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The Korean GP had all the ingredients of a Hollywood blockbuster: drama, action and comedy. Two safety car interventions, a car on fire, a fire jeep leading the race, an exploding tyre, cars crashing into other cars, a collapsed nose and plenty of sparks.
But the protagonist after starting from pole remained somewhat unperturbed as he emerged victorious cruising to the chequered flag for yet another victory, his third consecutive in South Korea, fourth consecutive after Spa, Monza and Singapore and eight of the season.
With SebastianVettel’s win at the Korean GP, he and his team moved closer to their respective titles with Vettel gaining a 77 point lead over his nearest rival Fernando Alonso and Red Bull moving ahead with a comfortable cushion of 118 points over Ferrari.
Such has been the dominance of the German that even the TV crews decided to give him minimum time on tube assuming he would win anyhow and focused mostly on the action behind him.
Vettel started his race in a seemingly familiar fashion pulling ahead with action behind him in the initial lap at turn 3. Romain Grosjean matched him for speed briefly before the Frenchman had to defend from the threat behind him.
Vettel remained comfortably in the lead during the first half of the race and initial round of pit-stops before the first safety car came out(on lap 31) due to a tyre burst from the McLaren of Sergio Perez with debris scattered on the track.
Vettel dived into the pits for a much needed change of tyres at that point and by the time the race restarted (on lap 36) the safety car came out again (on lap 37), sooner than expected as teammate Mark Webber was taken out by Adrian Stuil in the Force India at turn 3.
With 15 laps remaining, the three time world champion had to see off charging Kimi Raikkonen in the Lotus and had to nurse his right front tyres as the drivers behind him had suffered from graining problems.
But Vettel managed to prevent his tyres after intense conversations with his team and set a few fastest laps before making it to the finish line. Christian Horner, the team Principal was on the pit radio to congratulate him for a disciplined drive.
Unlike some of the other races where Vettel had quite a dominant race, the Korean GP Vettel had to see off two safety car interventions and had to nurse his tyres before coming out triumphant even though his rivals struggled again to catch-up with him.
The win at Yeongam takes the German just one step away from being crowned the world champion again and for the fourth time in a row.
Mark Webber
The Australian was left cursing his luck for the second race in succession as his race ended with the RBR9 bursting into flames as Sutil sent him off track at turn 3. Up until that point Webber had fought brilliantly to stay in the points after starting 13 on the grid.
As he came out from the pits after a routine pit-stop (on lap 32), Webber found his luck running out for the first time as he found himself behind a tyre burst in front from the McLaren picking up debris resulting in a puncture to his Red Bull.
At that point he was lucky to miss the flying tyre tread and had to take a trip to the pits for the third time. But he returned only to curse his luck again and find himself wiped out of the race by an out of control Sutil.
With an unfortunate finish it looks as if luck has deserted the veteran Aussie, after a similar disappointment in Singapore, robbing him of what could have been a race finish in the points.
