Korean GP Results

Sebastian Vettel won the Korean Grand Prix from McLaren's Lewis Hamilton to help Red Bull wrap up a second consecutive constructors' championship.

Vettel jumped Hamilton on the first lap to take the lead and was unchallenged on his way to a 10th win of the season.

Hamilton defiantly fended off Mark Webber's Red Bull to hold on to second.

McLaren's Jenson Button saw off Fernando Alonso's fast-finishing Ferrari for fourth with Scot Paul di Resta 10th in his Force India.

Hamilton had delivered a brilliant lap on Saturday to knock Red Bull off pole position for the first time this season but then lost his advantage on the first lap of the race.

Vettel nosed his way into the McLaren's slipstream and used the tow to pass Hamilton into Turn Four and take the lead.
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Vettel will have thoroughly enjoyed that. He may have won the world title last week but that will mean a great deal to him
Martin Brundle
BBC F1 commentator

With one Red Bull ahead of him, Hamilton then found himself under pressure from Webber, who was on an opposite strategy to his Red Bull team-mate by choosing the harder 'prime' tyres at the first pit stop.

Hamilton and Webber made their second stop at the same time and when they emerged from the pits they swapped position several times in a thrilling duel through the high-speed middle section of the Yeongam circuit.

"Super-clean, super-aggressive, super-respectful race driving from both of them," said BBC F1 co-commentator David Coulthard.

Hamilton hung on to take his first podium since winning the German Grand Prix in July but Webber never fell more than a second behind over the final 22 laps.

The field had been slowed by the safety car, which emerged after Vitaly Petrov crashed into the back of Michael Schumacher's Mercedes on lap 17.

But Vettel pressed on when the race re-started and the double world champion sailed clear to finish the race 12 seconds clear of his rivals.

"Vettel will have thoroughly enjoyed that," said BBC F1 commentator Martin Brundle. "He may have won the world title last week but that will mean a great deal to him."

The 24-year-old showed just what it meant to him on the pit-to-car radio, shouting: "Yes, yes, yes and yes again -10 wins."

Vettel can still match Schumacher's record 13 wins in a single season if he wins the remaining races in India, Abu Dhabi and Brazil.
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I never questioned my belief in myself so that's not something that needs doing
Lewis Hamilton

"It's good to see that the whole team keeps on pushing," said Vettel. "To come here and after a tough Friday and Saturday to come back in the race was fantastic.

"I was getting quicker and quicker and I didn't need the safety car. Lewis came closer again but the car seemed to stabilise and I was able to maintain the gap.

"At the end it was fantastic I was able to push when I wanted to. It's fantastic [to win] last week the drivers' championship and this week the constructors' championship."

Hamilton, who scored his fifth podium of the season, said: "It was OK, not too bad. Mark drove really well through the race.

"It was impossible to catch Sebastian and overtake him and then I struggled with understeer but it's a good weekend for me compared to what I had in the past so I'm happy.

"I never questioned my belief in myself so that's not something that needs doing.

"I have the trust and confidence from the team so I just need to keep my head down and hope for better results."

Webber added: "It was the team's day today. It's been a phenomenal year but I'm disappointed not to get second today.

"I think at the second stop we did the worst thing, we stopped on the same lap and that was disappointing as we had some good pace to pull away from Lewis. I look forward to the next one."

Button finished fourth after he found himself jostling for position on the opening lap, dropping from third to sixth as both Ferraris and Webber's Red Bull squeezed past him.

The 2009 champion got the jump on the Ferraris at his first pit stop but had to fend off Nico Rosberg's Mercedes in the pit lane and then on track.
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I was suddenly 180 degrees in the wrong direction and saw my wing hanging down and a Renault wing pass by
Michael Schumacher

Alonso closed quickly in on Button over the final stint but a near-miss with a wall with two laps to go made him realise that the chase would be in vain.

"I give up, I give up," Alonso told his team on the penultimate lap.

The Spaniard had spent half of the race behind his team-mate Felipe Massa, who had out-qualified him and then defended his position when Alonso tried to pass him on lap 13.

Brundle commented: "I think that (radio) message means 'if you ever leave me behind Massa again this is the price you pay.'"

As it was, Massa finished behind Alonso in sixth ahead of Jaime Alguersuari, who equalled his best performance of the season with seventh for Toro Rosso.

Rosberg finished eight for Mercedes with Toro Rosso's Sebastian Buemi and Di Resta's Force India completing the top 10.

Schumacher retired after just 17 laps when Vitaly Petrov crunched his Renault into the back of his Mercedes, crumpling the rear wing.

Petrov had been under pressure from Alonso, who narrowly escaped being caught up in the incident, and the Russian apologised to Schumacher for causing the crash.

"I was suddenly 180 degrees in the wrong direction and saw my wing hanging down and a Renault wing pass by," said Schumacher.

"We have had some great racing together this year, the first two were on my cap and the third on his cap."

The Russian may have taken responsibility for the incident but the stewards will still investigate the incident after the race.

Source: bbc

Brilliant race. Congrats to Vettel.

Lewis, well what can be said.... i hope this goes towards silencing the critics. Great tyre management. If Lewis can manage those tyres then he'll be formidable.

Super battle between Lewis and Webber, it really was the edge of the seat stuff. I hope that gives him some confidence back and he gets back to the old Lewis we know and love Also Webber looks to back to how he can drive.

Alos, lets not forget Alguersuari (spell), who finished in a strong 7th position.

i agree,but the only thing that worrys me a little is his complaint of having understeer,which we know he doesnt like.
it'll be interesting to see if he has the same problem in the next race.
it was a good battle between him and mark,he did well to hold on for so long,shame he didnt win tho.

Private message for supremeskills

Was a great battle from 2nd to 5th. Redbull were sandbagging this weekend and they had the pace. Fantastic battle from Lewis and Mark for second and third. Impressive drive by Alonso and a steady race from Button.

Roll on India

supremeskills wrote:i agree,but the only thing that worrys me a little is his complaint of having understeer,which we know he doesnt like.
it'll be interesting to see if he has the same problem in the next race.
it was a good battle between him and mark,he did well to hold on for so long,shame he didnt win tho.

Button was complaining of the same too. So i think it was more the car, rather than Lewis' driving.

apparently something got caught in the front wing which lost him downforce

Ah right, havent heard anything about that. Dont recall it being mentioned during the race, maybe i just missed that.

Whitmarsh, whose team had looked as favourite for victory since Friday, said Hamilton was hit by a loss of downforce that cost him valuable time during the race.

"We had a reasonable launch, we had a shocking first lap and after that we appear to have lost some front downforce," explained Whitmarsh. "Whether that is damage or debris or something else caught in the front wing, so Lewis lost about 10 points of downforce, which meant it was a bit of a handful.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/95466

Cheers for link

It wasn't the best race I've ever seen but I was impressed with Lewis' defensive driving skills. Who got the fastest lap?

Vettel doing a 1:39.605

On the last lap i believe too.

Red Bull completely sandbagging. They even had the confidence to mix up there qualifying routine in regards to tyre use. Vettel was dominant and just to emphasise that he had so much in reserve, he goes and puts another fastest lap on the board. Quite ridiculous the difference in performance there is between Red Bull and the competition. I see no reason why Vettel will not dominate next season as Webber is clearly not able to compete with Vettel on general pace or tyre management. Great drive from Lewis but once again the tyres have handcuffed him and then he struggled with multiple issues with the car. I think Mclaren were suprised that Button didn't have the pace with fresher tyres to challenge Webber or Hamilton. Bring on India.

I doubt Red Bull were sandbagging in qualifying. Vettel likes his poles as much as his fastest laps. The McLaren seems to work better on low fuel and Hamilton drove the wheels off the car to get pole. Vettel made a small mistake on his final lap.

That said, it was disappointing how much better both the Red Bulls and Ferraris are with full tanks. The speed advantage Vettel had over Hamilton at the start was depressing. It was obvious after the first corner that, barring any accidents Vettel would win. No pole for Seb, but I'm sure the win and fastest lap (by over a second) more than made up for that.

Overall, didn't think the race was one of the better ones this season. Hamilton's amazing duel with Webber, Alonso tangling with Massa and Alguesauri's steady progress up the field aside, there were long periods where nothing really exciting happened. Disappointed with the lack of a decent crowd. Too expensive or do they just not care?

The Ferrari seems to work pretty well on low fuel too, as demonstrated by Alonso's late charge towards Button. Fortunately for JB, Nando just had too much to do and too little time to do it in...think he also trashed his tyres in the process.

The McLarens just didn't show the same kind of pace during the race that they did in qualifying, although Hamilton did admit in a post-race interview that he hadn't got his car set-up quite right, which resulted in chronic understeer for most of the race. For me their lack of pace was highlighted when the team gave both drivers the order to push, yet Hamilton couldn't get away from Webber and Button was unable to catch the Aussie.

Toro Rosso must be pretty pleased with themselves, with both cars starting outside the top 10 but finishing inside. Algie's 7th place is probably their best result since Vettel's win in Monza. Solid, rather than spectacular races for Mercedes and Force India, Rosberg not looking that quick but still managing to finish 8th. Di Resta struggled with his car but just managed to pip Sutil to 10th.

Relatively poor race for Sauber, both cars finishing well down the midfield places...even behind Kovaleinen, who equalled his best ever result for Lotus, coming home 14th.

@john:

Stop harping on about Hamilton being "handcuffed" by the tyres. He has to use the same ones as everyone else. If he can't look after them thats his problem.

My theory is that while he looked great in qualifying, all that sliding around took a lot of life out of his tyres and compromised him during the first stint of the race. That said, even with fresh tyres I doubt he'd have kept Vettel behind him, but he might've had an easier time staying ahead of Webber.

fernando wrote:Vettel doing a 1:39.605

Thanks. I still think he'll be annoyed not getting the pole position. It must have hurt his inflated ego.

I agree dyrewolf regarding it is his problem, however i think it maybe becoming a 'bigger' problem in the whole grand scale of things in terms of competition for Vettel and the lack of excitment in formula 1 regarding the drivers championship. Having drivers like Hamilton & Alonso struggling is not what F1 should be about. The Red Bull is superior, however Hamilton showed in the early stages that he could easily compete with Vettel in a less superior car while his tyres were relatively fresh. Once the tyres on Hamilton's car had gone.....so had the race! I want to see an entertaining, competitive championship, however the tyres are handcuffing the true speed of certain drivers and that has allowed Vettel to walk to the title unchallenged.

Hamilton has had problems looking after his tyres his whole F1 career.

I was saying even in 2007 and 2008, when they were running Bridgestones that were roughly twice as durable, that Lewis caused himself problems and compromised his races by wearing them out quicker than his closest rivals.

Sometimes it can be the car and the way its set up, but Hammy's driving style, though quick, really doesn't do the tyres any favours.

Even if you switched back to Bridgestones, the same problems would still manifest themselves, just at different stages in the race.

As for your comments about Hamilton vs Vettel, its not just that Seb has a better car, either he or it look after the tyres better - which as we know can be a huge advantage. I also understand the Renault engine is the most fuel efficient on the grid, so maybe Red Bull run their cars with less fuel than the other teams - another important advantage.

Even if you put Hamilton in a Red Bull car, if he wore his tyres out quicker, Seb would still win.

As it is, McLaren are at a point where Hamilton can only briefly compete with Vettel by driving the wheels off his car and destroying his tyres. Thats not really competitive racing, thats just Hamilton showing that if he had a better car he would be able to keep up with Vettel.

Its not better tyres Hamilton needs...its a better car.

dyrewolfe wrote:Even if you put Hamilton in a Red Bull car, if he wore his tyres out quicker, Seb would still win.

Its not better tyres Hamilton needs...its a better car.

So in order to win this years WDC your saying Hamilton needed something BETTER than the Red Bull to at least match Seb? Fair comment.

Hamilton appears to have failed to evolve into a more mature racing driver. You would think that after 4 years he would of grasped at least a little more experience into tyre management. Now more than ever it is more important.

As long as the current rules stay in place and Jenson Button MBE remains his team mate I am willing to bet with confidence that Hamilton will never win another WDC.

Yeah cos button is preventing that isnt it sheeesh.. get a grip.

If you'd have said if he doesnt learn to adapt to the way the tyres are he may not win another WDC, i may have agreed with you and would indeed why youd think that. But Button isnt stopping him from winning another WDC.

Jenson Button MBE has got Hamiltons number now. It's clear now that he is the number one driver at Mclaren. And justifiably so with the same equipment as his team mate.

I say as long as Jenson Button MBE is his team mate because if Mclaren develop the wonder car like Red Bull have had then Lewis would still not beat him.

its not justifiable to say that. Yes Jenson currently has more points than lewis. But lets pretend lewis hasnt had all the mishaps this season, you CANNOT say 100% for sure that Jenson would still have beaten Lewis. You can not base what you've said on this season. If lewis was still in the races and jenson was finishing consistantly ahead of him, again id accept your opinion saying Jenson is the clear number one driver.

If Jenson hadnt finished the same amount of races as lewis or got the same penalties, meaning lewis was finishing ahead and more races, you would have something to say about it, arguing that its only because of incidents and penalties that lewis is ahead of jenson - no doubt you'll deny that.

Jenson is only doing so well because of the tyres. He's not a racer he's just converving the tyres. Lets wait until the the end of next season when lewis has had a better season. Lewis can easily wipe the floor with jenson, jenson has had it easy this season.

Critical_mass wrote: Jenson is only doing so well because of the tyres. He's not a racer he's just converving the tyres. Lets wait until the the end of next season when lewis has had a better season. Lewis can easily wipe the floor with jenson, jenson has had it easy this season.

Id agree with most you said until this point CM

You can't blame jenson for being better on the tyres all drivers use the same tyres he's just adapted better then lewis has, on the tyre situation only Vettel went to see Pirelli before the season started and look how well its worked out for him and to say jenson has had it easy is ludicrous they had the same equipment same tyres and he's outperformed him regardless of penalties DNF's etc the points table doesn't lie at the end of the season.

Critical_mass wrote:Lets wait until the the end of next season when lewis has had a better season. Lewis can easily wipe the floor with jenson, jenson has had it easy this season.

If the rules and tyres are going to remain constant for next season then I don't see how Hamilton is going to improve that much with his tyre management and step up and easily wipe the floor with his team mate.

maybe, maybe not. it could be a steep learning curve for him. Plus the tyres are supposed to be designed to be a little bit more durable which could help lewis, but that will also help button - so it could be negated.

Its a bit of an unknown at the mo.. so lets wait and see.

Alessandro Ciambella wrote:

dyrewolfe wrote:Even if you put Hamilton in a Red Bull car, if he wore his tyres out quicker, Seb would still win.

Its not better tyres Hamilton needs...its a better car.

So in order to win this years WDC your saying Hamilton needed something BETTER than the Red Bull to at least match Seb? Fair comment.

Hamilton appears to have failed to evolve into a more mature racing driver. You would think that after 4 years he would of grasped at least a little more experience into tyre management. Now more than ever it is more important.

As long as the current rules stay in place and Jenson Button MBE remains his team mate I am willing to bet with confidence that Hamilton will never win another WDC.

It's amazing how similar Hamilton and Alonso are, really fascinating. You say he's not mature, same with Alonso, but Alonso takes his further by crying on the radio when he doesn't get his way. Or when he gets beaten by a team mate. He's been in the sport longer and is still very petulant and quite childish. He also has poor tyre management as he destroyed his tyres whilst chasing down Jenson Button MBE, whilst Lewis Hamilton MBE held off a faster red bull car for most of the race.

As long as Hamilton, Button and Vettel are in F1, I am willing to bet with confidence that Alonso will never win another WDC.

Alessandro Ciambella wrote:

dyrewolfe wrote:Even if you put Hamilton in a Red Bull car, if he wore his tyres out quicker, Seb would still win.

Its not better tyres Hamilton needs...its a better car.

So in order to win this years WDC your saying Hamilton needed something BETTER than the Red Bull to at least match Seb? Fair comment.

Very funny. Thats not what I said.

I said if Hamilton were in a Red Bull, but continued to wear his tyres out quicker, Vettel would still beat him.

Both Button and Hamilton need McLaren to give them a better car next year in order to genuinely compete with Red Bull. They've got the results they have this season by operating on the ragged edge of what their car can achieve. Examples including Hamilton's win in China, thanks to conserving an extra set of super-soft tyres and Button's win in Suzuka with barely enough fuel to complete the race. In other races they've been fortunate with changeable weather and good strategy calls.

dyrewolfe wrote:

I said if Hamilton were in a Red Bull, but continued to wear his tyres out quicker, Vettel would still beat him.

If Hamilton was in Webber's car he would of achieved at least 10 pole positions this season. The only reason hamilton struggles with his tyres and the increased wear to Vettel is simply because Hamilton is fighting his car and other rivals for position, lap after lap. This aggressive attacking and defensive driving completely destroys the tyres, whereas Vettel in clean air with no competition and ultimately stolls to wins. If Hamilton was on pole in a Red Bull, the tyre effect would be severely reduced as he would be in clean air and an enhanced position to where he would be in a Mclaren, therefore he would be fighting possibly Vettel alone which would be incredibly exciting and would prove to everyone how good young seb really is.

Good points there.

Hamilton and Button have had to fight tooth and nail for their results, while Vettel has usually had performance to spare and been able to drive well within his car's limits. Though to be fair, when he's had to race and get past people he has done so very well.