Korean GP 2010: Alonso wins as Red Bull crash out

Bitter blow for the Red Bull duo

Fernando Alonso has won the inaugural Korean GP, finishing ahead of Lewis Hamilton and team-mate Felipe Massa. The race was delayed by rain, and interrupted by Safety Cars but eventually went the full distance, finishing in near darkness. It was a race full of drama from start to finish and has left the championship battle even more exciting for the final two races of the season.

During qualifying for the Korean GP Sebastian Vettel managed to steal pole for Red Bull, despite Ferrari and McLaren seeming closer to the team than at previous races. He was joined on the front row by team-mate Mark Webber with Alonso starting in third and Hamilton in fourth. The fifth championship contender Jenson Button had a disappointing session and ended up in seventh on the grid.  The track was very dusty on both Friday and Saturday due to it being newly laid, and caused the drivers some problems, along with concerns about certain aspects of the circuit including the pit-lane entrance and turns 16 and 18. Those who qualified on the ‘dirty’ side of the grid were particularly worried about the start because of the dust, however this worry was negated when it rained overnight and continued to do so through the race.

Initially the race was delayed for 10 minutes because of the rain, and when it finally started it was behind the Safety Car. This continued for three laps until the race was red flagged because of the heavy rain and poor visibility. Timo Glock commented that it was “not possible to see anything” and Webber reiterated this view stating “visibility is the issue”. Michael Schumacher suggested that they must “wait until the track settles down” while Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali said that his drivers job was to concentrate.  The race was finally restarted about 50 minutes later, again behind the safety car. Most of the drivers were stating it still to be too dangerous to restart, and that visibility was poor. Hamilton on the other hand was keen to get going, sending several messages to the team including “start the race” “the track is fine”, that he had “raced in far worse conditions” and “visibility is good”. He seemed to be alone in his views, however, and the Safety Car stayed out.  Eventually, on lap 18 of the race the Safety Car came in and the race started properly. It was now going to be a race against the two hour clock and daylight running out, and the full 55 laps.

Having been the keenest to get the race restarted, Hamilton didn’t have the best of starts. Nico Rosberg was instantly past him, with team-mate Michael Schumacher hustling and passing Robert Kubica. Further down the field Jarno Trulli spun and Bruno Senna was also off the track. Drama came when Webber got a tyre onto the slippery white line and spun across the track. He was unable to correct it and Rosberg’s earlier move on Hamilton proved to be a blessing in disguise for Hamilton as Rosberg was collected by Webber as he spun across the track. Webber took complete responsibility for the incident. The SC was deployed again to collect the stricken Red Bull and Mercedes GP cars. At this stage Vitaly Petrov pitted for inters, as did a number of other cars further down the field. They then became the focus of attention for the front runners. The SC came in again on lap 23 and racing was resumed. Schumacher continued his fight through the field by overtaking Button. On lap 29 Button’s race went from bad to worse when, along with Adrian Sutil, he pitted for intermediate tyres and came out behind a string of traffic.

Sutil’s race then took a turn for the worse as he attempted to over take the Saubers and seemed to continue having incidents when doing so. He also had a couple of spins and his race finally came to an end on lap 48 after a collision with Kamui Kobayashi, who’s Sauber again seemed to be indestructible. The SC was deployed again on lap 31 to clear up Buemi’s car (who’d had a collision with Timo Glock). During this time Hamilton, Massa and Schumacher pitted for inters, with Vettel and Alonso coming in two laps later. Alonso had a problem in his pit-stop with a wheel nut, meaning that when he came out he was behind both Vettel and Hamilton. Hamilton was soon heard over the radio telling his team that he was suffering tyre wear already on his front right tyre. When the race was restarted he made a mistake, going wide at turn one and allowing Alonso back past.

Meanwhile, further down the field Button had a spin and was still stuck outside the points. He later described the race as “hysterical” and said all he could do was laugh at how poor his pace and car had been. Petrov had a heavy crash in his Renault at the end of the lap, becoming the seventh retirement of the race. This time, however, it was felt the SC was not required and the Renault was left at the side of the track. The final drama of the race came on lap 46 when Vettel suffered major disappointment with an engine failure. He pulled over and retired from the race, leaving Red Bull coming away from Korea with no points. With daylight fading the race eventually went to full distance with Alonso, who’d driven a fantastic race to preserve his tyres, taking the chequered flag ahead of Hamilton, Massa, Schumacher, Kubica, Liuzzi, Barrichello, Kobayashi, Heidfeld and Hulkenberg. The retirements from the race were Rosberg, Webber, Trulli, di Grassi, Buemi, Glock, Petrov, Vettel and Sutil.

The championship moves onto Brazil in two weeks time - the leader of the championship has changed again, with Vettel and Button dropping a little out of contention, but still in it mathematically. Things in the Constructors are really heating up with Ferrari closing in on second place McLaren, who in turn are closing in on championship leaders Red Bull. As this race has proved, nothing is certain in Formula One.

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Posted by Hannah Hough - Follow her on twitter @hannahhou.

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