Sebastian Vettel edged ever closer to the championship title in a thrilling 2013 Formula 1 Korean Grand Prix. The Lotus drivers enjoyed a double podium and Nico Hulkenberg had the race of his life. We hear from them, and the other drivers and senior team members after Sunday’s Korean Grand Prix.
Red Bull
Sebastian Vettel, 1st
“It was a long race today, but it’s really great to win the Korean Grand Prix. The start was crucial, it’s always tricky here as you’re nervous about the long straight when you start from pole. Fortunately we had good traction off the line and I had a strong exit out of the first corner. We kept the lead and tried to control the race from there. I think Mercedes had more range than us today, but we were able to win which is great. It was a very strong performance from the whole team and I’m happy. We’re just focusing on continuing to take one step at a time and trying to get the best out of the car at every single race.”
Mark Webber, DNF
“The incident with Sutil was obviously the end of my race today. It was in Turn 3 on the restart, everyone bottles back up and I was looking for a big exit on the next straight to use some KERS on Daniel (Ricciardo) and the Williams. Then Sutil, I don’t know what happened, but obviously he hit me from the inside and that was that. There was quite a lot of damage at the back of the car and I hope it hasn’t gone towards the chassis – we will have to see before the next race. Before that I was very happy with how I drove and we’d got back to a very good position before I got the puncture. After the Pirelli tyre failure on Perez’ car, I was very lucky to miss the tread of the tyre that came off and then unbelievably I managed to get a puncture from going through the debris.”
Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal
“A really disciplined drive by Sebastian today to win his third consecutive Korean Grand Prix. It was a race dominated by tyre preservation and Sebastian managed it extremely well. It was a great shame to lose Mark who would have been on the podium today after he picked up a puncture from the debris from Perez’ incident. Then, after that he was the innocent victim of the incident that saw Sutil losing his car and hitting him, which caused a fire. It was somewhat frustrating to see our car on fire for what seemed to be an age.”
Thierry Salvi, Renault support for Red Bull
“A win that was not as easy as it looked for Sebastian! With two safety cars, Seb had to do the job twice to increase the gap with the competitors and he’s did it very well, again showing his talent. It was a shame for Mark as he was really on for a very strong result in spite of his starting position. The collision with Sutil damaged the car and caused the fire. It’s too early to tell if we can re-use the engine yet – we will have to look at the damage. There is plenty to study in the week before Japan now, particularly with the strong position Sebastian is now in the championship.”
Lotus
Kimi Raikkonen, 2nd
“Second place is okay and a good result for the team, but we’re here to win and having to fight your way to the front from a bad starting position is not ideal. Qualifying was pretty awful for me, but it’s difficult to say whether a better grid position would have made the difference. Sebastian was faster than us at the end; not massively, but a little bit for sure and his tyres were fresher too so I think it would have been tough to catch him in any case. We were closer to the Red Bull today than we have been in some races, but not close enough. People might say it was good luck with the safety car, but sometimes these things go with you and others they go against you. We made up some places even before that happened, and if we hadn’t had the speed then we wouldn’t have been in a position to take advantage. You could see at the end that we had more than enough pace to keep the others behind, so I think it’s deserved.”
Romain Grosjean, 3rd
“It’s a fantastic result for the team. Of course, one step higher on the podium would have been better for me and two steps better would have been superb, but it didn’t quite work out that way. Our battle with Lewis (Hamilton) was good and our pace was great, but the two safety car periods hurt our attempts to battle for the win. After the restart I should have been in front of Kimi on the road, but it was my mistake which let him past. I went a bit wide in Turn 15 and got on the Astroturf – which is very slippery – and that let him get a run on me. Then there were yellow flags into Turn 3 so I couldn’t take the place back straight away. Of course, I was asking the team to let me past Kimi as I was on fresher tyres, but they left us to race which is our philosophy of fair play. You lose so much downforce in sectors two and three and obviously our cars are pretty close on performance so it’s pretty hard to pass, but we have to be very happy with a double podium.”
Eric Boullier, Lotus team principal
“Another double podium for the team is a fantastic Korean Grand Prix result and it tastes like a race win this late in the season. Credit to everyone back at Enstone for delivering us extra performance from the long wheelbase car, as any gain towards the end of the year is especially beneficial as we fight for position in both championships. The race team delivered a great strategy and pit stops, whilst both drivers drove exceptionally well. We have a lot of promise for the remaining races and podiums are certainly on our agenda.”
Alan Permane, Lotus trackside operations director
“A great result for the team. We thought we would be competitive coming into this weekend, and in the end we qualified well and raced extremely well. Romain drove an incredibly strong race, and without the safety car would have taken a very comfortable second place. There was an element of luck for Kimi with the safety car and he certainly made the most of that, before once more demonstrating that he never stops pushing by capitalising on the one mistake made by his team-mate all weekend. It was close between the two, but we let both drivers race to the end which was the right thing to do. All signs look positive for Japan.”
Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 team support leader
“It was a fantastic race from both drivers. Romain was very strong in the first part of the race, controlling the pace and managing the fuel and tyres very well. We reused his engine from Singapore and everything worked perfectly. We were on the limit with Kimi’s engine with some of the richer fuel mixes to help him get through the field and maximize performance. A great result all round.”
Sauber
Nico Hulkenberg, 4th
“Today I drove one of the best races in my career so far. I have had cars in the mirrors before, but today there were a lot and it was a bit annoying. Lewis (Hamilton) really put the pressure on at the end, especially in the last sector. I knew I needed to get out of Turn 1 well. The car’s traction was very good today, so that kept me alive against Fernando and then Lewis later on. We were also very fast on the straight. I had a good start, although on the outside into Turn 1, which was a loss at first, but then I had a real good slip stream and was able to get past on the outside. A big thank you to the entire team for providing such an excellent car today.”
Esteban Gutierrez, 11th
“I had a very good start, then I arrived at Turn 3 and saw what was going on. I tried to protect my position, my rears locked and that’s why I lost a couple of positions. To recover from that was quite a challenge. I had some good fights with Massa and Checo (Perez) coming from the back. Of course, I wanted to score points today, but this is racing. It’s a great experience and will help me to improve my race craft. We had good pace today and are definitely able to fight in the top ten.”
Tom McCullough, Sauber, head of track engineering
“This is a fantastic result for the team, and we have picked up some very important points in the constructors’ championship. Looking at what happened in the race, today was a right front tyre management exercise, knowing where to be quick and where to protect the car, and Nico executed that exactly as we wanted. He withstood some immense pressure from a lot of very good drivers behind him. Esteban had a great start and Turn 1, but was unlucky into Turn 3, losing track positions due to other peoples’ mistakes. From that point on he came very close to scoring his first points, so can take a lot of positives from this race. We aim to carry this momentum forward to Suzuka next week. This is proof the hard work being done in Hinwil is delivering on the track.”
Monisha Kaltenborn Sauber team principal
“I am very relieved we were able to keep up our level of performance throughout the whole weekend. We went into the Korean Grand Prix with high expectations and it is a great feeling that we were able to meet these through our own strengths. Nico put in a superb performance and, once again, great fight, as it definitely was not easy to keep those cars behind him. Esteban had a difficult start, so struggled a bit more. However, all in all it is a great step ahead for the entire team and shows we are working well together at home in Hinwil and on the track.”
Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton, 5th
“That was not a great day for us and it feels like we deserved more as a team. After Grosjean got ahead of me at the start, there was no way past and it seemed that we were losing out to others on traction cars all day. In my second stint, running the prime tyre, my right front was just destroyed all of a sudden. When that happens, you start losing temperature, understeering and locking up under braking, so it was really hard to maintain the pace in those laps. It was a really difficult part of the race but I had to get to a certain target lap before I made the final stop. After the safety car, we were just losing out in traction to the Sauber. Our car was really strong through the middle sector but not quick enough on the straights to stay ahead. It was a nice battle with Fernando but it’s hard to take when it’s only for P5 or P6. It was just not a good race for us today but we have the chance to bounce back in Suzuka.”
Nico Rosberg, 7th
“That was another very tough race for me. I couldn’t believe what happened with the wing: I was on course for a podium finish after overtaking Lewis and two seconds later, the front wing just broke. It was pretty scary because that could have been a dangerous situation but the engineers told me over the radio that it was under control and I could carry some speed back to the pits. It’s a shame because the car felt great today and I found a good balance and how to get the most out of the car, which I hadn’t managed until this point of the weekend. It’s been a real up and down season so far for me but it’s good that we have another race in a week’s time. Our car is very competitive and I had good pace compared to the cars on the podium. So I’m looking forward to the next races.”
Ross Brawn, Mercedes team principal
“It proved a very challenging race for the team and one which leaves us with the rather bitter taste of “what might have been” after finishing fifth with Lewis and seventh with Nico. The cars settled in third and fourth positions during the first stint and both looked very competitive compared to those around them. However, Lewis began to struggle around 13 laps into his second stint when he reported that his right-front tyre was no longer performing properly. At that point, we had a difficult decision to make: an extra stop at lap 22 would have committed us to a much slower three-stop strategy, or we could leave Lewis in clean air to tough it out and try and reach the target lap to make our two-stop strategy work. We chose the latter option but it was a pretty painful few laps as Lewis battled to minimise the time loss. On the other car, Nico’s tyres were in much better shape and he was running at the same pace as the leaders and well on course for a podium finish when he suffered a structural failure on the front wing assembly which forced him to make an immediate pit stop. The safety car phases ultimately made the final part of the race more comfortable in terms of tyre life but neither driver was able to make up much ground against the cars around them which had a traction advantage. It’s been a tough day and we will aim to deliver a stronger performance in Japan.”
Ferrari
Fernando Alonso, 6th
We knew this would be a difficult race and unfortunately the results confirmed the concerns we had already experienced on Friday, when we had a few problems with tyre degradation on the long run. It wasn’t a surprise to be off the pace in qualifying, as that’s been the case since the start of the season, but the fact that we didn’t have the pace in the race was one. Unfortunately, at the start, I couldn’t keep the Sauber behind me and that meant I had a particularly stressful race in terms of the tyres. What happened to Felipe at the third corner was not a problem for me: there were a lot of us there at that point and someone must have touched him. I tried to avoid him and continued without it affecting my race, because by then, I was already behind Hulkenberg. Now we must think only about Suzuka and try to get back on the podium, rediscovering the form we usually have on Sunday, that allows us to fight at the front. Vettel is a very long way off in terms of points, but above all in performance terms and we cannot expect miracles between now and the end of the championship. Second place in the constructors’ championship is probably a more realistic target, but one thing’s certain, we are not giving up now and we will give it our best shot right to the very end.”
Felipe Massa, 9th
“Today’s Korean Grand Prix was really very complicated, because my chances of getting a good result evaporated right from the first lap, when I found myself in the middle of a group, all of us fighting and I decided to go down the inside to try and brake later. Unfortunately, some of the cars were slower and in order to avoid driving into one of the Mercedes, I was forced to move over to the right, ending up in a spin. Luckily, the car was alright, but at that point I was contemplating a race from the back of the pack. Thanks to a few nice passing moves I still managed to bring home some points, which was a good thing compared to how it looked after the start. Today, we weren’t competitive and there were at least three or four teams quicker than us, including Sauber, but I hope this was mainly track dependent and that our car will be better suited to the Suzuka track.”
Pat Fry, Ferrari engineering director
“Today the top places were out of reach, in what was a very tense race for both our drivers, caught in traffic behind the Saubers from start to finish. On this track, their two cars were able to make the most of better traction on the exit to the corners and their high top speed made life difficult when trying to overtake them. At the start, Fernando managed to close on Rosberg at the first corner, but had to back off so as not to go off the track, which helped Hulkenberg get past on the straight. Once he was behind, he had to deal with tyre wear and it was a real shame, because our pace was not lower than that of the Mercedes. As for Felipe however, the spin going into Turn 3 dropped him to the back. On lap 15, after a climb up the order that took him to 14th place, he found himself behind Gutierrez. Both Fernando and Felipe did their utmost and fought hard all weekend against tyre degradation and graining, which was particularly high, because of the characteristics of this track. For Suzuka, we will try and improve and get back to aiming for a podium finish, because we certainly don’t want to be fighting for sixth and ninth.”
Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari team principal
“After positive results in Belgium, Monza and Singapore, there’s no use denying that today’s result doesn’t make us happy. We were hoping to be able to attack the two Mercedes on the opening lap, as we knew we could deal with their race pace. Unfortunately, that was not the case and the incidents just after the start affected our race, wiping out any chance of getting close to the podium. In these conditions we didn’t manage to get the most out of our car and now the only thing we can do is keep our concentration high for the next round in Japan, where we get an immediate chance to redeem ourselves. Even if the drivers’ title is now an almost impossible target, we still have an obligation to continue to give our all to the very end of the championship, because we are still fighting for second place in the constructors’ championship.”
McLaren
Jenson Button, 8th
“Turn 3 was always going to be something of a mess on the first lap. And, sure enough, there was an incident; a car got hit, went wide and hit me. That contact damaged my front wing endplate. It didn’t really cause me too much of a problem in terms of staying with the cars in front, but it really started to hurt the temperatures, so we had to pit for a new nosebox on lap four. That cost me a bit of time. Our pace on the prime tyre was very good, however, and I was able to run two strong stints on the prime to stay in the hunt. During my second pit stop, the (pit-release) lights went green then went red again, so I briefly stopped as a precaution straight after I was released. I had a quick look behind me to check that everything was okay – everything seemed fine, so I continued. Considering those delays, eighth place wasn’t a bad result. Still, I was a bit gutted to lose seventh right at the end of the race. As soon as I lost the DRS to the bunch of cars in front, that was it for me: I couldn’t get any temperature back in the tyres. It was always going to be difficult with Nico (Rosberg) at the end: his tyres were almost 10 laps fresher than mine. I did 33 laps on my final set, whereas the previous set did 18! I’m really happy to have picked up those points – four points were about as good as it was going to get today.”
Sergio Perez, 10th
“We definitely deserved more today – we were very unlucky. With regards to my tyre delamination, although that particular set was already quite old, I braked at the same point as normal and got a flat-spot from the lock-up. I’d done 21 laps with that set, when, all of a sudden, the front-right just exploded, destroying the front wing. It was lucky, because there weren’t any other cars around me. Still, from a team point of view, it’s very disappointing for a single incident like this to destroy the good progress we’d made all weekend. Regarding Felipe, we were racing very hard trying to get some points – on one occasion, I thought he was going to leave me more space, then he turned in, I tried to brake and we touched a little bit. On the second incident, I thought I had the corner. I’m pleased that the stewards felt there was no need for any further action – it was just racing.”
Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren team principal
“Sometimes, it takes a difficult race to bring out the strengths of our people – and I’m pleased that, despite our drivers enduring a puncture and two nosebox changes this afternoon, we still managed to get both Jenson and Checo into the points. That was achieved through a combination of great tactics – our strategists worked on the fly to ensure Jenson recovered superbly from an earlier-than-planned stop to replace a damaged front wing; well-executed teamwork – our mechanics performed brilliantly under pressure to replace two broken front wings and a severely delaminated front tyre; and great driver focus – Jenson drove a scarcely believable 33-lap stint on one set of tyres, effectively turning his race into a one-stopper, and Checo showed great racing spirit to take the battle to those around him after a delamination destroyed his right-front tyre and his front wing. To incorporate all those setbacks into a single afternoon, yet still run competitively, is a great bonus to the team. And while the final classification may only show we finished eighth and 10th, those bald facts cruelly fail to do justice to the way we overcame adversity on our way to those positions. Although fighting for minor points finishes isn’t really what we expect at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, today’s results were greatly deserved after a day of extreme difficulty.”
Williams
Valtteri Bottas, 12th
“I was a bit unlucky with the incident on the first lap as I was blocked and lost a position whereas others were able to make up places. The first stint was difficult as I was struggling with the supersoft tyre, but the pace improved a lot in the second stint on the mediums and the safety cars allowed me to close in on the top ten. In the end it was all about making sure we still had the grip in the tyres to fight for some points in the final laps, but I think 12th was a fair result as the cars that finished ahead of us had better pace all weekend.”
Pastor Maldonado, 13th
“I had a very good first lap, moving up to ninth after an incident at turn three allowed me to make up a lot of places. I tried to maintain my position in the top ten but the safety cars hindered my race today as the cars behind were able to keep closing up behind me, and after the second restart they just had too much pace and were able to overtake. It’s disappointing not to finish in the points but the end result is a fair reflection of our performance this weekend and we need to work hard to find some gains for the race next weekend in Japan.”
Xevi Pujolar, Williams Chief race engineer
“It was a busy first lap with Valtteri losing out in the incidents that happened ahead on track, whilst Pastor was able to gain from them and moved from 18th to ninth. Pastor had a good opening stint but graining on the front-right tyres of both cars was becoming increasingly difficult to manage. We still stayed on target for a two-stop strategy with both cars but after we moved from the supersofts to the mediums for the second stint tyre management was still difficult. Valtteri was able to manage the front-right slightly better because Pastor was pushing harder further up the field and we ultimately had to cut Pastor’s second stint slightly short. We used the two safety-car periods to help manage tyre wear to get to the end of the race but we knew it was going to be tough. With more laps on his tyres than those around him, Pastor was unable to defend from Gutiérrez, Perez and Massa in the closing stages. We were close to fighting for points but the car pace unfortunately wasn’t quite good enough.”
Laurent Debout, Renault Sport F1 team support leader
“A chaotic Korean Grand Prix but one that almost worked out in our favour. Pastor did a good job to stay clear of the trouble and ran in the top ten for parts of the race. With a bit more luck we could have scored a point, but the conditions were just so unpredictable that it didn’t go our way in the end.”
Caterham
Charles Pic, 14th
“That was a good race for me I had a good, clean start but into Turn 3 I had to go off track to avoid Massa who’d spun and lost a couple of places. I made them up and for both the first and second stints the car balance felt good. We’d started on supersofts and they held up well for the first stint so we pitted on schedule and re-joined on a set of new mediums. As I say, the car balance felt good and I was on plan when the first safety car came out so we boxed right away for the second stop and at that stage we were looking at a long final stint to the flag. However, then the second safety car was brought out almost immediately and that obviously helped with the tyre management for the final stint. I did have some issues with the front right for the last few laps but nothing too bad so I got the car to the flag in 14th which is a decent result for us – not quite where we want to be but almost!”
Giedo van der Garde, 15th
“My start was great, really strong and when everyone was moving to avoid Massa in Turn 3 I had to push out wide to avoid contact with a few cars around me. I really don’t think I’d pushed any other cars out on purpose on lap one but I was told to box for a drive-through penalty because of what the stewards saw and from there my race was pretty much over. I served the penalty and then had to box again immediately as the supersofts I’d started on were done, so even though I was up as high as 12th in the first stint I re-joined in 22nd and set about catching up Chilton and Bianchi. I was up close to Chilton just when the safety car came out and the team did a great job to help me get past him with a really quick stop on the first safety-car lap. That sort of teamwork needs to be mentioned as it plays such a critical role in the overall race, so the boys deserve a thank you for that.The second safety car came out almost immediately when Mark’s car caught fire and then when we restarted I had a bit of a lock-up at the end of the main straight and Bianchi got past, but within a couple more laps I regained the place and was back behind Charles in 17th. I had a flat spot from that point in the race but kept pushing and finally finished in 15th, just behind Charles. Without the drive-through I’m sure I could have finished higher, maybe not up in 13th, but close and while that’s obviously frustrating today, it shows how close it’s getting and that’s good for my motivation and the whole team.”
Marussia
Jules Bianchi, 16th
“I was hoping to be able to have a good fight with the Caterhams today and despite the setback of the grid penalty I was in a good position after the first couple of corners of the opening lap. It wasn’t too long before we had to focus our efforts on tyre management and the first two stints were pretty tough as we were not able to push. In the third stint, when there was less to lose, we could give it more of a shot but it was not enough to try to take a position from them. We have a tough job on our hands in these next five races and it will require every bit of our focus and concentration, but we know what we have to do and everyone is working very hard for that. My thanks to the team as it is not just tough in the cockpit!”
Max Chilton, 17th
“Overall, a good team result today as we achieved the right outcome for our bigger picture. I think we were lacking a little in terms of our expected race pace but also we were unable to really push because of the need to manage our way through each stint with the tyres. The opening lap melée set me back a little but then I caught back up to Jules and the two safety cars meant that we never had the blue flag situation to worry about. The pit stops were really slick and I think we did everything we could. We are much closer to the Caterham cars, we know that, but we need to be able to carry that through into the race to make things a little more comfortable. ”
John Booth, Marussia team principal
“It was a tough race today but one that the whole team has done a fantastic job to manage. Indeed, ‘management’ was really the word of the day. We knew it would be tough to complete a two stop race, but we felt that this gave us our best opportunity of being in a position to take advantage of any safety cars that came along. The starts were very good this week and we have definitely made progress in this area. The rest of the race was really quite difficult in terms of continuous lap by lap calculations to determine the pace we should run at in order to make our two stop strategy work. This is quite labour intensive for the engineers and drivers but I’m pleased with the job we did with this. We are still a little way off where we need to be in terms of outright pace, however we can take some comfort that on a couple of occasions today we were racing our nearest competitor. We are hopeful that with a few smaller developments we have coming over the next few races, we can take a further step forward to ensure we are best placed to deal with any further races of attrition which may arise in the remaining five races, given our objective.”
Toro Rosso
Jean-Eric Vergne, 18th
“At the moment, we’re not quite sure what happened in the end. I felt the car pull to one side and something was clearly not right, so the team called me into the pits. Starting from 16th, this was always going to be a difficult weekend and after I made up a few places in the early stages, I began to suffer with tyre degradation, so I agreed when the team decided to switch me from a two to a three stop strategy. I just want to get to Suzuka and start again now, but we will need to do a lot of work if we want to return to the performance level we should have had here.”
Daniel Ricciardo, 19th
“I think we did all we could today in the race. I had a decent first stint and tried to run as long as possible on the Prime tyre. The car wasn’t perfect but it was good enough to be in a points position with a few laps to go and I was hanging on nicely to ninth. It’s deja vu, as I had the same scenario here last year, when I came down to Turn 3 with a few laps to go, I braked and the car immediately shot to the left. That time it cost me one place. Once I got out of the cockpit this time, I could see there was a mechanical problem at the front left corner. Personally, I was really pleased with my performance in the car today. Maybe we didn’t have a top-ten car but I was able to fight in the top ten. But for myself and the team it’s frustrating to get no reward. Now all we can do is look ahead to Suzuka.”
Franz Tost, Toro Rosso team principal
“Daniel was the only driver to start on the medium tyre as we wanted to try something different on the strategy front to make up some places. It seemed to work well, as he made up a few positions by mid race. However, the safety car came at the wrong time for him, but we had to bring him in, knowing he would have a tough final stint on the supersofts. He did a good job of managing his tyres and defending his ninth place quite comfortably. Then with two laps to go, we had a mechanical issue on the car which we will investigate when we get it back and he had to park at the side of the track. Jev had a harder afternoon, starting from further back and, after making up a few places, the heavy traffic in the back of the field meant he had higher tyre degradation. We decided to switch him to a three stop strategy, but in the end we had to retire him with what might be a similar problem to Daniel’s car.”
Force India
Adrian Sutil, 20th
“I was quite unlucky on the first lap because after Massa spun everybody headed for the inside and somebody hit me on the side of my front wing. The damage was not too bad but I still had to pit for a new one. As the race went on I was able to fight back quite well and after the safety car I was in P12 and not planning to pit again. At the restart I lost the rear of the car under braking for Turn 3. I really don’t know why because I was not braking late and the car just snapped. I hit Webber so I apologise for ending his race. It’s a disappointing end to the race because I believe there was still a chance of a point.”
Paul di Resta, DNF
“I have to hold my hands up and apologise to the team. Maybe I took a little bit too much kerb and that sent me off the track. The way we’ve set the car up means it has been quite edgy and difficult to drive, and that’s what has caught me out today, although whether it has cost us points is hard to say. The performance in the race was not where we wanted it to be and the front tyres were wearing out too quickly. So we need to have a rethink ahead of Suzuka and go there determined to have a clean race.”
Robert Fernley, Force India deputy team principal
“It was not the easiest day in the office for anyone at Sahara Force India and we leave Korea feeling disappointed. Paul was pushing hard after his second stop and just made a small mistake at Turn 12. It was a fairly gentle tap against the barrier, but it was enough to damage the right rear corner and end his race. Adrian also had an eventful time, being a victim of the opening lap incident at Turn 3. Pitting early for a new wing dropped him to the back of the pack, but he battled back and was in contention for some points. Unfortunately the damage to his rear wing led to his eventual retirement. After a tough race like that it’s important we try and bounce back in Japan next week.”
Pirelli
Paul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport director
“With the medium compound proving to be the ideal race tyre, most drivers aimed to get onto it as soon as possible, with teams reacting from the start of the race to the strategies that had been put in place by their immediate rivals. We had a tyre choice that may have been aggressive, with the supersoft being a perfect qualifying tyre and the medium optimal for the race, but this was in accordance with the requests of many of the teams. Regarding Sergio Perez’s front-right tyre issue we have been able to determine very quickly that it was the result of a flat spot caused by a lock-up under heavy braking. We’re obviously on exactly the same construction as we raced here last year, so there’s no underlying problem, while flat spots or punctures have just always been an integral part of racing. The two safety-car periods had an important effect on the race strategy, which meant that all the finishers apart from one completed the race with just two stops. Without safety cars, we probably would have seen more people stopping three times, but it was always going to be within the two to three stop window, which has been our target since we came into Formula One.”
Nevertheless, race day is the one that counts and seeing as Vettel has put together a near perfect season there was no reason to suspect he would not ace the start of this race either. He did exactly that as he swooped into the lead of the race as the red lights extinguished and never looked back. A Singapore-style domination ensued and Vettel was more than a minute ahead of sixth place by lap 35. Alonso was the sixth placed man.
As Vettel disappeared down the road quicker than the sun could set, the dice for second remained close all the way to the chequered flag. Rosberg ran second for the first quarter of the race ahead of Mark Webber who was suffering with a slight KERS issue. By the 20th lap however, AussieGrit was on it once more and took second place from Rosberg. Romain Grosjean kept both the Mercedes and Red Bull honest throughout the race but was unable to mount a challenge for the remaining steps of the podium.
Several incidents throughout the race required the stewards’ attention but only Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg was given a drive-through penalty for an unsafe release in the pitlane. Adrian Sutil and Pastor Maldonado were under investigation for exceeding the track limits as was Alonso. The incident involving Sutil and Maldonado was chalked up to a racing incident, but Alonso’s off track excursion was reserved for judgement after the race. The Spaniard switched to the soft compound tyres on lap 44 and rejoined the circuit alongside Jean-Eric Vergne. However, Alonso was outside of the track limits, as indicated by the white lines, when he made the pass on the Toro Rosso driver. Alonso was quoted post race as saying that Vergne should have given him more space. The stewards agreed with Alonso and no penalty was imposed.
lap and fifth overall. Paul di Resta resisted pressure from Hamilton in the closing stages of the race to finish sixth. Hamilton managed seventh place on the day as Felipe Massa, who enjoyed a long stint ahead of his teammate, brought his Ferrari home in eighth place. Sergio Perez snatched ninth place from Sutil on the final lap as they rounded out the points paying positions.
