Vettel dominates in Koreaposted in F106 | 10 | 2013
RED BULL'S SEBASTIAN VETTEL continued his dominant march towards his fourth successive F1 world championship by winning the Korea Grand Prix. It was his four grand prix victory in a row this season, his third in Korea and 34th of his career.
With a 77-point lead in the title race over nearest rival, Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, the Red Bull driver will seal the championship in Japan this weekend if he wins and Alonso finishes no higher than ninth.
Vettell was joined on the podium by the Lotus duo of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean, who finished second and third respectively.
The drive of the day though was delivered by Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg, who finished fourth holding off the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton over the closing 10 laps.
The Pirelli tyres played a big part in the race. While the Mercedes of Hamilton suffered extreme tyre wear in his second stint, the front-right of Sergio Perez's McLaren blew on the long straight after Turn 2.
Mark Webber, who had made good progress from 13th, was immediately behind and picked up a puncture from the resultant debris.
With the McLaren's tyre carcass in the middle of the straight, a safety car was required.
Shortly after the race restarted, Adrian Sutil spun and collided with Webber's Red Bull. The impact caused the Aussie's car to catch fire in the run-off area.
Bizarrely, a fire vehicle then eventually appeared on track to deal with the blazing car, forcing a frantic safety car deployment as the leaders bore down on the fire truck.
DRIVERS' QUOTES:
Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull:
“It was a long race today, but it’s really great to win. The start was crucial, it’s always tricky here as you’re nervous about the long straight when you start from pole. Fortunately we had good traction off the line and I had a strong exit out of the first corner. We kept the lead and tried to control the race from there.
"I think Mercedes had more range than us today, but we were able to win which is great. It was a very strong performance from the whole team and I’m happy. We’re just focusing on continuing to take one step at a time and trying to get the best out of the car at every single race.”
Kimi Räikkönen, Lotus:
“Second place is ok and a good result for the team, but we’re here to win and having to fight your way to the front from a bad starting position is not ideal. Qualifying was pretty awful for me, but it’s difficult to say whether a better grid position would have made the difference. Sebastian was faster than us at the end; not massively, but a little bit for sure and his tyres were fresher too so I think it would have been tough to catch him in any case. We were closer to the Red Bull today than we have been in some races, but not close enough.
"People might say it was good luck with the safety car, but sometimes these things go with you and others they go against you. We made up some places even before that happened, and if we hadn’t had the speed then we wouldn’t have been in a position to take advantage. You could see at the end that we had more than enough pace to keep the others behind, so I think it’s deserved.”
Romain Grosjean, Lotus:
“It’s a fantastic result for the team. Of course, one step higher on the podium would have been better for me and two steps better would have been superb, but it didn’t quite work out that way. Our battle with Lewis [Hamilton] was good and our pace was great, but the two safety car periods hurt our attempts to battle for the win.
"After the restart I should have been in front of Kimi on the road, but it was my mistake which let him past. I went a bit wide in Turn 15 and got on the Astroturf – which is very slippery – and that let him get a run on me. Then there were yellow flags into Turn 3 so I couldn’t take the place back straight away.
" Of course, I was asking the team to let me past Kimi as I was on fresher tyres, but they left us to race which is our philosophy of fair play. You lose so much downforce in sectors two and three and obviously our cars are pretty close on performance so it’s pretty hard to pass, but we have to be very happy with a double podium.”
Nico Hülkenberg, Sauber:
“Today I drove one of the best races in my career so far. I have had cars in the mirrors before, but today there were a lot and it was a bit annoying. Lewis really put the pressure on at the end, especially in the last sector. I knew I needed to get out of turn one well. The car’s traction was very good today, so that kept me alive against Fernando and then Lewis later on. We were also very fast on the straight.
"I had a good start, although on the outside into turn one, which was a loss at first, but then I had a real good slip stream and was able to get past on the outside. A big thank you to the entire team for providing such an excellent car today.”
Mark Webber, Red Bull:
“The incident with Sutil was obviously the end of my race today. It was in Turn 3 on the restart, everyone bottles back up and I was looking for a big exit on the next straight to use some KERS on Daniel (Ricciardo) and the Williams. Then Sutil, I don't know what happened, but obviously he hit me from the inside and that was that.
"There was quite a lot of damage at the back of the car and I hope it hasn't gone towards the chassis – we will have to see before the next race. Before that I was very happy with how I drove and we’d got back to a very good position before I got the puncture.
"After the Pirelli tyre failure on Perez’ car, I was very lucky to miss the tread of the tyre that came off and then unbelievably I managed to get a puncture from going through the debris.”
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes:
“That was not a great day for us and it feels like we deserved more as a team. After Grosjean got ahead of me at the start, there was no way past and it seemed that we were losing out to other on traction cars all day. In my second stint, running the prime tyre, my right front was just destroyed all of a sudden. When that happens, you start losing temperature, understeering and locking up under braking, so it was really hard to maintain the pace in those laps.
"It was a really difficult part of the race but I had to get to a certain target lap before I made the final stop. After the Safety Car, we were just losing out in traction to the Sauber. Our car was really strong through the middle sector but not quick enough on the straights to stay ahead. It was a nice battle with Fernando but it's hard to take when it's only for P5 or P6. It was just not a good race for us today but we have the chance to bounce back in Suzuka.”
Fernando Alonso, Ferrari:
“We knew this would be a difficult race and unfortunately the results confirmed the concerns we had already experienced on Friday, when we had a few problems with tyre degradation on the long run. It wasn’t a surprise to be off the pace in qualifying, as that’s been the case since the start of the season, but the fact that we didn’t have the pace in the race was one.
"Unfortunately, at the start, I couldn’t keep the Sauber behind me and that meant I had a particularly stressful race in terms of the tyres. What happened to Felipe at the third corner was not a problem for me: there were a lot of us there at that point and someone must have touched him. I tried to avoid him and continued without it affecting my race, because by then, I was already behind Hulkenberg.
"Now we must think only about Suzuka and try to get back on the podium, rediscovering the form we usually have on Sunday, that allows us to fight at the front. Vettel is a very long way off in terms of points, but above all in performance terms and we cannot expect miracles between now and the end of the championship.
"Second place in the Constructors’ championship is probably a more realistic target, but one thing’s certain, we are not giving up now and we will give it our best shot right to the very end."
Sergio Perez, McLaren:
“We definitely deserved more today – we were very unlucky. With regards to my tyre delamination, although that particular set was already quite old, I braked at the same point as normal and got a flat- spot from the lock-up. I’d done 21 laps with that set, when, all of a sudden, the front-right just exploded, destroying the front wing. It was lucky, because there weren’t any other cars around me.
"Still, from a team point of view, it’s very disappointing for a single incident like this to destroy the good progress we’d made all weekend. Regarding Felipe, we were racing very hard trying to get some points – on one occasion, I thought he was going to leave me more space, then he turned in,
"I tried to brake and we touched a little bit. On the second incident, I thought I had the corner. I’m pleased that the stewards felt there was no need for any further action – it was just racing.”
F1 Korea Grand Prix — Results:
1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h43m13.701s
2. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault +4.224s
3. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault +4.927ss
4. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari +24.114s
5. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +25.255s
6. Fernando Alonso Ferrari +26.189s
7. Nico Rosberg Mercedes +26.698s
8. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes +32.262s
9. Felipe Massa Ferrari +34.390s
10. Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes +35.155s
11. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari +35.990s
12. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault +47.049s
13. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault +50.013s
14. Charles Pic Caterham-Renault +1m03.578s
15. Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault +1m04.501s
16. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth +1m07.970s
17. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth +1m12.898s
18. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari +2 laps*
19. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari +3 laps*
20. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes +5 laps*
Fastest lap: Vettel, 1m41.380s
* Not running at finish
Not classified/retirements:
Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 36 laps
Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 24 laps
World Championship standings (After 14 of 19 GP):
Drivers:
1. Vettel 272
2. Alonso 195
3. Raikkonen 167
4. Hamilton 161
5. Webber 130
6. Rosberg 122
7. Massa 89
8. Grosjean 72
9. Button 58
10. Di Resta 36
11. Hulkenberg 31
12. Sutil 26
13. Perez 23
14. Ricciardo 18
15. Vergne 13
16. Maldonado 1
Constructors:
1. Red Bull-Renault 402
2. Ferrari 284
3. Mercedes 283
4. Lotus-Renault 239
5. McLaren-Mercedes 81
6. Force India-Mercedes 62
7. Sauber-Ferrari 31
8. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 31
9. Williams-Renault 1
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Jim McGill