The 2012 Korean Grand Prix (formally known as the 2012 Formula 1 Korean Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race that was the sixteenth round of the 2012 Formula One season. It was held on 14 October 2012 at the Korea International Circuit near Yeongam in South Korea's South Jeolla Province. The race marked the third running of the Korean Grand Prix.
Mark Webber started the race from pole alongside Sebastian Vettel, who went on to win the race ahead of Webber and championship leader Fernando Alonso, who completed the podium. The organisers of the race invited Korean rapper PSY to wave the chequered flag. This was Red Bull's only 1-2 finish of the year.
After taking his third consecutive Grand Prix victory, Vettel took a six-point championship lead over Alonso with four races to go, while Räikkönen remained in third with a 48-points-deficit to Vettel, who reclaimed the championship lead for the first time since that year's Bahrain Grand Prix. Following the result, Mercedes were mathematically eliminated from clinching the Constructors' Championship, with the remaining four teams at the top having a mathematical chance of winning it. Red Bull extended their lead to 77 points over second-placed Ferrari that leapfrogged McLaren in the standings to build a six-point-gap over the british squad following the latter's disappointing weekend.
Report
Background In the week before the race, the FIA announced that the drag reduction system zone on the circuit would be altered from its 2011 position, bringing the activation point forward by . The detection point was brought forward; in 2011, it was positioned between the first two corners, but for 2012, it was moved to be before the first corner.
Like the 2011 Korean Grand Prix, tyre supplier Pirelli brought its yellow-banded soft compound tyre as the harder "prime" tyre and the red-banded supersoft compound tyre as the softer "option" tyre.
Marussia's Charles Pic was given a ten-place grid penalty for exceeding the maximum number of engines that he was permitted to use over the course of the season.
Several reserve drivers took the place of regular drivers for the first free practice session. Giedo van der Garde drove in place of Caterham's Vitaly Petrov, while Jules Bianchi replaced Nico Hülkenberg at Force India, Valtteri Bottas drove Bruno Senna's Williams and Dani Clos took Narain Karthikeyan's place at HRT.
Free practice
In contrast to the practice sessions of the 2010 and 2011 races, the first free practice session of the 2012 race took place in dry conditions. Lewis Hamilton ended the session as fastest driver, three tenths of a second ahead of Fernando Alonso — who had led most of the ninety-minute session — with Mark Webber in third place. Sebastian Vettel was fastest in the second session, leading teammate Webber and Alonso in third. Like the first session, the second passed without incident, although Sergio Pérez was forced out after forty-five minutes of running when his Sauber lost all power and ground to a halt at Turn 12. Pérez was able to safely park the car, allowing the session to continue uninterrupted.
Race Mark Webber, who qualified on pole, lost his lead at start to teammate Sebastian Vettel at the first turn. Lewis Hamilton lost his third place to Alonso on first lap, while his team mate Jenson Button had to retire after a collision with Kobayashi, who also collided with Nico Rosberg of Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton made a pit stop on lap 14, creating a chain reaction where Massa and Webber stopped on lap 15 and finally Vettel and Alonso stopped on lap 16. The latter rejoined side-by-side with Sergio Pérez, outdragging him on the back straight. Hamilton seized his opportunity and swept around the outside of Pérez just a few corners later. Felipe Massa moved to 4th place after overtaking Hamilton who was suffering from an anti-roll bar failure on his car, which led him to lose couple of places in the race. Massa was quickly gaining on his teammate when he was told to hold his position on his team radio as Alonso was the championship contender. At the end of the race Vettel was continuously told on his team radio to slow down and save tyres as he had a problem with tyre degradation on his right-front tyre. Vettel finished first and took a six-point lead in the Championship over third-placed Fernando Alonso, who had led since the European Grand Prix. Webber finished second, setting the fastest lap. Lewis Hamilton finished 10th after battling for position with the two Toro Rossos of Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Éric Vergne, but fell back in the closing laps as a piece of AstroTurf got stuck on one of his car's sidepods.
Classification
Qualifying Driver Constructor Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 1 2 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:38.397 1:38.220 1:37.242 1 2 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:38.208 1:37.767 1:37.316 2 3 4 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:39.180 1:38.000 1:37.469 3 4 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:39.144 1:37.987 1:37.534 4 5 9 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 1:38.887 1:38.227 1:37.625 5 6 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:38.937 1:38.253 1:37.884 6 7 10 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1:38.863 1:38.275 1:37.934 7 8 12 Nico Hülkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1:38.981 1:38.428 1:38.266 8 9 8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:38.999 1:38.417 1:38.361 9 10 7 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:38.808 1:38.436 1:38.513 10 11 3 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:38.615 1:38.441 11 12 15 Sergio Pérez Sauber-Ferrari 1:38.630 1:38.460 12 13 14 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:38.719 1:38.594 13 14 11 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:38.942 1:38.643 14 15 18 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1:39.024 1:38.725 15 16 16 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:38.784 1:39.084 21 17 17 Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:38.774 1:39.340 16 18 19 Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1:39.443 17 19 21 Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1:40.207 18 20 20 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1:40.333 19 21 25 Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1:41.317 24 22 24 Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1:41.371 20 23 22 Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1:42.881 22107% time: 1:45.082 — 23 Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth No time 23Source: Notes: — Daniel Ricciardo received a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change. — Charles Pic was given a ten-place grid penalty for exceeding the maximum number of engines permitted for use over the course of the season. — Narain Karthikeyan failed to set a time after having a brake failure. He was allowed to race at the stewards' discretion.
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 55 1:36:28.651 2 25 2 2 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 55 +8.231 1 18 3 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 55 +13.944 4 15 4 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 55 +20.168 6 12 5 9 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 55 +36.739 5 10 6 12 Nico Hülkenberg Force India-Mercedes 55 +45.301 8 8 7 10 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 55 +54.812 7 6 8 17 Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 55 +1:09.589 16 4 9 16 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 55 +1:11.787 21 2 10 4 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 55 +1:19.692 3 1 11 15 Sergio Pérez Sauber-Ferrari 55 +1:20.062 12 12 11 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 55 +1:24.448 14 13 7 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 55 +1:29.241 10 14 18 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 55 +1:34.924 15 15 19 Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 55 +1:36.902 17 16 21 Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 54 +1 Lap 18 17 20 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 54 +1 Lap 19 18 24 Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 54 +1 Lap 20 19 25 Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 53 +2 Laps 24 20 23 Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 53 +2 Laps 23 22 Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 16 Throttle 22 14 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 16 Collision damage 13 8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1 Collision damage 9 3 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 0 Collision 11Source:
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings Driver Points 1 1 Sebastian Vettel* 215 1 2 Fernando Alonso* 209 3 Kimi Räikkönen* 167 4 Lewis Hamilton* 153 5 Mark Webber* 152Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Constructor Points 1 Red Bull-Renault* 367 1 2 Ferrari* 290 1 3 McLaren-Mercedes* 284 4 Lotus-Renault* 255 5 Mercedes 136Source:
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. Bold text and an asterisk indicates competitors who still had a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.
References