Fernando Alonso of Ferrari emerges victorious in the inaugural Korean Grand Prix at Yeongam circuit amidst a rain-delayed, bizarre and chaotic F1 race of the season. The story of the race belongs to Red Bull Racing team as both Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel succumbed to a crash on Lap 12 and an engine failure in Lap 46, respectively. along the Korean circuit as well as their championship leads. With both RBR out of action, Alonso was lucky enough to hold the lead of the race and grabs the driver's championship with two remaining races in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.
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| Alonso wins Korea F1 Grand Prix amid the rains, crashes, and safety cars. |
Alonso is way ahead of Webber with 231 points, Webber at second place with 220 points, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton with 210 points at third place. RBR's Vettel is at fifth place with 206 points after his RB6 engine blew along the long straight way after coming out of Turn 2. Before the race, the young German driver is in second place tied with Alonso.
Ferrari made good with its promise to win in the new Korean circuit with also a podium finish for its other driver, Felipe Massa. Massa joined his Ferrari teammate at the podium with a third place finish. McLaren's Lewis Hamilton arrived in second position of this dramatic, chaotic rain-delayed race.
With torrential rain pouring on the circuit before the start of the race, a 10 minute delay was announced to wait for the rain to stop. However, race director Charlie Whiting decided to start the race behind the safety car since the track condition did not improve and visibility was poor because of the downpour. The F1 cars completed three laps around the circuit behind the safety car when Whiting decided to call the red flag as most drivers over their team radios expressed concerns of the track conditions.
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| The race started behind the safety car and stopped by red flag because of the track conditions. |
The race was stopped for 48 minutes amid the bustling activities of heavy vacuum cleaner tracks and stewards on the race circuit. The weather condition improved and the cars again started behind the safety car. The real game started after 37 minutes behind the safety car. The wet circuit claimed six cars due to crashes and another two for engine failures.
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| RBR's Mark Webber lost his car and championship lead in a crash on Lap 12. |
In my own analysis, the top 4 drivers will have a chance to grab the Driver's Championship in the next two races. The race schedules for Brazil and Abu Dhabi will be marked in the next few weeks for busy activities of testing and setting up of race cars of the different F1 racing teams. Alonso, Webber, Hamilton, and Vettel will go back to the drawing boards again to evaluate their previous performances on these circuits.
This is another exciting season for F1 fanatics as every driver is a cinch to finish the F1 season in a dramatic fashion and cop the F1 diadem. It is now or never for these drivers comes November.
Images are courtesy of AP and Reuters
Video copyright is owned by Formula One Management (FOM)
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