The Korean Grand Prix - Highlights Formula 1

This is a country with so much to boast about and for three years

they have been able to boast about the Yeongam circuit. This year

there is so much to fight for. 12 months ago, Sebastian Vettel was

already the world champion when he got here. But that is no tt case.

Four points separating Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso. And in

the constructors' battle, Red Bull have led the way in the last few

seasons, but McLaren are pushing them hard. All the action coming

your way with David and Ben Edwards. But first Lee McKenzie with what

happened in qualifying. Q1 got off to a flying start. Narain

Karthikeyan had a brakes failure. Jenson Button had a disappointing

day. He qualified in 11th. Fernando Alonso said his performance in

qualifying was better than he expected and this season with

Ferrari stronger on race days than Saturdays, he should be happy with

fourth position. Lewis Hamilton hadn't looked come forable, but he

was desperate to get on to the front row of the grid and even

overtook Michael Schumacher. Mercedes were fined for an unsafe

release and Lewis Hamilton was almost on the money, but settled

for third. Red Bull locked out the front row. Sebastian Vettel looked

the man most likely to secure pole, but Mark Webber was at the front.

And for the first time this season the Aussie was fastest on Saturday.

So Mark Webber is on pole, with Sebastian Vettel waiting to pounce

in second. Lewis Hamilton is third and Fernando Alonso fourth. Kimi

Raikkonen and Felipe Massa are on the fourth row. Romain Grosjean is

desperate for a trouble-free start, using more than the allocated eight

engines and starts at the back of the grid. Two years ago in Korea,

Fernando Alonso turned a 14-point deficit to an 11-point advantage.

Today he is in danger of losing a lead he has held for eight Grand

Prix. 24 cars line up to start the Korean Grand Prix, the key stage in

the Championship. Lights out, away we go, Mark Webber versus Sebastian

Vettel. Kimi Raikkonen on the outside. Sebastian Vettel has the

advantage. But it is Sebastian Vettel, here comes Mark Webber.

Mark Webber will try and get him back. Fernando Alonso side by side,

with Lewis Hamilton behind. Who will get the run into this tight

hairpin? Watch out for Fernando Alonso in third. Felipe Massa tries

to go around the outside, Nico Hulkenberg is close. Romain

Grosjean is safe. He is staying out of trouble for the moment. Lewis

Hamilton with a chance to fight with Kimi Raikkonen, as Fernando

Alonso tries to go outside of Mark Webber. David, there is a lot going

on. Koult koult -- DAVID COULTHARD: And there has been some damage

further down. Felipe Massa going wheel to wheel with the Lotus car.

Look at Sebastian Vettel, crucially opening out the lead but what an

absolute example of wheel to wheel racing. And there this a damage.

Jenson Button. RADIO: Been hit by Kobayashi. What an idiot. Oh dear,

it is Kobayashi, he says that took him outment and Jenson Button's

race is over. Well I think what he said pretty much sums up exactly

what happened. Jenson Button was on the left hand side going into turn

three and Kobayashi in the Sauber came out of nowhere and hit the

front right of that McLaren. Disappointment for Jenson Button.

And for the hero of the hour, remember how they raced so hard

against each other in Japan and Copenhagen -- Kobayashi took third

ahead of him. And Jenson Button congratulated him. Romain Grosjean

has gone through safely. Perez is up to ninth. Some racing going on

further back. Heikki Kovalinan ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, but

Daniel Ricciardo is ahead of Petrov. Daniel Ricciardo had a grid penalty.

Two Red Bulls up there, Ferrari, McLaren and both Lotuses in the top

ten. Michael Schumacher is further ahead than Rosberg. What has

happened to Rosberg? He is 14th at the moment. But dropped some time

at the start of this race. Jenson Button standing beside his car in

the run-off area. Disappointing. Not only is he out of race and

Rosberg as well. I wondered what happened to him. That is two

retirements in two races. He had gone throughout the year without

any retirements. Kobayashi in the pits. Hoe does restart. Let's see a

replay of the start. Sebastian Vettel hooked up that start well.

Lewis Hamilton was going for the gap and as the Red Bulls closed

together. He had to back out and this allowed and he can see. There

was contact between Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg. I think that is

probably what put Nico United o' -- out of position. And they are

approaching 200 mph and here is an example with professional drivers

managing to mix it, but not run alongside his team mate, Mark

Webber and runs his car out to the artificial grass. Then he is in

position to watch his mirrors. We know Mark came out of slip stream.

Here is Alonso. You hear that shudder as the tyres vibrate and he

backs out early to watch what is going on. Gets himself inside of

Lewis Hamilton and Lewis Hamilton leaves a gap. Then tries to ride it

out on the long run down the back straight. You can see his end plate

came into vision. On board with Perez, where did he gain the

places? Drives up the inside of Michael Schumacher and he did come

in contact with the back of the Force India and clipped, you can

see his nose, he clipped the back of Button. Not only has Jenson

Button had a tap from the Sauber, hopefully we can see the contact

from Kobayashi. He has a Sauber sandwich. He is the pairs in there

and Kobayashi hits him again. You can see the damage on the back of

Rosberg as well. Contrasting styles between those with experience and

those with less experience. This is the view from outside of that same

incident coming down. There is Kobayashi, he bounces off the side

of Rosberg and then into the side of Jenson Button. And he has burst

the radiator on the side of that Mercedes. If you ever wondered what

the inside of a Pirelli tyre looks like, well it ain't pretty. Rosberg

and Button walking back to the pits. Neither of them too impressed. They

kept their crash helmets on. think the danger is over, unless

you feel you aren't good at walking. Kobayashi has a drive-through

penalty for causing a collision. will drop from last to even further

last, taking that drive-through. It seems like a small penalty when you

have hit a couple of cars. But what can you do in that situation?

have lost Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg and it is the second time

in a row that Rosberg has gone out on the first lap after going

through the whole year with no non- finishes. Mercedes adding another

to their Tally, they have had more non-finishes than any other team.

It has not been a great season for Mercedes. Mark Webber is in second.

Fernando Alonso is in third and then Lewis Hamilton and Felipe

Massa. Kimi Raikkonen still in sixth. Nico Hulkenberg is seventh

as Kobayashi comes through the pits on the drive-through penalty and

loses another 20 seconds. RADIO: We are looking at target stop lap,

Lewis. Mark Webber has set fastest lap. He is 1.9 seconds behind.

Let's hear from Lewis Hamilton's team mate, Jenson Button. Well, bad

luck, I suppose your radio, "What an idiot, a"Says what you feel

about Kobayashi. I think you may have missed something out there of

what I said. It is like the race is too... Two corners long. Yeah, I

got a good start and I was able to get past both Mercedes. I was on

the inside of Rosberg and we were braking for the corner and Sergio...

Yeah brakes late, goes on the inside. He didn't hit me, he

actually hit the car in front of me and probg something off the back of

that car. I had to run wide and push Nico off the circuit, so we

didn't collide and then we had a drag race on the straight. That was

fun. Saubers all over the back of us. I don't know what happened then,

I braibgd late and saw a car coming off mine and it was the Sauber

again. I don't know what is going on. It is pretty disappointing. It

is a long race and so much opportunity as well. With the way

the tyres were work and the DRS zone. It is a great circuit for

overtaking. That it is surprising that people are driving like that.

You still feel you have a chance for the Championship this season?

No definitely not. But I'm... Going to enjoy myself in the next few

races. But yeah, points for the team were important this weekend

and... Yeah it's out of our hands really. We have Paul di Resta and

Michael Schumacher side by side. They are battling over tenth place.

Jean-Eric Vergne is there as well. Michael Schumacher just fepbgd off

Paul di Resta, but Paul di Resta was eased out over the kufb and

Jean-Eric Vergne is trying to get past Paul di Resta. He almost

squeezed through. He would have strat Sri used KERS coming out of

turn six. Here is re rest pulling the pass in the DRS zone. -- Paul

di Resta. Michael gives him a nudge and runs wide. We need to be

careful with that. Remember what happened to Sebastian Vettel when

he did the same sort of thing on Jenson Button in Hockenheim. We're

expecting to some see some pit action in the next lap or so.

Sebastian Vettel continues to lead. The Red Bulls are rung one and two

and he has just crossed the line again and his advantage nearly four

seconds over Mark Webber. None of the leaders are in yet, but we're

expecting some of the midfield groups. Lewis Hamilton has went for

the pits. He is the first of the big boys heading for his stop.

14, he is in and away again. What a rapid stop by McLaren. They're get

sog good at this. Look at the amount of activity now in pit lane.

They are beginning to pour into the pits. We have Huck in, Romain

Grosjean in as well. -- Nico Hulkenberg in. Perez has stayed out

there on the harder tyre. Romain Grosjean gets away and Nico

Hulkenberg only just getting out in front of him. They have both gone

on to the harder of two compounds tyres. Romain Grosjean will be in

the DRS zone. So it is crucial he gets a good launch and Nico

Hulkenberg has done a better job in leaving the pits. I'm surprised

Lotus followed the Force India. He is being held up by Nico Hulkenberg

trying to get some heat into his tyres. I would expect you go one

lap longer, run in clean air and get the advantage F you follow him

into the pit lane, it is completely raced here in the past. The Force

India lollipop was up before that. That is strategically quite a good

move. Red bow Professor -- prepare themselves. Mark Webber in from

clean. Hulkenberg using his experience, Massa in as well. The

pit lane exit is a bit strange and Grosjean has never raced here in

the past. Hulkenberg seemed to gain an advantage out of the pit lane.

It's very unusual for a pit lane to feed directly into the outside of

the line. Sebastian Vettel going to lap macro 15 before he makes his

stop. Gary, presumably everything going according to plan for Red

Bull? Yes, Vettel out of the pits as soon as he could out -- after

Webber. They are going on to the harder tyres. Alonso in as well. Is

there any chance of Ferrari being able to get him out ahead? I doubt

it, but let's see where they're coming past us. You will see Alonso

still coming down the pit lane, so no change there. But Perez is going

to be in front of him. A crucial battle there because Perez hasn't

been into the pits yet, but he wants to get the place. He's got a

slipstream, he's going to try and get past Alonso down the side of

this long straight into turn 3. The Ferrari has the edge. The Ferrari

is on the fresh tyres as well. Lewis Hamilton fancies a bit of

this action. I think Fernando Alonso has used up all of his DRS

in defending their position. He's a wily old fox and it looks like it's

worked for him. That was very important from a Ferrari's point of

view. Hamilton goes round the outside of Perez. Mixed emotions

for McLaren because on one hand they've got their man of the moment

one step closer to the podium. But on the other hand they are seeing a

bit of experience from Perez. Sergio Perez is running this very

Hamilton almost coming into contact with the back of Perez. On those

fresher tyres, he almost makes contact with him. The reason I

mention about the inexperience from Perez, he got past and exit of turn

four. Then he ran a bit wide of those older tyres, his car clearly

isn't as fast as the McLaren. A little bit sloppy to lose the

there. I think he realises he's pretty much out of this one. It's a

test session rather than a run for set of tyres. Massa looks good as

He has to look after these tyres, he can't afford to engage in too

much hard dancing because these tyres have got to last a lot longer.

Yes. What he's got to do is try and run as best he can, keep the car

under control, pick up positions later in the race. It's all about

driving within the car right now and doing the best job possible,

waiting for later on. Patience required from Perez. He's got

Raikkonen bearing down on him now. Raikkonen runs 7th. Through the pit

stops, Maldonado has not come into the pits yet despite being on the

super soft tyre. That intrigues me. Maldonado is currently running in a

place, but hasn't yet been into the pits so far. We will see if

Williams are running a bit of a different strategy. We are riding

on board with Kimi Raikkonen. That's what it looks like when you

are up the gearbox on the car. Clearly he is quicker at this phase,

different tyre strategy. He will try and get as close as he can

fairly straightforward DRS pass. He is within the activation so now. He

needs to be nice and tight. They Raikkonen, who overtakes Perez and

moves back up into sixth place once again. Perez doing his best to stay

there with these guys with a decent time on the car. His team made

looks like he might well be retiring. Kobayashi's car has been

pushed back into the garage. We've also seen Pedro de la Rosa's car

being pushed away. We lost Button and Rosberg in first lap incidents.

There is Pedro de la Rosa, sadly, he is out of his 100th Grand Prix.

His 100th race as opposed to his 100th appearance. Perot has moved

it to the right to defend but he knew the difference in speed and

tyres. Very little you can do. Depending on your point of view,

due can see the replay, it's the it as long as Derry would have

thought from before. Does that mean that we are going to see him not

being able to make one stop this afternoon? I think so. If he didn't

go into the pits now he would end up behind Schumacher, so they are

Do you think he's got the same problem with bits of rubber getting

stuck? I did hear downforce. No point asking for more downforce, he

isn't going to get it. It looked like he was looking down into the

cockpit of his car and making an adjustment, but he's under pressure

has an issue. He's not going anywhere near as quickly as the

cars around him. There's definitely something going on. But is he going

to be able to resolve it in some way or other? Stays in front of

Felipe Massa for the moment as they come across the line. Vettel still

leads from Mark Webber. I think it confirms that Massa was having a

better end to the season that he had at the start. This is like two

old friends being reunited. Lewis isn't really doing too much to

defend against that. What can you do when someone is 15 kilometres

has lost front downforce. He is struggling. Gary, of what are you

seeing? What happens is this lot gaps, the slot between each of the

flat sections on the front wing, anything flying around gets sucked

in their. It gets blocked. When that slot gap gets blocked, the

airflow at the bottom of the wind just can't stay intact and

separates. The wing loses performance quite dramatically.

It's a critical situation if you get rubber into that slot. If that

is what is afflicting Hamilton, it's having a big effect. Massa was

able to blast past him. It means we've got two Ferraris and two

rebels in the top four. There was the reaction as Felipe Massa

managed to get past Lewis Hamilton. Things are definitely getting

better for that half of the Ferrari mechanical balance issue but it is

mechanically. Whatever that maybe. We are going to see a pass here

from Raikkonen. Raikkonen is trying to go round the outside. He wasn't

able to do it. Hamilton will fight where he can. He certainly kept

fighting there. He is a race that and he's entitled to do that.

Raikkonen probably thought, you are a lot slower than me at this stage,

why not? You've got to fight for everything. Even if he's got a

problem with his car mechanically. It will be interesting to know from

Gary what that might be. Off the top of my head, they would know if

there was an issue with the hydraulically operated Path. I had

a situation at McLaren weather front Rocca became detached from

either side of the chassis. It meant effectively it wasn't, the

role balance went out and it was tricky to drive. Eventually the

engine blew up! But you can hang in there when York on the points.

think you could probably think of a million ways a car could go wrong,

Gary. Yes. He heard a clunk from the rear suspension and it

miraculously fixed itself. This is a replay of that little fighting

off of Kimi Raikkonen. Raikkonen had the DRS and had higher top

speed. When it came to the braking zone, the car seemed to be working

all right. It was interesting that Raikkonen chose to go to the

outside, the most difficult area to overtake. We saw that in Bahrain as

well. Raikkonen has been impressive on his return, he is lying third in

the championship, but he doesn't take any chances. Would he have the

momentum this time? He does. Lewis Hamilton gives up the place quite

easily because Raikkonen had the Reid takes the place, or does he?

Hamilton runs him wide. That was maybe a little bit naughty. That

was definitely off the normal racing line. Aggressive staff from

Lewis. He did this with Mark Webber last year, too. He managed to fend

him off for second place. At the moment he is looking for fifth.

They are both racers. They will both always go for whatever they

can get out of a situation. Meantime, Hamilton looking up again

and running into that situation where he could end up with a flat

spot, which would definitely affect the life of these tyres. They are

running two seconds a lap slower then just runs the car wide,

forcing Raikkonen to lift out. Raikkonen goes defence of but not

really enough to stop Lewis carrying that momentum. Raikkonen

has been very cautious in wheel-to- wheel combat. You just wonder if he

would just unleash a bit of in a Lewis, would he have held on to

that position in Bahrain? Earlier, Jenson Button said on team radio,

what an idiot, when you hit him. Tell us about it from your seat?

have the foreground straight. We were fighting for positioning. That

was pretty difficult not to hit the brake. I was waiting for someone to

brake but someone I think brake really hard. I hit everybody.

Unfortunately, the straight was a bit too tight. For me, it was very

difficult to avoid. I don't want to crash, of course, but we are

fighting for the foreground straight to get position. It was a

has staid on the harder of the two compounds of tyres. It is a two-

stop strategy by McLaren, starting on the soup soft and then going on

the soft. -- supersoft. So Lewis Hamilton hopefully now things

coming together for him. But Sebastian Vettel has just set the

fastest lap of this race. Gary, it is an early stage to make that

second stop. Yes it is very early. It is 28 laps to to. I'm not sure

the car will last that amount of time. It is high on the front. I

didn't see the pit stop. I'm not sure if they found any rubber in

the slot gap. But it is a lopping way to go to the end of the race. -

- long way to go. Lewis Hamilton stopped on lap 26 for his second

stop. No other man has done two stops, apart from Paul di Resta. So

they're well out of sequence. RADIO: If we get to the end of this

set, you're fighting for sixth. Look after the front. They will

have to make another stop. A real fight on Lewis Hamilton's hands.

Romain Grosjean into the pits. And they will hope to make it to the

end on these yellow marked soft tyres. Michael Schumacher coming

down the main straight there. And Michael Schumacher still to make

his second stop. This will settle down a bit once everyone has made a

second pit stop. This was Paul di Resta versus Pastor Maldonado a

moment ago. Paul di Resta had been in for his second stop. Tried to go

outside of the Williams, but had good speed off the corner. Again

didn't make it work on the way in, but probably had some KERS, we're

not getting the graphic. Does Pastor Maldonado have another smif

into turn four? No, Paul takes the apex. Sebastian Vettel leads by 8.3

seconds from Mark Webber. Mark Webber acting as a useful buffer,

but Mark Webber coming in. Timo Glock was in ahead of him. Mark

Webber stops in his allocated slot and stays on those yellow-marked

soft tyres. Away he goes again. So Red Bull bringing Webber in first,

presumably we will see Sebastian Vettel come in within the next lap

or so. Glock gets going. So nothing much wrong with Marussia's pit stop.

He came in in front of Mark Webber and came out in front of Mark

Webber. Mark Webber shouldn't lose too much time behind the ma ru

Russia -- the Marussia. And they're top of the pit lane and they can

run into their pit box, unlike the others that have to go around the

preev yus team. We see chunk of oversteer there from Fernando

Alonso. A bit of cection mid corner. I don't -- correction mid corner. I

don't think it affected him. There is the comparison and Felipe Massa

has been quicker than Fernando Alonso. Felipe Massa has closed the

gap. Here is Nico Hulkenberg and Romain Grosjean. Romain Grosjean on

the inside of Huck. Squeezes him out wide and gets the place on this

occasion. He will be happy, Nico Hulkenberg had come out of the pits.

They have both mad their second stop. They were the other way

around before the pit stop. That was a crucial move for Romain

Grosjean. The lap pace between Sebastian Vettel and Fernando

Alonso sees Fernando Alonso being a little faster. But there is a ten-

second gap between Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso. So Sebastian

Vettel has this one. He is just controlling the pace at this point

and we're still waitling for him to make his second stop. But we have a

car off coming in the pits. I have just seen a car going on the grass.

I can't say who it was. I think it was Heikki Kovalinan. I think he

has recovered the situation. But that is a difficult pit in. We have

seen that before in the wet for Petrov. Fernando Alonso is back out.

Let's see where Mark Webber is. No changes between the Ferrari and the

Red Bull running for second place. He is going rejoin with Timo Glock,

he is entitled to squeeze him out. But he should be able to get past

in the DRS zone. Raikkonen stays out and moves up. Raikkonen will be

back in the pits shortly. There is Fernando Alonso sliding past Timo

Glock. So things are unchanged up front. We should still look at the

Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. I wonder what this is? A massive lock

up on the front right sm going very wide. We have heard. Raid ray box,

box, box. We had been told he has been told by his engineer to be

careful. This is the incident you saw out of the corner of your eye.

He gets wide and flicks the steering to avoid the orange

sausage kerb that would have launched the car into the air. But

that would have picked up a lot of debris. In comes Sebastian Vettel.

That was the area I saw a car go off on the grass to the left. But

it gathered it together and came back in. Sebastian Vettel into his

pit box and again it is the soft tyre going on. Gary, once again it

is Glockwork stuff -- clockwork stuff from Red Bull. Yes that is

what you have to do at the top end of the grid, you have to make it

happen all the time. McLaren go for that tenth of a second faster and

we get a few errors. But it is better to be consistent and slower

than one quick one. Away goes Kimi Raikkonen. He makes his second stop.

That should be comfortable for him to go to the end of the race.

Felipe Massa did come out behind Fernando Alonso. 3.9 stop for Lotus.

Not as quick as Ferrari. There is Lewis Hamilton, who made his second

stop earlier on. But as we know, he is struggling out there. In term of

pace. And interestingly his last lap a 1.44.and Jean-Eric Vergne

behind a 1 hadn't 33 -- 1.44.7. Jean-Eric Vergne will have him

firmly in his sights. That is an unusual pace from the McLaren. This

is Perez and getting in the slip stream of the Pastor Maldonado's

Williams. And a huge overspeed to affect the pass and pull on to his

brake line. RADIO: Don't worry about Mark, he needs to do a longer

stint than you. Mark is on older tyres than you. Just think about

yourself. I can't imagine that will be too many worries there. He has

had control of the race from the start. The gap 6.8 seconds. In the

background, there is the second Red Bull and the Ferrari not that far

behind. But it is now 4.5 seconds the gap between Sebastian Vettel

and Mark Webber. We did see Fernando lose a lot of time in

traffic. I think it was Petrov. We don't see this often, Felipe Massa

pounding the back of Fernando Alonso and I don't expect that

Ferrari would allow a pass to happen unless Fernando has a big

issue here. There is a lot of this Grand Prix to go ooh they have got

to make these tyres go to the end if they can get away with a two-

stop. Is something going to have to bail and go on a three-stop

strategy? It I not doing his chances any harm of staying at

Ferrari. Paul di Resta gets back the Mercedes. He has turned in. He

is confident the pass was on. is now behind Michael Schumacher.

He was able to catch up over that last lap. Don't think he will be

able to do anything up here. Ferrari power in the back of the

Sauber, but no DRS on that section. Another man under pressure soon is

Lewis Hamilton. Jean-Eric Vergne is only 1.7 seconds behind with nine

tenths of a second faster. Here is Paul di Resta, gets the DRS open

and look at thousand speed builds listen you take the drag off the

car. You get the effect of going into the slip stream of the car and

that adds more speed and in the end look at the different as they get

into the brake zone. Look how much Perez closed up under braking as

well. Using some DRS himself as well. Felipe Massa still chasing

after Fernando Alonso. But this is what Ferrari need from him. RADIO:

A bit too close to Fernando. I think you can back off at least

another second and then just stay o' two and half or three seconds

behind. Well you can understand those instructions, but the

Brazilian has shown what he can do this weekend. Look at Lewis

Hamilton under pressure from Romain Grosjean now. He has been

struggling with his car today and he is in sixth. But not only is

Romain Grosjean chasing him, Nico Hulkenberg in the Force India is

right in there as well. And Romain Grosjean has a lot of graining on

the first right tyre. He may find himself under pressure from Nico

Hulkenberg. Here he goes for the pass. Down the outside, Lewis

Hamilton will fend him out. Out wide goes Romain Grosjean. As you

said, we saw Sebastian Vettel gain a place doing that and he was

penalised. But it has allowed Nico Hulkenberg to draw alongside and

Nico Hulkenberg goes outside and Lewis Hamilton squeezes him. Lewis

Hamilton has the inside line and he has done it. Wow, great racing from

all three. Fantastic stuff from Nico Hulkenberg, a brave, brave boy

going outside Lewis Hamilton. Romain Grosjean slowed down. That

was good stuff. And Nico Hulkenberg taking it... RADIO: We think we're

going to have to stop again. Push now and then we will box. They're

looking at a third pit stop. Gary what has gone wrong? Well the

interesting thing is that he is losing in the first section of the

track. He is not too bad in the second and the third section with

the corners. I'm confused. Because it doesn't show up in the section

times. David, this is where it started. Romain Grosjean gets in

the slip stream and then you hope you have got a compliant fellow

racer, Lewis goes to take his line, that forces Romain Grosjean wide

and as we know from Hockenheim you can't carry that momentum into a

pass. While that was going on, Nico Hulkenberg carries on the proper

racing line, uses more of the kerb on the way out and Lewis, with a

wounded car, was not able to defend. RADIO: You're doing a good job. But

be careful. Still being advised by the team. Lewis Hamilton has come

into the pits. And Michael Schumacher under pressure from

Perez here. This is a replay so presumably Perez got past. There we

go. No maybe, I wondered whether Michael Schumacher came back. Here

is Lewis Hamilton out of the pit lane. He is behind Jean-Eric Vergne.

So Paul di Resta will be next and it means he is in tenth place there,

Lewis Hamilton. Will the car come alive on this final set of tyres?

As I said, is that a set of supersofts so, trying a different

tactic. It isn't working on the prime tyre. Here is Jean-Eric

Vergne. He isn't going to take much longer from Lewis Hamilton. He cuts

back on the exit and now they're going right, he is on the outside.

Jean-Eric Vergne does enough. Lewis Hamilton having a look... No,

doesn't goer to the lunge up the inside. And stays behind Jean-Eric

Vergne for now. No doubts his racing instincts. This is all

fighting over the last point. Well it is fighting over ninth place I

think. Jean-Eric Vergne will struggle to hold that over the

closing laps. I would feel I need to have all of my guns in action to

keep a charging Lewis Hamilton behinds. This is Charles Pic in the

Marussia. What has been going on? It is the carpet. And hit by Pastor

car might get called out because of the debris that's out there. The

safety car is ready in the pit lane. No sign of that happening just yet.

TEAM RADIO: From what we can tell from our data, you are at this same

the car. It is a carpet! He's gone wide a bit on the exit of that turn.

You hear about debris in the slot baps, that is much more than that!

That is not nice for Hamilton. That open to attack. This is not a nice

situation for him, Gary? It's not. It is affecting the car quite

dramatically. I would expect it to break up pretty soon but that stuff

has quite a good structure so it might just hang on there. It seems

that its wide enough for around these bars. Let's see a replay of

what happens here. He got in the slipstream of the car in front and

lost a front downforce and just ran into where we already knew there

was debris. He was pushing hard to try and make up the difference.

TEAM RADIO: There is Astroturf caught on the right-hand side. Be

careful, it might get dragged on to the rear tyre. It is there

it hasn't looked great throughout the race and now it looks even

worse. Sebastian Vettel still looking after his tyres. He is

taking things fairly steady here. The good thing but the first sector,

it doesn't really involve too much load on the front tyres, just a

straight line. Nice and steady there. He's cruising at home.

gentle. TEAM RADIO: Am sorry to be on your

case but you will not know until faces on the Red Bull pit wall. But

he still out there, it's still looking good for him. He's on to a

final lap. Sene on Maldonado. That was certainly off-track but I think

you may have dropped back. He goes way too wide. He had to release

seriously concerned but Webber has It's just got to hold together for

another couple of kilometres for Sebastian Vettel to take victory

here in Korea. What a sequence he is into at the moment. He won in

Singapore, he won in Japan a week ago. It looks very likely that he

will win here. But let's not count on anything just yet. We've heard

the concern from the team. Let's see if he can make it to the end.

Webber is in second, Alonso in controlled this just the way he

needed to. He got the lead into turn one. We saw some impeccable

driving from all of these great drivers down into turn 3. Avoided

contact while trying to find their natural position. From thereon in,

he's just controlled this race. Sebastian Vettel has controlled the

race. Vettel takes a victory. It's his fourth win of 2012. He has won

in Singapore, Japan and Korea. Mark Webber makes it a one, to finish

for Red Bull. Alonso is still there, he is still bringing up the points.

He might have lost the championship lead but Ferrari are not giving up

for this title hunt. Massa finishes in an excellent fourth place. We

are waiting for Raikkonen to come through and finish in fifth place.

Hulkenberg in six. There is Psy, the Korean pop star who has become

a worldwide phenomenon in recent months with something like 445

million viewings of his Gangnam Style video and YouTube. He is not

just a national hero but an international hero. That's Perez

right up behind Hamilton as they come to the end of this lap. This

is still for race position. Well Perez have enough to get past

Sergio Perez will be driving for McLaren next year. Perez was trying

to get past Hamilton in Japan, I don't think he's going to be able

to get past year as they come out of the final turn. Hamilton will

take the final point, complete with Astroturf attached to the car. The

two Toro Rossos have finished in Vettel, the smiling assassin, he

has struck again, having slashed the points gap in Japan. Look at

that, what a good bit of preparation from Adrian Newey -

prepared for the champagne spray! Vettel closed the gap in Japan and

now he's put himself at the top of the standings once more. Surely

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 45 seconds

that third title in a row is an Let's hear from the men who were at

the centre of the action for today's race. It was a perfect day

for myself, perfect day for the team. Very important to have a good

start. I had some so Nuria -- I had some scenarios in my head, I had to

go through a couple of options. Knowing that it might come

completely different. Trying to confuse yourself. I never had the

option of having a good start straight away and getting into the

lead in the first corner, but I wasn't too sad when that happened.

I'm happy. With today's race we had to be happy, we have to finish this

raised. There were a lot of questions before the race. The

start on the wrong side, the tyres, Hamilton and Raikkonen attacking.

Many things that was a doubt before the race. Being on the podium is a

good relief. I take these points back home and I think in the last

four races we lost the championship lead but there is very little you

can do apart from doing your job, and the job today for us was being

on the podium and we did it. not sure it was the most exciting

thing to watch but it is mixed emotions. If you are asked before

you come to the race, of course you always aim to win. I think

yesterday went very well for me. I could have easily been second but I

wasn't, I did a very good job. Yeah, mixed emotions but it's very good

for the team perspective. We got a lot of points today, a bit of an

uppercut on McLaren. It's good because we capitalised on their

tough day. It can happen to all of us. They will be back, they are a

good outfit. We will keep our heads down and keep pushing. We had a

rear suspension failure in the first stint. But they said it was

safe for me to drive. Would you rather know that information during

the race? I did ask but I guess you don't want to... I wasn't expecting

them to tell me. But they said, we know what the problem is. I was

just fighting the whole way with the car. Sometimes it is real sad

that we are pretty much out of the championship today but sometimes

these races show your true spirit within. I feel quite comfortable

with myself that I pushed and gave it everything. It's very close.

There are four races left, a lot of points to grab. We will have to do

our very best to remain where we are now. I think you can over-

complicated these things but I think if you keep it simple, we

have to do our job and not care about the others. A bit of

Astroturf that got attached to your car at the end, that was flying

loose at the time. Were you surprised that wasn't picked up by

a safety car? No. It just added on to where my car was going anyway. I

was lucky that I was able to at least hold on. Lewis Hamilton not

at all happy. When it falls apart it really falls apart. Especially

of the back of Japan, where he had another issue with the car. Jenson,

we won't know what he could have achieved, taken out through no

fault of his own. But at McLaren, mechanical gremlins have been

setting in for the second half of the season. For Red Bull, that is

the pattern for the rest of the season and they will win the

championship, but in terms of race pace Ferrari will know they can

match Red Bull for the final four races. They were very strong in

qualifying. Still, four more opportunities, points on the board.

Alonso not saying he is disappointed with this result, he's

happy with it because it keeps them within shouting distance. Who is

the favourite? We spoke for so long that Fernando is the champion elect

and it's going to happen for him, but now people are saying it is

Sebastian Vettel's title. You don't know. Fernando is clever enough to

maximise the opportunities that are there. But he needs to qualify in