There were so many Korean fans trying to get into the new Yeongam circuit on Sunday that several thousand decided to abandon their cars and walk into the circuit, as the traffic had simply stopped moving.The Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik had managed to get through and the focus of the world was on the venue as the cars headed for the grid. It had rained for most of the morning, but it intensified as everyone prepared for the off and we saw the dreaded message “Safety Car Start”, which strikes at the heart of every racing fan. The start was delayed for 10 minutes but then they were off and we listened in to hear the messages going backwards and forwards. Fernando Alonso reported it was the worst conditions he had ever seen in a racing car, Jenson Button said that the straight was like a lake (although it is hard to know what that feels like as, in my experience, cars tend to sink when driven on to lakes…)
After two laps Race Control red-flagged it and the cars returned to the grid, to wait for better conditions. It would be a 48 minute wait and throughout there was a sense of desperation that perhaps the weather would not change and the track would never be dry, which would mean that the Grand Prix would have to be called off when darkness fell. It was, quite literally, a race against time. And for race promoter Yung Cho Chung these were nerve-racking moments. At one point I went out into the paddock to see just how bad the rain was and I bumped into him. He looked absolutely terrified and said: “They are gonna kill me”. The late start time (3pm), added to the two delays (58 minutes) and the prospect of sunset at 5.45pm meant that it seemed pretty unlikely that the Grand Prix would go to the full 55 laps. In the end, however, the rain calmed a little and the cars were on their way again for 14 laps more behind the Safety Car before the order to start was finally given. The conditions had been bad early on in those laps, but Lewis Hamilton was soon telling McLaren it was time to start the race, while others were less convinced.
In the first lap of actual racing the two Mercedes seemed to be well-suited to the conditions with Nico Rosberg passing Lewis Hamilton and further back Michael Schumacher got ahead of Robert Kubica. And then disaster struck Red Bull Racing as Mark Webber hooked a wheel off the track and spun across the road into a wall, bouncing back into the path of Rosberg and taking them both out of the race. It could not have been any worse for the Australia. he was out and his World Championship rivals were running first and second behind the Safety Car.
It would be six laps before the race was on again and then another seven before the next intervention caused by Sebastien Buemi colliding with Timo Glock, an incident which would result in the Swiss driver getting a five-place grid penalty for Brazil, along with Adrian Sutil, who had so many incidents that the FIA Stewards would have been forgiven for taking him out the back of Race Control and putting him up against the wall. He was a menace to society today and it undid much good work this year, which had people believing that he had finally begun to show some maturity. Another man who did himself untold damage (amazingly, not literally) was Vitaly Petrov who went off and demolished his Renault against a barrier – his second such smash in a fortnight. It was a very big shunt.
Through it all Vettel led Alonso with Hamilton trying to hold on and Felipe Massa tagging along for the ride. the carnage helped Michael Schumacher on his way to his best showing of the year, which will no doubt be hailed by his fans as a sign that all is fine and dandy and his comeback was a really wizard idea. The pattern remained the same until lap 43 when the Spanish media began to make louder than usual squawking noises as it became clear that Alonso was closing quickly on Vettel. The German then tried a cunning stunt saying that the light was so bad he could not see anything at all, which was clearly a message designed to get Race Control to stop the Grand Prix and let him win. The smart folk at McLaren then radioed Lewis and asked about the light, and he replied that all was well and there were no problems at all. Race Control no doubt heard this as well. A few moments later it was clear why Vettel had tried it on. His engine went boom-bang-a-bang so effectively that it would probably have won the Eurovision Song Contest… to the utter and complete dismay of his team. Red Bull Racing, nul points.
That left Alonso out front with Hamilton in pursuit, but Lewis never really looked any great threat and drifted backwards as the race moved gently into darkness. Behind Alonso, Hamilton, Massa, Schumacher and Robert Kubica there was rather more action as Tonio Liuzzi gave Adrian Sutil a few tips about how to move through the field without hitting things and collecting penalties. Liuzzi finished sixth from 17th on the grid. Behind him Rubens Barrichello, the Saubers and Alguersuari were kept alert by Sutil bashing into all and sundry. There was some fun on the last lap when Nico Hulkenberg grabbed the final point from Jaime Alguersuari, while Jenson Button was 12th, after getting stuck in the midfield after an early stop. he was not helped by Sutil shoving him off…
Down at the back the small fry produced just three survivors with Heikki Kovalainen 13th and the two HRTs in 14th and 15th.
The race ended bang on two hours of elapsed time, but actually two hours and 48 minutes after they had originally set off. As darkness fell everyone decided that it had been a fabulous race, on a very good race track, with a crowd of 80,000. Yung Cho Chung looked rather happy and went off to have a lie down after a fairly stressful day.
But a great effort…
The World Championship was turned on its head, with Fernando Alonso now leading Webber and Hamilton, with Vettel having suddenly dropped to fourth. Button is mathematically still in with a chance of the title, but it is not going happen. Vettel’s hopes look pretty slim as well.
Something to look forward to in Brazil and Abu Dhabi…
Joe,
Well, it sure was interesting. Wonder what Red Bull will do now for the next two races?
They better get behind Webber or they get nothing for the year.
Somehow, I think Alonso will win the championship.
Loved the way the con rods from the Renault sparkled as they bounced down the track under the Red Bull.
Does anyone know / think Vettel will need a new engine = 10 place grid penalty in Brazil?
Interesting take on Sutil’s efforts this evening. Certainly his penalty is just comeuppence for his incident with Kobayashi but at times I thought his barnstorming drive was reminiscent of Kobayashi himself at Japan…
Given the weather today he was playing against the odds and pushing for all the ‘low percenters’ saw him too often off-track instead but through out it all he did manage a couple of entertaining ‘brave’ passes!