Red Bull scripts Vettel's victory in Korean Grand Prix 2012

Red Bull stage manages victory for Sebastian Vettel's in the Korean Grand Prix to catapult him into the driver's championship lead.

In the opening lap of the Korean Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull who started on 2nd of the grid moved to the side of pole sitter Mark Webber and then pulled ahead without much resistance from Mark Webber and Webber watched the flanks and stopped Lewis Hamilton from attacking Vettel. A scripted move perfectly executed by the Red Bull drivers to give Sebastian Vettel the lead. In an relatively incident free race, Mark Webber finished second followed by Fernando Alonso of Ferrari.

Felipe Massa of Ferrari finished at P4, Kimi Raikkonent of Lotus was 5th, followed by Nico Hulkenberg of Force India at 6th. Romain Grosjean of Lotus, managed his restrain his urge of causing mayhem in the first lap and finished 7th. In a fantastic race for Toro Rosso team, both their drivers drove from the back of the grid to finish in points - Jean Eric Vergne in 8th and Daniel Ricciardo in 9th. Lewis Hamilton who was struggling with tyre wear finished at 10th.

In what was an ugly demonstration of the Korean track's poor quality construction and materials used, the astro turf came off and got stuck in Lewis Hamilton's car slowing him down in the last few laps. However, he still managed to hold on to the 10th place keeping Sergio Perez at 0.3 seconds behind him.

In the opening lap of the race, Kamui Kobayashi did the Grosjean act of hitting other cars. Kamui Kobayashi's kamikaze act took out Jenson Button of McLaren and Nico Rosberg of Mercedes in the first lap. Kobayashi was handed with a drive through penalty and later retired from the race. There was only one more retirement in the form of Pedro de la Rosa of HRT.

Sergio Perez, who is heading to McLaren next year in place of Lewis finished at P11 followed by Paul di Resta of Force India at P12. Mercedes had poor race pace and Michael Schumacher's car despite his race craft, could not finish within points. He finished at 13th position.

The sad pace of the Mercedes cars may have actually made Schumacher to wait till October to announce his decision and made Mercedes to sign up Lewis Hamilton and then forcing Michael Schumacher to retire.

Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna of Williams finished 14th and 15th. Vitaly Petrov led the two Caterhams to finish at 16th followed by Heikki Kovalainen at 17th. Timo Glock and Charles Pic of Marussia finished at 18th and 19th. Narain Kathikeyan of HRT - India's lone F1 driver - finished at 20th position.

Mark Webber the Lead Bull in Korean Grand Prix

The Formula One Korean Grand Prix 2012 Qualifying was great for Red Bull as they scored a 1-2 position. However, it was Mark Webber who scored the Pole position for Red Bull instead of Sebastian Vettel.

Lewis Hamilton was on the verge of failing to qualify for Q2 but could do so at the end qualifying at 16 in the Q1 to make the cutoff for Q2. He then scored P3 position in the final leg of qualifying.


Fernando Alonso of Ferrari was P4 followed by Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus at P5.

Felipe Massa was driving close to half a second of his illustrious team mate Fernando Alonso and it appears that Ferrari is going to retain Massa as that means there would not be any other young driver to challenge Alonso and hence harmony is maintained. He scored a P6.


Following Massa is the “first lap nut-case” Romain Grosjean of Lotus at P7. So the people who are in danger tomorrow of being shunted out in the opening lap are Massa, Kimi and Alonso.

McLaren’s Jenson Button failed to make it to Q3 as he qualified at P11. McLaren team might be thinking what they have lost, as Jenson Button as well as their recruit for 2013 Sergio Perez at P12 failed to make to the Q3. Also all other teams have both their drivers in Q3 except McLaren and Nico Hulkenberg of Force India made it to the Q3 at the expense of Jenson Button and scored a good P8 ahead of the two Mercedes cars.


Mercedes team would have breathed a sigh of relief as both their drivers made it to Q3. Michael Schumacher had a run earlier and put in a good time and was five thousandths of a second faster than Jenson Button who remained at P11. Nico Rosberg came in a P9 in the Q3 followed by Michael Schumacher at P10. This is after sometime that Rosberg has outqualified Michael in a qualifying.

Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg and Nico Hulkenberg saved their tyres and elected to only choose a single run in the Q3.

The Formula One Korean Grand Prix 2012 qualifying started on a bad note for Narain Karthikeyan as he failed to start due to a brake problem. He will be able to drive on Sunday on the discretion of the stewards.

Final Qualifying Positions for Korean Grand Prix

1. Mark Webber
2. Sebastian Vettel
3. Lewis Hamilton
4. Fernando Alonso
5. Kimi Raikkonen
6. Felipe Massa
7. Romain Gorsjean
8. Nico Hulkenberg
9. Nico Rosberg
10. Michael Schumacher
11. Jenson Button
12. Sergio Perez
13. Kamui Kobayashi
14. Paul di Resta
15. Pastor Maldonado
16. Daniel Ricciardo
17. Jean-Eric Vergne
18. Bruno Senna
19. Vitaly Petrov
20. Heikki Kovalainen
21. Charles Pic
22. Timo Glock
23. Pedro de la Rosa
24. Narain Karthikeyan (no time)

Narain Shines in the wet in Korean Grand Prix 2011

Narain Karthikeyan drove in the first practice FP1 in the Korean Grind Prix. He had replaced Vintanio Liuzzi. It rained heavily on friday in both the sessions with standing water on the track. Narain - who has proved his skills in the wet in the past securing a 2nd position in the wet FP2 in Japan in 2005 Formula 1 Grand Prix - was faster than the other HRT driver Daniel Ricciardo. In Formula 1 due to the difference in the cars, each drivers performance is measured against his team mate. So Narain did well.

However, Narain was not satisfied being faster than his team mate and said "I had never driven in Korea before and having to do so in such foul weather conditions was not ideal. This won't help me much with my preparation for the Indian Grand Prix, because it will surely be dry out there, but, nevertheless, it has been positive to be able to gather some data on wet conditions and I hope that helped the team out a little. Overall, I am satisfied with the job done today."

This shows that Narain is focused on doing a good job in the Indian Grand Prix. Even in adversity, when he has been dropped from the team to get the funds from Redbull, he seems to be having composure and preparing for his dream of driving infront of the home audience. Certainly, this is one quality that one should learn from him.