Conclusions from the Korean
Grand Prix
Back-to-back-to-back wins for Sebastian Vettel have now turned the 2012 F1 Championship on its head.
The German driver’s latest success came at the Korean Grand Prix where he finished ahead of both team-mate Mark Webber and his closest title rival, Fernando Alonso, to secure a lead in the Driver’s Championship.
The current double World Champion is now clearly the man to beat as the season enters its final furlong. Here’s what we learned in Korea.......
The German driver’s latest success came at the Korean Grand Prix where he finished ahead of both team-mate Mark Webber and his closest title rival, Fernando Alonso, to secure a lead in the Driver’s Championship.
The current double World Champion is now clearly the man to beat as the season enters its final furlong. Here’s what we learned in Korea.......
- Winning his third race in a row, Sebastian Vettel claimed career victory number 25th, and now has as many as Jim Clark and Niki Lauda. The soon-to-be-retired Michael Schumacher still lies far in the distance on 91 career victories, but Vettel now lies within just five of Fernando Alonso’s tally of victories.
- For Vettel to get to his quarter century of victories he has taken just 97 races including the last six races of the 2007 campaign and the following five full seasons. In comparison, Schumacher took 92 races to reach 25 wins and Alonso took 154.
- The day before his team mates victory in Korea, Mark Webber had secured the 11th pole position of his career, and on the day of the race he also set a fastest lap, the 14th of his career (tied with Felipe Massa). Although he will be disappointed to have been ‘knocked’ out of first by his team mate, a second place finish meant that the Australian doubled the number of points he scored in the seven races since announcing he will remain at Red Bull next year.
- On the negative side for Webber, this was the seventh time he has started on pole but not won the race. After Kovalienen and Hulkenberg (100%), he now has the highest percentage for non-conversions from poles to victories with 64%.
- In a race totally dominated by the Swiss team, Red Bull became the first this year to score a one-two finish; the twelfth in their history.
- With a three-four finish for Ferrari, this was the first time since 2009 that a combination of two teams made up the top four positions in a one-two, three- four.
- Vettel’s current dominance the sport can be shown by the fact that he has led for the past 145 consecutive laps. Since Lewis Hamilton’s retirement in Singapore, the German driver has dominated with three wins, and even secured a ‘perfect weekend’ in Japan. Few other drivers have led more laps consecutively in the modern era, with Webber the closest to this tally by leading for 159 laps in a row from the 2010 Spanish to 2010 Turkish Grand Prix. The outright record for most consecutive laps is held by Alberto Ascari who, after taking the lead from Jean Behra on lap two of the 1952 Belgian Grand Prix, led for the next four races, a total of 305 laps.
- To make the record his own Vettel would have to lead for all of the next two races, and the first forty-six laps of the United States Grand Prix.
- The race winner’s success in Korea continued as he has now led for 153 of the 165 that have been held in the country. The only other driver to have been in the race lead there is Fernando Alonso.
- Vettel passed Alonso not only in the title race, but also as the driver who has led the most F1 laps this season with 267 to Alonso’s 216; Mclaren’s Lewis Hamilton is next on 182.
- Renault celebrated their 200th pole position for a car powered by one of their engines this weekend with Webber beginning at the front of the pack for Sunday’s race. 44 of these have been as part of the Red Bull team, 80 by Williams, 51 by cars manufactured by Renault themselves, 19 by Lotus and 6 by Benetton. Their first pole position came back at the 1979 South African Grand Prix courtesy of Jean-Pierre Jabouile.
- This was not only a great milestone for Renault in terms of pole positions, but they also scored their 5000th point in Korea. They now have 5051.5 points and are just behind Ferrari by 462.
- The title is now definitely a straight two-horse race between Vettel and Alonso.
- The German took his total to 215 points with victory in Korea with Alonso’s third place moving him onto 209. There are still mathematically six drivers who can win the title, but with a maximum of 100 points left to win, Raikkonen (48 points behind), Hamilton (62), Webber (63) and Button (84) are racing to effectively finish third.
- Lewis Hamilton’s ability to secure 10th place for his team kept intact the record that McLaren have scored points in every race that the all-Brit partnership of Button and Hamilton have been together. They have now scored in 54 consecutive races, one short of the all-time record held by Ferrari which was set between 1999 and 2003.
- Since announcing his move to Mercedes, Hamilton’s new team have failed to score a point in either race. Niko Rosberg crashed out on the first lap in Korea, and Michael Schumacher finished thirteenth for only the second time in his career.
- Hopefully the German can return to some kind of form before his retirement as this was the tenth time he finished outside the top ten with Mercedes. Consider this against his record from 1991 – 2006 in which he finished outside the first ten just once.
- Daniel Ricciardo received his first penalty of the year when he took a five-place grid drop for a gearbox change. That leaves only Fernando Alonso and Timo Glock as the two drivers to have entered every race without collecting a penalty since the start of the season.
- Jean-Eric Vergne had a successful finish in Korea, collecting points for the third time in his career. All of which have been eighth placed finishes.
- With Romain Grosjean scoring as well, this was the first time two French drivers have appeared in the points since 1997’s Luxembourg Grand Prix when Jean Alesi and Olivier Panis both scored.
- Despite securing the milestone in Italy, Pedro de la Rosa can officially claim to have started his 100th Grand Prix. At Monza he celebrated 100-up, but it was only his 97th grid place start due to three non-starts earlier in his career.
- This was the 10th time that a podium contained the combination of Webber, Vettel and Alonso.