More bad luck for Webber as Vettel wins
Red Bull was again victorious today as Sebastian Vettel led the Korean Grand Prix from start to finish. Mark Webber meanwhile first suffered a puncture after a strong comeback race and a few laps later was run into by Adrian Sutil, causing a fire that ended his race.
Sebastian Vettel, 1st: “It was a long race today, but it’s really great to win. The start was crucial, it’s always tricky here as you’re nervous about the long straight when you start from pole. Fortunately we had good traction off the line and I had a strong exit out of the first corner. We kept the lead and tried to control the race from there. I think Mercedes had more range than us today, but we were able to win which is great. It was a very strong performance from the whole team and I’m happy. We’re just focusing on continuing to take one step at a time and trying to get the best out of the car at every single race.”
Mark Webber, DNF: “The incident with Sutil was obviously the end of my race today. It was in Turn 3 on the restart, everyone bottles back up and I was looking for a big exit on the next straight to use some KERS on Daniel (Ricciardo) and the Williams. Then Sutil, I don't know what happened, but obviously he hit me from the inside and that was that [which ruptured an oil radiator that caused the fire in the car]. There was quite a lot of damage at the back of the car and I hope it hasn't gone towards the chassis – we will have to see before the next race. Before that I was very happy with how I drove and we’d got back to a very good position before I got the puncture. After the Pirelli tyre failure on Perez’ car, I was very lucky to miss the tread of the tyre that came off and then unbelievably I managed to get a puncture from going through the debris.”
Christian Horner, Team Principal: “A really disciplined drive by Sebastian today to win his third consecutive Korean GP. It was a race dominated by tyre preservation and Sebastian managed it extremely well. It was a great shame to lose Mark who would have been on the podium today after he picked up a puncture from the debris from Perez’ incident. Then, after that he was the innocent victim of the incident that saw Sutil losing his car and hitting him, which caused a fire. It was somewhat frustrating to see our car on fire for what seemed to be an age.”
Thierry Salvi, Renault: “A win that was not as easy as it looked for Sebastian! With two safety cars, Seb had to do the job twice to increase the gap with the competitors and he’s did it very well, again showing his talent. It was a shame for Mark as he was really on for a very strong result in spite of his starting position. The collision with Sutil damaged the car and caused the fire. It’s too early to tell if we can re-use the engine yet – we will have to look at the damage. There is plenty to study in the week before Japan now, particularly with the strong position Sebastian is now in the Championship.”
