With Red Bull Racing close to taking a second Constructors’ Championship, there was everything to play for in the Korean Grand Prix.
F1 arrived at the Korean International Circuit on the shores of the Yellow Sea to find it exactly as it had left it 12 months ago: last year’s names are still painted on the garage floors and the champagne corks rotting on the podium. And the racing began where 2010 left off, with a colossal downpour. Friday was largely a wash-out, but McLaren had brought their pace with them from Japan...
“Our car was quick – but it’s difficult to say how it will be in the dry. I hope it’ll be the same: it’d be nice to have the same gap back to the cars behind, but that’s unlikely.”
Jenson Button, McLaren
Button went fastest in the dry on Saturday morning, and on Saturday afternoon Lewis Hamilton took pole to deny Red Bull for the first time this year. But Seb had closed the gap and split the McLarens, with Mark Webber fourth.
“I am very proud of what the team have been able to achieve over the last few races. For us to be on the front two rows again and the only ones competing with Red Bull, well, I am very, very happy.”
Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
Lewis Hamilton in Korea © McLaren
“Lewis had a very good lap and deserves pole. It was close. Closer than many people thought… maybe closer than we thought as well!”
Sebastian Vettel, 2011 F1 World Champion
Tyre degredation was expected to be high, with various predictions of short stints and destroyed rubber – but no one had done enough in the dry to be sure.
“Five stops is too many. Two is impossible, so somewhere in between.”
Sebastian Vettel
When the lights went out the Red Bulls got a dream start on the long back straight: Seb took the lead while Mark snatched third. Vettel disappeared but Webber began a race-long battle with Lewis Hamilton in front and the Ferraris behind. Button had a shocker and dropped to sixth.
“I think Lewis got away off the line a little bit better than I did, then on the long straight there was a big headwind. I was able to close the gap. I made a late decision to go for the gap and Lewis was very fair. I was right on the edge.”
Sebastian Vettel
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“Well, it wasn’t too good for me. The start was good, lost a position to Sebastian and that was really the end of the opportunity of winning. It was probably my fault, I left a bit of a gap but I’d already moved once and I thought that moving again, I would probably be in trouble.”
Lewis Hamilton
“Felipe [Massa] tried a pretty big move into turn three on the first lap. He got me and [Jenson] and then out of there I was under pressure from Fernando [Alonso] into turn four and I managed to get JB and Felipe in the tight section. Very rewarding.”
Mark Webber, Red Bull Racing
Against expectation, the supersoft Pirelli tyres performed exceptionally well, and the leaders went into the mid teens. Good work from McLaren put Button back in front of the Ferraris. Red Bull decided to split their drivers: Sebastian stayed on the supersoft compound, Mark went for the softs.
“As it turned out the options were fine for the first two stints and carried us a long way through the race. We were thinking about a lot of stops, but it turned out to not really be the case.”
Sebastian Vettel
“Mark was seeing a slightly higher degradation on the option, so it was obvious to put Mark on the harder tyre, which was probably, with 20:20 hindsight, the better tyre for that second stint.
Christian Horner, Team Principal, Red Bull Racing
Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa in the Korean Grand Prix © Ferrari
There was drama in the midfield as Vitaly Petrov’s Renault barrelled into Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes. Schumacher lost his rear wing, Petrov his front wing, Alonso narrowly avoided the collision and, with debris all over the track, the safety car came out.
“I tried to defend my position from Fernando but I was in the braking zone on the dirty side of the track which meant I locked my wheels and hit Michael. I was focused on my battle with Fernando as there was potential for me to be ahead of him. We both braked too late as he missed the corner to… I apologise to Michael, it was not his fault, it was absolutely my fault – once my wheels were locked there was nothing I could do about it.”
Vitaly Petrov – Renault
"I didn't see Vitaly coming; I was just suddenly spun into a direction I had not intended to go, and then I saw my rear wing hanging off. It was unfortunate but these things happen."
Michael Schumacher – Mercedes
“I really didn’t need that safety car.”
Sebastian Vettel
Jaime Alguersuari on the way to seventh in Korea © Getty Images
At the restart, Vettel pulled away and Webber hounded Hamilton for second. It went to the second round of stops. Webber had more pace, so just needed to come in before or stay out longer than Lewis to steal second. They stopped on the same lap.
“We wanted to take the undercut on Lewis, found a bit of track to do it in, but unfortunately they picked exactly the same lap to stop on and we couldn’t quite pip them on the pitstop.”
Christian Horner
“The last pitstop was really what snookered us, I suppose. I was informing the team that my tyres were still good, but we still pitted. Yeah, that was a bit disappointing because we should have done something different.”
Mark Webber
Ferrari made a mess of Felipe Massa’s stop which meant going into the last third of the race the order was Vettel, Hamilton, Webber, Button, Alonso, Massa. The gap between Hamilton and Webber was measured in inches but Hamilton hung on. Jaime Alguersuari stole seventh from Nico Rosberg on the final lap and Sébastien Buemi was ninth to give Toro Rosso a double points finish and Paul di Resta bagged the final point for Force India.
“Mark was pushing… we were both pushing massively quick. We managed to stay ahead of him, but it was a serious battle.”
Lewis Hamilton
“In the end, I think it was a good battle for both of us, that’s what Formula One racing should be about: it was just a good race and we pushed each other hard.”
Mark Webber
Seb won, but as nobody had seen him for three-quarters of the race, that seemed fairly inconsequential. Though he did set the fastest lap of the race on his final tour – something Rocky, his race engineer, usually tells him to not attempt.
“I think they will kill me now. On the radio, they said ‘you didn’t get the fastest lap’ which obviously isn’t true, and then they came on the radio and said ‘idiot, you got it.’ It’s really stupid. I think in other races, it doesn’t really make sense but on the last lap I had a good feeling and, yeah, I was pushing a bit harder to get the fastest lap. It’s a small thing; it’s probably more to do with the ego so it’s really stupid from my side but now I’ve got one [actually two], I’m happy.”
Sebastian Vettel
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By finishing ahead of McLaren, Red Bull Racing added the Constructors’ Championship to the Drivers’ championship Vettel secured in Japan. It was an all around happy day in garage number one and everyone pulled on their special edition championship-winning T-shirts
“I have nothing to do with these, I’m too superstitious.”
Christian Horner, Team Principal, Red Bull Racing
“I was very happy with how the race went today... I think we got everything out today, it was a brilliant race from start to finish.”
Sebastian Vettel
“That made up for last year, didn’t it? That was the most depressing race of the entire season last year [with a double DNF] so to win the race and for Mark to drive such a strong race and secure our second Constructors’ Championship… it’s been a very special week for the team.”
Christian Horner
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And so, there we have it. Two races in the Far East, two championships for Red Bull, two really good races, and a new circuit to play at next week. India Here we come...
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