Formula 1 2013 Korean Grand Prix – Vettel Victorious Again

Qualifying

Yet again, Vettel took pole position for Red Bull, his fourth in a row and sixth of the year, and 208th for a Renault-powered car, beating Ferrari's tally of 207. The margin was closer though as Hamilton took a tight second for Mercedes, ahead of the second Red Bull of Mark Webber for third before his penalty. Hamilton was very pleased with his result, feeling he'd got everything from the car and that there was a good opportunity for the race. Rosberg was quite disappointed to only manage 5th place, struggling with balance issues, but felt they could do better on Sunday and with start P4 thanks to Webber's penalty. Behind them, Lotus made a surprise turn in the hands of Grosjean as he snatched P4 (P3 after penalties), and thought a good result possible. Raikkonen wasn't so comfortable, and after a mistake on his new tyres in Q3 only ended up tenth, though gains to ninth for the race where he felt their long-run pace would help. Ferrari's practice pace translated into qualifying as Alonso and Massa took 6th and 7th respectively (P5 and P6 after penalty), and neither driver was particularly happy. Alonso felt their race pace would be better but they have tyre management issues, whilst Massa felt they should have been closer to their rivals and didn't get the best from the car. Behind them Sauber really pulled one out of the bag as both drivers really got in the groove with the car, with Hulkenberg taking eighth and Gutierrez grabbing ninth behind him (P7 and P8 after penalty), and they felt that the car had good long run pace that should help their race, but were wary of cars behind. McLaren's afternoon was disappointing as after a decent practice they only managed 11th and 12th (P10 and P11 after penalty), not making it into Q3. Perez made a small mistake, while Button felt he was slightly held up by Raikkonen, however they were confident their high top speed, from a mixture of aerodynamics and gear ratios, should give them good overtaking performance for the race to go forwards with. Torro Rosso improved from practice, but not as much as they hoped with Ricciardo securing 13th (P12 after penalty) and Vergne only managing 16th. Neither driver was happy with the car despite improvements, and felt the race would be tough. Force India had another lacklustre qualifying with Sutil finishing 14th and Di Resta 15th. Sutil was disappointed as he was close to the top ten, and Di Resta felt their race-focused approach hampered qualifying. Both drivers thought race pace was good though, and a good strategy might see them bag some points. Williams struggled and didn't make it out of Q1, with Bottas 17th and Maldonado 18th. Bottas simply didn't have the grip in the cooler conditions, whilst Maldonado also suffered with traffic, leaving them out early on. Caterham again edged rivals Marussia out, with Pic taking 19th just seven thousandths of a second ahead of teammate Van der Garde. Both drivers were upbeat and hoped to fight with Williams in the race. Jules Bianchi was close to the Caterhams, though not as much as in FP3, and took 21st place, which was later penalised to 22nd for inhibiting Paul di Resta in the final sector. Chilton was close to his teammate for 22nd, promoted to 21st, and was encouraged by the pace they showed.
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Self-confessed Geek; Aerospace Engineer with a passion for Formula 1, Engineering, Science and Cinema.