Vettel wins surprising Korean Grand Prix

F1 Grand Prix, GP Korea, Korean International Circuit

Sebastian Vettel has won the Korean Grand Prix for the third time in a row, ahead of Raikkonen and Grosjean. Most attention however went to Pirelli who saw another tyre blow, to Mark Webber whose car went up in smoke and to a fire truck that briefly led the race.

As the lights went out, Vettel made the best start and immediately pulled away at the first turn. Alonso meanwhile tried to get alongside Rosberg on the outside of turn 1 but found it impossible and had to back off, allowing Hulkenberg to have a go and manage to pass the Ferrari in lap 1.

Grosjean gained a position on Hamilton later in the lap. Di Resta gained 2 while Van der Garde made the best start with a 5 place gain. Felipe Massa meanwhile spun his Ferrari while braking for turn 3, slightly touching Alonso in the process. The Brazilian rejoined the track just ahead of Pic who is last. Gutierrez fell victim of Massa's accident as well, as after gaining 2 places in the start, he had to go around the outside of turn 3, dropping down to 13th.

In lap 3, Webber gains another position on Perez while one lap later he moved up to 10th when Button pits for a new front wing as he obviously sustained some damage to that part on the first lap. Raikkonen at the same time gained a position and is now behind Alonso.

By lap 7, Vettel is 3 seconds clear of Grosjean. Hamilton is third, 1.2 seconds behind the Frenchman, followed by ROS, HUL, ALO, RAI, WEB, RIC and PER.

By then, Alonso is struggling to keep up with Hulkenberg and 2 laps later drops back behind Raikkonen.

On lap 10 Hamilton is the first front runner to pit, followed by Alonso. One lap later it's Grosjean, Rosberg and Hulkenberg are in the next lap.

Van der Garde meanwhile is handed a drive through penalty for forcing Bianchi off track during the first lap.

Vettel pits on lap 12 and rejoins the track in second place, behind Webber who didn't stop yet and not too far ahead of Grosjean and Hamilton who are joined by Ricciardo who didn't stop yet either after starting on the medium tyres.

After all front runners stopped, Vetetl is of course back in the lead. Grosjean is still 3 seconds behind, followed by Hamilton, Ricciardo, Rosberg, Hulkenberg, Alonso, Raikkonen and Webber.

The stops haven't changed much, except for Alonso who managed to get back ahead of Raikkonen and threaten Hulkenberg's 6th place. The Sauber is clearly not as strong as on the supersofts as Raikkonen and Webber are closely behind as well while it looks like Alonso is unable to pass the Sauber.

While many drivers are experiencing a few laps of graining on the mediums, Hamilton reports on lap 25 that his front right tyres is dead. The team soon replied it may be graining, the Hamilton quickly replied he already went through the graining phase earlier in his stint. Hamilton does seem to have a point though, as he's dropping further behind Grosjean and is losing a second a lap to Rosberg.

On la 26, Raikkonen pits, hoping to break out of the pack that is stuck behind Hulkenberg.

One lap later Hulkenberg pits while Webber managed to pass Alonso fairly easily, the latter starting to struggle badly with the tyres as well.

At Force India things are even worse. As Sutil complains that he can't go any faster and his car is "shit", Di Resta loses control of his car in S3 and ends up in the tyre barrier, breaking his right rear suspension and ending his race.

On lap 28 Rosberg overtakes Hamilton, but as soon as he left the slipstream, the nose broke down and allowed the front wing to scrape off the track, creating a lot of sparks but requiring Rosberg to make a lenghty pitstop for a new nose and front wing. The team clearly struggled to get the old wing off, making Rosberg lose even more time.

Hamilton and then Alonso pitted one lap later. Webber does so at lap 31 and rejoins the track just ahead of Hamilton. As Webber rejoined the track, Perez' right front tyre threw off its thread, leaving pieces all over the straight line and requiring a safety car to clear the debris off the track.

As Vettel didn't pit a second time yet, he dove into the pits and was soon followed by many more cars. Webber also pitted as the team found a puncture on his new medium tyres. Sadly, the team ran out of prime tyres, forcing them to put Webber on the supersoft for 20 more laps, a change that clearly worried Mark while talking on the radio.

At the start of lap 37 the racing is on again. Positions are WEB GRO RAI HAM HUL ALO BUT ROS MAL RIC WEB SUT. The latter subsequently lost control at turn 3, spinning and hitting Webber. The Australian then found his car damaged when tying to rejoin the track and soon was on fire, literally.

What happened next was an utter joke for the Korean GP, as the fire triggered a fire truck on track to help with the extinguishing. This turned out to be a strange sight, as the fire truck ended up on track ahead of the racecars, who on their part were all ahead of the safety car who came on the track a few moments later.

On lap 41, the racing is on again. Vettel still in the lead, ahead of Raikkonen and Grosjean. Hulkenberg is fourth while Hamilton and Alonso battled it out for 5th. Button is 7th, ahead of Rosberg, Ricciardo and Maldonado.

On lap 46 an nice battle unfolds with the Williams cars, Massa, Perz and Gutierrez. Here it was Massa who proved his worth as he managed to get ahead of the entire pack in half a lap. Maldonado on the other hand dropped down from first to last in that scrummage which surprisingly saw no crashes or debris.

Meanwhile Hulkenberg is ceating a pack behind him again, with Hamilton closest in 5th. Alonso 6th, ahead of Button and Rosberg, all less than a second from each other. The problem for all of them is the accelleration of Hulkenberg out of turn 1, giving him enough of an advantage to stay ahead at the end of the straight. Alonso also attempted a cheeky pass on Hamilton on lap 48 but failed to make it stick.

On lap 53, Rosberg passes Button and moved up to 7th.

One lap from the end, Ricciardo finds himself in the grass after his car has given up on him. He was in the points but it wasn't to be.

Further positions didn't change anymore, despite a late attack from Alonso on Hamilton.