Korean GP: Vettel Takes The Win, Title Lead

Sebastian Vettel claimed yet another dominant victory in Korea and by doing so took the lead in the Drivers' Championship

Vettel clinched his third successive victory - and fourth of the season - in dominant fashion in Korea on Sunday where no-one, not even his own team-mate, could compete with him.

The 25 points put the German at the top of the Drivers' standings where he now leads Fernando Alonso by six points as the Ferrrai driver could only manage third. Fourth place went to Felipe Massa despite the Brazilian making it clear in the latter stages that he was quicker than his Spanish team-mate.

It was a miserable race for the McLaren team with Jenson Button being taken out at Turn 3 by Kamui Kobayashi and Lewis Hamilton suffering a suspected suspension element failure that dropped fim from fourth place to tenth at the flag.

Race Report
It was hazy low sun over the Yeongam circuit, with no chance of rain, as the drivers came round on the parade lap with the ambient temperature at 21C and the track at 24C.

Seven rows of grid:
1.Webber, 2.Vettel, 3.Hamilton, 4.Alonso, 5.Raikkonen, 6.Massa, 7.Grosjean, 8.Hulkenberg, 9.Rosberg, 10.Schumacher, 11.Button, 12.Perez, 13.Kobayashi, 14.DiResta

As the lights went out Mark Webber got more wheel spin on pole than team-mate Vettel in P2 and despite there only being 200 metres to the first turn Vettel managed to get the inside line and lead through Turn 1.

Behind them, Lewis Hamilton got an even better start than the pair of Red Bulls and looked to head between the two just as the gap closed. Fernando Alonso starting from P4 went outside and then switched to the inside of Hamilton between Turns 1 and 2 and was able to use that edge all the way up the straight to Turn 3, a great bit of car positioning.

Vettel was ahead of Webber all the way up the long straight but could hear his engine to his left. As they hit the braking zone for Turn 3 Mark Webber was alongside him but out of position on the outside so Vettel moved across and took the place and had saved enough KERS to keep ahead for Turn 4.

Turn 3 was an almighty sort-out but showed the skill of the front six drivers - Vettel, Webber, Alonso, Hamilton, Raikkonen and Massa - as they entered the braking zone sometimes three abreast.

Further back, the manouvering wasn't so skilful. Jenson Button had already avoided a tap from Sergio Perez who tried to take Turn 1 at an impossibly tight angle and almost hit his 2013 team-mate. Then on the long drag down to Turn 3 Button was sizing up outbraking Nico Rosberg who was alongside him when Kamui Kobayashi lost control and hit both Rosberg and Button hard.

Rosberg was able to continue for a lap but Button's right front wheel was now deranged at an angle and he couldn't continue. Kobayashi's front wing was damaged but he could continue back to the pits. Grosjean managed to stay clear of everyone.

Raikkonen wanted to get past Lewis Hamilton into Turn 4 and Lewis pushed him out wide losing the Lotus momentum, so much so that Felipe Massa was able to get past the Finn into P5 at Turn 5. Raikkonen tried to hold the line into the following corner but the Ferrari was already through.

Positions at the end of Lap 1:
1.Vettel, 2.Webber, 3.Alonso, 4.Hamilton, 5.Massa, 6.Raikkonen, 7.Hulkenberg, 8.Grosjean, 9.Perez, 10.Schumacher, 11.DiResta, 12.Senna, 13.Maldonado, 14.Rosberg

There was little movement in the early stages when the cars were close, because the DRS zone was neutralised by waved yellow flags as Nico Rosberg's car - which had stopped on the long back straight on Lap 2 - was craned away slowly. By Lap 8 Kobayashi had been given a predictable drive-through penalty, although he was already in last place.

When the DRS was finally enabled on Lap 9 Kimi was suddenly 0.4 quicker in S1. At the front the Red Bulls weren't running away with the race, but they were edging clear. On Lap 10 Mark Webber put in the fastest lap and a lap later it was Sebastian Vettel's turn.

Lewis Hamilton had managed to stay clear of Felipe Massa despite the Ferrari driver edging into the DRS zone and on Lap 13 he was first to dive into the pitlane for a scheduled pit-stop, followed in by Hulkenberg, Grosjean and Schumacher.

A lap later and it was Mark Webber, Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen in for untroubled stops, and then on Lap 15 it was Vettel and Alonso. There were no passes for position as a result of the stops although Alonso exited the pitlane alongside the yet-to-stop Sergio Perez and both raced up to Turn 3 side by side. Alonso managed to outbrake the Sauber and the following Lewis Hamilton got past Perez soon after.

Sergio Perez might have had thoughts about making his soft tyres last a lot longer but by Lap 18 he was losing a lot of time. On that lap he dropped 1.5 seconds in Sector 2 alone and was straight into the pits. The many predictions that some teams might be one-stopping were very soon put to rest.

Positions at the end of Lap 20:
1.Vettel, 2.Webber, 3.Alonso, 4.Hamilton, 5.Massa, 6.Raikkonen, 7.Hulkenberg, 8.Grosjean, 9.Maldonado (not stopped) 10.Schumacher, 11.Ricciardo, 12.DiResta, 13.Perez

On Lap 20 Lewis Hamilton suddenly looked to be struggling. He had closed up on Alonso after the first stops but then the gap started to go out and he was a second a lap slower than the cars around him. After the race it was diagnosed that it was a possible rear anti-roll bar failure.

Hamilton wasn't able to resist Felipe Massa for very long and was soon under pressure from a very patient Kimi Raikkonen, who clearly couldn't hang on to the pace of the two Ferraris in front of Hamilton. On Lap 23 Hamilton was able to push Kimi wide around the outside of Turn 3 after the DRS zone. On Lap 24 Kimi got past Lewis into Turn 3 and then Lewis fought back with a KERS boost up the inside taking the place back into Turn 4. The battle was only settled when Lewis headed into the pits on Lap 26 for more tyres.

In front of him things weren't looking good for Mark Webber in the second stint, something not really picked up by the TV feed. Webber was significantly slower than Vettel, Alonso and Massa. On Lap 23 these three did 36.3 in the first sector while Mark could only manage a 36.7. The gap from Webber to Alonso came down from 3.0 on lap 20, to 2.6, to 2.3, to 1.6, and then 1.3 on Lap 24.

Alonso hovered just out of DRS range while the TV cameras focused on the likely sparks between Raikkonen and Hamilton. Then on lap 26 Mark started to show a bigger advantage in the second sector and the gap started to go out to 1.8 and then 2.2 and then 2.3 and the crisis seemed to have passed. By Lap 28 Mark was putting in the fastest lap of the race but by that stage Vettel was nine seconds up the road.

Nico Hulkenberg was enjoying a race-long battle with Romain Grosjean and the Lotus driver was having difficulty trying to find a way past into Turn 3. On Laps 29 and 30 it was close, but Hulkenberg had the craft to elude him and use his KERS to keep ahead despite the DRS favouring the car behind.

Massa was right up there in touch with Alonso all of the race and just 12 seconds covered the front four on Lap 31 while there was another 11 seconds back to Raikkonen and 17.5 back to the Hulkenberg vs Grosjean battle. Hamilton, having stopped much earlier than the others, had yet to take places back.

Mark Webber and Nico Hulkenberg then pitted for the second time on Lap 32, Alonso on Lap 34, Massa, Vettel and Raikkonen on Lap 35. On new tyres Grosjean finally got past Hulkenberg but was under pressure, as evidenced by a rallycross moment where he crossed the grass and went straight on in the final kink on Lap 34.

Positions at the end of Lap 36:
1.Vettel, 2.Webber, 3.Alonso, 4.Massa, 5.Raikkonen, 6.Hamilton, 7.Vergne (one stop), 8.Grosjean, 9.Hulkenberg, 10.Ricciardo, 11.Schumacher, 12.DiResta, 13.Perez

On Lap 37 Vettel had a lead of 6.8 seconds from Mark Webber who was 4.5 ahead of Fernando Alonso, who was only 1.4 seconds in front of Felipe Massa. At this stage of the race Massa's Ferrari looked so quick that it was capable of catching the second Red Bull - on Lap 37 Massa put in a 1:42.689 to Alonso's 1:44.192.

Felipe Massa duly got the warning call from engineer Rob Smedley "Felipe, you're bit too close to Fernando, back off to a couple of seconds."

Hamilton still held on to sixth place but in some cases was two seconds a lap slower than Grosjean. The McLaren looked like a sitting target but when Grosjean tried a move round the outside at Turn 3 on Lap 40, Hamilton ran him off the track. The Lotus driver couldn't make the overtaking move stick as it had been off-track (like Vettel in Germany) and as they both shaped up for Turn 4 Nico Hulkenberg drove around the outside of them both, Hamilton pushed him onto the kerbs, but there was too much of the Force India to push him all the way and then Hulkenberg had the line for Turn 5. The move of the race.

Now fully engaged in proceedings again Lewis put in a personal best lap time before pitting for his third set of tyres on Lap 42. He set off after Jean-Eric Vergne on a set of supersoft tyres but such was the straightline speed advantage of the Toro Rosso that even with DRS Lewis couldn't get close enough going into Turn 3. Vergne caught and passed the struggling Daniel Ricciardo, but just as Hamilton looked to take advantage in the final few laps he hooked up a piece of torn Astroturf to the sidepod and trailed it around to the flag.

The front seven positions didn't change between Lap 41 to the flag on Lap 55. Despite being asked to back off, Felipe Massa was only 1.2 behind Alonso on lap 42. Massa was heard to be asking about Mark Webber's lap times but was obliged to drop back. (Last year he finished in front of Alonso)

The final ten laps of the race was filled with worries over the state of the tyres and in particular Sebastian Vettel's tendency to go for fastest lap at the close. His team thought that the tyre taking the most load, the right front, might go at any second and his engineer, Rocky, told him this repeatedly. "Sebastian, I'm sorry to be on your case but you will not know till it's too late!"

As it was, the man who had stopped for tyres earlier, Mark Webber, rained on Seb's parade by putting in the fastest lap on the penultimate lap, a 1:42.037 to edge the gap out to Alonso to 6.6 seconds. Seb countered with a personal best on his final lap but it was a long way off fastest. The new World Championship leader told Adrian Newy afterwards that if he backed off and let the tyres go cold he got problems as well.

Vettel came across the line for his third win of the 2012 season in a row, having led all three Korean grands prix from 2010 to 2012 with the exception of 12 laps (when he retired in 2010). Mark Webber took second with Alonso third and Massa an easy fourth, a country mile clear of Raikkonen in fifth, Hulkenberg in sixth and an intact Grosjean in seventh.

Lewis Hamilton, complete with Astroturf, couldn't catch Vergne in eighth or Ricciardo in ninth but managed to fend off Perez to hold onto 10th. Probably not the result he was expecting when he was sat on the grid and a lot of hard work with a "nervous" car that looked a problem to drive.

Although the momentum is with the Red Bull team and Vettel, the race pace of the revised Ferrari F2012 showed that they are not far away and Felipe Massa will certainly be wearing red in 2013. The same might not be said of Kamui Kobayashi.

Results

01. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h36:28.651
02. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 8.200
03. Alonso Ferrari + 13.900
04. Massa Ferrari + 20.100
05. Raikkonen Lotus-Renault + 36.700
06. Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes + 45.300
07. Grosjean Lotus-Renault + 54.800
08. Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:09.500
09. Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:11.700
10. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 1:19.600
11. Perez Sauber-Ferrari + 1:20.000
12. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1:24.400
13. Schumacher Mercedes + 1:29.200
14. Maldonado Williams-Renault + 1:34.900
15. Senna Williams-Renault + 1:36.900
16. Petrov Caterham-Renault + 1 lap
17. Kovalainen Caterham-Renault + 1 lap
18. Glock Marussia-Cosworth + 1 lap
19. Pic Marussia-Cosworth + 2 lap2
20. Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps
Did Not Finish
Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 17
Rosberg Mercedes 2
Button McLaren-Mercedes 1

Source: Planet-F1

Alonso: Little significance in Friday running

Fernando Alonso says there are few conclusions to be drawn from Friday practice in Korea

Fernando Alonso insisted there was little significance in the results of Friday practice for the Korean Grand Prix after wet weather affected both sessions at the Yeongam circuit.

The Ferrari driver was fourth fastest on after the two sessions on Friday but ended the afternoon nearly two seconds behind the quickest time posted by McLaren's Lewis Hamilton.

However, the Spaniard wasn't unduly concerned by the gap to the front given the conditions on track and said there wasn't much that could be drawn from the results.

“It was quite a difficult Friday, with the weather changing throughout, making it almost impossible to draw any useful conclusions for the rest of the weekend,” he said. “When one considers that it should not rain tomorrow or on Sunday, then it becomes even clearer why this day had little if any significance to offer.

“The objective is still to do the best we can and in this case, to understand as much as possible about the handling of the car at this track. We also had a new front wing to try, but it was definitely very difficult to evaluate it in conditions like these, conditions which were ideal for the McLarens for example.

“We need more laps to bring the tyres up to temperature and then, when we get there, maybe the tyres are already beginning to go off a bit. We will have to improvise a bit both in qualifying and the race. The entry to the pit lane is much improved compared to last year, but there is still room to do better with the exit.”

Team-mate Felipe Massa ended the day seventh fastest in the second Ferrari but he admitted to concerns about the degradation of the intermediate Pirelli tyres.

“Rather a complicated day,” he said. “The track did not provide much grip and degradation on the intermediates seems to be more significant than usual: there is no other way to explain the fact that, even if an ever drier line was emerging, the times did not drop. Obviously, it makes it difficult to prepare as well as possible for the race and qualifying, but it's the same for everyone.”

Source: Crash.net

Late launch will produce better results - McLaren

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh is confident his team will not lose out by launching its car after the first round of testing in Valencia.

The 2011 McLaren will be launched on February 4 in Berlin, the day after the first pre-season test ends in Spain. The team will bring an interim car to Valencia to ensure it does not miss out on crucial mileage on the new Pirelli tyres, but the new car will not hit the track until February 10 in Jerez.

"The MP4-26 is on schedule and will be launched on February 4, after which it will go through the normal testing processes," Whitmarsh told Formula1.com. "We feel that timetable is optimal with regard to providing Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton with the best possible package for the first race in Bahrain. And that will be just the beginning of a progressive and rigorous development programme that will continue right up until the Brazilian Grand Prix on November 27."
This year KERS and moveable rear wings have been added to the technical regulations, giving teams several new challenges. However, Whitmarsh hinted at some unique developments on the McLaren that will make the MP4-26 stand out from its rivals.

"There are new regulations for 2011 - and the MP4-26 will not only adhere to them but it will also sport a few fresh design features in response to the opportunities presented by those new regulations," said Whitmarsh. "So, yes, there will be some new elements, but as you can imagine I'm not prepared to add more detail at the moment!"

He added that his team is very confident it will be a championship challenger in 2011.

"Vodafone McLaren Mercedes' mission is a unilateral one: to win," Whitmarsh said. "We won five grands prix last year, including three one-two finishes, and we came second in the constructors' championship, significantly ahead of our traditional rivals, Ferrari. But although many teams would be more than satisfied with that performance, we weren't and aren't.

"As I say, our mission is to win, and winning five Grands Prix and coming second in the constructors' championship doesn't constitute enough of a win for us. It goes without saying that this year we aim to do better. As ever, it's impossible to make firm predictions, but we think we're on course to be competitive. Having said that, we never underestimate our opposition and we're sure they're working every bit as hard as we are."

Source: ESPNF1

Kimi's mid-term report

Now that the World Rally Championship season is more than halfway over, we caught up with Finnish star Kimi Raikkonen to see how he rates his progress up to now…

What do you think of your results so far this year?
“I’d say that our results are what we expected; or maybe slightly better than we expected. When we came into this year, we knew that it was not going to be easy and it would take us some time to adapt and of course this has been the case.

If you consider that everyone else has got so much more experience than us and we had not even done five rallies before the start of the year, it’s not too bad.

Sweden was a tricky event for us to start the year with as the grip kept on changing but then we found it a bit more normal on gravel in Mexico. Jordan was a really tricky rally but we were very pleased to take our first points, and then we had Turkey where we finished fifth, which was a great result.

After Turkey we missed Rally New Zealand and then we had Portugal, which was difficult for us because it took a little bit of time to get into the rhythm again. When we went to Bulgaria I had a good feeling on asphalt and if we had not had an accident, then I think we could have been in the top five.”

How about Finland?
“Actually, Finland was the same sort of story as Bulgaria: some good bits and some bad bits. But it would have been top eight and not top five.”

So how many marks would you give yourself out of 10?
“I’m not sure: I would say maybe five? Because some bits have been good and some other bits have been not so good but in the end it was all more or less what I was expecting. OK, maybe we have done a bit better than I was expecting, so I could give myself five and a half or six?”

Making pace notes has been a big challenge. How is that going?
“That’s probably one of the hardest things for me. Even when I was in Formula One I never really liked it when engineers were talking to me over the radio when I was driving the car in the circuit. Now though it is part of the job. There is probably more speed to come from me through improving the pace notes than there is in any other area.”

Rallying is a slightly mad sport. Does it ever scare you?
“No, there is nothing that I am scared of in a rally car: it is just a very different style of driving. In the end you have to trust your co-driver and your pace notes because this is part of the skill of rallying.

Having said that, when you go off on a circuit, you normally go off into a gravel trap or a tyre wall. When you go off in rallying there are trees. There is no room for mistakes, and although I am making a few all the time, this is one of the things that attracts me to rallying. If it was easy, then everybody would do it.”

Have your targets changed at all this year?
“No, not really. I just want to gradually improve and learn everything you need to succeed in rallying. It’s unrealistic to expect much more in your first year as rallying is all about experience.

The chances are that I’m not going to be able to win anything this year but if I could have one or two more results in the top five then that would be really good. But I think it’s going to be tough…”

Source: RedBull
Courtesy: Kriss

WRC: Hirvonen takes 16 sec lead into final day in Sweden; Räikkönen is 35th overall...

Ford team-leader Mikko Hirvonen will take a 16.6 second lead into Sunday's final day of Rally Sweden, an advantage his chief opponent, Citroen driver Sebastien Loeb, acknowledged will be difficult to overturn on the five stage which remain.

Saturday's second day of the rally featured two identical loops of four stages in the Varmland region of central Sweden, clustered around the Hagfors Service Park. Under clear blue skies and in temperatures than plunged to -22ºC, crews tackled 117.76km of ice and snow covered gravel stages.

Hirvonen started Saturday's competition in the lead, 6.2 seconds ahead of Loeb, but after a back and forth scrap in the morning, this gap was down to 4.2sec by the midpoint service. The afternoon was another story, however, when Hirvonen and Loeb gambled on fitting fresh tyres at different times - a decision which ultimately went Hirvonen's way and netted him a 23sec lead after SS15.

"Okay, it's been a good day," said Hirvonen. "Sixteen seconds is not much, but it's more than we had in the morning. For sure there are long stages to go tomorrow and Seb will try hard, but we'll see. Hopefully I can keep him behind. First on the road today was not a problem, especially on the first pass it's pretty good to be there; you can make your own lines and there is no snow or ruts or anything."

Loeb ended the day well, clawing back 6.4sec on the final Sprint stage, but the Frenchman was angry at giving time away. "We made a stupid mistake today with the tyres; it was very much the wrong choice," he said. "[On SS15] I put fresh tyres on the front with some completely destroyed tyres on the rear and I couldn't use it. I lost a lot of time to Mikko. Can I catch him? I don’t know, but it will be very difficult. Normally 16 seconds is possible but when you look at the times between us today you can see it’s difficult to make any difference."

Hirvonen's team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala holds third place, after a mixed day at the wheel of his Ford Focus RS WRC. He got a lucky break on SS15, however, when the man ahead of him, Dani Sordo, stopped briefly with an overheating engine. "It’s been an okay day, but the morning was frustrating because Dani was running away," he said. "I thought we might lose the fight, but this afternoon we made a few set-up changes and everything came together. Okay, we were a little bit lucky with Sordo's problems as well. I plan to stay here until the end. It would be nice to start the season with a podium."

Fifty-four seconds behind Latvala, Sordo was left to rue a mistake on SS15 when he didn't remove an air flow blanking panel from the front his car and almost cooked his engine mid stage. "It’s really disappointing," he said. "Anyway I will try to get the best finish and take some points now. The season has only just started with this rally - we'll see how we get on in Mexico."

Citroen Junior Team driver Sebastien Ogier remained well cushioned in fifth all day and was content with his progress. "Our target was fifth place, so if we can carry on like this it will have been a very good first Rally Sweden for us." Stobart Ford team driver Henning Solberg also remained static in the standings, holding sixth all day. "It's okay but I don't think I have one stud in my rear tyres now!" he said at the end of SS16. "I did my best today, but I lost all my studs on Vargasen [SS13] and I don't know why. We'll try some different settings tomorrow. I can get better!"

Henning's Stobart team-mate Matthew Wilson is seventh, after moving ahead of rival Mads Ostberg on SS13. The Briton will take a 13.2sec advantage over Ostberg on Sunday. "We changed the car at lunchtime and it felt completely new; I wish we could start the rally again!" he said. It's been good fun this afternoon, around that Super Special we had no studs left at all, we just slid all the way around. I reckon I can stay ahead of Mads now the car's feeling better, we'll see." Ostberg, meanwhile, is equally determined to finish seventh. "It’s been a difficult day, especially when it comes to tyre wear, but I'm happy I'm here and definitely up for the fight with Matthew," he said.

After losing a lot of time on Friday, Citroen privateer Petter Solberg holds ninth, and was pleased to put another disappointing day behind him. "Maybe I'm using the tyres too hard - I have to drive smarter and more carefully," he said. "It sounds a bit boring but all I can say is I've tried and it is getting better."

Overall classification (check WRC.com for each stage's times):

Kimi's overall standings:

Source: WRC.com

SS1: Sordo leads after Thursday night's Super Special

Citroen Total Team driver Dani Sordo is Thursday's overnight leader of Rally Sweden after setting the fastest time through the rally opening Super Special Stage in his C4 World Rally Car.

Thousands of spectators braved sub-zero temperatures to watch the first stage of the 2010 World Rally Championship - a floodlit, head-to-head blast around a 1.9km ice circuit in the rally's host city of Karlstad.

After recording a time of 1min 34.4sec around the figure-of-eight track Sordo was delighted with his performance. "We had a really good pre-event test, as well as a good time on the arctic rally a fortnight ago and that's helped me get a good feeling in the car," he said. "I know I can still go faster if I need to, but so far so good."

Citroen Junior team driver Sebastien Ogier, also in a C4 WRC, was nearest to Sordo's time, but a full two seconds slower. "I enjoyed the stage and I like to drive in these ice conditions," he said.

A deliberately careful start from Ford team leader Mikko Hirvonen netted him the third fastest time, while similar approaches put defending world champion Sebastien Loeb fourth and Marcus Gronholm fifth.

Super Special winner in 2008 Petter Solberg, however, paid the price for a more aggressive approach. The Norwegian nudged a snow bank and later spun his C4 WRC, reaching the finish control 18.3sec slower than Sordo and without a front bumper. "I got some very, very bad oversteer, but it was my fault - I tried too hard. That's just how it is," he explained.

On his first WRC stage with the Citroen Junior Team, Kimi Raikkonen set the ninth fastest time. "That was okay," he said. "A little bit cautious but I took it easy. It's okay, all you can do on these stages is lose it."

After this evening's prelude, the proper stage action begins on Friday morning at 0818hrs, when crews tackle the first of six stages in the countryside north of Karlstad, before a return to Karlstad for a repeat of the Super Special.

[EDIT] Link to full results of SS1 here

Sources: WRC.com, Motorsport