Korean Grand Prix 2012 - Report

Sebastian Vettel seized the championship lead with a third successive victory in another sublime performance at Korea. Taking command of the race at the very first corner, Vettel out-dragged pole-sitting teammate Mark Webber at the start and lead every lap thereafter en route to a comfortable fourth win of the season. The Australian hung on to make it the first Red Bull one-two of the year, with Fernando Alonso completing the podium.

Red Bull once again proved the class of qualifying on Saturday, but to the surprise of most onlookers it was Webber who would line up ahead of his reigning champion teammate. Hamilton was the closest challenger to the Adrian Newey-designed cars, lining up third, ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen and the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa. Yellow flags in Q2 prevented Button from progressing to the final part of qualifying, meaning the Brit would line up in a lowly eleventh place.

As the lights went out on Sunday, it was Vettel who made the superior getaway of the two Red Bull drivers, darting up the inside at the first corner and holding his ground along the back straight to take the lead. Alonso made the same move on Hamilton to stake an early claim to third place, whilst Massa found his way past former Ferrari teammate Raikkonen to take fifth.

Meanwhile, there was incident behind as Button sought to make up ground from his grid slot. The McLaren driver was running three abreast with Sergio Perez’s Sauber to the left and Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes to the right when the second of Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi out-braked himself just behind. The Japanese driver subsequently ricocheted between the cars of Rosberg and Button on the approach to the turn 3 hairpin, putting both out of the race.

Back at the front, Vettel began to press home his advantage, opening up a four-second lead over Webber during the first stint. The first spate of pit-stops passed without incident as the leaders all switched from super-soft to soft compound tyres, at which point Webber began to drop into the clutches of Alonso. At the same time, Hamilton was suffering from tyre graining, later diagnosed as a rear roll-bar failure, and began to come under pressure from former title rival Massa.

Whilst Webber was able to stabilise the gap to the chasing Ferrari, Hamilton was forced to concede fourth place to Massa on lap 21 as the Brazilian made the inevitable move at turn 3. Raikkonen tried to follow suit on lap 24, but Hamilton saved his KERS for the following straight and retaliated against the Lotus driver at the very next turn – the Finn would be stuck behind the McLaren for another two laps until Hamilton made a premature second stop.

Vettel by this stage now had a cushion of eight seconds over Webber, but was instructed by his team during the final stint after his second pit-stop to take it easy and preserve the tyres. Webber was able to close the gap somewhat as a result, but in the end nobody was in a position to deny Vettel a 25^th career victory. The reigning champion, in addition to taking the championship lead, now surpasses Juan Manuel Fangio’s win total and draws level with both Jim Clark and Niki Lauda.

It was ultimately close but no cigar for Webber, who stood on the podium for the first time since his win at Silverstone, with Alonso unable to take the fight to the Red Bulls and forced to settle for third place. Massa appeared to have the pace to overhaul Alonso at one stage, but was told to keep his distance by the team in the interests of his teammate’s title bid. Still, it was another astute performance from the Brazilian and an extension to his Ferrari contact now appears imminent.

Raikkonen moved back into a distant fifth position (where he would ultimately finish) after Hamilton’s second stop, but more tyre woes for the Brit meant that Romain Grosjean and Nico Hulkenberg were able to catch and initiate a three-way battle for sixth. On lap 40, Grosjean was able to draw alongside Hamilton down the back straight with the help of DRS, but ran wide at turn 3. This gave Hulkenberg the opportunity to pass as the trio came down the following straight.

Moving to the outside, the Force India driver swept past Grosjean and out-braked the ailing Hamilton sufficiently to move around the outside of turn 4 and snatch sixth place. Hamilton pitted for a third time at the end of lap 42, allowing Grosjean to move into seventh place. The McLaren driver resumed in tenth place behind the Toro Rosso pair of Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo, who was struggling with a brake problem in the final stint and allowed teammate Vergne past to safeguard eighth place for the team.

Hamilton meanwhile looked to have the pace to overhaul both of the Red Bull-backed youngsters, but would be foiled by a stray piece of astroturf that got caught on the McLaren’s sidepod. Whilst Vergne and Ricciardo (who started down in 21^st after a five-place gearbox penalty) took eighth and ninth places in an excellent day for Toro Rosso, Hamilton only just defended tenth place from Perez at the chequered flag; the Brit’s title ambitions now look to hang by a thread.

Perez, along with the second Force India of Paul Di Resta, failed to make much ground by starting on the soft tyre and ended up just outside the points in eleventh and twelfth ahead of Michael Schumacher, whose Mercedes suffered from particularly lacklustre race pace. The two Williams cars were also off the pace, Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna rounding out the top fifteen.

Next to finish was the Caterham duo, Vitaly Petrov out-finishing teammate Heikki Kovalainen on this occasion, ahead of the Marussias of Timo Glock and Charles Pic as well as Narain Karthikeyan’s HRT. Joining Button and Rosberg in retirement would be the perceived perpetrator of the incident that ended their races, Kobayashi, who served a drive-through penalty before retiring to preserve the car early on. HRT meanwhile opted to retire the car of Pedro de la Rosa due to a sticking throttle.

A hat-trick of wins for Vettel may look like the championship is all but decided with just four races to go, but if this 2012 season has taught us anything, it’s that the dominance of a particular car can vanish at a moment’s notice – McLaren have come off the back of two difficult races after looking unbeatable just after the summer break. Just six points separate Vettel and Alonso with 100 left to play for: it’s far from over just yet.