GP Korea: Vettel wins and takes the lead in the world championship, Alonso third

Sebastian Vettel won the Korean GP to take the lead in the Formula 1 world championship. The German from Red Bull Racing beat his teammate, Mark Webber, and Fernando Alonso to the finish line. The Ferrari driver then lost the lead in the world championship and at Yeongam he preceded the other Ferrari of Felipe Massa, who drove an excellent race. Fifth place for Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) ahead of Nico Hulkenberg (Force India) and Romain Grosjean (Lotus). Eighth and ninth place for the Toro Rossos of Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo. Troubled race for Lewis Hamilton, struggling with tire and balance problems, he finished in tenth position. Jenson Button immediately out on the first lap in the other McLaren.

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All the riders in the top 10 mounted supersoft tires while Button, Di Resta, Kobayashi, Perez, Vergne and de la Rosa chose the softs. At the start Webber was attacked by Vettel, who started better: the German thus took the lead of the race already at the first corner. Hamilton, after attempting to attack the Red Bulls, was overtaken by Alonso who moved into third position behind the two Red Bulls. Raikkonen in turn attempted to overtake the Englishman but the McLaren driver defended himself resolutely, forcing Raikkonen to widen. Massa took advantage of this by overtaking the Finn in fifth place.

The two Saubers caused a bit of havoc at the start: Perez touched Button in the first corners and the Englishman was forced to retire due to damage to the front right suspension, damaged in a subsequent contact with Kobayashi, who made an error braking which also caused Rosberg to retire. The Japanese instead returned to the pits.

Raikkonen maintained sixth position ahead of Hulkenberg, Grosjean, Perez and Schumacher. On the eighth lap the stewards imposed a drive-through penalty on Kobayashi for the accident at the start. Due to Rosberg's car still on the track, the stewards prohibited the drivers from using the DRS. Vettel extended his lead over Webber to 1 seconds, who in turn extended his lead over Alonso to 4 seconds.

On lap nine Rosberg's car was finally removed and the use of DRS was allowed again. Good progression for the Toro Rossos who moved to 12th and 14th position with Vergne and Ricciardo after a good series of overtaking. Among them Senna's Williams.

Hamilton made his first stop on lap 13, imitated by Hulkenberg, Grosjean, Schumacher and Vergne. On the next pass he also stops for Webber, Massa, Raikkonen. The exit order remains unchanged.

On lap 15 Vettel and Alonso stop, both of whom dare to switch to soft tyres. Coming out of the pits Alonso found himself battling with Perez, followed by Hamilton. The Spaniard had the upper hand while Hamilton risked hitting Perez while braking. Then a mistake by the Mexican allowed Hamilton to overtake him, moving into fourth place behind Alonso. On lap 17 Massa also overtook Perez in fifth place. Same maneuver for Raikkonen on the next pass on a Perez who paid for tire wear. Retirement for Kobayashi and De la Rosa.

On lap 19 Perez made his first stop, using supersoft tyres. On lap 21 Hamilton reported balance problems and was easily overtaken by Massa in fourth place. Hamilton then also had to give up fifth place to Raikkonen. However, the Englishman responded to the Finn by overtaking him after a few corners. Alonso reduced the gap to 1 seconds from Webber while the gap to Vettel increased to 3 seconds. Shortly afterwards Vergne overtook Schumacher to move into 9th place behind Ricciardo.

On lap 27 Hamilton returned to the pits for the second stop on soft tyres. On lap 32, second stop also for Grosjean. On the next lap Webber also completed the second stop, again using soft tyres, followed by Hulkenberg shortly afterwards. The German was attacked by Grosjean who managed to overtake him on hot tyres.

Perez returned on lap 34 while Massa closed in on Alonso. The Spaniard returned on lap 35 to fit another set of softs and was unable to overtake Webber. After a braking error with a noticeable lockup Vettel returned to the pits on lap 36 while Webber set the fastest lap in 1.43.457. Shortly afterwards there was also a stop for Massa and Raikkonen.

After the second round of pit stops Vettel maintained the lead ahead of Webber, Alonso, Massa, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Vergne, Grosjean, Hulkenberg and Ricciardo. On lap 37 Vettel set the fastest lap in 1.42.644 and on lap 39 his lead over Webber increased to 8"5 and the lead over Alonso to 12"5. Still difficulties for Hamilton: Grosjean attempted to attack the Englishman but ended up wide, Hulkenberg took advantage of this to overtake both and take sixth position. On lap 43 Hamilton was forced to make another pitstop, returning to the track in tenth position on supersoft tyres.

On lap 48 Massa lapped in 1.42.242, setting the fastest lap. On lap 50 a piece of synthetic grass broke away from a curb and was hit by several cars. On lap 52 Ricciardo gave way to Vergne and began his defense against Hamilton. The Englishman in turn picked up the piece of synthetic grass that had broken off previously and the debris got stuck under the right belly of his car causing aerodynamic balance problems.

Vettel went on to win by a good margin over Webber and Alonso.

F1 GP Korea – Order of Finish

Pos Driver Team Time 1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h36:28.651 2. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 8.200 3. Alonso Ferrari + 13.900 4. Massa Ferrari + 20.100 5. Raikkonen Lotus-Renault + 36.700 6. Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes + 45.300 7. Grosjean Lotus-Renault + 54.800 8. Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:09.500 9. Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:11.700 10. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 1:19.600 11. Perez Sauber-Ferrari + 1 :20.000 12. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1:24.400 13. Schumacher Mercedes + 1:29.200 14. Maldonado Williams-Renault + 1:34.900 15. Senna Williams-Renault + 1:36.900 16. Petrov Caterham-Renault + 1 lap 17. Kovalainen Caterham-Renault + 1 lap 18. Glock Marussia-Cosworth + 1 lap 19. Pic Marussia-Cosworth + 2 lap2 20. Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps Fastest lap: Webber, 1:42.037 Not classified/Retirements : Team Driver On the lap De la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 17 Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 17 Rosberg Mercedes 2 Button McLaren-Mercedes 1 F1 world rankings, after the 16th race: Drivers: Constructors: 1. Vettel 215 1. Red Bull-Renault 367 2 Alonso 209 2. Ferrari 290 3. Raikkonen 167 3. McLaren-Mercedes 284 4. Hamilton 153 4. Lotus-Renault 255 5. Webber 152 5. Mercedes 136 6. Button 131 6. Sauber-Ferrari 116 7. Rosberg 93 7 Force India-Mercedes 89 8. Grosjean 88 8. Williams-Renault 58 9. Massa 81 9. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 21 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