Top ten pictures from the 2012 Korean Grand Prix

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The top ten pictures which tell the story of the Korean Grand Prix.

Mark Webber, PSY and Sebastian Vettel – Friday

Korean rapper PSY’s smash hit Gangnam Style became the unofficial anthem of the race weekend, though it was wearing a bit thin even before the Red Bull drivers were persuaded to join him for a performance.

Bruno Senna – Friday

The Korea International Circuit appears to be more or less abandoned in between Grands Prix and drivers found the track very dusty on Friday. It was the beginning of a tough weekend for Williams, who ended up at the tail end of the midfield.

Felipe Massa – Friday

Felipe Massa has enjoyed a timely resurgence in form in recent races which appears to have secured his future at Ferrari.

Come race day he had a bit too much pace for his team’s liking, and he had to be reminded not to put pressure on team mate Fernando Alonso:

“You’re a bit too close to Fernando,” warned Rob Smedley on the radio after Massa’s second pit stop. “I think you can back off another second and then just stay two-and-a-half, three seconds behind, that’s no problem.”

Romain Grosjean and Eric Boullier – Korean Grand Prix

Words of wisdom? Whatever Eric Boullier had to say to Romain Grosjean before the start of the race, Lotus’s under-fire driver stayed out of trouble and left the first-lap drama to his rivals.

Nico Rosberg, Jenson Button and Sergio Perez – Korean Grand Prix

Three into one won’t go – Sergio Perez lunged up the inside of future team mate Jenson Button at the start, forcing Nico Rosberg to take an even wider line around turn one.

The other Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi inflicted even greater damage on Button and Rosberg’s races at turn three, putting both out.

Korean Grand Prix start

The charge to turn three. As Mark Webber tries in vain to get his lead back from Sebastian Vettel, Alonso is dodging around Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen is kicking up some sparks.

Jenson Button – Korean Grand Prix

Button attempted to drag his wounded McLaren back to the pits but had to give up.

Nico Hulkenberg – Korean Grand Prix

One the stand-out performances of the race came from Nico Hulkenberg, who split the Lotuses to finish sixth.

Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen – Korean Grand Prix

Hamilton weathered intense pressure from Raikkonen after his car developed a problem. He successfully resisted the Lotus but only until he had to make his second pit stop early.

Adrian Newey and Sebastian Vettel – Korean Grand Prix

Vettel celebrates his third win in a row and the lead of the drivers’ championship.

Chief technical officer Adrian Newey found a suitably engineering-led solution to the problem of getting champagne in your eyes. And Red Bull weren’t about to miss out on a branding opportunity.

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    Image © Red Bull/Getty images, Williams/LAT, Korean GP/Sutton, Lotus F1 Team/LAT, Mercedes/Hoch Zwei, Red Bull/Getty images, Korean GP/Sutton, Sahara Force India F1 Team, Korean GP/Sutton, Red Bull/Getty images

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    32 comments on “Top ten pictures from the 2012 Korean Grand Prix”

    1. The Perez/Button/Rosberg photo is excellent and my favourite. As always, great job Keith :)

      1. Yeah .. you had to look much closer to notice the 3rd car in that snap. Absolutely awesome photo

      2. Mine too, it’s a superb shot.
        I like the dramatic one of them all charging over the crest, too – reminds me a bit of the start at Interlagos.

      3. @troylongstaff Indeed, an outrageous shot.

      4. An absolute stunner.. If my tablet resolution wasn’t so small, I’d have that as the background in an instant…

      5. I love that picture too. Great shot.

      6. Truly phenomenal that the rubber flicking off from the tyre or part of the front-wing endplate from the Sauber is visible.

      7. I was just about to post the same comment – it seems 7 fanatics got here before me!

      8. @troylongstaff @todfod @bullfrog @scuderiavincero @keeleyobsessed @dot_com @younger-hamii @john-h It’s actually cropped in slightly from a larger image to remove bits of two other cars you could originally see and clean up the composition a bit. It’s only been cropped though, nothing’s been edited out or anything like that.

      9. It is a good one indeed.

    2. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
      16th October 2012, 11:42

      Is that PSY talking to Grosjean?…lol

    3. Is that a huge “marble” coming off of the front left of Perez’s tyre there!?

      1. @jamesf1 That’s the tip of his nosecone.

    4. It’s remarkable how the photos from this Korean GP are much more creative and interesting than the usual fare we get from other races.

      1. To be honest, I only found Singapore not so interesting but for the rest, I always like them

    5. Awesome collection indeed once again.

      Being an amateur photographer myself, I prefer Darren Heath’s out-of-this-world quality photos above all, but some these really capture the moments of the Korean GP weekend as well. The three cars into Turn 1 is my favourite as well, classy composition.

      1. @atticus-2 Do you have any links? I’d love to check out his work :)

        1. http://www.darrenheath.com/season/2012/japan-2012/image-gallery

          Here you go, the Japanese GP gallery. I’m particularly fond of this one, although other GP albums are also beautiful.

          1. @atticus-2 A bit late of me, but thank you!

            1. @scuderiavincero No problem. I actually forgot to tag you in the post so it was easy to overlook.

              Since then he upload his galleries from the latest GPs as well, check them out. They are stunning as usual.

          2. I see what you mean! Wow!

    6. No astroturf?

      1. @zimkazimka Alas no. Would have liked to use a picture of it but couldn’t get one.

        1. @keithcollantine No doubt a candidate for the caption competition this week.

    7. If F1 drivers were in the Gangnam style film clip, Nico Rosberg would be the guy wearing fluoro yellow and driving a Mercedes.

    8. The Jenson, Nico, Sergio is definitely the best picture of the lot. Super timing.

      BTW who came out ahead at that corner ?

      1. Well it wasn’t Rosberg…

    9. That one of the start is just gorgeous for some reason. Seeing all top cars with the top drivers in them powering down the straight like that just seems so epic.

    10. Adrian take the cake here… cool trick Mr.Newey

    11. That three-wide shot. Nice. Finally F1 tried to look a bit like motorcycle racing for a while there.

      1. …and look where it got them!

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