Rate the race: 2013 Korean Grand Prix

2013 Korean Grand Prix

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What did you think of today’s race? Share your verdict on the Korean Grand Prix.

F1 Fanatic holds polls on each race to find out which fans thought of every race during the season.

Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2013 Korean Grand Prix out of ten

  • 10 (7%)
  • 9 (19%)
  • 8 (33%)
  • 7 (20%)
  • 6 (9%)
  • 5 (4%)
  • 4 (3%)
  • 3 (1%)
  • 2 (1%)
  • 1 (3%)

Total Voters: 680

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1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

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2013 Korean Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
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    220 comments on “Rate the race: 2013 Korean Grand Prix”

    1. Good race.

      Vettel was excellent, but boring. Everything else behind him was great.

      1. Well said, that noone could fight with Vettel was the only not super part about this race. 4-5 person fights for 10th and 4th lasting many laps (that last one basically the whole race).

      2. Great for all the wrong reasons.

        1. Agreed. Basically the safety cars generated the racing after lap 2. So basically a tyre failure and a Jeep on the track. It may have been good to watch, but its Mariokart entertainment.

      3. If the battle for P4 was for P1, I’d rate it 10. I liked the race, but F1 needs more battle for the win. It’s an 8 for me.

        1. Exact same rating and reason I gave.

          1. Same for me too. If there was more of a challenge for P1 then I would give a 9 or 10, still there was good racing for P4, etc so I gave it an 8.

          2. Exactly the same for me…but I gave it a 7 for that exact reason.

            The Hulk drove awesomely and will be getting my driver of the weekend vote.

      4. Who could’VE TELL !

      5. Agree 100%. Some race from Hulk and Kimi!

        1. I accidently (HATE IT WHEN THIS HAPPENS) who won. I thought it was going to be another boring win. Ok, no one challenged for the lead, but what a great set of battles, it was truly amazing to watch.

          I feel I echo many peoples thoughts when I say “Give Hulkenberg a top seat” I have been a fan of The Hulk since the 2010 Brazil GP, he is truly extraordinary, he has to be WDC someday.

        2. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
          6th October 2013, 17:59

          I don’t know how Kimi got P2… I wouldn’t say great race, great result for sure but he didn’t make it happen. If he had passed Alonso, I would have been very impressed but he didn’t even for a split second and I think the Lotus had the pace to do it.

          1. He did pass Alonso

          2. He actually overtook alonso

    2. I’m glad I watched it in the end.

      Interesting race, even if there were bits when things really got weird and dangerous. Again.

      But the last 15 laps were spectacular. Hulk, you drove a World Champion race. It was just superb. I got no other words for it. Illuminating.

      1. Hulkenberg clearly had a superb weekend, Ou-qualified his team-mate and brings his team before Toro Rosso in the constructors champpionship!

      2. It was a pretty dulll race apart from the closing laps…. the finale was good but imo it doesn’t make up for the rest of a dull lshow

      3. “Last 15 laps were spectacular” Right Bernie, forget the sprinklers just bring out the safety car so we can have a 15 lap sprint to the finish, everybody on the same strategy and no-one trying to save tyres, pity we can’t devise a way for that to happen right from the start, there must be a way, but no it’s obviously impossible.

        1. David not Coulthard (@)
          6th October 2013, 11:08

          forget the sprinklers just bring out the safety car

          It’ll be a bit like the start of last season. Unpredictable, but tiring.

          Besides, F1’s not NASCAR (or was it IndyCar?), NASCAR’s not bad, but it’s not like F1 cars should race at Brooklands, either.

      4. Yes. Good race, in part thanks to Safety Car and Mercedes poor strategy. Another great show from Nico Hulkenberg. Lotus should put him alongside Grosjean and if they manage to build a good car for 2014, Lotus will do just fine without Raikkonen.

    3. 9/10 Fantasic. Started as a 7/10 at the first SC, and then since then it’s been spectacular! Fantastic stuff! If Korea can do that every year, I welcome a return, otherwise though, it’s not worth it.

      Driver of the day? Hulkenburg. Monster stuff! Shout out to Kimi and Vettel as well, with some good defensive driving from Hamilton. Fairly disappointing for Alonso too.

      1. Looking back, it was probably an 8/10, but the last few races (and generally this year) have been pretty poor, so this was a welcome relief.

    4. What absolutely fantastic drive from Hülkenberg! Driver of the weekend for me!

      Overall, that was a really good race. I’d give it an 8 – it was slightly mediocre before the first safety car but Webber provided some action in the intervening period.

      The main focus has to be what the **** the Marshall’s were thinking by driving that Fire Car onto a live racetrack with no yellow flags and no safety car. That was unbelievably stupid – I will not buy any argument to try and claim a communication error, that was just completely stupid. If it had been released on corner exit, Vettel could’ve plowed right into the back of that at 150mph. Ridiculous.

      1. I think they released it because there was enough of a gap for the drivers to realize it was there and Webber’s car had an oil fire-very serious and can be difficult to put out, so they needed the equipment.

        1. There should’ve been yellow flags at the very least – double waved yellows. Drivers still technically could’ve been racing and trying for overtakes, which is ridiculous. Very poor race organisation.

          1. I think the safety car was deployed in the exact same time, so no one should’ve been racing anymore after the first corner. There were SC signs right after the second corner, but the ones on the main straight weren’t flashing yellow yet.

            1. @tmekt it’d be best if we could follow somebody onboard (probably Vettel, the leader) from the start of that lap, to see exactly what a driver would have seen. Then it would be easier to judge.

              Regardless though, that was a pretty crucial operational error which shouldn’t have happend, and definitely needs looked at.

            2. @vettel1

              Don’t they get notification on their steering wheels as well about the safety car?

              I agree, not the best way to do things in terms of safety but I think big part of the fault goes to the track marshalls as well, it took unacceptable amount of time for them to even begin putting out the fire on Webber’s car. The marshalls in Korea seem to be pretty clueless anyway, like last year when it took something like 10 laps to move Rosberg’s parked (right in front of a safety exit) Mercedes away from the longest straight.

            3. @tmekt they do, but the decision didn’t go through the race director. So it might not have, which is why I think we need to see an onboard.

            4. I think the safety car was deployed in the exact same time

              Definitely not. There was the camera shot where we could see the Jeep on the straight with Vettel turning onto the straight. The track status only changed to “safety car” a few seconds after that. I assume the race director was watching the world feed, and only then saw the fire truck and then reacted with a safety car. I would believe that there was no communication between race control and the fire truck.

              @tmekt @vettel1

          2. Although in fairness they did wave the white flags.

            1. what does a white flag mean? @vettel1

            2. @mike-dee official vehicles on track, which is the correct flag to wave. However, the safety car is always supposed to be deployed first.

              But yes, the safety car only caught up to the back of the pack over 10 seconds after the fire truck entered the track (I think up to 40 seconds).

            3. JP (@jonathanproc)
              6th October 2013, 11:18

              @vettel1 @mike-dee More specifically, it is used to warn drivers of any slow moving vehicle on the race track. For example, It could be used when someone has a puncture and is coasting back to the pits.

            4. Thanks for the elaboration @jonathanproc

      2. Gave it an 8, mainly for the entertainment that Hulk provided. I mean, Hamilton and Alonso couldn’t get pass him on the DRS zone. That jeep was kind of shocking to see eh. If:

        -Vettel wins in Japan and Alonso out of the points, GAME OVER.

    5. 8. Very good race. Vettel and Hulkenberg superb, very (and lucky) drive from Raikkonen. Very good fights for 4,5,6. Bit disappointing from Hamilton and Alonso.

      1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        6th October 2013, 17:57

        I agree the results for Hamilton were disappointing but I wouldn’t say the way he drove was disappointing – his last 10 laps were insane.

        I’m a huge Hulkenberg fan but this display from Hamilton was simply vintage Hamilton.

        He defended perfectly against Alonso to the point that Alonso decided not to even bother pressing the issue until the last lap.

        And he put so much pressure on Hulkenberg managing even to pass him which I can assure no other driver on the grid would have been able to do in that car.

        Hulk took the spot back with superb ease showing the vast difference in performance between the Sauber and Merc off turn 1.

    6. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      6th October 2013, 8:50

      hulk made this race worth watching

      1. Totally agree! Driver of the weekend for me. Sincerely hope the big teams eventually take notice of him – he may not have the financial backing, but, my goodness, he has the talent.

        1. I dont even think financial backing is an issue.

          Apparently his size is what makes him less attractive to teams for 2014. It’s sad, but true that you have to be the size of Felipe Massa for next year’s cars.

    7. Not much action near the front, but some great battles midfield. Hulkenberg’s driving was spectacular. 6/10

    8. 8/10 DRS wasn’t overpowered and did the job it was supposed to do which is give a chance for overtaking rather than be the overtake and Nico Hulkenberg drove beautifully.
      But I still don’t know what Mercedes were smoking when Hamilton was LOSING 1.5-2.5 seconds per lap and they chose not to pit him then Rosberg’s front wing failed which meant Hamilton had to stay out again

      1. Oh and I forgot on this day Paul Di Resta lost his F1 seat I think

        1. @bezza695 I have to agree – he’s really been pretty awful since the tyre change. And if he blames the team (or even doesn’t admit to his mistake) I swear I will lose all faith in him.

          Sincerely, a Di Resta fan.

        2. @bezza695 Yep time for Force India to rethink their line up, neither of them have been impressive lately (or in the wrong way) … Probably the worst line up of the grid at this time.

          1. Their first half of the season was impressive but now they are just making themselves ridiculous. At least one of these two guys will lose their seat at the end of the season.

        3. Mercedes were caught between strategies, because Lewis lost his tyres behind Grosjean and trying to get by him. They could have converted to an attacking 3 stop (last stint fast super soft), but it would have required passing guys like Hulkenberg at some point most probably. So, they stuck it out and then the Rosberg wing/SC hampered them (not as much as Webber, Ricciardo though) to be passed by Hulk anyway.

          Force India are struggling to heat up their tyres now and no tyre temp = spin off, as both drivers did today. If I was them I would have blocked the tyre change and laughed all the way to the bank (McLaren wouldn’t have been happy if FI cost them CWC places 2 years in a row!). Now, they are under threat from a resurgent Sauber and DWC in waiting Hulk. If they need money, there is always Massa to go alongside a Mercedes subsidy driver… (if Massa gets the Lotus seat, then Hulk is probably back in here instead).

          Grosjean loses out to Raikkonen again after a SC deplyment, and another legitimate shot at winning a race (Germany he could have gone longer than Vettel as well before the SC). It’d be interesting to see Hulkenberg and Grosjean take it to RB consistently in a Lotus.

          1. I’m still upset that Hulkenberg had a legitimate race win taken away by a NASCAR ‘debris’ style caution in Brazil… it did spice up the championship fight a little though with Alonso getting into a position to win it, barring Vettel’s resurgent drive. How his car withstood the impact, while Webber’s caught fire from a slight bump today is perplexing (and probably down to luck with where components are located).

            Grosjean could have a win too by this point, with a few chances lost to a SC to duel Vettel for a win.. Lotus could be really strong next year with these two. This could save Di Resta’s bacon at Force India – Vijay always insists he doesn’t need to take a sponsored driver (just pays his drivers the least of any team instead, but takes a good talent to compensate for this).

            Would have been interesting to see even more tyre blow-outs on the old tyres (there’ll be criticism for this latest blow-out, but without aggressive tyres the race would have been a processional borefest). The teams should pass this weight increase to even out the playing field for drivers, if agreed to bring it back down later once development renders it useless.

            1. The teams should pass this weight increase to even out the playing field for drivers, if agreed to bring it back down later once development renders it useless
              If the weight issue is not sorted out it could be a big disadvantage for both button and hulk as they are more then 70 kilos

            2. Won’t the car weights come down anyway, as the engine manufacturers develop and lighten parts in the power units? Then there’ll be more underweight cars with ballast, and driver weight would become less important.

              But surely teams would rather have a guy doing what Hulkenberg did today than a midget who crashes all the time…

              Grosjean needs to be more awake at restarts. He can see Raikkonen’s data to show him how it’s done.

      2. Inexcusable on Mercedes’ part. Lap after lap he was losing massive amounts of time and how did they not compute he had to pit immediately.

        1. @72defender
          I wonder, if Hamilton pitted on lap 25-28 at least in my estimation… Could he have taken the lead if the safety car came out? Cause Vettel, Grosjean had not pitted yet at that point. In fact, they pitted exactly when the SC came out.

      3. @bezza695
        Lewis said: “I went through the graining phase, but when it went away, the RIGHT FRONT TYRE just completely went away.”

        1. Hehe Lewis “my tyres are ******”

      4. DRS was key today. If it had been implemented incorrectly (as it has been at most race circuits) than Hamilton would of had an easy pass on Hulk. Instead we got a great battle with Hulk successfully defending his position (a rarity in itself these days). Some great racing today 8/10.

        1. @racectrl Not really… What was helping Hulk a lot, was his traction on the first corner. That can be the reason why he has been quick in S1 all weekend, and that Alonso and Hamilton couldn’t ditch him. The DRS was fine today, and Hamilton had one shot at Hulkenberg at lap 40 something and didn’t do it.

          1. Good traction certainly helped yet Lewis still got very very close and even passed him at one stage so the way i see it a more effective DRS zone i.e longer, would have meant Lewis finishing ahead of Hulk. That’s the point i was trying to make.

            1. @racectrl Lewis passed him onto turn 1. But, remember, that the 2nd drs detection point was 10% down the 1.2 km straight. Then, the activation was on almost halfway down the straight. So, I knew that when I saw Lewis overtook him into turn 1 that Lewis did a mistake and should have waited for the second drs zone cause Hulk’s got everything he needs in S1. In fact, what Mercedes did to Lewis and letting him stay out for 5 laps cost him the podium fight. He lost 22 secs to Vettel and 13 secs to Rosberg. Disappointing weekend for the 2 good friends.

      5. DRS only wasn’t overpowered depending who used it. Seeing Hamilton trying and failing for so long at the end skews it a bit, as he was in one of the cars with a poor first sector and against one of the cars with best traction. As always, I saw a few cars earlier in the race pass too easily, and when Hamilton did pass into the first corner the combination or traction and DRS meant Hulkenberg got the place back easily. That is the fundamental problem with DRS- there is no sweet spot because the cars have different strengths.

    9. 8
      Too much tire management at the beginning to be any better. Hulkenburg was great defending for nearly the entire race. Poor luck for webber who was doing well after the penalty. Great last 15 or so laps.

    10. Great drive by the Lotus boys, and good old Button manages again to get into the points in a lousy car, but what was that business with the fire car impeding things on the track, bad organisation there! Oh and Paul Di Resta isn’t as good as the Beeb comentators make him out to be< Poor Massa and Webber… a grand drive by Seb.

    11. 7 thanks to Hulkenberg.

    12. There was a lot of good racing that happened today. 2/3 scrap was close, but 4/5/6 and 7/8 were all really good to watch, and kept the race worth watching. Plenty of drama, without doubt.

    13. Went with an 8, racing wasn’t that amazing, but plenty of things happening and great driving from the Hulk.

    14. Good race (behind Vettel), again it was all about tire management. The track is too left-turn dependent. You could feel the chill in the green room after the race-Vettel taking a drink so he doesn’t have to talk, and Kimi just sitting on the table. LOL

    15. 8/10
      Because it was entertaining. From half-race onwards, yes. Because of the Safety Car, yes. Because of ridiculous tyres and stupid cars on track, yes. But for whatever reason, alongside a few great battles in the first half of the race, we had even better ones in the second half. Massa, Gutierrez, Maldonado and Perez were one. Hulkenberg, Hamilton and Alonso were another. In the latter the positions did not change, but everything was so tense until the very last moment. Nothing was quiet, everything was moving around, even though, eventually, it returned to its original place. Proper defensive driving despite the DRS was great to see. We always want more overtakes but in the current situation with DRS I prefer seeing drivers defend at their maximum. Hamilton had the chances to pass and even got ahead once, so it wasn’t at all a boring situation.
      The first half of the race actually had me distracted by anything else, because everything was ready to burst out but never did.

      1. Proper defensive driving despite the DRS was great to see.

        Yeah, I was a bit suprised that something like this could actually happen! Hülkenberg straight-line speed is what saved him today. Great drive from him today, definitely deserves a top team: he made us dream today!

    16. hulkenberg just proved yet again he deserves that Ferrari seat. too bad he isn’t getting one :(

      the race was very exciting but those force India drives need to be changed. horrible driving.

      1. @mixwell – A lot if people say “Hulkenberg deserves a Ferrari seat”, but Ferrari have been fairly mediocre of late. Based on recent races, he would be better off chasing the Lotus seat. They might be smaller than Ferrari and they might have a less-stable financial situation, but at least they can build a competitive car.

        1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
          6th October 2013, 11:44

          But Ferrari is probably the better long term option as they have more resources and a better engineering team. Especially now with. James Allison.

          Sure Ferrari aren’t great now, but these additions surely can’t hinder their chances next year.

          Although I have heard a couple of times that their 2014 engines are not as efficient as Mercedes or Renaults.

        2. you are right and he should move to Lotus for 2014 if he gets a chance but IMO in the long run, Ferrari is a better choice

    17. 6/10 for me. Up front, it was a typically dreary Vettel-dominated affair. But the awesome battle for the points toward the end made the race worth watching.

    18. I’d have loved to see Hulk on that podium! What a fantastic race – action all the way from start to finish – which is great considering the past few races have been rather dreary. Vettel drove absolutely brilliantly, as did Raikkonen and Grosjean. Not sure what Mercedes was doing leaving Hamilton out for that long though :P 10 for me!

    19. There’s still far, far too much tyre management. Its really been pathetic this year at how big a role tyres have played, May as well rename it the Pirelli tyre management championship.

      Bring in anyone but Pirelli please!

      1. Don’t forget that when Pirelli first entered Formula 1, a part of their pitch was to constantly develop and refine the tyres over the three years of the contract. The teams did not just agree to this – they chose Pirelli over the other tenders because of it. Since then, Pirelli have only ever fulfilled this. To criticise them for it is deeply unfair.

        1. ok, but we never asked for tires that explode. or tires, that magically loose all grip all of a sudden & fall off a cliff.

          the decrease in performance of the tires is not gradual enough. they just loose all performance and obviously get stupidly overtaken.

          regardless of lack of testing. pirelli isnt doing a good enough job anymore (liked them before)

          there IS a reason why drivers keep complaining! its also ridiculous that drivers cant ecen speak out about it!!

          1. Button’s onboard thermal cam footage straight after being passed by Rosberg seems to confirm that the tyres losing grip and falling off a cliff is mainly temperature related as a direct consequence of the tread wearing down.

            The footage showed Button’s tyres were not even lit up (they were mainly black!) on the thermal cam like when they were sitting on the grid waiting for the race to start, so not even close to being in the optimal working range.

          2. @s2g-unit – Actually, the team’s asked for tyres that degrade. When Bridgestone was supplying the sport, they made ultra-durable tyres that meant pitstops were a mere formality. Sebastian Vettel did 52 laps on the soft tyres at the 2010 Italian Grand Prix, and only pitted for the hards because he had to. The teams wanted tyres that were a moving target – tyres that evolved over the course of s race stint, a full race, a season, and the duration of the Pirelli contract. That’s what Pirelli have them. Nothing more, and nothing less.

            As for the exploding tyres, the Silverstone episodes were down to teams deliberately using their tyres incorrectly. In the case if Sergio Perez today, he clearly had a massive lock-up into the first turn, then ran wide as he got the car under control. And his tyres were quite old at the time. The lock-up probably destroyed enough of the tyre to cause the delamination. So a driver error and deliberate misuse of the tyres are hardly Pirelli’s fault.

            1. @prisoner-monkeys

              I remember Monza 2010 very well. The problem now though, is that the drivers aren’t able to push hard & continue to drive to delta times & the tires still degrade.

              I understand Pirelli is not testing with current cards. BUT, it’s ridiculous that the tires just fall off a cliff & have no grip. Then on top of that the can get DRS-ed/passed even more easily without a fight.

            2. @s2g-unit – The idea behind the tyres is that they only fall apart when the drivers push too hard. They reward the precise application of accelerator and brake, which naturally produces faster lap tines. The problem comes when they get sloppy. If they push too hard for too long, if they move the car around too much, if they try and get on the power too quickly and so on and so forth, then the tyres start to go away.

              It is not ridiculous that the tyres suddenly run out of grip. Any tyre naturally has a fixed life span, and Pirelli have worked it so that the loss of grip is s punishment for pushing too hard for too long. The tyres have an ideal operating window that, while narrow, will allow the drivers the maximum amount of grip with the minimum amount of wear. It’s up to the teams abd drivers to find it – so when they complain about it, they’re really complaining that they haven’t done their jobs properly.

        2. Maybe so, However Pirelli design the tyres & they have clearly taken things way too far.

          There was signs of this in 2012 & drivers complained about how fragile the tyres were yet Pirelli ignored all that & took things a step further this year which has led to even more problems.

          Look around, The only people who seem happy with how extreme the tyres are & how much tyre management is required are Pirelli. The drivers hate the tyres, The teams don’t seen keen on them & its clear the fans have turned against them this year.

          If things are the same in 2014 I’ll just stop watching as this is not the sort of ‘racing’ (if you can ever call it that) is not what i enjoy.

          Bring back a tyre war I say, Let each team pick whichever supplier they want & let them produce the best tyres there able to produce so we can see some proper racing with drivers pushing each other hard again!

          1. Wrong. The teams caused the worst of the problems by ignoring Pirelli’s instructions on how to use the tyres properly (despite having done it in previous years and being warned to stop). If you buy a clothes dryer, don’t use it properly, and it ruins your favourite shirt, is it the manufacturer’s fault? No, it’s yours. So how is it different here? The teams didn’t use the tyres properly, and the tyres exploded. That’s not Pirelli’s fault.

            You’ll also notice that the drivers who complain loudest about the tyres are the ones who are struggling the most. The teams who figure out their tyres have no complaints and are generally successful.

      2. I think its fair to criticize about the tyres as they are just horrendous. Why can’t they be like Bridgestone in MotoGP where you don’t have to come in? Pirelli should go and welcome Michelin in from next year. Other than that I will give it a 9 – for the spectacular racing that was going on behind Seb, the SC(s) at the right time to confuse their strategies

        1. @william – I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but MotoGP races are half the distance of a Formula 1 race. The reason for that is because if the races were any longer, the riders would have to pit for tyres. And that’s not something that is easily done on a bike. The riders wouldn’t lose seconds in a pit stop – they’d lose laps. If ever you’ve watched a MotoGP race, you would have seen that tyre management is still a big issue for the riders. The tyres are just a little more durable because a rider is completely exposed and therefore more vulnerable, making a tyre failure at speed catastrophic.

          1. I have been watching MotoGP for the last 3 years now and indeed that they are under half race distance compared to F1 but they last a lot longer on the tyres. They will just hop on to the second bike that the teams have ready for them when they come in. They will lose seconds not laps as it takes about 40secs to go through pit lane.

            1. Read my post again. MotoGP tyres are more durable than Formula 1 tyres, because MotoGP riders are much more exposed than Formula 1 drivers. They don’t have carbon fibre safety cells to protect them. Imagine, if you will, what would happen if a rider had a tyre failure similar to the one Sergio Perez had. It wouldn’t end well.

              You are trying to insinuate that the only difference between Formula 1 and MotoGP is the tyres, and that there is no good reason for this difference. But this is clearly untrue, and only shows that you are calling for Pirelli to change their tyres for the sake of change, rather than addressing the actual issue behind Perez’s tyre failure: driver error. It doesn’t matter what tyres you use – if you lock up as heavily as Perez did, sooner or later, you’re going to compromise the structure of the tyre.

      3. Finally someone who criticize the tyres today. We thought the problems were over after Silverstone but today we saw yet again a tyre explode. This really needs to stop: it created a very dangerous situation for Webber.

        1. @paeschil they shouldn’t be that fragile, but I have to defend Pirelli here and say that failure was caused by Perez brutally flat-spotting his tyre.

          Also, I don’t think they should have Moto GP-like tyres until they sort the dirty air problem. Otherwise, it’d just be a DRS-fest only, or very little overtaking at all. There was some good racing previous to 2010 absolutely, but I think (besides DRS) the quality of the races has improved.

          1. It isn’t normal that a tyre explodes after flat-spotting …

            1. Did you see the size of Perez’s lock-up? That wasn’t normal, either.

            2. @paeschli indeed, and usually they don’t. But that was an abnormally big flat spot right at the end of a stint, so I think it could be an isolated event. It definetly merits very close inspection, though.

          2. Don’t defend Pirelli on this topic, it is their tyres that did the explosion on Perez car. If Pirelli said that then they shouldn’t be here anymore, everyone locks up tyres and nothing really happens to them except tyre wear.

            DRS free will be awesome to see what the drivers are like without it. DRS has taken the sport one step backwards. I believe without it we will get pure racing and hard to overtake which will annoy the drivers

            1. David not Coulthard (@)
              6th October 2013, 11:26

              It’s not their fault that they make fragile tyres, do realise that. We (and the teams) asked for it, and that’s what we get – and we, the audience, needn’t even pay!

              Pirelli can make a Bridgestoneesque type of F1 tyres, but since that’s not what we(or the teams)’re asking them to do……it won’t happen.

              As for DRS, an f?-Ductesque freedom to deploy it would be great. We needn’t remove it, though I still think we should, just like TC, or Active Suspension, or the legality of 2 brake pedals.

    20. Poor race largely decided by tires. Only Hulkenberg saved it, and the radio messages of Lotus to Grosjean. Seems like at Lotus are bitter about Kimi leaving.

      1. @caci99
        Not only that, Grosjean has dominated Raikkonen this entire weekend and it was mainly due to the safety car that he was even on the podium in the first place. It really annoyed me when he just swooped past Grosjean who was probably too timid to try anything against his teammate until his team egged him on; Grosjean deserved that 2nd place more than Raikkonen did, prior to the safety car only Grosjean could keep up with Vettel in 2nd while Raikkonen was scrapping in 7th-8th.

        1. You’re both unfair to Kimi. He did a great race today after a poor qualifying. I agree with you that Grosjean deserved a 2nd place but Kimi did also a great job today.

          1. @paeschli
            Yeah Raikkonen did, thanks to the safety car; before that he was scrapping away at 7th-8th >_> Grosjean did a better job in both Singapore and Hungary and it was only misfortune for Grosjean and/or good luck for Raikkonen that masks this fact.

            1. Singapore and Korea*

            2. @woshidavid95 Lotus messed up Kimis race at Silverstone during the SC, so I’ve no problem with him and his team having it right this time.

        2. I agree Grosjean has been unlucky with safety cars this season, both here and in Germany where he was on for a win. But you can’t say he was timid against Raikkonen, he made a very late double move in defending and if they’d collided it would have been 100% his fault, so he was lucky to get away with that.

    21. 6/10 – Some good fights up and down the field, but long stints of nothing interesting.

      Maybe that ca become a 7/10 if you accept that the championship fight is over.

    22. 7 for me. Some good battles down field, and a random Korean jeep. Can’t go wrong there!

    23. Excellent action through out even though not everything had to do with actual racing. Ferrari’s pace was disturbing. Raikkonen taking an unlikely second and Seb doing his usual and excellent showmanship of defensive driving by Hulk. Rated 8.

    24. Unbelivable Vettel wins 4th time in a row, who could have thought that after winning 3 times in a row? Lotus denies scrap for 2-3 place after Rai has taken Romain… Add in tire explode and mandatory Webber unluck (out of prime tires and no-fault-of-his-own car fire) + ridiculous double DRS zones that deny passing in the first zone it would have been clear 1.
      Race was saved by tight fight for 4-5-6-7-8 by Hulk, Ham, Alo, Ros and But. So 4 but overall a race to forget.

      1. why do we keep having back toback DRS zones? im getting fed up with stupid tires, pay drivers, DRS & constantstupid penalties!

        Anybody else feeling thesame?

        we need to send comments/opinions to the FIA.

        last thing, just becaus Bernie got us into new countries doesnt mean he is the only person who could have done so & it does not mean he contine to rule over the spors commercial rights (even though he does for 100 years)

        team bosses are frustrted but not allowed to speak againast him.

        what is wrong with F1? too many problems !

        1. How can you say DRS was too strong when Hülkenberg managed to defend his position over 15 laps? I agree DRS was too strong on some races this year, but today it was just fine.

          1. sorrry, DRS was perfct this race. zone was not too long. generally, it is & poorply placed DRS zones/back to backis just dumb

        2. David not Coulthard (@)
          6th October 2013, 11:35

          I agree with you, but not about pay drivers, thoguh. Niki lauda was a pay driver, Alonso is sort of a pay driver, Hunt’s entry to McLaren was paid for by (his) cigarette(-smoking habit), and even MSC was a pay driver!

          Thoguh you were probably referring to drivers like Karthikeyan, in which case I agree. I’m just saying that not all pay drivers are bad.

          1. ya i should have specified pay drivers. i really meant the fact that teams dont seem to be getting their faur share of the pie (and yes i know they spend alot). but there should NOT be so many teams strugglling financially and then depending on driversnto bring spinsors with them. the teams are unhappy about it and mention little bits here and there.

            whitmarsh even said recently its bad for business/teams to speak out against bernie.

            now, ill wait for prisoner monkeys to come defend bernie like usual.

            last point. at FOTA forum in montreal this year. the bosses even said that maybe the sport should be managed by someone who has more interest in preservingand putting more money into the sport rather than milking it as much as possible.

            there is no defending bernie!

    25. I vote an 8 cause it was a good race and involve the best F1 LOL of the season with the jeep incident

      1. I believe Charlie Whiting said to the local organisers to send out the fire truck at Turn 3 not Turn 1.

    26. Just give hulk a good car, that was one of the best defensive driving i have seen in a long time

      1. Give Hulkenberg a good car that goes forwards and is not as wide? Is that your meaning? I remember when Schumacher famously held up Hamilton for many laps at Monza – he was hailed as a villain. So when Hulk does it, he’s a hero? Doesn’t make any sense. Can you explain?

    27. Chris (@tophercheese21)
      6th October 2013, 9:02

      Quite a decent race. Had some fantastic battles. The first few laps were pretty so-so, but it livened up after that.

      I’ll tell you what, if Webber didn’t have bad luck, he wouldn’t have any at all.

      1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
        6th October 2013, 9:15

        Get Hulkenberg in a top car. The boy can flat out drive!
        He truly is a star of the future and teams are taking late teens with fathers who have billions over him. Its just wrong.

    28. Gave it a 8.
      Vettel didn’t vanished at the front so at least kept you guessing.
      Great fights after the safety car.
      The truck on the track hahaha.
      And Hulkenberg holding Alonso (before safety car) and Hamilton (after safety car).
      Good race.

    29. more importantly i guess this race puts an end to the whole “Red Bull faking a tyre problem in 2012” scepticism

      1. Ye the tyres are really a problem this year. It’s not normal that a tyre explodes after a lock-up.

    30. Shreyas Mohanty (@)
      6th October 2013, 9:08

      I am slowly and steadily becoming a Hulkenberg fan as well! ;) The guy is just brilliant! Truly brilliant! Deserves championships more than a certain almost 4-time world champion! And Ferrari was disturbing at best today. Alonso understeering each time into turn 6, and a general lack of pace!

      1. Shreyas Mohanty (@)
        6th October 2013, 9:10

        And the 4-5-6 scrap was one spectatular battle ! ;) and the 10-11-12-13 too!

      2. @shreyasf1fan Deserves championships more than a certain almost 4-time world champion!

        Because Vettel has never done anything like this, right? You know, like winning with a Toro Rosso or something.

        1. I agree, Hülkenberg deserves a top team but Vettel also deserves his world championships.

      3. Thinly-veiled jabs at Vettel I see… can’t say I’m surprised given you’re an Alonso fan but if that’s the case, then Hulkenberg also deserves championships more than Alonso, Hamilton or Raikkonen.

      4. Deserves championships more than a certain almost 4-time world champion

        I’m fairly sure that those things are said just to start a flame bait, they can’t be said in a serious way if you know just a little of F1

      5. That’s not fair man !!!!! If we are still doubting Vettel’s abilities now and he is winning his 4th title in a row then what can we say about Hulkenberg ??? Vettel is a Top Driver there is absolutely no doubts about that, the only doubts about him is how he will react when he will be partnered with guys like Alonso, Hamilton and Raikkonen (which maybe we will never know) and his ability to fight for the championship in an inferior car. Nico has yet to prove himself now in a top team now

        1. @tifoso1989
          Finally a Ferrari fan with common sense, the main reason I don’t support Ferrari is because of their cult-following of Alonso/Ferrari made especially evident at Monza… apparently they believe Alonso/Ferrari is some sort of deity who’s entitled to win.

    31. I like the track that second corner was harming some cars chance to overtake on the straight that said nothing harmed the racing today. About the championship, since Nurburgring and especially from Hungary it’s obvious that there are no more obstacles for Red Bull and Vettel. Red Bull got their 2012 tyres that they knew that would work well and the rest, the rest just show they don’t really know what their doing, all the hardwork is useless. Red Bull are in a world of their own they excel in every level, let’s just hope that next year someone will step to the plate.

    32. Boring race. I give 6 only for the last laps after SC..

      1. I can’t understand how someone can just say the race has been boring. You’re favorite driver didn’t do well perhaps?
        Come on, be fair.

    33. Hulk was incredible! Battling all race and defending from 2 world champions all race long with huge skill and maturity. Get that man a top drive NOW!

      I gave it an 8 – the top 3 was a bit dull (though Kimis pass on romain was great) but 4th to 7th was amazing and the battle where Lewis and Fernando overtook each other 4 times in 2 corners was fantastic.

      Championship is dead but racing alive…

    34. I was going to give it a 9 but because of the swapping of positions between Grosjean and Raikkonen I’ll knock off a point and give an 8 instead. Perhaps I’m biased and irrational, but it annoys me that Raikkonen just swooped past Grosjean when he has outperformed Kimi all weekend; the main reason he even got on the podium in the first place was due to the safety car and Rosberg’s front-wing faliure, prior to that only Grosjean was really keeping up with Vettel in 2nd while Raikkonen was scrapping around 7-8th. But I’m glad the team fully support Grosjean now, the way they egged him to beat Raikkonen should say it all.

    35. Michael Brown (@)
      6th October 2013, 9:14

      Best race of the season and best race of the Korean Grand Prix. Gets an 8/10 from me. The first few laps an last 20 or so laps were very exciting, but the action dropped off about midway through.

      I’m really glad this race delivered because I was losing my passion for F1 ever since the Belgian Grand Prix. This time, the tires and DRS helped the racing without making things look way too easy. But still, the fastest lap of the race was 4 seconds off of qualifying?

      1. I agree, no fans but a great track! I want this to be on the F1 calendar next year.

    36. Great race all round, some rain would have spiced things up more.

    37. I’m going to echo Lewis’ radio message, Hulk’s Sauber looked like it had a rocket launcher strapped to it going out of that 2nd corner.

      1. He probably used Nitro there.

      2. It must be traction control. How else can he put the throttle down that early? :P

    38. Nice race for 4th and 5th… Congrats to Lotus… Hope the Championships will be over next week at Suzuka, so maybe we can see other colored cars in front…

      Maybe Red Bull goes home after winning another 2 Championships and let the others play – and let us the chance to see better and funnier races.

      With all the money it will be spent for next year, I just hope every race will be a Russian roulette!

    39. Webber had a BBQ weekend.

      1. His second BBQ weekend in a row!

    40. Except for the laps behind the safety car and the last 8 laps everything was boring as hell

    41. I had to take this race with a pinch of salt as all of our possible predictions went wrong about the start . But what a scintillating race to say the least ! Just when I was thinking it was drifting away from boredom . A tyre blast set off a sequence of events starting from a puncture culminating in a 4 way scrap for the midfield positions . While Vettel reigned supreme , Hulkenberg was absolutely fantastic and stubborn in his defence . Not a single quarter was given . I think we can as well change the concept of the big 4 as Hulkenberg pummels his way towards glory bit by bit.I was a bit sad that Lewis and Mercedes were not ‘ on it ‘ today . The safety car saved him a bit ( remember he was passed by webber , grosjean and hulk ) . But what a EVENTFUL race !

      7/10 .

      Almost gave it an 8 but for that you need a battle for the lead.

    42. Good battles through the race but I’m getting really really tired of the tyres issue! I gave it a 7.

    43. There was too much tyre saving in the first two stints, but overall it was a very good race. Lots of drama, awesome battle for 4th place and impressive performance by Hulkenberg.
      Overall, I give it a 8.

    44. 2/10 Borefest
      Pirelli need sacking.

      1. You stopped watching after the first 5 laps or so?

        1. errr, no. I’m just bored of Vettelfests.
          the only interest was the fire truck.

    45. I wonder what new excuses the egocentric British media will sprout for Di Resta’s defense?

      1. His team-mate crashed out too?

        1. The Brits don’t hype up Sutil like the next best thing.

    46. 6/10 for me.
      I thought the race to be boring except the last 20 laps. The fight between Hamilton/Hulk and Grosjean/Kimi made up for it.

      The only thing that I just really, really, really want is for Hulk to get that Lotus seat. Anything else will be so damn unfair.

      1. According to Martin Brundle, Hulk is considered too big and heavy for F1. I wonder if his bulk is putting potential employers off?

        1. @aardvark

          lol, “The Hulk has too much Bulk” :-)

        2. Michael Brown (@)
          6th October 2013, 22:30

          It’s his massive steel balls.

    47. I was mentally preparing my comment: “The only difference between this race and a funeral procession is no one has died. 4/10.”

      Then, BOOM, it was like a Hollywood scriptwriter had taken over. Sparky front wings, exploding tyres, flaming cars, unauthorised vehicles on track, and some tremendous dices. It had it all.

      Except for a battle for the lead.

      I think Vettel has a secret stash of half-seconds shoved up his sleeve that he can pull out whenever he wants. The man is phenomenal with his ability to build up a lead, seemingly at will. Great for him, not so great for us fans. Having the winner so predictable pulled my rating down. 7/10.

      1. Sparky front wings, exploding tyres, flaming cars, unauthorised vehicles on track, and some tremendous dices. It had it all.

        Though it made the race more exciting, I’d like to get rid of these exploding tyres ^^

    48. 7/10, nice race and I’m glad I decided to watch because my motivation had gone ‘2011’ on my. Even though it was basically another Vettel-borefest in the end it was a thrilling race. If only this track had been built in another country that at least embraces F1.

    49. We had the sparks, we had stuff blowing up, we had some fire. There was even a jeep. Make Hulk bigger like Vin Diesel and we have new Fast & Furious movie.

      1. hahaha, golden. you made me laugh out loud

        1. hahahahhah………so true only thing missing was a bit of rain

      2. David not Coulthard (@)
        6th October 2013, 11:46

        @keithCollantine that’s a comment worth reading.

        1. @davidnotcoulthard I read them all you don’t need to tell me to!

    50. Webber says it was a KERS fire. Do they buy their batteries from Tesla?

    51. No more mediums left for Mark LOL

      1. He didn’t need them anyway ;-) . Lucky fellow , really :( .

        1. Imagine he got away with a just a puncture after Sutil clipped him.

          Race with wheel rims? :D

    52. 8p

      Great drive fr.o.m. Kimi, Grojean and the Hulk. Vettel did his job to.

      Is it just me or wasnt Kimi a big talker today on the podium? :) Perhaps a side effect of the painkillers? :)

    53. David not Coulthard (@)
      6th October 2013, 9:54

      9/10 for me.

      As usual, the start was great, but then it started getting boring (which I think was because the starts here have been so exciting that cars crashed at turn 3, meaning that the potential of the rest of the race (beyond turn 3 of the 1st lap) to be exciting has always been compromised, which is something I blame Tilke for).

      Then, Di Resta had a somewhat “standard” crash, which little did we know triggered the event ( I think) that came after it: Webber retiring having seen the RB9 burning (No, I wasn’t happy about that, he was having a good race), the fire truck SUV (seeing an SUV on the track made me laugh a lot), and Hulkenberg’s defense beg for a front-running car next year (?).

      1. David not Coulthard (@)
        6th October 2013, 10:02

        Actually it was Perez that sort of triggered all those things.

    54. DK (@seijakessen)
      6th October 2013, 9:57

      Always fun to see how little standards people have for racing that over 50% of the vote falls in the 8 to 10 range.

      1. Better race than Spa or Monza this year.

    55. A strong 7.

      The first half (or so) was pretty boring but it’s like everyone suddenly woke up after the safety car, and the action continued all the way to the end.

      Finally no booing to Vettel and DRS worked pretty good. There was actually some defensive driving this time, believe it or not!

    56. I rated the race 8/10, but I have to give a 11/10 for the second safety car period, fantastic stuff

    57. Firstly, my wife & I are MASSIVE F1 fans & we’ve had the opportunity to travel to GPs in Suzuka and Shanghai and this year in Mokpo since we live in Korea due to work.

      It is frustrating living in a city which hosts an F1 race and next to no locals share any interest whatsoever. My colleagues, care next to nothing about the race even though we work just next to the track. I completely understand that F1 is new to Korea and motorsport in general is foreign, however, when your country is hosting an international sporting event, one expects to see the media promoting it as much as possible over a period of time – we’ve been living here for 2 years now and we can say that no coverage is given. The locals only know that something called an F1 race is held at Mokpo, beyond that, nobody has a clue what that entails. This is unfortunate because there is a large market of people here who might be interested in the sport if the CORRECT spotlight would be given to it.
      Today we attended FP2. There is clear, for lack of a better word, absence of effort by the organizers. There was a lack of signage resulting in several different people directing us to the main grandstand in completely opposite directions. There is virtually no team merchandise on offer, despite a plethora of track merchandise. This is because locals still do not know who the drivers and teams are after 4 years. For example, when asking for a Kimi Raikkonen T-Shirt, we were met with blank stares. The level of enthusiasm from attendees of this GP and even the stall holders, when compared to Suzuka last year and Shanghai in March this year, is like comparing chalk and cheese. The staff/volunteers here are clearly trying to make an effort (you can’t say that Koreans are not friendly), but there is so little for them to work with that the results appear lukewarm at best.
      The other major issue I’d like to highlight is that Korea is a very insular country. Please bear in mind that I’ve lived and worked here for 2 years so I’d like to think that I have some experience in what I’m about to say. I don’t intend this to be an insult but, most South Koreans don’t know what’s happening outside of Korea. As a result they are unaware that Yeongam is one of MANY F1 races in a championship year – they see this as a once-off KOREAN event. Therefore, given everything that I’ve experienced today at the track, coming here as a non-Korean tourist would be a hellish experience – there’s no acceptable accommodation, signage is poor at best (and largely in Korean) even outside the track and there is a complete sense of apathy about the event.
      Even in its 4th year, the Korean GP has not inspired any locals to even purchase teamwear to even get into the spirit of the thing. I was lucky enough to attend the Shanghai GP in its 4th year and the atmosphere was completely electric. The locals seemed to adopt that event as their own in that relatively short time and the excitement there was (and still was this year) palpable.
      Personally I believe that this venue is an expensive mistake. Clearly Bernie thought that the seemingly large expat community living in South Korea would be able to coax enough interest in the local population to make this venue a success but quite frankly, nobody seems to care about motorsport in South Korea.

      1. Insightful comments.

    58. 9/10. Although the track is classical Tilkedrome, races in this track always provide some wheel to wheel action. Fantastic battles all the way down tye grid, except for 1st position.

      And that drive from Hulkenberg – it was probably the best performance from any driver this year. He should be driving top team next year. I’m sure he’d beat Alonso in that Ferrari or Button in that Mclaren.

    59. A lot of 8/10’s and even some 9/10’s ?? It was not bad, but come on.. The racing was so obvious: Creeping closer with DRS on the start/finsh-straight, Good traction out of turn 2 = no pass possible // Bad traction or old tires = normal DRS pass. After turn 3 usually no point in going to the inside for turn 4, because turn 5 favours you if you are on the outside out of 4 and of course no opportunity to pass from turn 5 onwards! Apart from that we had: a broken front wing, errors from the usual individuals (Di Resta, Perez, Sutil, Massa, Maldonado) AND of course a problem/fire for the most unlucky driver at the moment. A gave it a 6/10, about right I guess. 6.5/10 is more accurate I guess…

      1. Jack (@jackisthestig)
        6th October 2013, 15:58

        I think the 8s and 9s say more about the previous few races.

    60. Congrats Sebastian & RedBull, another title in their pocket. Gave a 7, race leader was unseen after the start. All the action was behind with the overtakes in the back.
      It’s really shocking to see how Ferrari/McLaren, Lotus and Mercedes can’t keep up with them! By the way, Lotus disappointed me today, almost ‘menacing’ Grosjean and Mercedes are really pathetic with their strategy sometimes, they’ve lost themselves since Belgium and they didn’t allow Lewis to pass Nico who was holding him up with broken wing. Alonso like Hamilton all fighting with ‘poor’ cars can’t really have a decent chance if let down by their respective Teams at least Ferrari has lightening start. McLaren should ditch Perez and take Hulkenberg as fast as possible …Maybe 2014 will be different otherwise what a waste of talent!

      1. And Mark Webber is becoming my ‘hero’ now… All the bad luck happens to him and he finds the time to pull out some funny quotes! ;-)

    61. Tyres made of cheese spread and DRS overtakes reminiscent of my daily M6 commute. Current F1 rules have given me a greater appreciation of other racing series, particularly MotoGP.

    62. My favourite moment was when they deployed the unsafety car

      1. Okay, I’m almost in tears I’m laughing so hard!

      2. COTD +1 xD

    63. 8/10 . The gap to vettel was not massive and the were battles all over, besides for the lead unfortunately. Watching hulkenburg pass hamilton then managing to keep him at bay for the rest of the race was incredible.

    64. Very good race if there wasn’t Vettel. It’s realy boring but not winnig Vettel but hole Red Bull and a specialy Horner.
      A week ago he was saying that they hadn’t so much time lap advantage. Today they still have.
      Theirs advantage during the race is so big as they want or needed. After restart Vetell sllip away and when he did he was safing tires.
      And THE TIRES.
      After Canadian GP Vettel even he won he was complaing on the Pirelli tires.
      Today he wins GP after GP and everything is good.
      But when some has say something about Vettel or RedBull it’s almost unacceptable because it is unfair.

    65. Two races on a row, the same three drivers retired: DIR, WEB, RIC.

      And two races in a row with a Vettel Grand Shelem.

      1. no no no

        A “Grand Chelem” (with a C) is Pole Position, Fastest Lap, Win the Race + Lead every lap.

        Vettel did not lead every lap. Before all the first pit stops were made Webber was leading for a little while.

        1. https://www.racefans.net/2013/10/06/2013-korean-grand-prix-lap-charts/

          Lap Charts says it all. Wikipedia has also updated his total Grand Chelem to 4.

    66. Thanks to Sauber great Hulkenberg revived the race, fighting against Hamilton and Alonso is something few can pride themselves in winning! Tyres continue to be an issue however, do they ruin the race? Do they help the race? Can’t figure it out!

    67. Great battle for the lead and a gigantic fight for 3rd place.

      Oh no, wait…. That Vettel guy was still in front of them….

      This GP was saved by Hulkenberg and the TV director. I vote for the TV Director as Man of the Race!

      1. +1 can’t do anything about Vettel .” man of the race ” seems legit to me after witnessing fireworks in Singapore in the closing laps . At least we saw some fireworks from the front wing this time ;-)

    68. jonblack666 (@)
      6th October 2013, 14:04

      Becoming a bit predictable The Evil Empire does it again and again. One team dominance make it good for f1 but bad for racing i.e. the Shumi years. The moral of the story is you can buy the championship. Thanks Danko makowhatever. I hope next years reg change will balance things but I am afraid it won’t. 2\10

    69. Is it just me or is a win worth too much ? if a chasing driver comes in 3d or 4th he is directly far behind :(
      There should be more points handed out, maby down to the 12th place.

    70. It got good when they decided to chuck a fire truck on the track at racing speed.

      I gave it a 7, the action was a bit contrived; were it not for the safety cars it would have been worse than Singapore.

      Vettel is embarrassing the rest of the field (and I say that as someone who can’t stand him!)

    71. I dont really care for a fight for 10th or 8th, or whatever. Also dont understand how ppl get excited about ‘passing in the pits’. We are being robbed of the chance to see at least 3 or 4 of the greatest drivers fighting for the position that matters most. 1st. If its the same next year then i’ll be sticking with Moto GP. Proper racing

    72. I agree that the battle for 4th place was great but it’s just a battle for the 4th place. Not even 2nd place. Plus our only chance of watching an interesting race lately is hoping that it will rain or that Seb will retire. I cannot rate this race higher than 6 simply because my 10 are races like the 1995 Belgian grand Prix, 1999 French Grand Prix, 2006 Chinese Grand Prix or 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix. Compared to the above races today’s Korean Grand Prix doesn’t stand a chance. So it’s a very linient 6 for me.

      1. So that Villeneuve/Arnoux battle was pointless and boring because it was only for 2nd place art Dijon in 1979.
        Whilst it helps if something rides on it, I could enjoy a battle for 21st if the racing is fair and exciting and if TV showed it!

        1. David not Coulthard (@)
          6th October 2013, 16:42

          I could enjoy a battle for 21st if the racing is fair and exciting and if TV showed it!

          And if somebody of Vettel’s calibre driving a car of the MP4/4’s calibre is running 22nd when the battle happens, at least for me.

        2. I don’t believe that my point was that the Villeneuve/Arnoux battle at Dijon was boring and pointless! Maybe it’s one of the most amazing battles in the history of formula 1. But I believe that we rate the race here not just the Hulk-Lewis-Alonso battle. The battle itself of course it was great but I don’t think that this is enough to rate the race higher! Just saying…

    73. Two hours of commentators yakking about tires clapping out, fast guys cruising, NOT RACING; to protect them.
      High spot of the race? After chugging around for ages Lewis finally, in frustration, telling the crew his tires were “******”….and the ensuing humor of Hobbs and Co.
      If this is racing F1’s in real trouble.
      5 (and that’s generous)

    74. Hamilton has been reported as saying that he and Alonso shouldn’t be fighting for fifth because they are “higher calibre” drivers and should be fighting with vettel. well unfortunantly he first has to beat drivers like kimi, grosjean and now hulkenburg. I suspect he is upset and jealous because there is yet another driver (hulk) taking up where he feels he “belongs”. Today Grosjean showed Hamilton who is boss by passing him and then defending superbly, and also after the first pitstops defending superbly. Hulkenburg then did the same to Hamilton. I find hamiltons comments highly disrespectful to the other drivers on the grid when he couldn’t beat hulk and grosjean fair and square and feels entitled to be in a podium position.

    75. I might be daft, but I certainly do not see anything positive about fast cars not being able to pass slow cars. This was why DRS was introduced in the first place.

      I _really_ hope the fascination with it, is a reaction to the borefests as of late, and maybe a bit of an underdog putting up a fight, because that was just rediculous.

      Worst part was that the two DRS detection points made it more artificial than ever: Hamilton had to NOT overtake when he got the chance, because he risked being punished at the next straight. How anyone can find anything positive in that, I have no idea.

    76. That Red Bull win was certainly boring, but the 4th place battle…!!

      What a race. Best this season – and people say Korea is boring!

      Firstly, I’ll start with Massa. Very desperate manoeuvre into turn 3, nearly wiping out 3 people plus himself. Several damaged front wings caused by the avoiding action. That said, he did manage to pitch it into a spin (although whether that was intentional or not is another matter) rather than clumsying into the side of everyone. Massa, however, had a reasonable race after that.

      Sutil on the other hand, a similar accident, but worse. I feel sorry for Webber, his race wasn’t so bad until that.

      Perez shouldn’t have got away with pushing several cars off, plus the accident with Massa was just stupid. It’s a shame the stewards have let him get away with it AGAIN! Although that tyre failure was almighty scary! I feel sorry for Webber who had just pitted and got a puncture. Pirelli (and whoever else) can blame the lock up all they want, but it doesn’t change the fact that it was their fault again. The tyre should resist that sort of thing.

      The Lotus battle was exciting, but a shame that they couldn’t fight Vettel. Well done to both of them.

      But what a battle at the end!! And Hulkenberg! A true top driver!!! Get him signed to be in that Lotus immediately! Lotus would be foolish not to.

      Very ironic how the 4 back-markers all got the same penalty (a reprimand), the leading two from each team for the same reason, the losing two for the same reason – and the leading two both getting a 10 place for three reprimands! Certainly odd! And the stewards love these reprimands lately. Suddenly the number of drivers to receive three has doubled!!!!

      Plus di Resta… Well. 5 non-finishes in a row now. Not good. This time was his fault, so annoying!

    77. Lewis raced a stupid final 15 laps, he never once attempted a Slow to go fast maneuver in turn 1; Hulk wore him out by consistently hitting turn two perfectly. Was I the only once to think Alonso got 4 tires completely out of the racing line many times today. He went wide, sometimes very wide on turn 6 all day.

    78. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      6th October 2013, 17:32

      8/10 Great race – Hamilton’s race fight with Hulkenberg after the safety car was spectacular! Hamilton deserved the win in Korea! Stellar driving! Fantastic result for Hulkenberg.

    79. i’ve got a few things to say

      the race was clearly better than the last few.
      the start was great to watch, and i must say, gutierrez did an awesome move down turn 1. unfortunately for him his race was dead when he lost about 10 places in turn three (thanks to massa). great to see grosjean have a go on hamilton and make it stick. great start from him. then the race became a bit boring with everyone suffering graining and so on.

      paul di crashta has put himself into his (by now) usual place, which would be known as THE WALL. if he doesn’t pull something out of his hat for the next few races, he’s probably a goner for 2014

      the tyre delamination which caused the first safety car can only be blamed on perez. he flatspotted his tyre (which was already pretty much dead) and physics did the rest of the job. i really can’t blame pirelli on this one. it shouldn’t happen, but locking the front tyre for 3-4 seconds straight will kill it, in my view perez has just missed his braking point completely.

      the safety car was just the usual procedure. everyone pits and the safety car stays out for way too long. the lapped-cars-may-now-overtake-and-we-will-wait-until-they-rejoin-the-rest-of-the-field is completely ridiculous. the given reprimands to pic and bianchi show how much even the smaller teams still want the safety car gone as fast as possible. this seems like a pointless rule to me.

      then the restart, absolutely fantastic move from hulkenberg on hamilton (or was that after the second safety car? forgive me if i’m wrong) and what is that, the second force india looses it and takes someone with it. unbelievable. poor mark webber. poor race direction sends out a fire truck ON TRACK? aren’t there roads on the side of the circuit it could’ve taken? seriously, this was the second safety car this year that actually shouldn’t have been a safety car, if it weren’t for the stupidity of race control. (first one being in germany, coincidently both of those safety cars were a huge disadvantage to my favourite driver)

      then again usual procedure, safety car in, vettel pulls away and so on. the last few laps had me really excited, the battle for 4th position was so tense and entertaining to watch. what an astounding drive from everyone’s favourite nico hulkenberg. driver of the weekend, no doubt. sauber is back.

      i gave this race a 8/10. i don’t really care for the race to appear in the 2014 calendar allthough the stands looked more occupied this year.

    80. Shreyas Mohanty (@)
      6th October 2013, 18:31

      @freelittlebirds Stellar drives today came from Grosjean and Hulkenberg. Not even Alonso as is usually the case because though the car lacked pace today, it just felt like there was an extra tenth on the table. But what was “stellar” about Hamilton today?

      1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        6th October 2013, 19:09

        You mean besides holding back Alonso’s attempts to pass him and fighting with Hulkenberg for 10 laps and even passing him for a split second?

        Wasn’t that almost the entire race of Korea?

        The whole thing was reminiscent of Austin Texas where Hamilton fought for the entire race to pass Vettel and Vettel at the end was clapping because Hamilton gave an insane performance.

        I don’t think I’ve ever seen a car put so much pressure on another driver while being under pressure by a world class driver from another team.

    81. 9/10

      I think RBR should consider making their car less dominant because a runaway P1 doesn’t get them TV time!

    82. Another weekend, another race that promised much but ultimately failed to deliver anything but a high-speed train of half-hearted passing attempts. Like watching the Red Arrows week-in, week-out. The first time it’s exciting to watch the closely controlled application of power and the precise formations but I wouldn’t want to watch it every week. F1 has become like that lots of percise applications of power and close formation driving but it’s not very exciting when the formation on the last lap is the same as the one many laps before. So fewer high-speed trains more actual overtaking and pack-shuffling please.

    83. it only really got fun in the second half of the race, it was just lacking that real fight for the win

    84. Even with the tyre-saving and lack of challenge for first place, this was still a rather entertaining race–a bit of a circus with some good racing. Sparking wings, pirouettes, a good amount of overtaking and defending, and great driving from the Hulk and, up until Kimi got him flustered, Grosjean. Watching Hamilton fight to get around GRO and then Hulk while holding off other drivers was a great show.
      Best moment might have been the five car fight with Perez, Massa, Gutierrez and the two Williams boys. Either that or the blunder with the fire vehicle. Danger aside, the whole situation was comical. Solid 8.

    85. Up front, a deadly boring Vettel-fest, again. Behind him I don’t see it as more than a superbly competent job by Hulkenberg stopping a number of faster WDCs from overtaking for fear of ruining (or blowing up) overly fragile tyres. It’s nowadays impossible to drive for any time in dirty air without extreme tyre degradation — or the nose falling off ;=}

    86. 8 out of 10- an entertaining, if not bizarre, race. I wish that they could pick this track up and put it down in France or Finland or somewhere that deserves a GP. Vettel was impeccable, Hulk was incredible, but the highlight for me was Grojeans t-shirt worthy radio banter after being passed by Kimi. Laugh Out Loud!

    87. I wonder how people rate a really good race, if 8 and 9 seems to be the most common rating amongst the comments….
      In my opinion, 10 is given to an outstanding race. Battles and exitement all over the place.
      5 and 6 is a medioker race.
      1 is for a prosession from start to finnish.
      THIS RACE WAS A 6 OR AT BEST A 7…

    88. I gave it a 6.

      It seemed like it would be another boring race with hardly any excitement until the safety cars and the battle between Helkenberg, Hamilton and Alonso and some others late on.

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