Korean GP: Vettl self-propelled to victory again this year

Author of the article: , published on October 6, 2013.

The race started in the formal round without any problems, the start itself passed without any peculiarities, but we already saw the rotation of Massa in the next turns. Vettel pulled the best from the first starting position, followed by Grosjean, followed by Hamilton, Rosberg, Hulkenberg, Alonso and so on. Massa, meanwhile, fell far behind and thus fought for the twentieth place and slowly came higher and higher. The front wings were also more than obviously injured by Jenson Button, who had to replace him in the fourth round. At McLarn, however, they didn’t have much to lose, as Button drove in tenth place.

In the eighth lap, the first stops began, to which Maldonado was the first to drive. At the same time, Raikkonen has already caught Alonso, who obviously ran out of tires, which is why he also lost his place against Finn after a few turns of the fight. Mark Webber also made his way from the middle of the starting lineup, and his teammate Sebastian Vettel started driving the fastest laps as his competitors started looking towards the pits. In the eleventh lap, Grosjean drove to the stop, coming right in front of Hamilton, with whom they staged a fantastic overtaking attempt in a few turns. In the twelfth lap, Vettel also drove to change tires. After the stops, Vettel of course remained in first place, followed by Grosjean, Hamilton, Ricciardo, Rosberg, Hulkenberg, Alonso and so on.

This was followed by a period of riding in a “column,” as we saw no major overtaking. Until about the twenty-fifth round, we watched mostly Hulkenberg, Alonso, Raikkonen and Webber, but none of them could go on. Alonso tried the hardest, and everyone else had a hard time with the tires, but the Spaniard more than obviously didn't have a great "black gold". Hulkenberg, Raikkonen in front of him, drove to the stop, and Alonso drove with great difficulty, which took him down the track, which made him easily overtaken by Mark Webber. One of the more interesting events was the overtaking of Rosberg and Hamilton, where Nico hung his front wings, rubbing against the asphalt surface, causing sparks and driving almost the entire circle to the pits.

After other stops, Raikkonen broke through to fifth place, behind which is more than obviously a good race. Already, when we thought the race was going to fall into monotony, it blew up the front right tire at Perez. With a lot of leftover buttons and other carbon parts on the track, it was immediately clear that we would see a safety car, which was quickly decided by the commissioners as well. During the safety car, the racers of course came very close, the first remaining Vettel ahead of Grosjean, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Hulkenberg, Alonso and others.

Interestingly, Vettl was told that he had a completely destroyed front right tire when he drove into the pits, which, according to engineers at Red Bull, was critical for the end of the race. After the start of the race again, Sutil was taken off the track, buttoned and taken to Webbra. For the Australian, the car even caught fire and burned badly. It took the Koreans quite some time to bring in the fire extinguishers, but in the end they successfully extinguished the burning race car. The race management sent a safety car to the track, which this time was not a Mercedes, but a Jeep. The latter stopped at the safety car, but continued with the "real" safety car.

After a rematch in the forty-first round, Vettel again took first place ahead of Raikkonen and Grosjean. In the background, an interesting fight took place between Massa, Perez, Guttierez, Bottas and Maldonado. The Brazilian overtook all of the above and thus took tenth place among the points winners. By the end of the race, we were only watching Vettl’s walk, followed by Raikkonen and Grosjean behind him. Two laps before the end, Vergne resigned and Hulkenberg finished fourth ahead of Hamilton and Alonso. Rosberg, Button, Massa and Perez were also in the top ten.

If you wish, you can donate to us quickly and securely via PayPal. Every contribution helps us, your team World of Speed!

You can donate at this link ->Donate