Sebastian Vettel has retaken the lead of this year’s World Championship after a commanding win in Korea today. Mark Webber emphasised Red Bull’s strong pace to finish second, having started on pole position.
Vettel was able to make a better start than his team mate and took the lead. Despite seeing of a stern challenge from Webber on the opening lap, from there Vettel was never challenged and took his third win in a row. He now leads Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso in the championship by six points with a hundred still to play for.
“I think it was a perfect day for me and the team. It was important to get a good start. I was able to out-accelerate Mark and get side by side, I had the inside for Turn 3 and a good exit, which meant I could stay ahead for Turn 4. I was in the lead, but we have seen before that it doesn’t always stick. My one mistake today was a lock-up going in to Turn 3, but with the tyres it was marginal for everyone,” Vettel said of his afternoon’s work.
“You couldn’t push so much and my front right didn’t look too happy from the inside many times. We were able to pull away in the first and second stint and hold it for the third. We will have to do our best to remain where we are now. We have to just keep it simple and do our job.”
Webber blamed yellow flags in sector one for a failure to have a go at re-passing his team mate.
“I had a bit too much clutch off the line, which was disappointing. I put up a fight on the back straight with Sebastian, as it wasn’t all over. I tried to make a move, but once I pulled out of his slipstream, both of us were on the same speed. After that I was going quite well in the first part of the race. I couldn’t use DRS, due to the yellow flags and after that it became a tyre battle. The second stint wasn’t so good, as I went a bit slower to conserve the tyres, but that made the degradation a bit worse. “
“The last stint was the strongest, but it was too late by then. Congratulations to Sebastian on the win and it’s great for the team that we got a one two, especially for the Constructors’, but I have mixed emotions. It was a good result, but of course, I wanted to get the top result today.”
“A phenomenal team result. It was our first one two of the season and a great performance. Both drivers executed excellent races. Sebastian made the better start and he and Mark ran side by side all the way down the straight to Turn 3, but gave each other just enough room. Thereafter it was a case of tyre management and executing a good strategic race, which we did with both cars to seal our first one two of 2012. It’s been a very positive ten days and it’s important we continue to build on the momentum going into the final four races,” Christian Horner concluded.
