The Midfield
Gutierrez was unable to match the race craft of his more experienced teammate in the second Sauber, and disappointingly dropped back out of the top ten to finish 11th, just outside the points. He felt they had the pace to be inside the top ten and learnt a lot, disappointed not to come away with anything. Williams had a better race than they had qualifying, but still were unable to capture any points as Bottas finished 12th and Maldonado 13th. It was a shame as Maldonado was running in the points after the safety cars, however they soon fell prey to better machinery and were overtaken in the almighty battle with Massa, Perez and Gutierrez for the final points. Both drivers felt it was a fair representation of their cars level at the moment. Midfield staple Torro Rosso had a Korean weekend to forget, as after running in the points until near the end with Ricciardo, both cars suffered failures within a lap of each other, Ricciardo on lap 52 with front left suspension problems and Vergne on lap 53 with similar front end woes, leaving them completely empty handed and with a weekend they will be keen to move on from, especially since it saw them drop to eighth in the constructors race behind the recovering Sauber team. Similarly, Force India recorded a double retirement, with Paul di Resta spinning out on lap 24 as he dropped the car in turn 12 and slid into the barriers. It is another uncharacteristic mistake from the young Scot and his fourth DNF in a row, and ultimately is damaging his hopes of a better drive next season, especially with Hulkenberg showing so strongly of late. Sutil was in the wars as he raced in the midfield, which culminated on lap 36 as he spun into Mark Webber, setting the Australians car ablaze and damaging his rear wing. After an inspection Force India elected to change the tyres and continue, but he later retired on lap 50 when the team pulled him in. Another disappointing weekend for Force India, who saw McLaren take another double points finish and gradually extend their lead on them to 19 points.