren in the constructors’ championship, which is something we didn’t expect two or three days ago.
“We just need a last little step to be as competitive as Red Bull and it will be a beautiful four races to the end.”
Alonso denied that it was frustrating to be up against a faster car in the title battle.
“It’s nothing new. The last five years of my career has been like this,” he said. “I am used to this situation. We are always on the limit but we feel comfortable like this and we get the maximum from the car when we are under pressure.
“In the last four races we need to score seven points more than Sebastian. It will be tough but we believe we can do it.”
Jean-Eric Vergne labelled the Korean Grand Prix as his best race in Formula 1 after finishing in the points for the third time this year.
The Toro Rosso driver, starting from 16th place, put on a strong performance to climb up to eighth by the chequered flag, equalling his best result in grand prix racing.
The result meant the Frenchman moved ahead of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo in the standings with 12 points.
“I am really, really happy, as this was definitely my best race of the year and the car worked well with very little tyre degradation on both the prime and the option,” said Vergne.
“Towards the end, I was told that my team-mate had a problem, but overall for the team, to get eighth and ninth with Daniel also driving a great race is a fantastic result.
“Everyone in the team worked very hard on improving the car throughout the weekend. In general, we seem to be making progress and this track seemed to suit us well, which I think we can also expect to be the case in India.”
Ricciardo was running in front of Vergne near the end of the race, but a car problem meant the Australian lost the position to Vergne.
“With about 10 laps to go, I found myself going straight on at Turn 3 and at first I thought it must have been a suspension failure because the car suddenly shot to the left and I could not stop it,” he said.
“However, I realised I could keep going, even if every time I braked the car pulled to the left and I was locking the front a lot. Unfortunately, that cost me eighth place, but at least I was able to give it up to my team-mate.
“I’m still grateful to be in the points with such a problem, although it’s a case of mixed emotions, as it would have been my best result of the season. But for the team overall, it’s been a very good day.”
Source: Autosport.com
McLaren’s Jenson Button was not impressed by two Sauber drivers on the opening lap. Autosport.com has the details.
Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi was guilty of an ‘idiotic’ opening lap move, according to Jenson Button.
The Briton was also critical of Sergio Perez after he was forced to take evasive action when the Mexican, his future team-mate, outbraked himself down the inside at Turn 1.
Having done so, however, he was then wiped out two corners later as Kobayashi barrelled off Nico Rosberg and into his McLaren.
Button accused the pair of reckless tactics, saying Kobayashi – whom he called an “idiot” on the radio – in particular was guilty of a ‘massive’ misjudgement.
“It seems both Sauber drivers think the first lap of the race is the only lap,” Button said.
“[They] have got a great car underneath them and could score such great points here if they just kept their heads together. I don’t know what they were doing.
“I got a really good start and passed Michael [Schumacher] and was alongside Nico [Rosberg at Turn 1] when Perez came from nowhere, chucked it up the inside, outbraked himself and hit the car in front.
“I had to run wide and push Nico off the circuit to stop an incident, so then Nico and I had a drag race down the back straights, Saubers all over the back of us.
“Basically I braked very, very late as I’m sure Nico did, and then suddenly got a big bang on the right hand side and Kamui came flying past. I don’t know how he hit two of us, which was pretty special.
“It’s very poor driving standards, considering this is the pinnacle of motorsport. It’s not just a slight misjudgement, its massive.
“There is so much opportunity here as well with way tyres are working and the DRS zone. It’s a great circuit for overtaking, which is why it so surprising people are driving like that.”
Asked whether Kobayashi’s drive-through penalty was an adequate punishment, Button said: “I don’t think so, I don’t think it’s enough. He’s wiped out two with very good chances of scoring points.”
Button added that the move was part of a wider trend toward first-lap incidents, explaining: “The race is not two corners long and some people need to learn that – whether they will we will have to wait and see.”
After finishing in second position, Mark Webber has described that this race was a tyre-conservation exercise. Autosport.com has the details.
Mark Webber described his Korean Grand Prix as an afternoon of tyre conservation after seeing his pole position become a second place finish behind Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel.
Webber lost the lead off the line and then settled in behind the sister Red Bull for the rest of the race.
With Red Bull urging both drivers to be careful with their front tyres, Webber said there was little more he could do once Vettel was in front.
“We had to manage the tyres, look after them but go as quick as we could,” he said. “I tried to keep some pressure on him. That is the way it is these days, you have to look after the black things on the corners. It’s still a very solid result.”
Webber acknowledged that his “mediocre” first few corners had been costly.
“The initial launch wasn’t good, then the first part kicked to wheelspin, and I knew I could have some issues,” he said.
“It was a very mediocre run to the first corner. All wasn’t lost – I got the slipstream on the back straight and it was still possible to get something there. After that, I hit a brick wall with everyone coming behind.”
The Australian’s second place was his first podium finish since Silverstone, but Webber admitted it was hard to get over-excited about second.
“Today was a good result but mixed emotions,” he said. “Second is a big difference to first. I had good points and champagne, but not what I was after.”
This was a nightmare race for Lewis Hamilton. Struggling with tyre wear caused by a rear anti-roll bar. He finished in tenth position and has admitted he is not out of the championship running. Autosport.com has the story.
Lewis Hamilton believes the rear suspension problem that ruined his Korean Grand Prix has ruled him out of contention for the 2012 Formula 1 title.
Hamilton could only finish 10th at Yeongam, and was informed by his McLaren team after the race that his car had broken a rear anti-roll bar near the end of the first stint.
The result leaves him 62 points behind race winner and new championship leader Sebastian Vettel with four rounds to go.
“I think in terms of winning [the title], I think that’s it for us,” Hamilton conceded.
He added: “I guess the pressure is now off. It’s tough because there’s been so much work from the team and myself to win this thing. It’s too far away now, but we’ll keep fighting to try and get as high as we can in the constructors’, and I hope me and Jenson [Button] can have some stronger races in the next ones.
“We’ve had three failures in the last three races on my side of the garage. I hope my luck changes.”
Hamilton ran fourth at first, before being overtaken by Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen as his suspension problem slowed his pace.
The issue also affected tyre wear, forcing him to switch to a three-stop strategy and lose further places.
“It wasn’t particularly fun going backwards,” said Hamilton.
“A McLaren should never be fighting with a Toro Rosso. A McLaren should never be fighting with a Force India.
“But I put up as strong a fight as I could without colliding.”
Hamilton’s car also picked up a large piece of stray astroturf near the end.
“It just added on to where my car was going anyway,” said Hamilton of the debris. “I’m lucky that I was able to at least hold on and keep 10th.”
While downcast about his championship situation, Hamilton said he was proud of himself for how he had coped with the car problems.
“It’s really sad that we’re pretty much out of the championship, but sometimes these races show the true spirit within,” he said.
“I feel quite comfortable with myself that I pushed and gave it everything.”
Kamui Kobayashi said the accident in which he crashed into Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg in the Korean Grand Prix was his fault.
The Sauber driver, who had finished on the podium in the previous race in Japan, got a drive-through penalty after crashing into both men at the end of the main straight on the opening lap.
Both Button and Rosberg were forced to retire as a result.
The Japanese driver, who had to retire after 17 laps because of the damage to his car, said he was very sorry.
“This is a race to forget,” said Kobayashi. “Initially I had a good start but then we were four cars side by side approaching Turn 3. I had Nico to the right and Jenson and Sergio on my left hand side.
“Someone hit my rear tyre and then it was impossible to control the car, but I had to brake at some point. I didn’t manage to avoid the accident, and I feel very sorry for ruining someone else’s race, and certainly this was not my intention.
“It was just a very difficult moment and I had nowhere to go but I think it was my mistake.”
Team-mate Sergio Perez finished the race in 11th position after a problem with his pitstop made him lose valuable time.
The Mexican pushed Lewis Hamilton hard over the final lap, but he was unable to pass the Briton and was left with no points.
“It is a big shame that we didn’t score points today,” he said. “My first stint was really good, despite a little understeer which came from the incident after the start when I damaged the front of the car.
“But our plan was good and the strategy seemed to work out. Then unfortunately we had a problem at the pitstop and could not recover from it.
“This was when we lost the race because I dropped behind a group of cars. Nevertheless towards the end it again looked like there was a chance of scoring a point.
“My car was quick, I overtook Paul [di Resta] and Lewis [Hamilton] had a problem. But in the end I just didn’t manage to catch him. Today, I think sixth would have been what we could have done in perfect circumstances.”
Source: Autosport.com
Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen admitted after the race that finishing in fifth position was the best possible result he could achieved. Autosport.com has the details.
Kimi Raikkonen believes fifth place was the best possible result for him in the Korean Grand Prix.
The Lotus driver, whose team has introduced a Coanda-style exhaust system, was unable to match the pace of the Red Bulls and Ferraris and finished 36 seconds behind race winner Sebastian Vettel.
The result left Raikkonen 48 points behind Vettel in the championship, and the Finn admitted his chances are now very slim.
Raikkonen said, however, that he believes Lotus will be able to find more performance once it optimises the new updates.
“I think this was about where we should have been today,” said Raikkonen. “The yellow flags at the start didn’t help when we were fighting with Felipe [Massa] but even so we didn’t quite have the speed to match the Red Bulls and Ferraris.
“We also lost quite a bit of time behind Lewis [Hamilton] – mainly because the new exhaust system means you lose a little bit of power so it was hard to get past – but with a few more practice sessions I’m sure we’ll learn a lot more to be able to improve it.
“I was pretty much on my own at the end but we had to keep pushing to maintain position and it wasn’t so easy.
“The gap to Sebastian [Vettel] in the championship is quite big now so it will be very difficult to catch him, but we’ll keep pushing all the way.”
Team-mate Romain Grosjean finished in seventh position after a pretty much trouble-free race.
The Frenchman – under pressure following his first-lap crash in Japan – admitted he was nervous about the start.
“For sure I was a bit nervous starting the race today, but we did a lot of work this week trying to understand a few things and it’s certainly helped,” he said.
“It wasn’t the easiest start; there was contact behind me at turn three and I took evasive action but after that it was quite straight forward.
“I struggled on the last set of tyres as I had graining straight away meaning the performance was not great during the final stint.
“Maybe we could have achieved one place better – I think I now know every detail of Force India’s car after spending so much time battling with Nico [Hulkenberg] – but I’m happy to make it to the chequered flag after a good, clean race.”
Foce India driver Nico Hulkenberg drove an excellent race to take sixth position and has described this result as “mega”. Autosport.com has the news story.
Nico Hulkenberg celebrated what he labelled as a “mega” result after finishing in sixth position in the Korean Grand Prix.
The Force India driver completed one of his strongest races of the season after battling with Romain Grosjean and Lewis Hamilton during the event.
Hulkenberg’s race highlight came when he managed to overtake both men over two corners to move into sixth position.
The German admitted the move had left him with a smile on his face.
“That race was a lot of fun and it’s great to get such a mega result,” said Hulkenberg.
“It wasn’t easy though, and for most of the race I had the Lotus of Romain [Grosjean] pushing me and some great battles.
“Even the first pitstop was very close with Romain, but the team did a great stop because it was important to stay ahead at that stage.
“I think the best moment of the race was the fight with Lewis [Hamilton] and Romain in the final stint when I got ahead of both of them in turn four.
“They both went to the inside so I just saw the opportunity to use the outside line and made the move work. That certainly put a big smile on my face.
“So a very positive day, an amazing job by the whole team and lots of positives to take as we head to India for our home race.”
Team-mate Paul di Resta, on the other hand, endured a difficult day, finishing in 12th position.
The Scot admitted his chances of a good result had been compromised on Saturday, when he qualified in 14th.
“A tough race in many ways and it’s fair to say that the result in qualifying hampered us quite badly,” he said. “We expected the supersoft to be a better race tyre and so we saved it for the second stint.
“As it happened, the soft tyres did not last long enough at the start of the race and when I switched to the supersofts they started graining straight away.
“So we were not on the ideal strategy and that impacted the whole race, and after that I was always struggling with traffic and couldn’t make any progress.
“On the positive side the car seemed competitive here with the points for Nico, but it’s just a bit frustrating that we couldn’t maximise it.”
Felipe Massa has secured his future at Ferrari, with team principal Stefano Domenicali revealing on Sunday night that the outfit will make an announcement about its driver plans imminently.
Massa’s place at Ferrari has been the subject of intense speculation for much of the season, on the back of a difficult start to the campaign where he could not match the pace or results of team-mate Fernando Alonso.
However, a stronger second half to the campaign and impressive drives in Japan and Korea have sealed his place at the team – with it understood that a deal will be sorted out imminently.
Ferrari’s decision to retain Massa for next year, which could be confirmed ahead of the Indian Grand Prix, leaves the way open for Nico Hulkenberg to join Sauber for 2013.
Hulkenberg had been favourite to move to Maranello if the team elected to replace Massa, but his focus will now be on finalising a contract with Sauber – with a provisional agreement believed to have been finalised.
Massa himself said on Sunday that he was convinced he would be staying on as Alonso’s team-mate for another year.
When asked by AUTOSPORT if he had any doubts that he would not be at Ferrari, he said: “No. I don’t have. But anyway we wait for the time.
“When you get the OK from both directions that is when you are sure. I think it will be pretty soon to be honest.”
Domenicali has also dropped the firmest hint yet that Massa will be staying – as he suggested matters could be finalised soon.
“Very soon you will know what will be our position on that respect,” he said.
Speaking more about the reasons behind Massa’s recent lift in form, Domenicali said: “I think that for sure he understands now better the car, he understands better the tyres – and also the fact Felipe is a very, very strong driver because otherwise we would have already taken a different decision.
“So I feel that now when Felipe has under his control the understanding of the tyres and car, he performs at the level he should.”
Source: Autosport.com
The cause of Lewis Hamilton’s nightmare race in Korea was a failure with the rear anti-roll bar. Autosport.com has the details.
Lewis Hamilton’s hopes of a podium finish in the Korean Grand Prix were wrecked by a rear anti-roll bar failure.
The former world champion’s pace in the race dropped away shortly after the first pit stop, with him revealing on the radio that the car felt ‘nervous.’
A post-race inspection of his McLaren has revealed that a rear anti-roll bar was to blame – which caused excessive tyre wear and compromised his chances of fighting at the front.
Hamilton eventually finished 10th, after being further hampered late in the race when he ran over some artificial grass which got wrapped around turning vanes by the sidepods.
Team principal Martin Whitmarsh said: “The roll-bar went, I think, about lap 18. By then he was fighting for third place and it fell away.
“It was absolutely destroying the tyres and his balance was gone. We did all we could at the stops but he was eating the tyres, so he had to do a three-stop with tyre pressure and front wing changes, and that is all we had to try and counter it.
“The car must have been horrendous to drive, so the fact that he was fighting there with Kimi for quite a few laps and then caught the two Toro Rossos at the end, was truly remarkable.
“Then, with four or five laps to go, when he should have been able to get the Toro Rossos, he picked up the turf – which finished the day off.”
Although the result effectively ended Hamilton’s world championship chances – as he now lies 62 points behind Sebastian Vettel with four races remaining – Whitmarsh was full of praise for his driver’s efforts.
“He just was tenacious and a fighter, so it was a heroic drive from him,” he explained.
“In the one sense of course I have to be bitterly disappointed with the afternoon, but on the other sense I have to be immensely proud of his job really, because in those circumstances it is very easy to not be fighting as hard as he was.
“You could see all the way through, with an awful balance to that car with a rear anti-roll bar failure, he fought with everyone and that is Lewis as a great, great racing driver. I am immensely proud of him.”