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A third consecutive victory for Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel, following
on from his success in Singapore and Japan, has made the drivers’
championship even closer heading into the final four rounds of the season.
Vettel started the race from second on the grid using the Pirelli P Zero Red
supersoft tyres, and then carried out two stints on the P Zero Yellow soft
tyre to win from his team mate Mark Webber, having taken the lead at the
start. Vettel’s fourth victory of the year has given him the drivers’
championship lead, while third and fourth places for Ferrari, thanks to
Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa respectively, moves the Italian squad up to
second in the constructors’ championship.
McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton was the first of the top drivers to stop on
lap 13, on a circuit where the front right tyre is particularly tested.
Nonetheless, with a low wear rate, both compounds showed durability and
performance on the Yeongam circuit. Two laps later, race leader Vettel also
stopped for the first time, taking
a set of soft tyres like Hamilton. A different strategy was adopted by
Sauber’s Sergio Perez, who started on the soft tyre and then changed to the
supersoft on lap 18, finishing on a set of softs for the last 22 laps.
Webber also tried to use tyre strategy to his advantage by pitting earlier
than his team mate on both occasions in an attempt to ‘undercut’ him, but
Vettel was still able to stop for the second time for soft tyres on lap 35
and re-emerge in the lead after a 2.9-second pit stop. His final set of soft
tyres went for 20 laps, while Webber made his final set last for 23 laps –
also setting the fastest lap of the race with one lap to go. The top 10 all
started on the supersoft tyre, which proved to be between 0.2 to 0.6 seconds
quicker per lap than the soft. The highest-placed driver to start on the
soft tyre was McLaren’s Jenson Button from 11th , but he was eliminated on
the opening lap following a start incident. This left Perez as the top
runner who started on the soft tyre, with the Mexican eventually finishing
11th on a two-stop strategy.
Hamilton adopted a three-stop strategy, finishing 10th after ending the race
on the rapid supersoft tyres following his final stop on lap 42. The
Englishman attempted to make up places during his final stint, exploiting
the extra performance offered by Pirelli’s softest compound, but came under
pressure from Perez with his McLaren trailing a piece of Astroturf picked up
from the side of the circuit.
By contrast, Williams driver Pastor Maldonado went for a one-stop strategy,
changing from the supersoft to the soft on lap 21 and making his final set
of soft tyres last for 34 laps. The Venezuelan finished in 14th place.
Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery commented: “In the end we
saw the majority of competitors adopting a two-stop strategy here as they
did last year, despite the fact that our soft tyre is softer than it was in
2011 – although a one-stop strategy still proved to be possible. We’re
satisfied with the performance of both compounds, which experienced less
graining than they did in free practice and qualifying, thanks to a high
degree of track evolution. Congratulations to Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel,
who has won more races than anybody else this season, thanks also to his
tyre management skills that allowed him to control his advantage from the
front in Korea and take the lead of the championship standings for the first
time since Barcelona. We also saw many interesting battles all the way down
the classification, with a wide range of different strategies adopted as
each driver tried to gain a competitive advantage. With particular demands
placed on the front-right tyre, the final phase of the race proved to be
crucial, but Vettel managed the situation perfectly.” |
