Sebastian Vettel wins the Korean Grand Prix

2013 Korean Grand Prix summary

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Sebastian Vettel won the Korean Grand Prix for the third year in a row after a controlled drive from pole position.

Lotus duo Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean took second and third, Raikkonen having passed his team mate in between two mid-race Safety Car periods.

The first was triggered when Sergio Perez’s front-right tyre exploded at the exit of turn two after the McLaren driver had locked the wheel heading into turn one.

The restart didn’t last very long as Adrian Sutil lost control of his car and crashed into Mark Webber. That eliminated the Red Bull on the spot and for the second race running Webber found himself climbing out of a burning Red Bull.

Before the Safety Car was summoned a fire truck inexplicably appeared on the track which Vettel caught sight of as he rounded the first corner. The race was swiftly neutralised once more.

While Vettel scampered off to win, and an unhappy Grosjean repeatedly urged his team to let him past Raikkonen, an intense battle for fourth place developed. Nico Hulkenberg successfully repelled Lewis Hamilton, who in turn had Fernando Alonso breathing down his neck.

Nico Rosberg took seventh from Jenson Button, who was on the back foot after making an early pit stop for a new front wing.

2013 Korean Grand Prix

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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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    25 comments on “Sebastian Vettel wins the Korean Grand Prix”

    1. A few days ago, someone asked why there was so much hype around Hulkenberg. I guess he’s got the answer now :D

      1. +1

        If you can dance with Hamilton and Alonso in an inferior car and then beat them as well, then you are in the top tier. Actually, you are better than them.

        Also thanks for the comment of the day Mr. Collantine. I was indeed disappointed by what McLaren had to say. Are they blind (because they don’t have Lotus’ excuse about lack of funds)? McLaren can indeed impress Honda with a top driver for 2015. His name is Nico Hulkenberg (not Alonso), so please give him a chance in 2014.

    2. If only Guttierez hadn’t been tagged by Alonso and Button at the start from Massa’s spin, we might have seen our first rookie point score of the season.

      1. We might yet. Perez and Massa have been hauled in front of the stewards.

    3. Regarding Grosjeans’ radio messages, I think he was asking for team orders to let him through and Kimi just told them to shove it, so that’s why he was upset and the team told Romain they’ll talk after the race and for now to just smile

      1. lol a lot of assumptions from a kimi-fan there.. I appriciate your effort.

        1. Nothing wron with his comment. Romain was upset that he couldn’t get past & he wanted team orders to get past. Alan Permane told on the team radio to Grosjean that he should smile on the podium and that they will talk later.

          1. This was the radio message: “We’ll talk about this later, but big ******* smile on the podium, big smile on the podium”

    4. Michael Brown (@)
      6th October 2013, 9:25

      I’m concerned about the legality of some late moves. Moves that Pérez, Hülkenberg, and especially Grosjean have done. Although they didn’t make a move when the attacking car was alongside, these late moves are potentially dangerous. Now, I’m not saying these should be punished in any way, but I want to know the view on such moves.

      1. @lite992 Agree about Perez and partially, Grosean. Hulkebnerg was inch-perfect in his defence though.

    5. Mark had lots of his luck (bad only) this weekend, if that tyre had exploded 1 lap earlier Mark would have had a free pit stop, and If it had been anyone else Sutil tagged the safety car might have given Webber half a chance of finishing on that set of supersofts. Anyway what a farce, the only time we get proper racing is when the safety car re-starts the race with too few laps to the finish to make a pit-stop viable, everybody just has to go for it knowing everybody ( virtually) else is on the same strategy, pity we can’t run the whole race that way.

      1. so much punishment for a free taxi ride in the streets of Singapore

        the whole 10 place grid penalty ruined his chances from the start of the race.

    6. Hulkenberg should teach the world how to drive defensively. I’ve noticed just how good he is at it since Brazil 2010, this guy can make his car as wide as a trent bus.

      1. @kingshark Might I add that he can do that without multiple swerves and collisions.

    7. I am starting to lose faith in F1.
      The amount of stupidity that went on during that race was gob smacking.
      Yet another tyre failure, which could have caused a serious accident. That now means that Vettel, Alonso, Raikkonen, Hamilton and Webber (I may have missed some) have all had to take serious avoiding action of debris this season. It seems the FIA has forgotten what a small piece of debris did to Massa in 2009.
      And then on to the farce with the fire truck. I understand that Webber’s car needed putting out quickly, but that does not excuse putting a slow vehicule on the track with no yellows or safety car. Someone plowing into the back of it doesn’t even bare thinking about. Tom Pryce’s fatal accident was caused by stupidity because of a fire, the marshals didn’t stop to think and ran across a live race track, with Final Destination-esque consequences.
      F1 suffered it’s first fatality in 12 years in Canada, and could have suffered another with that cameraman in Germany. I understand F1 is dangerous but this type of stuff wasn’t happening last year; so why is it happening now? I don’t know if anyone’s heard of Heinrich’s Near Miss Pyramid, but at the rate things are going I fear a driver could be next. Something has to be done.

      1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
        6th October 2013, 14:28

        Yet another tyre failure

        To be fair to Pirelli, Perez really locked up his tyre very hard. Practically down the canvas in one go.

        I don’t really like the current tyres, but I think this was an isolated incident as no one else suffered a delamination.

    8. It was another Grand Shelem for Vettel after all! I thought he was behind Webber for a moment but Webber pitted.

      1. David not Coulthard (@)
        6th October 2013, 11:53

        was it, @keithcollantine ?

        1. yes. Webber didn’t lead over the line. Vettel was 1.1 secs clear when Webber came in

          1. kinda weird though that from very early on I was thinking about the grand Chelem for Seb and hoping Webber would not be far enough ahead to cut the beam first.
            3rd man after Clark and Ascari to get consecutive grand chelems- nobody has ever done 3 in a row (though Ascari had 4 in 6 at one stage)

          2. I think Webber lead the lap when Vettel pitted. So Webber lead for at least one lap (unless the the RB pit box is pass the start/finish line).

    9. I don’t see the problem with the fire truck…

      You can see from the coverage that the marshals are waving yellow and white flags, meaning:
      Danger ahead, such as debris from a crash. Drivers must slow down as they pass; no overtaking is permitted, a slow-moving vehicle such as a retiring car, an ambulance or tow truck ahead on the track.

      Which seems to me to be pretty much spot on. I’ve seen tow trucks come onto the track from a marshall’s post before to remove a stricken car under yellows, so there is no difference here.

      1. Tow trucks are always the first to arrive at an accident, Force of habit?

      2. Except it wasn’t authorised by Race Control? That makes it unbelievably dangerous. Korea could find itself in jeopardy for 2014 now. I hope not as it provides good racing though.

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