The Korean Grand Prix may be dubbed as a "Tilkedrome", but it is certainly a challenge as the F1 circus arrived at the circuit.
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| (c) Octane Photographic |
With the title challenge hotting up, all eyes were on the track to see who could beat Alonso. The circuit has a mix of long straights, tricky twists and high speed direction changes which means that a good all-round car is key.
Here's my weekend report from the Korean Grand Prix.
FP1
Lewis Hamilton started his weekend on a high, by topping the first practice session of the Korean Grand Prix. It was not the tricky layout which caused the main problem, it was the dust. With the track being raced on rarely, the tarmac was drenched with dust which caused huge losses of grip. Early runners helped to "sweep" up the track, but it was a slow start.
Mark Webber showed Red Bull were still in with a shot in third, 4 tenths off. Felipe Massa and Sebastian Vettel kept up their strong form in Suzuka to go fourth and fixth. Both Mercedes drivers were just over a second off Hamilton in sixth and seventh.
Lotus showed they were still some way off the McLaren and Red Bull drivers, despite trying out the new Coanda-style exhaust. Grosjean's best time was good enough for eighth, with Raikkonen down in 11th. Paul Di Resta and Jenson Button were between them.
The dusty track caused some stunning slides, with Perez and Alonso being just two who had moments. Sergio finished the session in 15th, behind his team mate and ahead of Daniel Ricciardo. Jules Bianchi, Valtteri Bottas, Giedo Van Der Garde and Dani Clos all drove solely in FP1, finishing 13th, 18th, 22nd and 24th respectively.
FP2
Sebastian Vettel topped the second and final 90 minute practice session of the Korean Grand Prix weekend. The Red Bull cars dominated the session, with Vettel's best lap of 1m38.282 being just 0.032 faster than team mate Webber.
Fernando Alonso ended the session in third, 3 tenths off. Button was close behind in fourth, with Schumacher and Massa showing fine form behind. First practice pace setter Lewis Hamilton set a best time of 1m39.717 to go eighth, 8 tenths off the front runners.
Lotus could not keep up with the cars in front, despite their new exhaust. They finished 10th and 11th, similar to their free practice positions. Nico Hulkenberg took over from Jules Bianchi in ninth, while Bruno Senna, Vitaly Petrov and Narain Karthikeyan returned to their seats.
The session was mainly spent on long runs, with McLaren able to match Red Bull. A number of drivers, including Vettel and Perez, had off track moments. Sergio's problems continued after he stopped on track.
FP3
Vettel dominated the final practice session if the Korean Grand Prix, his best time of 1m37.642 being half a second faster than the session's runner up Lewis Hamilton.
McLaren showed they were still playing second fiddle, with Button in third. He was close to a second off Vettel's pace. However the German's team mate was in seventh, 1.1 seconds off the pace. He finished behind current world championship leader Fernando Alonso.
The session was quiet at first, but Red Bull used up the whole 60 minutes. McLaren and Ferrari did not send out their cars until the half way point. The fastest laps were set when the teams moved on to the super soft tyres.
Both Lotus drivers finished in the top 5, moving up the order when moving on to the super soft Pirelli compound. Grosjean was the only one running the Coanda exhaust though, and he was the slower of the two.
Traffic seemed to be the main problem, with a number of drivers being held up. The dust seen on Friday seemed to have passed, mainly.
Qualifying
In contrast to the Japanese Grand Prix, the fans were not out in force for the Korean GP. However the teams and drivers were in high spirits, but who would clinch pole?
Q1
It was a quiet start to the session, but it was the usual suspects who dropped out in the first qualifying session.
The 20 minute session was topped by Sebastian Vettel. After dominating free practice 2 and 3, he again showed his form. The order was slightly jumbled, thanks to the midfield runners changing to the super soft tyres. Webber ended the first qualifying session in second, ahead of Jenson Button and Sergio Perez who moved over to the super softs. Championship leader Alonso had to use a set of super soft tyres and could still only set the 16th fastest lap time.
Heikki Kovalainen set the first lap time, but he was soon moved down the order. Maldonado and Alonso took turns at the front, but it was Sebastian Vettel who ended the session fastest by the chequered flag.
Narain Karthikeyan has a monumental spin on the high speed run to turn 3, reporting a problem with the brake pedal. By the flag, Hamilton was nail bitingly close to the drop zone but escaped thanks to Bruno Senna backing off his lap time.
Senna was the big name to drop out of Q1, with Petrov out qualifying team mate Kovalainen. Charles Pic will take a 10 place grid penalty, moving him back to 24th. This will promote the 22nd fastest driver, Timo Glock, to 21st, while De La Rosa and Karthikeyan behind will move up a position.
Q2
After a silent opening to the 15 minutes of track time, cars started to emerge and get on with the second qualifying session.
All cars took on the super soft tyres, leveling the field. Kobayashi set the early pace, before Red Bull emerged as the front runners yet again. Vettel set a benchmark of 1m37.767, and at the half way mark he was followed by Alonso and Hamilton.
Vettel was the only one who felt safe enough to stay in the garage, with an 8 tenth advantage to P10. As the chequered flag came out, drivers were moving up and down the order. However a yellow flag for Daniel Ricciardo in the final sector hampered other people's laps.
Jenson Button dropped down to 11th and failed to improve on his lap time thanks to the yellow flag. Other drivers improved their times in the final sector, with Button appearing to lift off more than others. Sergio Perez also failed to move in to Q3, as did Kobayashi and Di Resta. Maldonado could only set the 15th fastest time, making it a difficult day for Williams. Ricciardo and Vergne typically rounded out the top 17.
Moving through to Q3 were Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton, Webber, Raikkonen, Massa, Grosjean, Rosberg, Hulkenberg and Schumacher. Ricciardo reported that there was "something (wrong) with the gearbox".
Q3
The final qualifying session started, with session strategies varying from just putting in sector times, 1 and 2 runs.
Felipe Massa was the first to set a lap time, with his best effort of 1m38.010. Alonso soon displaced him by 4 tenths. Webber and Hamilton could not match him, but Vettel could. The German's first effort was 3 tenths faster than the Spaniard. Webber could only go third, with Massa going fourth and Hamilton setting the fifth fastest time. Raikkonen and Grosjean were some way off Vettel's pace in sixth and seventh.
Both Mercedes cars returned to the pits before the end of their timed lap, just setting sector times for now. Force India waited for the closing stages before releasing Hulkenberg on to the circuit.
All the drivers who set lap times early on came out for a second run. They all took a set of new super soft tyres, and it was Mark Webber who set his lap time first. He improved to set the provisional fastest time, but others behind were faster. Hamilton moved up to third, while Rosberg could only manage eighth. Alonso could not match Hamilton and went fourth
Vettel surprisingly could not better his team mate, with Mark Webber getting pole position. Vettel went second, with Hamilton and Alonso sharing the second row. Raikkonen could only managed fifth.
Massa and Grosjean were sixth and seventh, with Hulkneberg eighth and the two Mercedes of Rosberg and Schumacher setting the ninth and 10th fastest times respectively.
Webber fronted the Red Bull lock out after a stunning, error free lap time. It was a surprise turn of events after Vettel dominated both FP2 and FP3.
Classifications:
Pos Driver Team Lap Gap
1) Mark Webber Red Bull Racing Renault 1m37.242 -
2) Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing Renault 1m37.316 +0.074
3) Lewis Hamilton McLaren Mercedes 1m37.469 +0.227
4) Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m37.534 +0.292
5) Kimi Raikkonen Lotus Renault 1m37.625 +0.383
6) Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m37.884 +0.642
7) Romain Grosjean Lotus Renault 1m37.934 +0.692
8) Nico Hulkenberg Force India Mercedes 1m38.266 +1.024
9) Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m38.361 +1.119
10) Michael Schumacher Mercdedes 1m38.513 +1.271
Q2
11) Jenson Button McLaren Mercedes 1m38.441
12) Sergio Perez Sauber Ferrari 1m38.460
13) Kamui Kobayashi Sauber Ferrari 1m38.594
14) Paul Di Resta Force India Mercedes 1m38.643
15) Pastor Maldonado Williams Renault 1m38.725
16) Daniel Ricciardo STR Ferrari 1m39.084
17) Jean-Eric Vergne STR Ferrari 1m39.340
Q1
18) Bruno Senna Williams Renault 1m39.443
19) Vitaly Petrov Caterham Renault 1m40.207
20) Heikki Kovalainen Caterham Renault 1m40.333
21) Timo Glock Marussia Cosworth 1m41.371
22) Pedro De La Rosa HRT Cosworth 1m42.881
23) Narain Karthikeyan HRT Cosworth -
24) Charles Pic Marussia Cosworth 1m41.317 (10 place Grid Penalty)
The Race
Qualifying threw an interesting curveball, but it was the
race that everyone looking forward to. Despite it being a new race, the past
has showed that we can see some good racing around the Yeongam circuit.
Vettel was surprised not to take pole, but the race was a
new start to take the challenge to his team mate. The atmosphere on the circuit
did not rival that of Japan, with spectator numbers being well down, but the
race looked to be a good one.
Plonked in the Korean marsh lands, the isolated circuit is
dubbed as a "Tilkedrome" but there are good places to pass, and the
opening laps were frantic.
The engines fired up, the revs rose and the lights went out.
After a long wait on the formation lap, we were racing in Korea. Off the line
it was a decent start by the front two but a Sauber locked up into turn 1 and
there was contact. On to the long straight Webber was slip streaming his team
mate Vettel after Sebastian got past into turn 1, while Hamilton lost a place
to Alonso. There were yellow flags out after contact for Jenson Button, with
front suspension damage. He radioed in saying he was hit by Kobayashi, claiming
"what an idiot".
By the end of the first lap, Red Bull had Vettel and Webber
pulling away from the closing pack. Alonso had made it up to third, while
yellow flags came out again due to Rosberg stopping on track due to a problem
with the engine. Kobayashi pitted to replace his nose cone.
The DRS was disabled briefly on lap 7 because of Rosberg's
stranded Mercedes on the long back straight. Kobayashi was also given a drive
through penalty for colliding with Button and Rosberg into turn 3 on lap 1. DRS
was then enabled on lap 9, opening up turn 3 for overtaking again.
Jenson Button was interviewed on the incident with Kobayashi
by Sky Sports F1's Natalie Pinkham. He said “Yeah I got a really good start,
got past Michael and alongside Nico in to turn 1. And then going down the back
straight I was having a good drag race with Nico Rosberg and I heard a bang. It
was pretty poor driving (by Kobayashi) at the pinnacle of motorsport."
Drivers started the first stop cycle on lap 14, with
Hamilton, Hulkenberg and Grosjean getting some new rubber. Red Bull pitted Mark
Webber on the next lap, covering Hamilton. Massa and Raikkonen joined him,
cementing a 2 stop strategy. Vettel reacted to his rivals and pitted on lap 16,
joining the others on the soft tyres. Alonso all pitted and came out just ahead
of Perez. Hamilton was lurking in the background as Perez went side by side with
the Spaniard, and Lewis nearly ran into the back of the Mexican under braking
for turn 3. However both cleared the midfield runner.
Kobayashi and De La Rosa both retired to the garage on lap
18. The Japanese driver’s team mate pitted for the first time on lap 19, the
long stint not working. Meanwhile further forward Maldonado, who was yet to
stop, was battling hard with Romain Grosjean. The feisty Venezuelan placed his
car well, but Grosjean passed him with a little help from DRS.
Hamilton radioed to his team that his "tyres will not
last". He started dropping back from Alonso and ended up falling into the
clutches of Massa, who was showing strong speed. Someone maybe racing for their
career? DRS helped Felipe pass the McLaren driver, after he radioed saying he
"lost front end down force". It was not the weekend that McLaren
wanted.
Up front and in a league of his own, Vettel had a 7 second
lead on Webber by the time he crossed the line for the 22nd time. The gap
between Raikkonen and Hamilton was a lot less than that, with Raikkonen failing
to get past into turn 3.
Looking into the grandstands, they were noticably bare in
comparison to the past few races. However these who attended were seeing some
great overtakes. Raikkonen got past Hamilton on the run to turn 3, but the
McLaren lunged up the inside into turn 4. Kimi just could not get past him,
despite Hamilton's problems. They pitted him on lap 27, it was slightly slow
but he emerged in clear air.
With the Hamilton vs. Raikkonen battle fizzling out, the
race began to calm down. Vettel was clear out front, but there was still the
issue of tyre wear. If Hamilton switched to a 3 stop strategy, would anyone
else follow suit?
Grosjean and Webber pitted on lap 31, while Hulkenberg
reacted a lap later. They all went on to the soft yellow tyre, hoping to make
it to the end. Grosjean and Hulkenberg picked up where they left off before the
stops, and the Frenchman was past into turn 3. Meanwhile closer to the front,
Massa had closed in on Alonso. Despite the faster pace, Ferrari only had to
think about the championship. The 2005 and 2006 world champion pitted on lap 35
and resuming behind Webber. Meanwhile the replay camera showed Vettel having a
monumental lock up into turn 3, pitting immediately.
There were small pockets of cars racing together, with Di Resta and Schumacher continuing their battle for 11th place. Surprisingly on lap 37 Massa closed in on Alonso by 1.5 seconds, but would Ferrari let the Brazilian pass? Meanwhile moving back to the Di Resta and Schumacher battle, DRS was a welcome help to the Scott as he soared past the 7 time world champion.
Massa got that omnious call by Rob Smedely on lap 39. "your abit too close to Fernando, abit too close to Fernando.You need to drop back by about a second". Hint, hint?
Hamilton was having a woeful race. Not only had he seen Raikkonen vanish into the distance, Grosjean was putting him under some serious pressure. The Frenchman attempted a move into turn 3 but was forced wide on the run to turn 4. Hulkenberg impressively took the initiative and passed both of them into the hairpin, moving up to 6th. It got worse for the Brit when his engineer radioed him revealed he would have to stop again.
Hamilton was trying to make a come back, but Jean-Eric Vergne was proving to be a problem. The two Toro Rosso's swapped positions on lap 52 but Hamilton was still stuck behind them. Vettel was being informed on his tyres, while the troublesome AstroTurf on the track side got caught on Lewis Hamilton's car.
Sebastian Vettel wins the Korean Grand Prix
Team mate Mark Webber took pole position on Saturday but lost out into the first corner. The Aussie had to settle for a clear second place, but the points were valuable in the championship. He was never under too much pressure from those behind, with Alonso being his nearest challenger. Fernando came under huge amounts of pressure from his team mate, but the Spaniard was never going to lose a place. After the disaster of Japan, the big points haul was welcome for the Ferrari driver.
Felipe Massa finished in great style, backing up his podium return with a solid 4th place finish. The Brazilian was never going to pass his team mate, and even got the call to drop back. It was great to see the Ferrari up there and fighting, at an important time of the year. Kimi Raikkonen crossed the chequered flag in a distant 5th, but he was still bringing in points for the championship. Next up was Nico Hulkenberg after that opportunistic move on Hamilton and Grosjean at turn 4. The German has outraced his team mate in the last few races and proved that he deserves to keep his seat, with rumours circling on where he will go in 2013.
Romain Grosjean had a rather timid race to 7th place. Not wanting to make a mistake or lose pieces of his car, the usual feisty nature of his driving style was replaced with calm and controlled characteristics. Jean-Eric Vergne had a brilliant run to 8th place, after a number of good scraps through the field. Daniel Ricciardo also took some nice points in 9th, pulling clear of Lewis Hamilton after the Brit got AstroTurf stuck on the side of his car. The McLaren driver had a poor race and had to switch to a 3 stop strategy. 1 single point was all he could take from the race.
Sergio Perez finished just outside the points in 11th, after a rather quiet race. He had a incident filled first corner but settled down, passing Schumacher late in the race. Di Resta had been in the shadow of his team mate all weekend, and that continued in the race. 12th place was the best he could do.
Mercedes had no pace and Schumacher was their sole finisher in 13th. Maldonado and Senna had a late battle, the Venezuelan ending up just ahead of Bruno Senna. Petrov and Kovalainen were both clear of the Marussia drivers, with Glock beating his rookie team mate.
Pic was 2 laps down, in comparison to the 1 of Glock. Karthikeyan was the final finisher in 20th.
De La Rosa retired with a throttle pedal problem, with Kobayashi's race ending early too. Rosberg and Button retired in the early stages after an engine problem and contact.
The win helped Vettel snatch the championship lead from Alonso, making it a two horse race. The next 4 races look set to be dramatic.
Classified:
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:
Driver Team On lap
De la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 17
Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 17
Rosberg Mercedes 2
Button McLaren-Mercedes 1
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