Vettel Perfect In Korea

Sebastian Vettel took his eighth win of the year with a controlled drive to the flag at the Korean Grand Prix, his third consecutive victory at the Yeongam circuit. Mark, unfortunately, was forced out of the race on lap 37 when he was hit by the Force India of Adrian Sutil.

Starting from pole position, Seb got away well to hold his lead through the first corners, leaving second-on-the-grid Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes to tussle with Romain Grosjean, the Lotus driver eventually claiming second place.

That left Sebastian room to carve a lead, which by the time of the first round of pit stops had risen to more than three seconds.

From there it was a relatively straightforward run to the checkered flag, though two safety car periods in quick succession in the middle of the race tested the championship leader’s nerve.

Seb controlled things behind the safety car well, however, and on both occasions he was able to pull away with ease from the chasing pack.

When the safety car peeled off track for the second time, Kimi Raikkonen, who had climbed through the field from ninth on the grid, was able to put a good move on teammate Romain Grosjean and stole into second place with 18 laps to go. The top three positions then remained unchanged until the end.

“It was a long race today, but it’s really great to win,” said Seb afterwards. “The start was crucial, it’s always tricky here as you’re nervous about the long straight when you start from pole. Fortunately, we had good traction off the line and I had a strong exit out of the first corner. We kept the lead and tried to control the race from there.

“It was a very strong performance from the whole team and I’m happy. We’re just focusing on continuing to take one step at a time and trying to get the best out of the car at every single race.”

Both safety car periods involved Mark, who had an incident-packed race.

After qualifying third, the Aussie started 13th, due to the penalty he had received following a third stewards’ reprimand of the season after the Singapore Grand Prix.

After the start he quickly made his way up through the order and as Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg hit trouble with a loose front wing and Hamilton struggled on worn tires, Mark was able to climb to third before his second stop, thanks in part to a good pass on Fernando Alonso when the Spaniard made a mistake on lap 28.

Mark’s second stop went smoothly, but when he rejoined it was behind Sergio Perez, who was nursing a damaged right front tire. The tire blew and Mark had to take evasive action.

The incident brought out the safety car and Mark pitted again, this time for supersoft tires. That put him in P11 and when the safety car left the circuit, Mark was broadsided by the out-of-control Force India of Sutil and pitched out of the race.

“The incident with Sutil was obviously the end of my race today,” said Mark. “It was in Turn 3 on the restart, everyone bottles back up and I was looking for a big exit on the next straight to use some KERS on Daniel (Ricciardo) and the Williams. Then Sutil, I don't know what happened, hit me from the inside and that was that. There was quite a lot of damage at the back of the car and I hope it hasn't gone towards the chassis – we will have to see before the next race.

“Before that I was very happy with how I drove and we’d got back to a very good position before I got the puncture. After the Pirelli tire failure on Perez’s car, I was very lucky to miss the tread of the tire that came off but unbelievably I managed to get a puncture from going through the debris.”

Ahead, Nico Hulkenberg claimed fourth place with an excellent drive. The Sauber driver finished in front of Hamilton, Alonso and Rosberg. Jenson Button took eighth for McLaren, while Felipe Massa was ninth for Ferrari. Perez, who recovered from his tire mishap, took the final point.

Commenting on the race, Team Principal Christian Horner said that while Sebastian’s controlled drive was a cause for celebration, it had been disappointing to see Mark being forced out.

“A really disciplined drive by Sebastian today to win his third consecutive Korean GP,” he said. “It was a race dominated by tire preservation and Sebastian managed it extremely well.

“It was a great shame to lose Mark who would have been on the podium today after he picked up a puncture from the debris from Perez’s incident. Then, after that he was the innocent victim of the incident that saw Sutil losing his car and hitting him, which caused a fire. It was somewhat frustrating to see our car on fire for what seemed to be an age.”

Sebastian’s win means he now has 272 points in the Drivers’ Championship, 77 points clear of Alonso in second place. Raikkonen is third with 167, with Hamilton fourth on 161. Mark is fifth with 130.

In the Constructors’ Championship, we now have 402 points. Ferrari are second with 284, Mercedes are one point back and Lotus are in fourth place with 239.

Source [Infiniti]

 

I'm sure I'll get blasted for this buuuuttt....is anyone else tired of Vettel winning? I'm not a Vettel hater, he's a fantastic driver and seems like a good kid but, I'm just getting bored watching F1 these days. The best battles are not for the lead anymore they're for 5th or 3rd but not for the win. Correct me if I'm wrong but when Schumi was winning everything there was still a race. He was still fending off the competition. He didn't have 45 second leads on the 2nd place driver. And how is Vettel's car so much faster than Webbers????

Maybe it's just me.

 

There is just something about Vettel I can not stand.

 

@Full Tilt Rally - Couldn't agree with you more. I'm bored of seeing Vettel win. He's a great driver but he's not that much quicker than other drivers. Button even said in an interview Vettel is most definitely not 2-3 seconds a lap quicker than Alonso. I honestly think RBR are giving Vettel the faster car, and Webber is just playing second fiddle. Sad for Webber though, cause he is a great driver, and we have seen there most definitely are team orders within RBR and they'll do whatever it takes to ensure Vettel wins.

 

I'd love to see Jenson get a victory this year, Mclaren needs something!

 

I agree! Jenson needs a win.

 

I know we'll never get to go to the days of the 80s where it was V12s versus turbo inline 4s and v8s since now f1 is moving to the spec turbo engines.

But can we at least go back to the 90s without all of the stupid rules to make engines last four races, and gearboxes 3 and etc etc. At least we could see some of the smaller teams take risks with their engines and run them at full tune to make it interesting. In the 90s teams like Williams and Jordan at least had a chance.

And please bring back refueling. The different pit strategies at least made it interesting as well.