A peerless Sebastian Vettel leapfrogged Fernando Alonso
at the top of the world championship on Sunday as the Red Bull driver
led from the first corner to win the Korean Grand Prix.
With
four races to go starting in India in two weeks, Vettel, the reigning
champion who is chasing a third drivers’ title in a row, sits atop the
standings with 215 points. Alonso, who finished third, is on 209.
It
was the 25-year-old German’s third win in three races and he will now
be favourite to retain his crown, in what had been a highly
unpredictable season until he took the championship by the scruff of the
neck.
Second at a cool but sunny Yeongam was
Vettel’s team-mate Mark Webber, who started on pole. It was the first
Red Bull one-two of the season.
Alonso’s fellow
Ferrari driver Felipe Massa, second at Suzuka seven days ago, continued
his resurgence with a fourth-placed finish.
Lewis Hamilton, who still had title aspirations going into this Grand Prix, finished down in 10th.
It
now looks increasingly like a two-horse race for the title. Hamilton
and his McLaren team-mate Jenson Button, who was shunted out moments
after the start of the race, admitted they were out of contention.
Fifth
was Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus, followed by Nico Hulkenberg in a Force
India. Romain Grosjean (Lotus), Jean-Eric Vergne, Daniel Ricciardo (both
Toro Rosso) and Hamilton rounded out the top 10.
“Very
pleased. Fantastic, I'm very happy,” Vettel told the crowd, having
celebrated his 25th career victory by jumping on top of his Red Bull
with his arms aloft. “It was a fantastic race.
Alonso,
also a double world champion, put a brave face on losing his lead in
the standings. “I think we have to be happy with the performance today,
we finished third and fourth, just behind Red Bull, that at the moment
are difficult to beat,” he said.
Vettel, who started
second on the grid behind Webber, nipped in front of his team-mate at
the first corner. Behind them Alonso and Hamilton duelled over third
place, with the Spaniard winning through.
Button’s
bad weekend finished almost as soon as the race began. His fine start
from lowly 11th was wrecked when Kamui Kobayashi came flying down the
inside, smashing into Button and destroying his suspension.
“I've just been hit by Kobayashi. What an idiot!” the McLaren driver and 2009 world champion exclaimed over the team radio.
Also
out, not long afterwards, was Nico Rosberg, who retired his Mercedes
because of the same incident. The Sauber driver Kobayashi, third last
week in his native Japan, was forced into the pits.
He
was then landed with a drive-through penalty for causing the early
carnage and bowed out soon afterwards when Sauber decided that the
damage to his car was too extensive. Kobayashi later apologised to
Button and Rosberg.
Third in the championship is Raikkonen, on 167 points, followed by Hamilton (153), Webber (152) and Button (131).
Hulkenberg’s
eight points, with a sixth place finish, Force India reduce the gap
with close rival and sixth-placed Sauber to 27 points as the none of the
Swiss team’s driver finished inside the top-10.
“That
race was a lot of fun and it’s great to get such a mega result. It
wasn’t easy though, and for most of the race I had the Lotus of Romain
[Grosjean] pushing me and some great battles,”
Hulkenberg said. “I was
just told by the team that we had a rear-suspension failure, but it was
safe to drive so they kept me going,” said former world champion
Hamilton, who also had some artificial turf caught under his car for the
last portion of the race.
“It was tricky to even
keep 10th place,” he added, conceding that failure to make the podium in
the last three races had cost him a shot at another world title in his
final season at McLaren before he moves to Mercedes.
The results:
1. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 1:36:28.651 secs, 2. Mark Webber (Red
Bull) + 8.231s, 3. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) + 13.944, 4. Felipe Massa
(Ferrari) + 20.168, 5. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) + 36.739, 6. Nico
Hulkenberg (Force India) + 45.301, 7. Romain Grosjean (Lotus) + 54.812,
8. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) + 1:09.589, 9. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro
Rosso) + 1:11.787, 10. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) + 1:19.692, 11. Sergio
Perez (Sauber) + 1:20.062, 12. Paul di Resta (Force India) + 1:24.448,
13. Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) + 1:29.241, 14. Pastor Maldonado
(Williams) + 1:34.924, 15. Bruno Senna (Williams) + 1:36.902, 16. Vitaly
Petrov (Caterham) + 1 lap, 17. Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham) + 1 lap,
18. Timo Glock (Marussia) + 1 lap, 19. Charles Pic (Marussia) + 2 laps,
20. Narain Karthikeyan (HRT) + 2 laps.
Retirements:
Jenson Button (McLaren), 1st lap; Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 2nd lap; Kamui
Kobayashi (Sauber) 17th lap; Pedro de la Rosa (HRT) 17th lap.
Overall standings: Drivers:
1. Vettel 215 points, 2. Alonso 209, 3. Raikkonen 167, 4. Hamilton 153,
5. Webber 152, 6. Button 131, 7. Rosberg 93, 8. Grosjean 88, 9. Massa
81, 10. Perez 66, 11. Kobayashi 50, 12. Hulkenberg 45, 13. di Resta 44,
14. Schumacher 43, 15. Maldonado 33, 16. Senna 25, 17. Vergne 12, 18.
Ricciardo 9.
Constructors:
1. Red Bull 367 points, 2. Ferrari 290, 3. McLaren 284, 4. Lotus 255, 5.
Mercedes 136, 6. Sauber 116, 7. Force India 89, 8. Williams 58, 9. Toro
Rosso 21.
