2012 Korean Grand Prix

  2012 Korean Grand Prix

Race details
Race 16 of 20 in the 2012 Formula One season
Date	14 October 2012
Official name	2012 Formula 1 Korean Grand Prix[1]
Location	Yeongam, South Jeolla, South Korea
Course	Korea International Circuit
Course length	5.621[2] km (3.493 mi)
Distance	55 laps, 309.155 km (192.100 mi)
Weather	Fine and Dry[3] Air Temp 21 °C (70 °F)[3] Track Temp 27 °C (81 °F) dropping to 23 °C (73 °F)[3]
Attendance	Poor [4]
Pole position
Driver	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault
Time	1:37.242
Fastest lap
Driver	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault
Time	1:42.037 on lap 54
Podium
First	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault
Second	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault
Third	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari
Lap leaders

The 2012 Korean Grand Prix (formally known as the 2012 Formula 1 Korean Grand Prix)^[1] was a Formula One motor race that was the sixteenth round of the 2012 Formula One season. It was held on 14 October 2012 at the Korea International Circuit near Yeongam in South Korea's South Jeolla Province.^[5] The race marked the third running of the Korean Grand Prix.^[6]

Mark Webber started the race from pole alongside Sebastian Vettel,^[7] who went on to win the race.^[8] With championship rival Fernando Alonso finishing third, Vettel took a six-point championship lead.^[9]

Report

Background

In the week before the race, the FIA announced that the drag reduction system zone on the circuit would be altered from its 2011 position, bringing the activation point forward by 200 metres (660 ft).^[10][11] The detection point will also be brought forward; in 2011, it was positioned between the first two corners, but for 2012, it was moved to be 90 metres (300 ft) before the first corner.

Like the 2011 Korean Grand Prix, tyre supplier Pirelli brought its yellow-banded soft compound tyre as the harder "prime" tyre and the red-banded supersoft compound tyre as the softer "option" tyre.^[12]

Marussia's Charles Pic was given a ten-place grid penalty for exceeding the maximum number of engines that he was permitted to use over the course of the season.^[13]

Several reserve drivers took the place of regular drivers for the first free practice session. Giedo van der Garde drove in place of Caterham's Vitaly Petrov, while Jules Bianchi replaced Nico Hülkenberg at Force India, Valtteri Bottas drove Bruno Senna's Williams and Dani Clos took Narain Karthikeyan's place at HRT.^[14]

Free practice

In contrast to the practice sessions of the 2010 and 2011 races, the first free practice session of the 2012 race took place in dry conditions. Lewis Hamilton ended the session as fastest driver, three tenths of a second ahead of Fernando Alonso — who had led most of the ninety-minute session — with Mark Webber in third place.^[14] Sebastian Vettel was fastest in the second session,^[15] leading team-mate Webber and Alonso in third. Like the first session, the second passed without incident, although Sergio Pérez was forced out after forty-five minutes of running when his Sauber lost all power and ground to a halt at Turn 12. Pérez was able to safely park the car, allowing the session to continue uninterrupted.

Race

Mark Webber, who qualified on pole, lost his lead at start to team-mate Sebastian Vettel at the first turn. Lewis Hamilton lost his third place to Alonso on first lap, while his team mate Jenson Button had to retire after a collision with Kobayashi, who also collided with Nico Rosberg of Mercedes. Felipe Massa moved to 4th place after overtaking Hamilton who was suffering from an anti-roll bar failure on his car, which led him to lose couple of places in the race. Massa was quickly gaining on his team-mate when he was told to hold his position on his team radio as Alonso was the championship contender. At the end of the race Vettel was continuously told on his team radio to slow down and save tyres as he had a problem with tyre degradation on his right-front tyre. Vettel finished first and took a six-point lead in the Championship over third-placed Fernando Alonso, who had led since the European Grand Prix. Webber finished second, setting the fastest lap. Lewis Hamilton finished 10th after battling for position with the two Toro Rossos of Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Éric Vergne, but fell back in the closing laps as a piece of AstroTurf got stuck on one of his car's sidepods.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Part 1	Part 2	Part 3	Grid
1	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:38.397	1:38.220	1:37.242	1
2	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1:38.208	1:37.767	1:37.316	2
3	4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:39.180	1:38.000	1:37.469	3
4	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:39.144	1:37.987	1:37.534	4
5	9	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	1:38.887	1:38.227	1:37.625	5
6	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:38.937	1:38.253	1:37.884	6
7	10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:38.863	1:38.275	1:37.934	7
8	12	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:38.981	1:38.428	1:38.266	8
9	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:38.999	1:38.417	1:38.361	9
10	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:38.808	1:38.436	1:38.513	10
11	3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:38.615	1:38.441		11
12	15	Sergio Pérez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:38.630	1:38.460		12
13	14	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:38.719	1:38.594		13
14	11	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:38.942	1:38.643		14
15	18	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1:39.024	1:38.725		15
16	16	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:38.784	1:39.084		211
17	17	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:38.774	1:39.340		16
18	19	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	1:39.443			17
19	21	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault	1:40.207			18
20	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	1:40.333			19
21	25	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	1:41.317			242
22	24	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	1:41.371			20
23	22	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	1:42.881			22
107% time: 1:45.082
—	23	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	no time3			23
Source:[7]

Notes:

• ^1 — Daniel Ricciardo received a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change.^[16]
• ^2 — Charles Pic was given a ten-place grid penalty for exceeding the maximum number of engines permitted for use over the course of the season.^[13]
• ^3 — Narain Karthikeyan failed to set a time after having a brake failure. He was allowed to race at the stewards' discretion.

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	55	1:36:28.651	2	25
2	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	55	+8.231	1	18
3	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	55	+13.944	4	15
4	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	55	+20.168	6	12
5	9	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	55	+36.739	5	10
6	12	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	55	+45.301	8	8
7	10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	55	+54.812	7	6
8	17	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	55	+1:09.589	16	4
9	16	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	55	+1:11.787	21	2
10	4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	55	+1:19.692	3	1
11	15	Sergio Pérez	Sauber-Ferrari	55	+1:20.062	12
12	11	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	55	+1:24.448	14
13	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	55	+1:29.241	10
14	18	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	55	+1:34.924	15
15	19	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	55	+1:36.902	17
16	21	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault	54	+1 Lap	18
17	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	54	+1 Lap	19
18	24	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	54	+1 Lap	20
19	25	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	53	+2 Laps	24
20	23	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	53	+2 Laps	23
Ret	22	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	16	Throttle	22
Ret	14	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	16	Collision damage	13
Ret	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1	Collision damage	9
Ret	3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	0	Collision	11
Source:[8]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 1 Sebastian Vettel 215 1 2 Fernando Alonso 209 3 Kimi Räikkönen 167 4 Lewis Hamilton 153 5 Mark Webber 152

Constructors' Championship standings Pos. Constructor Points 1 Red Bull-Renault 367 1 2 Ferrari 290 1 3 McLaren-Mercedes 284 4 Lotus-Renault 255 5 Mercedes 136

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

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