Well I spent the last few moments of yesterday's elongated post predicting that the 2012 Korean Grand Prix would be a little short of entertainment, in the hope that the race would defy those expectations. Rising to the challenge posted, much in the same way Valencia managed with a similarly uninspiring layout and minimal prospects. The BBC team made a point of showing the conflicts that had erupted in the previous two races at the Yeongnam circuit, and the majority of those were a result of the wet conditions in 2010 and some sporadic efforts of overtaking in the second race. All in effort of bolstering the image of the 55 laps that were to take place following all of the pre-race build up.
But in reality all those dreams and aspirations turned into approximately three corners of racing, with the occasional little battle further down the field but the competition for the first five places was decided by the exit of turn 6. With the exception of one car slipping out of the running through mechanical difficulties. Meaning the attentions were shifted a little further down the field where on the odd occasion, something was going on from time to time at the bottom end of the points positions. It wasn't an entirely event-less race, and there certainly have been less exciting encounters. In comparison to previous seasons in the original reign of Schumacher, today's race would have been considered the outright highlight of the year. Demonstrating the transition the sport has made since those processional years, I think the Hungarian GP of 2003 (probably) would go down as the most uneventful race of all time. So compared to that today was a thrilling experience, not that 9 year old comparisons matter all too much in the every changing world of F1.
 |
| credit to F1Fanatic for the image |
Before the race was started the world was treated to a display of both hilarious and disturbing dancing by the entire of the BBC presenting team, who were being more enthusiastic then they probably should have been. What is more frightening is when the other people here at blog HQ decided to join in - I sensibly enough declined to follow the masses in mimicking the mad Korean who may as well own the internet at the moment. But as long as some of the people who do float around the realm of cyberspace find themselves here over the course of the weekend, I'm sure I can cope with that fact.
As the cars lined up the sky looked as murky as it did for qualifying, draining all the colour out of the scenery, not that there really is any scenery to look at on the other side of the concrete barriers. It would explain why the barriers are there, because the run-off behind them is a bunch of abandoned agricultural land - and cars spearing off into those areas wouldn't go down too well. On the formation lap Jenson Button took a little longer to leave the grid, prompting a little wave of the nearest yellow flag. But nothing was going wrong with the car, and Jenson was able to regain his position in the train of cars ahead of One-Stop Perez's Sauber.
Off the line it was Vettel who got the best launch, enough to draw alongside his team-mate taking the position through the middle of the first corner. It was all being rather organised, through turn one, well for the first half of the field behaved anyway, further back One-Stop Perez threw the car down the inside, locking everything up to avoid spearing into the cars ahead. The Sauber brushed the back of Hulkenberg's Force India and forced Button and Rosberg out wide on the exit. Back at the front a series of drag races were evolving on the straight, the two Red Bulls ran two wide, but behind them Alonso and Hamilton were also side by side. Then Kimi looked at the two cars in front of them and decided to make it three wide on the run down to turn three. The top 6 cars were virtually occupying the same space in the braking zone yet they all made it through on the track and without contact. A similar situation could not be said a little further back - as the two wide combat between Rosberg and Button was about to gain another contender. However Kamui tried to join in the battle through a gap which didn't really exist pinballing between the two. Rosberg suffered a damaged radiator and Button ruined front suspension, while Kobayashi drove away with a rear puncture.
The battles at the front hadn't sorted themselves out before charging into turn four, where the main fight was between Raikkonen and Hamilton - Lewis defended to the inside forcing Kimi wide. The Lotus was looking on to take the place but the McLaren driver pushed him off the outside of the track allowing Massa to pick up the place at the second phase of the complex. That concluded the competition for the positions at the front end of the field for a considerable period of time - and were there not to be mechanical interventions later on then things wouldn't have changed at all. It was at this point we saw the victims of Kamui's accident pull off the road and into retirement, Button on the exit of turn four, and Rosberg in a gap in the fence down the long DRS straight. Nico's car brought out the yellows for a considerable amount of time as marshals recovered the car, and also cancelling the DRS activation.
As things stabilised at the front of the field it was the turn of the mid-field runners to have some fun - where the Toro Rosso team were executing a series of coordinated strikes on the cars in front, running in attack formation. Their first target was the Williams of Pastor Maldonado, swarming all over the back of the Venezuelan before Jean Eric Vergne opened the door in the complex of corners at the back of the track. Ricciardo tried to follow through but almost lost the nose of the car through the sweepers in sector two, but that only delayed the inevitable and the second of the Toro Rossos was through. The pair both cruised up onto the back of the second Williams of Bruno Senna, Vergne made the pass at the end of the long straight, while Ricciardo deployed DRS on the following lap - allowing the STR Squadron to motor on towards their next victim.
Another little battle brewing, was between Schumacher and the Force India of Paul Di Resta over the final point in tenth position - Di Resta using the DRS down the back straight to get alongside the Mercedes but Michael always managed to do enough to maintain the position. Aside from that little duel not too much was going on a fact that several of the drivers noticed so they decided to take this opportunity to visit the pit lane, starting with Hamilton on lap 14, followed shortly by the remainder of the top six drivers. Such was the lack of action on the track Grosjean and Hulkenberg decided to wage their battle in the pit lane instead, after had discovered his DRS was seemingly useless against the speed of the Force India in a straight line. However despite a wave of the hand from the Frenchman, Hulkenbergs pit crew kept him ahead of the Lotus driver.
As the leaders filtered back onto the track following their stops they had to negotiate the Sauber of One-Stop Perez who as per normal was staying out longer than most of the grid. Sergio was passed by Alonso into turn four, and then by Hamilton on the exit as the older tyres compromised his traction on the exit. On the other side of the garage things were even worse for Kamui - who was handed a drive through penalty before pulling the car into retirement likely due to damage taken in the crash. He was joined by Pedro De La Rosa seemingly a victim of a mechanical problem in the HRT. Perez's longer game was starting to exhibit flaws in pace, as he was rapidly caught and passed by Massa and then by Raikkonen both using DRS to demote the Sauber.
Another period of inactivity followed with everyone trundling round in position, until Hamilton started to haemorrhage lap time falling back towards Massa, this time last season this would be considered a recipe for contact. In a period when the two drivers were less than friends, this time around things were more civil - bordering on orderly as the Ferrari was able simply to drive down the inside on the DRS. As soon as the red car vanished into the distance a black and gold one was growing larger in the McLaren's mirrors as the Lotus of Raikkonen closed down the gap. Their battle went on for a little longer - a consequence of the lower straight line speed of the Lotus in comparison to most of the other cars they had been fighting with over the course of the race. However after a couple of laps of looking for a way round the outside Kimi was able to get by on the outside of turn three. But Hamilton used some KERs power to retake the place in turn four, Raikkonen held on the outside but Lewis forced him off there for the second time of the race.
Instead of drawing out the battle Kimi took to the pits - which meant there was another interval where nothing was going on - and nothing would go on at the front with the minor exception of gap fluctuations. Only the DRS zone was seeing some rudimentary action as Ricciardo steamed past the Mercedes of Schumacher; a feat Grosjean attempted on Hulkenberg but once more the speed of the Lotus let him down and the Force India held onto the position. Finally Romain was able to use the zone to make the pass after a couple unsuccessful efforts on previous laps, and what did he do with the clear air in front of him. Drive across the apex of the final turn throwing dirt across the track narrowly missing the large apex curb, the last car that ended up there finished in the wall, oddly enough in the same seat that Grosjean is in now, back when the team was Renault and Petrov knocked some wheels off.
Another small battle was forming at the bottom of the points as Schumacher had the attentions of Di Resta and Perez. Also the Ferraris had closed in on each other, Massa proving to be the fastest of the two, something that seemed almost offensive to the people inside the team as Felipe had to be ordered to drop back from his team-mate. Almost as if it was considered an insult for the Brazilian to be anywhere near the other car, forced off by the vengeful hand of team orders. Hamilton meanwhile had the attentions of Grosjean and Hulkenberg - and it turns out even a wounded McLaren can be very wide indeed. Romain looked to the outside of turn three but Lewis pushed him off to the outside allowing Nico to close in. As Hamilton had to deal with the Lotus in turn four Hulkenberg went round the outside of the pair of them, despite Lewis pushing him off on the exit, Nico was able to hold the line into five and claim the position. It was a good time for Hamilton to pit and be far enough away from anyone else so he didn't push any more drivers towards the scenery.
With laps running out a series of radio calls went out to Vettel in the lead, threatening that the front tyre could fail at any point without warning and that he would only be a passenger after it failed. All conveyed in the most anxious tone of voice every other corner, trying to encourage Vettel to calm down with reminders that at any moment the car could fire itself into a concrete wall - comforting. Considering from the TV footage the tyres didn't look any worse than anyone else's - and they weren't receiving prophecies of doom so close to the finish. Even more inactivity followed, so much even the track was trying to leave - astroturf in the final sector parting company from the circuit.
It turned out the pit stop didn't do anything to rescue his dismal race as he found himself under-pressure from the Toro Rosso team - still running in formation and attacking a unit with Ricciardo leading Vergne. Using the straight line speed of the car both were able to pass the McLaren to duel among themselves for the remainder of the race. But some of the Italian nature of the team must have sank through as Ricciardo allowed his team-mate through under what can be assumed to be team orders. As Hamilton had to sit in behind watching them blue cars disappear further ahead. This did mean however he had no-one else to push around, so he turned his attention to assaulting the track instead, peeling more of the astroturf with his right turning vane. Dragging a strip of the green material around, further hampering performance allowing One-Stop Perez to catch the McLaren looking for the final point.
Oddly Vettel's car hadn't imploded with a catastrophic tyre failure, and in fact nothing happened at all to the German bloke as he crossed the line to extend the run of domination the team have shown and taking the championship lead in the process. Not that their championship matters too much around here. The second Red Bull crossed the line - also with all four tyres inflated - ahead of Alonso rounding out the podium. Massa was allowed to finish 4th, remaining a regulation distance from his team-mate as not to endure the wrath of the Italian Mafia. More points for Raikkonen in 5th, but seeing his run for the title slowly ebb even further out of reach, Hulkenberg finished the leader of the mid-field teams between the two Lotus drivers. Grosjean was seventh, managing to finish the race without hitting anyone in the process - even in a brief battle with the other villain of the season Maldonado. A collision between those two would have released enough energy to probably end the world, so we were gladly spared that. Remaining in the formation they'd been all race the STR cars finished 8th and 9th with Vergne in front, ahead of Hamilton still with carpet fending off Perez for the last point.
The Bonus Points Championship points winners
Right, where are points going to be assigned here then, because for a small amount of the battling that took place a whole lot of nothing filled the points and finding enough people to hand points to has been challenging but here goes.
- 25pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Another strong race leading the mid-field with a great double pass on the outside of turn four
- 18pts - Jean-Eric Vergne - The leader of the STR rebellion force encountering the traffic first in making moves through the field
- 15pts - Daniel Ricciardo - Making 6 places off the start line and then working with Vergne to move into the points
- 12pts - Felipe Massa - For being faster than Fernando and being defeated by his own team orders
- 10pts - Vitaly Petrov - For being the leader of the bottom division of cars despite losing the place initially to Heikki
- 8pts - Sebastien Vettel - Fine have some points for winning
- 6pts - Romain Grosjean - For not hitting anyone off the start and racing well throughout
- 4pts - BBC Team - Humourous points for dancing with that Psy chap pre-race
- 2pts - Kamui Kobayashi - His pinball score from the first lap lunacy
- 1pt - Mother - For joining in the BBC dance session, despite how creepy it was
The Penalties championship
Yesterday it was assumed that we escaped without penalties, only those for technical issues caused changes to the grid before the race this morning, but today has been a little different and we have two penalties to add to the table.
- Kamui Kobayashi - Drive through penalty - For taking out Rosberg and Button in turn three
- Mercedes - 10,000 EUR fine - For an unsafe release in qualifying yesterday in front of Hamilton
The Penalty Points championship
The second of the penalty based championships also has some additions from the second phase of the event and these are as follows:
- Lewis Hamilton - For pushing everyone off the edge of the circuit
- Ferrari - I know team orders are legalised but a penalty point is still coming their way for the commands towards Felipe Massa.
- Korea - For being dull
Looking ahead to India
From one new venue to another as we leave the land of dodgy dancing and ship-building and head back west a little to a vibrant world of colour, culture and curries. A track that was added to the calendar last season and in some respects shares a lot of design concepts with the layout of Yeongnam, as it has the same dual nature in terms of the disparity between two phases of the lap. In India we too have a section introduced for the sole purpose of introducing overtaking, aided with a new concept of wider breaking zones. Where the width of the track is extended closer to the apex, not that it seemed to help too much in the races. Round the other half of the track the corners are more flowing and faster, but once more suffers the problem of being designed in a computer in an office and doesn't mesh together in the same way that Spa or Suzuka would.
The problem that this and the tracks that follow it have is that they would appear to play to the strengths of the Red Bull team almost handing the title over to Vettel before the crates leave Korean soil. Ferrari held the lead with Fernando for a long time, but the speed of the Red Bull team has enough momentum to make even the six point lead Vettel now has an unassailable gap. Raikkonen in third is looking to maintain that position in the championship but anything further forward is too far out of reach despite being mathematically possible. The same can be said for the McLarens, and Webber - the remaining three drivers who are numerically within a shot of winning, but with no realistic chance. However that title only plays a small supporting role to the main event which is the bonus points championship which is completely wide open - before this weekend all of the 60 contenders were mathematically able to take the tile. So as the races run out and only four weeks of the season left, we'll see who can become the second ever bonus points champion.
No comments:
Post a Comment