Korean Grand Prix 2011 - Race Report

Sebastian Vettel took his tenth win of the season with another assured performance at the Korean Grand Prix. The new champion was able to pass pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton on the very first lap of the race, and from that point onwards enjoyed a relatively untroubled run to the chequered flag; Mark Webber’s third place also helped to seal the constructors’ title for Red Bull.

For the first time this season, something other than a Red Bull took pole position – Hamilton’s pace was just too much for Vettel on Saturday, and the Anglo-Austrian team’s streak which dated back to last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was finally broken. Hamilton’s McLaren teammate Jenson Button was third fastest, ahead of Webber and the two Ferraris – Felipe Massa again out-qualifying Fernando Alonso.

At the start of the race, the top six all made solid getaways and maintained their positions into the first corner, but it was after the first run down the calendar’s longest straight that the real fun and games began. Hamilton immediately went on the defensive to defend first place from Vettel, holding the German at bay through turn 3, but it was a different story as the pair entered turn 4. Vettel was able to move to the inside of Hamilton along the preceding straight and it was a simple case of out-braking his adversary in order to assume the lead.

Massa meanwhile found excellent traction on the exit of the first corner and gained two places from Button and Webber under braking into turn 3. Webber emulated the feat into turn 4 as he managed to re-pass Massa as well as Button, who ran wide before losing a further place to Alonso later in the lap. Up front, Vettel and Hamilton were already beginning to escape third-placed Webber, with the two Ferraris running in the immediate wake of the Australian.

Whilst Massa’s pace looked respectable early on, it appeared to fade quickly as Webber put some distance between himself and the Brazilian. Soon after, a queue began to form behind the Ferrari consisting of Alonso, Button and the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg, the latter pair taking an early first pit-stop on lap 13 in order to try to ‘undercut’ Massa and catch up the leading trio. Massa stopped a lap later, but predictably re-joined behind Button and Rosberg, whilst Alonso on the other hand remained behind Massa after stopping a lap later than him.

Back at the front, Hamilton stopped on lap 16, one lap earlier than Vettel ahead, but this would not be sufficient to bridge the gap. However, he received a lifeline in the form of a Safety Car period, provoked on this occasion by a clash between the second Mercedes of Michael Schumacher and Vitaly Petrov’s Renault at turn 3. Petrov was busy trying to pass Alonso down the straight after the Russian made up ground by way of an early first pit-stop, but both drivers left their braking far too late.

Whilst Alonso, who was on the outside, simply took a trip through the tarmac run-off area, Petrov clobbered the back of Schumacher with considerable force on the inside of the corner. With no rear wing and a de-laminated right-rear tyre, Schumacher was out on the spot, whilst Petrov would also have to retire after returning to the pits for a new front wing only to discover he had broken the Renault’s steering in the impact. The order behind the safety car was thus Vettel from Hamilton, Webber, Button, Rosberg, Massa and Alonso.

As the race restarted on lap 21, Vettel held on to the lead and began to ease away from Hamilton, whose McLaren in race trim was not the match for the Red Bull that it was during qualifying. As he began to fall into the clutches of Webber behind, Rosberg was responsible for holding up the Ferraris of Massa and Alonso. His defence of fifth place lasted until lap 27, when he allowed both of the scarlet cars by as he locked up a brake and ran wide at turn 3. Alonso however was still frustratingly behind slowed by his teammate Massa, and Ferrari on this occasion had no intention of pulling the latter to one side.

He was finally released when Massa made his pit-stop on lap 34, at which point he began to demonstrate the Ferrari’s true potential by setting a string of fastest laps. By the time the double-champion made his stop three laps later, he was well ahead of Massa and began to close on fourth-placed Button at a rate of over half a second per lap. The two Red Bulls and McLarens by now had also made their second and final stops of the afternoon, Hamilton and Webber going on to engage in some thrilling wheel-to-wheel combat as the former desperately bid to hold on to second place.

Once both men had made their stops on lap 33 however, Webber was unable to find a way past the McLaren until the first corner of lap 49. This move had the unfortunate effect however of allowing Hamilton to benefit from DRS, and the Brit was able to thunder back past into second place with ease. The other McLaren of Button was also seemingly under threat, as Alonso had cut the deficit to the Brit from around six seconds at the time of their pit-stops to just one with five laps to go. For all this speed though, the effect it had on his tyres rendered him unable to mount a serious assault on fourth place.

By this stage, Vettel had managed to build an advantage of ten seconds which he would maintain all the way to the finish line to claim his twentieth career victory, enough to equal Mika Hakkinen in the all-time rankings. Hamilton hung on to second, his first visit to the podium since his victory at the Nurburgring back in July, though his lack of pace relative to Vettel was later put down to an unspecified problem that led to a loss of front downforce for the McLaren. He therefore did well to finish ahead of Webber, who took third ahead of Button and a despondent Alonso – the time spent behind Massa in the first half of the race left the Spaniard wondering what might have been.

Jaime Alguersuari made full use of his Toro Rosso’s excellent speed trap figures to take a strong seventh place, getting the better of Rosberg during the dying stages of the race as he slowed down to conserve fuel. Sebastien Buemi rounded out a good day for Toro Rosso with ninth, ahead of Paul Di Resta who took the final point in tenth, beating Force India teammate Adrian Sutil who finished one place behind. Twelfth-placed Rubens Barrichello was the only Williams driver to finish after Pastor Maldonado retired due to clutch problems, while Bruno Senna took thirteenth in the sole remaining Renault.

Heikki Kovalainen put in arguably his Lotus team’s most convincing performance of the year so far with fourteenth, beating both Saubers of Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez to the line in a miserable outing for the Swiss outfit. Jarno Trulli finished in seventeenth ahead of Timo Glock for Virgin, Daniel Ricciardo for Hispania, and their respective teammates Jerome D'Ambrosio and Vitantonio Liuzzi.

Vettel’s latest victory just goes to show that he is no mood to go into cruise mode having already secured the title. He can match Schumacher’s record of thirteen wins in a season if he takes the top step of the podium at each of the last three rounds at India, Abu Dhabi and Brazil, and it’s achieving precisely that sort of feat that motivates the young German. The rest shall simply have to up their games if they are to prevent Vettel from doing just that.