F1:Korea (Part Two) - One Step Closer

Onto the actual race itself and for the first time, a whole section has been dedicated to qualifying, who'd have thought it...
THE RACE

As the lights went out, Vettel got away, yes, like the proverbial scalded cat again and this was proving to be a tradition now that he was well on his way to securing a fourth driver's title (that is not boring at all despite what Hamilton implies in this interview!). 

There was little that the others could do to prevent him from making it first into that first corner and not long after that did the first car spin out of control. Felipe Massa was clipped by an already locked up Force India car of Adrian Sutil who clipped him and pushed him agonisingly close to his Ferrari team-mate almost collecting him in the process. This could have been a sign of things to come but for the fact that both cars were relatively intact when the collision happened.

It was at this point that an unfortunate Jenson Button was caught in the thick of the action and contact forced him into the pits for a new front wing as Massa took avoiding action.

At the front of the grid, Romain Grosjean continued his excellent improving form as he got the better of Hamilton and moved up into 2nd position. So was this going to be the time for the Frenchman to shine? He's had potential all year pretty much but for his setbacks!

The first incident that required the attention of the stewards at this point occurred as Giedo Van Der Garde and Jules Bianchi were understood to be under investigation for "forcing another driver off track", a move which would force the former (as the guilty party) into the pits for a drive-thru penalty in due course.

By this time, race leader Vettel was 3 seconds ahead of Grosjean and it was evermore hopeful that the soon to be lead Lotus driver would be able to stake his claim as number one driver in that team, just as long as he could stay on track!

Closely following this was another investigation, this time to take place after the race as Paul Di Resta was forced off track by Sergio Perez.

Seventeen laps in now and Vettel had increased his lead to 4.1 seconds, meaning that it was looking like this was going to be his to lose today as he was followed round by Grosjean, Hamilton, Ricciardo and Rosberg. Before the latter two switched places a lap later thanks to some rather ingenious overtaking from the Mercedes of Rosberg.

Now that things were starting to settle down into a rhythm with the first of the pit stops pretty much out of the way, an impressive Nico Hulkenberg was beginning to prove that his qualifying pace was no fluke. He was looking good having made it all the way up to fifth position at this point and as a result was beginning to complain of his tires going off, a sign that this hopefully wasn't going to be his undoing. But as far as the team were concerned, there was no data on the telemetry system showing that there were any problems with tires, attributing it to graining as other drivers had made similar complaints to their teams.

The first D.N.F. of the day fell to Paul Di Resta, a guy whose luck just doesn't look like it's gonna change any time soon as he ended up nose first into the barrier (again!) ending any chances of him picking up points for his team yet again!

By this time, little was said of Webber and Alonso who had been busy battling it out for track position and when, for the umpteenth time, the race director decided it would be interesting to show the infra-red camera, a move that D.C. found distasteful when Ben Edwards said "let's see how the overtake looked from the thermal image camera" and he was quick to snuff out the excitement by saying "let's not", which brought chuckles all round.

At this point, disaster struck for the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and what followed next would irate the Hamilton fans as he was brought in ahead of the former world champion to get his car's nose fixed after it had dropped and ground against the track sending sparks everywhere.

Hamilton was that upset by the manoeuvre that he told the team "what's going on, why did you bring Rosberg in ahead of me? These tires are f***d!" a move showing how the guy wears his heart on his sleeve a little too much at times... but that's why we like him!

By now, Webber, having passed Alonso was busy checking the other drivers off his list to make sure that damage limitation was as effective as possible after his pre-race penalty screwed up his qualifying for this race. He had worked himself into third position behind Grosjean who was keeping his nose clean and keeping himself out of trouble, a move which would have pleased his team immensely especially after his current partner, Kimi Räikkönen, was confirmed to be returning to Ferrari next year (a move which I admit I omitted from this blog rather erroneously, especially as I like to be at the cutting edge of breaking the news to you, my loyal readers!).

For this race, however, Räikkönen for now was having to settle for being behind his team-mate, though that wouldn't be for long that was for sure!

Taking it over into a third part now, my review of the Korean GP continues after the jump ===>>