Korean Grand Prix 2010

Today, Formula One almost suffered the ultimate irony. After weeks of speculation as to whether the inaugural Korean Grand Prix would actually go ahead, torrential conditions aggravated by the slippiness of the newly-laid tarmac seemed at one point to have put paid to all the organisers' hard work. However, after an initial three incredibly tentative laps under the safety car, a red flag and nearly an hour of delays, the race got underway in earnest, albeit once more with the safety car leading the way.

Behind Bernd Maylander's modified silver Mercedes SLS was the Red Bull pair who had annexed the front row the previous day in a dry qualifying session, Sebastian Vettel heading his championship-leading teammate Mark Webber. Fernando Alonso for Ferrari was next, from Lewis Hamilton's McLaren, Nico Rosberg's Mercedes and the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa, with Jenson Button in the sister McLaren languishing in 7^th position. That was the order as the safety car peeled into the pit lane on lap 18 of 55, signifying the real start of the race.

One team revelling in the adverse conditions was Mercedes. No sooner than the green flag was shown had celebrated weltmeister Michael Schumacher placed himself alongside the Renault of Robert Kubica on the approach to turn 1 before easing past the Pole into 8^th position. Almost simultaneously, Rosberg in the other Mercedes was harrying Hamilton for 4^th position, and two corners later he too made a position in a well-timed move up the inside of turn 3.

Meanwhile, as Vettel pressed home his advantage at the head of the field, the tiniest mistake by his Aussie teammate would have a profound effect on the course of the championship. On lap 19, Webber ran out onto the kerbs at the exit of turn 12, and applied just enough throttle to send his Red Bull RB6 pirouetting helplessly into the retaining wall. The momentum then carried the stricken car back across the track, where Rosberg was incredibly unfortunate to be collected and have his promising race ruined. The copious amount of debris gave the Safety Car yet another appearance, but only for 5 laps this time whilst the marshals rushed to clear the wrecked cars.

The order was thus Vettel from Alonso, Hamilton, Massa, Button and Schumacher whose assured driving made up for Rosberg's premature exit somewhat. He proceeded to enthral his team further though when three laps after the restart he found his way past Button at turn 3 to steal 5^th place. Button was struggling for grip profusely at this stage, feeling the need to switch to the intermediate tyre two laps after his demotion to 6^th by Schumacher. Unfortunately for the Brit, the stop was poorly timed as he rejoined down in 16^th behind a long train of new-team cars and those who opted to pit for inters under the safety car. That train was shortened somewhat by a collision between Sebastien Buemi and Timo Glock, caused by the former launching an overly ambitious assault on 11^th place up the inside of turn 3. This was particularly painful for the Virgin team who lost the chance to overhaul rivals Lotus in the constructors championship and therefore to secure precious prize money.

Both were out on the spot, and more debris was spewed across the track, necessitating a further appearance from the Safety Car, delaying proceedings for another 4 laps. This was the point at which the leading quartet of Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton and Massa all decided to make the switch for intermediate tyres too. They would've rejoined in that order also if it weren't for a slightly fumbled pitstop by Ferrari that saw their man fall behind Hamilton into 3^rd. As the race began once more however, Lewis squandered that position gained in the pits by running wide at the first corner, allowing Alonso to scoot back into 2^nd. Further back and several laps later, Petrov became the next casualty by ending his hitherto impressive race in the barriers at the final corner, although thankfully the safety car was not required on this occasion.

Just as it seemed the race couldn't get any more dramatic, there was another sting in the tail for the Red Bull team yet after Webber's earlier disaster. As Vettel crossed the line to begin Lap 46, his speed appeared to falter, allowing Alonso to snatch the lead unchallenged. Hamilton soon followed suit, and it became clear that the Red Bull's Renault powerplant had simply had enough and dramatically expired in a huge cloud of smoke, sprinkling shards of destroyed engine all the way down the 1.2km straight between turns 2 and 3.

That left Alonso to claim a relatively easy victory, as Hamilton was unable to close the gap that had emerged since his earlier off. The Spaniard took with the winner's trophy the lead of the championship, having achieved four wins and six podiums in the last seven races. Hamilton however still had reason to be happy after finishing in 2^nd, made all the better by his teammate Button's continued struggle for grip and subsequent non-score in a lowly 12th. Massa drove quietly home to claim 3^rd, his fifth podium of the season. Schumacher was next to take the chequered after arguably his best drive of the season – keeping his head when many around him lost theirs. Kubica took advantage of some late misfortune for both of the Williams drivers to take a solid 5^th place, as did Tonio Liuzzi who produced a measured drive to 6^th after his teammate Adrian Sutil proved fast but erratic, ending his race after some contact with Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi in the closing stages of the race. The Japanese driver did survive the scare to finish in 8^th, behind Barrichello but ahead fellow Sauber pilot Nick Heidfeld. Hulkenberg rounded out the top 10 after a late puncture that cost him several positions.

So, after what nearly wasn't the Korean Grand Prix, the weather gave us another thrilling race that changed the face of the championship radically. Alonso now has the momentum firmly behind him and with the Ferrari operation focussed exclusively upon him, Red Bull and McLaren surely now will have to make the decision to back one of their two drivers to be able to challenge the Scuderia. Whilst the choice is a no-brainer for McLaren after Button's non-score leaving 42 points adrift of Alonso, Red Bull's is slightly trickier. After all, today's race served to remind us how quickly the balance of power can shift in Formula One.

Singapore Grand Prix 2010

The floodlit Marina Bay circuit offers a unique challenge to today's F1 drivers. The technical corners, humid atmosphere and sheer amount of time spent in the cockpit make it one of the most gruelling events on the calendar, and its spectacular backdrop has led to a deserving label of 'Monaco of the East'. Fernando Alonso overcame all the obstacles to record his third win in five races, making him the real danger man of the championship, as well as dispelling the sour taste of his contrived win here of two years ago as a result of Crashgate.

Red Bull, after dominant displays at the other street circuits of Monaco and Valencia earlier in the season, seemed to hold all the cards during practice. However, when it came to qualifying, it was the blistering pace of Ferrari and Alonso that bagged another crucial pole position. It wasn't all good news for Ferrari though, as Felipe Massa in the sister car suffered gearbox failure, and was forced to line up 24^th and last. Sebastian Vettel was the man who joined Alonso on the front row, three places ahead of fellow RB6 pilot and championship leader Mark Webber. The McLarens of Britons Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button split the Red Bull pair.

As the race got underway, Vettel made a superior getaway to Alonso, but was covered off in an aggressive leftward lunge by the Spaniard. Further round the initial tour, there was contact between series returnee Nick Heidfeld of Sauber and the Force India of Tonio Liuzzi, the net result of which was an unscheduled front-wing change for the former and retirement for the latter. As the officials deemed where Liuzzi parked to be potentially unsafe, the Safety Car was scrambled at the beginning of lap 3.

Webber, unable to make an impression on the McLarens ahead, was instructed to make an early pit-stop to get his softer tyres out of the way. He was joined by numerous others, but as they all rejoined the circuit, they were forced to form an orderly queue behind Virgin Racing's Timo Glock who opted to stay out. As the Safety Car peeled into the pits and race restarted, Webber made short work of Glock, before setting about trying to close the gap back to the McLarens several places ahead prior to their pitstops.

The Australian wasted no time in making a series of decisive overtakes, first on Kamui Kobayashi, then Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello. Behind, Hulkenberg shunted into the inside of Petrov, costing himself a place to Sutil, and the Russian an extra spot to Massa, who had made serious headway after pitting at the end of the first lap. The first of the lead cars to pit was Hamilton on lap 29, who duly fell behind Webber who was able to stay within 20 seconds of the Brit and thus jump into third after the pitstops took place. However, his teammate Vettel along with race leader Alonso was sufficiently ahead to retain the first two positions after they pitted simultaneously on lap 30.

Hamilton would get a chance to retaliate however as a result of a safety car deployed courtesy of Kamui Kobayashi, who had buried his Sauber in the barrier at turn 18 on lap 32, joined out of sympathy by Hispania's Bruno Senna. With two Virgin cars between Vettel and Webber at the restart four laps later, Hamilton was able to make a run at Webber, attempting to dive around the outside of the Australian at turn 7. However, Webber had nowhere to go but into Hamilton, putting the Brit out on the spot for the second time in as many races. The stewards deemed it a racing incident and as such awarded no penalties. They did likewise for a later, rather overambitious move by Schumacher on his fellow German Heidfeld, although the other Sauber was now too out of the race and the 7-time champ was forced to limp back to the pits with his front wing making sparks as it dragged along the circuit.

Meanwhile, Robert Kubica was forced to make an unscheduled stop after his Renault picked up a puncture from 6^th. But with the superior grip of new tyres compared with those around him who had been running the same set of tyres since the first safety car period on lap 3, the Pole made short work of Buemi, Petrov, Massa, Hulkenberg and finally Sutil to recover all but one of the places he had lost. All the while, at the front Vettel had been steadily reducing Alonso's three-second advantage to a matter of tenths with a handful of laps to go.

There was to be one final piece of drama – Heikki Kovalainen, after some contact with Sebastien Buemi, was forced to park his car on the start finish straight after it caught fire, creating a no-overtaking yellow flag zone in the final corners of the race. The pint-sized Finn leapt out of his car, was handed a fire extinguisher from the pit-wall, and proceeded to put out the fire about to consume his Lotus T127.

Alonso held on by two tenths of a second for win number four of the season from Vettel, putting himself within 11 points of Webber, who finished third. Hamilton's non-finish left him in 3^rd place, 20 points behind, 5 points ahead of Button who banked a solid 4^th place finish. Rosberg, Barrichello, Kubica, Hulkenberg, Massa and Sutil, who was awarded a 20-second penalty for gaining places by leaving the circuit, made up the rest of the points-scorers.

Hamilton said after his blunder that he isn't focussing on the title any longer. That may seem a bit premature given he's only 20 points behind Webber in the title chase, but bearing in mind the superiority of the Ferrari and Red Bull cars which looks likely to persist, his chances do seem somewhat slim. But, as Alonso proved a few races ago, it's never too late to re-assert yourself in what promises to be a thrilling title run-in.