2012 Korean Grand Prix result

2012 Korean Grand Prix

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Pos#DriverCarLapsGapDifferenceReason
11Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault55
22Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault558.2318.231
35Fernando AlonsoFerrari5513.9445.713
46Felipe MassaFerrari5520.1686.224
59Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault5536.73916.571
612Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes5545.3018.562
710Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault5554.8129.511
817Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari5569.58914.777
916Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari5571.7872.198
104Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes5579.6927.905
1115Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari5580.0620.370
1211Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes5584.4484.386
137Michael SchumacherMercedes5589.2414.793
1418Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault5594.9245.683
1519Bruno SennaWilliams-Renault5596.9021.978
1621Vitaly PetrovCaterham-Renault541 lap1 lap
1720Heikki KovalainenCaterham-Renault541 lap10.720
1824Timo GlockMarussia-Cosworth541 lap10.613
1925Charles PicMarussia-Cosworth532 laps1 lap
2023Narain KarthikeyanHRT-Cosworth532 laps80.545
Not classified
22Pedro de la RosaHRT-Cosworth1639 laps37 lapsThrottle
14Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1639 laps57.864Damage
8Nico RosbergMercedes154 laps15 lapsAccident
3Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes055 laps1 lapAccident

2012 Korean Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    54 comments on “2012 Korean Grand Prix result”

    1. Both championships are now in Red Bull’s control! 3 wins in a row after not winning since Bahrain, not a bad turnaround!

      1. I agree, sadly. However, I’d say if Ferrari can just improve a bit more with their updates coming up for India then they will certainly be capable of challenging Red Bull. They weren’t far off by no means this race.

        1. I think their battle’s more with McLaren now if I’m perfectly honest; they can definitely win that battle though!

          1. Ferrari is ahead of Mclaren in both championships and way ahead in the WDC. Also, they were clearly the better car/team today so what are you onto?

            1. I don’t think they’re capable of beating Red Bull in the constructors championship, but they probably will beat McLaren judging by their pace.
              They are definitely still in the driver’s championship battle however.

      2. Saturdays will determine it from now on barring mechanical. Red bulls in front row and that’s that -can’t catch them.

    2. That “watch out for your tire. You never know when it will happen” radio message show RBR put on with Vettel was very obviously staged. Who do they think they are kidding?

      1. @infy

        very obviously staged

        What makes you say that? Why would they even bother?

        He clearly had a late problem at the end of the second stint and they were trying to avoid a repeat.

        1. I say that because there was no reason to suggest his tires being so badly worn when people who pit before him were pushing flat out. His tires also looked to be in great shape visually. He also set a purple sector on the last lap in the last sector, showing he had plenty life left in those tires. When drivers have problems, the engineers dont go on about it lap after lap. The way they were reminding him made it seem as if they were addressing the crowd instead of the driver.

          They would bother in an effort to make his win look harder than it was. They paint a picture to try convince us that he won a race even with damaged or worn tires, to try make it seem amazing. I dont want to take anything away from him… his win was dominant. The radio messages were just stupidly obvious and unnecessary.

          1. To be perfectly honest, you don’t have access to the teams telemetry, and we don’t actually know what the supposed problem was either; it could have been an internal tyre problem, or something; Rocky said Seb would only feel the problem when it was too late, which is actually entirely plausible.

          2. I thought the radio messages sounded genuinely panicky, which was very unusual to hear from RB.

            1. Very true!

              Rocky never sounds afraid in his radio transmissions to Seb, but he did with those tire warnings. They weren’t trying to sell anything, they were genuinely concerned.

      2. @infy – Vettel well and truly beat Webber, from turn one on lap one to turn 18 on lap 55. Team orders are meaningless when the driver in question is that much quicker.

        1. What does my post have to do with Webber or team orders?

          1. @infy -Sorry, misread. I was assuming given there was a complaint about Vettel that it would be about team orders!

        2. @vettel1, Yes Vettel jumped Webber right at the start, couldn’t have worked out better for redBull if they had planned it.
          At least Webber was fast at the end even though his tyres were older than Sebs.

      3. don’t agree with this. clearly he struggled with the earlier set of tires when he had a terrible lockup. the team was trying to make sure they win this race instead of finishing way back if the tires just go out. besides, the team knows that Vettel has this habit of doing those fastest laps at the end and clearly the tires were worn out pretty badly. they just didn’t want him to try something aggressive and spinning because this race was very important for both the championships.

        1. As @mixwell says, it was mainly precautionary because there was a lot to lose from going too fast but not a lot to gain from it.

    3. Ah, Ferrari. All you have to do is fix up your qualifying and they’re good/fast enough to challenge Red Bull. :-/

        1. Maybe not. :-|

          But seriously, the gap between Red Bull and Ferrari today is overestimated. RB weren’t much quicker at all. Massa was matching Vettel but told to slow down. Maybe 2-3 tenths per lap. Upgrades are coming for India and to catch up on this deficiency are certainly possible. Look where Ferrari come from and where they were at the start of the season.

          On the bright side however. As for now, I think it’s much easier to keep hope as an Alonso fan than as a Mclaren/Hamilton fan.

          1. If it were not for Red Bulls update Ferrari would be the class of the field. Even Massa can impress when the car is right.

            1. Ferrari couldnt even get into their dirty air.

          2. Sviatoslav Andrushko (@)
            14th October 2012, 9:45

            13 sec iis quite a gap to me. Let’s do not forget that some circuits are suitable more for different team. But on every circuit Red Bull have pace to win. So, I don’t believe Ferrari dares :-) to answer accordingly.

    4. All four Red Bulls doing well here, eh? Well done Torro Rosso! They were one step ahead of Mercedes, Sauber and Williams, to say the least. And Hulkenberg well into the points again.

      Mercedes either look set on putting 2012 behind or Schumacher is not trying anymore. His race was plain poor. Same can be said about Williams as I’m starting to think I liked the faster, more reckless Maldonado better than his generally slower, more careful version.

    5. And in the end @vettel1 was right. I wasn’t sure, but it was a Red Bull 1-2. :D

      Anyway, great race by Hulkenberg. He did half of his race defending from Grosjean. Then he was passed, he didn’t give up and got ahed of Grosjean again. Very good race, especially seeing that Di Resta wasn’t even in the top 10.

      1. @yobo01 – have faith! Their pace was a match for Ferari’s on Friday and they just seemed to pull put that bit more today (especially with Vettel). I wonder if the tyre wear messages to Vettel were just a precaution or I’d he was actually very close to “the cliff”?

    6. Good result from Ferrari duo! Certainly it was not Mclaren’s weekend. Alonso did well but I fear anothet 2010 finale. There should be bad weekend for Red Bull for remainh races. At least I hope so.(or some performance shuffle which is unlikely.)

      1. Alonso did well but I fear anothet 2010 finale

        In 2010 Ferrari were responsible for throwing away the title that was more difficult to lose than to win this year the team has done an incredible job maximizing the points in every race (except canada) & now they are still in the championship I think even if Sebastian is going to win this WDC that will be in Brazil
        India updates will be make or brake if they can put some performances into the car i’m pretty sure that Fernando will do the job plus don’t forget in Formula1 anything can happen & it usually does

    7. According to Whitmasrh Hamilton had a suspension failure. 3rd mechanical problem in a row.

      1. really?
        sad, but it becomes funnier each time when McLaren unintentionally screw their drivers race ;D

        1. its intentionally they r doing it to hamilton……iits rare to see lewis drop positions like today……4th to 10th……..

      2. Hamilton will probably be glad he left now!

        1. @vettel1
          Hamilton will probably be glad he left now!

          Glad he left Mclaren and went to Mercedes who are touching more low each weekend. Mercedes fighting
          At start of season – Mclaren, RedBull, ferrari
          In middle of season – Lotus, Saubers
          Off lately – Force India , Torro Rosso and sometimes Williams too.

          I wonder that by season finale we might see them fighting places with Caterhams :-o

          1. @mjf1fan – it was more of a casual joke my comment, but in all honesty if Merecedes make a decent car next year he’d be better off with them. McLaren have thrown far too much away this year.

            1. @vettel1– The way things are going at Mercedes, i dont see them being competetive next year also. Mercedes have been the Biggest dissapointment of the year. Every weekend they just promise that things will be good but come race day and we see them slipping at back of grid .

              I do get the feeling that Mclarens are on purpose somehow ruining Lewis’s race as he is no longer driving for them the next season.

            2. @mjf1fan – I agree, a promising start to the season from Mercedes with Rosberg right up there in the championship and now they are fighting for the last of the points.
              Personally, I think they screwed their own development by devoting too much attention to tyres and their DDRS.
              If they sort their wear problems (which they may well have now) they might be able to focus on the car next year, and with Mercedes’ budget I think they could be contenders next year.

            3. @vettel1 – In Singapore they brought new updates to rear, so it has been three grand prix and still they are struggling with their tire wear. I do hope they use rest of the races judiciously to solve their problems because I am a Lewis fan and i dont want to see him slipping at back of the grid in 2013.

              I also agree with you that they screwed themselves by focussing too much on DDRS. Actually it has been the case with every team which tried too much to develop DDRS like Lotus. They wasted a lot of time and resources on that thing with no benefit at all.

            4. @mjf1fan – personally I think tyre wear on the Mercedes has been okay since Singapore. They could actually focus on trying to find some performance thereafter.

      3. Yeah, his rear anti-roll bar broke, which messes up rear-end grip quite badly.

      4. Suspension failure? Was there any further comment when it was made? Yeah that’s typical McLaren style more often than not takin place to a specific car.
        BTW, I noticed that at the start, all the dirty side cars gained exactly one position till turn 3, which means dirty side has actually advantage rather than dis-.
        Toro Rosso using Ferrari engine is way competitive in straight lines than McLaren, which is quite unexpected.

    8. According to Eddie Jordan the incident that took Button out was his own fault for his poor qualifying result yesterday!…… what a ******

      1. Eddie? Did he really say that?
        I always had the idea that Eddie was in love with JB.
        In any case it would be completely stupid to blame Button for effectively being on the track.
        Of cause Button would have improved his chances of not getting hit by someone if he was closer to the sharp end of the grid, but that still doesn’t make the actual accident in any way, his fault.

    9. Just noticed how many team mates finished beside each other: the two Red Bull’s, the two Ferrari’s, the two Torro Rosso’s, the two William’s, the two Caterham’s and the two Maurussia’s. Good to see teammates so close!

    10. Big props to RBR for a great weekend. They’ve locked down the constructors for sure and if Vettel can keep up this pace he’ll take home his third WDC.

      Great weekend RBR! Keep up the good work and see you in two weeks in India!

    11. Very happy with Massa’s, Grosjean’s, Hulkenberg’s and Vergne’s races.
      Massa was consistently faster than Alonso and had to pass two cars to get behind him, which he did.
      Grosjean was very cautious but still scored points.
      Hulkenberg was just phenomenal.
      Vergne was very quick and determined and, unlike Ricciardo, who was perhaps faster, made no mistakes.

      1. Presumably you are referring to Ricciardo’s off on lap 44 when he went straight ahead at turn 3 (from recollection). It wasn’t an error, but a mechanical issue:-

        http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Article/Korean-Grand-Prix–Team-Reaction-021243269995776

        For me, Ricciardo’s drive from 21st to 9th (which could have been 8th) was the drive of the day.

        1. Such a shame for Ricciardo, two of Vergne’s three eighth place finishes should have been Ricciardo’s.
          Also, if it wasn’t for the fuel pressure problem on the last lap at Monza, this would have been his fifth consecutive points finish.

    12. I’ve noticed alot of positive comments for “The Hulk” of late, is he finally winning the credit he deserves or is Di Resta still the golden boy of the Force!

    13. Good result for The Hulk and the STR guys. Also worth noting that Petrov managed to keep Kovalainen past him.

    14. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
      14th October 2012, 12:54

      I wonder, would Jenson have called Perez an idiot if it was the mexican that had ended his race?
      Furthermore, I think Jenson might have lost some of his adoring Japanese fans as a result of his outburst towards KOB.

      1. @tmcs88 – what outburst? I heard him say “what an idiot” over the radio… quite measured, if you ask me! If someone hit my car as I was driving down the road, I can promise that my reaction wouldn’t be broadcastable!

        1. Traverse Mark Senior (@)
          15th October 2012, 17:01

          @dirgegirl

          If someone hit my car as I was driving down the road

          Suzuka is race track not a public road, drivers must accept that racing incidents will happen from time to time.

          Kob is a clean and honest driver that (if my memory serves me right) hasn’t been involved in any reckless or dangerous incidents, despite being an aggressive and attacking driver (a crowd pleaser).

          Jenson should’ve afforded Kob more respect, calling him an idiot is neither true or tasteful. I don’t recall Jenson calling Vettel an idiot when he plowed into him at Spa 2010, or insulting Lewis when he stuck his nose up his diffuser at Canada last year. Maybe it’s because he hasn’t the balls nor backbone to insult Vet or Ham, but feels comfortable using his status as a WDC to belittle a driver like Kob (just like Vet did with Karthakain). I think Jenson’s “Nice Guy” facade is starting to crack.

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