Sebastian Vettel on Red Bull grabs title lead with Korean win

Only three weeks left for the Abu Dhabi F1 GP (02.11.-04.11.2012) and Sebastian Vettel is now making everything much more exciting for the expected audience and visitors at Yas Marina Circuit, by scoring his
3rd Formula One 2012 race victory in a row, while pole setter and team mate Mark Webber finished 2nd in front of Scuderia Ferrari driver and former championship leader Fernando Alonso at the 2012 Korean Grand Prix.

German Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel and his team were only worried by his right front tire wear problems towards the end of Sunday’s Yeongam race, whereas from the outside of the cockpit it looked like a piece of cake for the defending champion as his third victory in a row moved him for the first time this season into the lead of the world championship fight by six points from Fernando Alonso.
It should be mentioned here, that the German Red Bull driver is the only driver in the 2012 Formula 1 season to score four victories, of which three where scored in a row.

On a damage limitation day for the former championship leader, the Spanish Scuderia Ferrari driver brought his car home third behind Sebastian Vettel and his team mate Mark Webber. It was the first time that any team has scored a one-two this season.

The Australian pole setter could not coin his hard earned pole position into a race victory, as his team mate Sebastian Vettel leap-frogged him into the first corner, in a manner similar to Fernando Alonso, who was likewise depriving Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of third place. Further back, Sergio Perez hit Jenson Button’s Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. But it was Sergio Perez's Sauber team mate Kamui Kobayashi who apparently tried to imitate a strike in bowling, by sending Jenson Button's car into immediate retirement with right-front suspension damage.

Nico Rosberg also sustained a cut in left-rear tire in the incident which accounted for his Mercedes to retire a lap later. As he parked on the run down to Turn Three, the DRS zone was effectively negated for several laps until the silver car could be safely removed. Later Kobayashi was given a drive-through penalty for causing a collision, and retired as a result of the damage obtained on his C31. It was definitely not the kind of birthday gift Peter Sauber was expecting from his promising team, one day after celebrating his 69th birthday.

As a matter of fact, Sebastian Vettel owned the race after overtaking his team mate. He actually controlled Mark Webber easily. Behind the leading Red Bull duo, Fernando Alonso was lucky that he was followed his team mate Felipe Massa, who was ordered to keep a distance all the way to the finishing flag after another good race for the Brazilian in which he was much faster than his Spanish team mate. Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen was driving lonely in fifth position, while an impressive drive by Nico Hulkenberg realized sixth place for Force India after a challenging battle with Romain Grosjean in the other Lotus.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes' disastrous day saw Lewis Hamilton troubled early on with increased tire wear and he was the first pit stopper on lap 13, as he switched from Pirelli’s super-soft ones to the softs for his second stint. Although his pit stop was not as perfect as spectators are used from Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, he had superb battles with Kimi Raikkonen and then Nico Hulkenberg and Romain Grosjean, but that set lasted only until Lap 26. The third set hit the cliff by Lap 42, which dropped him from fighting for sixth place to a fight for eighth with the two Toro Rossos.

He pushed Jean-Eric Vergne as hard as it was possible, but after the Frenchman had reacted by catching and passing his team mate Daniel Ricciardo to take an excellent eighth, Lewis Hamilton's car sucked a chunk of astro-turf on his right-hand sidepod. As this affected his MP4-27’s aerodynamics, thus diminishing its stability, down force and speed, he dropped back and was lucky to fend off Sergio Perez at the flag by a negligible 0.3s to score the final point.


Force India’s Paul di Resta battled all afternoon with the remaining Mercedes of Michael Schumacher, but Nico Hulkenberg’s performance put him ahead of the Scot in the points table after Paul Di Resta snatched12th ahead of Michael Schumacher. Behind them, the two Williams of Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna ran wheel-to-wheel for quite a long time. The Venezuelan led his team mate to the finish line by 1.9s after the Brazilian’s attempt to pass in Turn Three on the 54th lap was repelled.

The Caterham drivers also had a close race, swapping position on more than one occasion before Vitaly Petrov lead the Catarham duo as Heikki Kovalainen fell back. They finished 16th and 17th, as Timo Glock led Marussia partner Charles Pic.
Narain Karthikeyan was the final finisher in 21st for HRT, as team mate Pedro de la Rosa joined Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg and Kamui Kobayashi on the short list of retirements.

This race result puts the Scuderia Ferrari ahead of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes in the constructors’ standings, with 290 points to 284, as Red Bull’s one two brought their score to a staggering 367.

In the driver's 2012 Formula 1 World Championship, Korean Grand Prix winner and German Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel leads the standings now with 215, to Scuderia Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso on 209. Third is Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen on 157 points, followed by Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton on 153 points.
With four races to go and a maximum of 100 points available, the fight for the 2012 Formula 1 World Championship driver's crown is far from being over.

Next race is taking place in India (26.10.-28.10.2012). See you at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi in three weeks (02.11.-04.11.2012).

AE
15.10.2012
Cairo – Seoul – Abu Dhabi