2013 Korean Grand Prix ***Spoilers***

A great little track this one, very underrated. 2010 was truly an epic race.
Hopefully there'll be rain at some point this year too! Whatever happens it should be a good race. I just hope someone challenges Seb this time.

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2010 an epic race? Almost a third of it was run behind the safety car. It was only notable for Webber's crash and Vettel's engine failure.

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Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

Quote
Ferrari2007
It was only notable for Webber's crash and Vettel's engine failure.

It was tense, commanding no mistakes in very challenging conditions from any of the leaders with them all in the championship hunt. Webber buckled, the others were faultless.

Not a fan of the track though.

It was also notable for the time of day it ended up being run at - a spectacular sunset during the 2nd half of the race with the final few laps being run in near-darkness, on a track which didn't have floodlights - and it was still allowed to run for the full distance. (Essentially this goes under the description of what Gav just said, but I'm pointing it out in particular since it was the single thing which impressed me the most.)
All in all, a pretty unique race.

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Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/2013 08:45PM by EC83.

Sorry guys, I've been writing a nostalgia piece on the 2010 race and had it up to here with that GP.

On reflection, it wasn't a bad Grand Prix at all. Certainly mixed up the championship at the time.

If anyone's interested you can read my piece here.

[richlandf1.com]

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Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

Why didn't you say? Now your comment above makes more sense, LOL. I'd get fed up with any race if I'd been studying it in loads of detail. Well written piece by the way, I particularly liked the bit about Bernd Maylander when Petrov crashed.

There's a possibility of extreme weather this weekend too, by the way!

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Thanks mate. Don't ask me about Singapore 08 either. I know far to much about that race too after doing a similar piece over the Singapore weekend.

Mixed reports on the weather, but it seems that we will at least see some rain over the course of the weekend which should hopefully spice up the racing. Otherwise I feel Seb will simply walk away with this one in a similar fashion to last year.

Am I the only one who hopes that Kimi sits this race out, giving Davide Valsecchi a shot in the Lotus?

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Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

Why should Kimi sit this one out, does he still have back problems? It was amusing that he basically reconstructed Petrov's 2010 crash.
I don't really think a one-off drive would actually help Valsecchi anyway, he'd need a few races in the car to settle in and really show his potential(Which could be arranged by sidelining Grosjean for the rest of the season!).

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gav Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > It was only notable for Webber's crash and
> Vettel's engine failure.
>
>
> It was tense, commanding no mistakes in very
> challenging conditions from any of the leaders
> with them all in the championship hunt. Webber
> buckled, the others were faultless.
>
> Not a fan of the track though.


so did hamilton. otherweise he probably would have won that race

Yeah Lewis fluffed both restarts and lost track position. Vitally to Alonso on the final restart.

I loved Kimi's comments via the team radio at the end of FP1 when asked what had happened, Kimi: "I hit the wall."

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Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

Kimi's team radio is brilliant, I'm surprised more compilation videos haven't been made of it. There's sarcasm, then there's Kimi sarcasm. :D

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Debating on whether to stay up until 1am to watch or just record it and watch it in the morning. I'm not a huge fan of this track to begin with and just skimmed through practice today. I can honestly say the only races left that excite me are Japan,Brazil. I can do without Korea,India,Abu Dhabi I dont put Austin into any category at the moment.

I know what you mean mate. I pretty much skipped over the snore fests that were Korea and India last year.

Austin is a cracking track so I'll be definitely watching that.

While Abu Dhabi is an awful circuit it has had a tendency to produce fairly interesting races over the last few years. 2010 and 2012 come to mind.

My analysis from the practice sessions so far is that this one has Vettel written all over it.

Lewis might be a ble to pull something out of the bag in quali as he so often does, but the Red Bull's pace on long-runs looks very good once again.

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Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

Uh oh, Silverstone all over again!

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager

I thoroughly enjoyed that race. You just accept that Vettel will win at the moment, so it's pleasing that what happened behind made for great viewing.

First up, I'm utterly shocked at the standard of marshalling. First it took the marshalls a full minute or so to get to Webber's car, then when they did get there, they started extinguishing the side of the car that wasn't on fire! That's not the marshall training, that's common @#$%& sense.

The cherry on the top was the horrific sight of seeing the fire truck wandering down the middle of the back straight. The only relief was that the truck wasn't plodding around the fast, blind sections in the second half of the lap, otherwise we could have had one hell of a scary accident. It was bad enough when Mansell hit a wall at about 30mph to avoid going under a truck in Detroit a few years ago. As it was, I thought the drivers were very well behaved under the circumstances, as it would have been very easy for someone unsighted further back to cream into the back of a car jamming on the brakes.

Anyway, back to the racing. Obviously Hulkenberg was the star. Stunning, stunning faultless drive with no errors and keeping his head in gear all the time. He needs to keep up these excellent drives to get that top seat (which is why he's lost out on a great seat so far - he lacks consistency).

Hamilton's little strops were entertaining. He really is a little girl at times. Still, it would have helped if his pitwall hadn't been on the Horlicks all day. They were unbelievably slow to bring Hamilton in when he was 3 seconds slower than the cars around him, and then Rosberg's car fell apart when they were due to bring Hamilton in. Even with half a front end and the other half scraping along the road Rosberg was as quick as Hamilton's 3-and-a-bit wheels at the time.

Alonso wasn't at the top of his game for the first time in a while - he made a few errors early on. But the Ferrari was woeful. It had zero mid-corner or exit speed in the low speed corners. It didn't look especially poorly balanced, just slow.

And finally, I thought Sky's commentary was poor. I'm seldom critical of Brundle, but he wasn't at all on his game today. Even halfway through the race he was still complaining that Alonso was understeering wide in the dirty air at turn 6 whereas that's been the his line all weekend. For the first lap he and Croft were adamant that it was Alonso who'd Massa'd turn 3, but of course the timing screens, helmet, rollover hoop and number all showed it was indeed Massa who had Massa'd turn 3. Still, easy mistake to make...., they are both red after all....

Agreed - above all else, Korea needs better marshalling otherwise it's good riddance!

Great drive from Hulkenberg, horrific luck for Webber, Hami being a little girl and di Resta... I can't see him with a seat in 2014
Hoping that the Hulk will be in the Lotus next year!

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/06/2013 10:44AM by smoglessbutton4.

As soon as I saw Vettel get 'a better than was needed start' I knew it was fight over for the win. But as Gav said, what went on behind was fairly entertaining.

Hulkenberg is once again the star of the pack, and this is coming at the perfect time to really sell himself to "Lotus", with Kimi skulking back off to Italy for some Peroni and ice cream they need a driver with some impetus. Hulkenberg is that man. (I really hope this silliness about next years minimum weight limit doesn't ruin his prospects). It's inevitable that they'll keep Grosjean on because he has matured massively but he seems to keep on missing that final element needed to really grab the result, I mean he really handed Kimi 2nd on a plate today and for once he wasn't even instructed to

Massa and Sutil... lols.

Webber ouch, he's making a habit of hitching rides back to the pits.

Paul di Resta needs to hit the reset button, it seems to be a trend of his to tail off as the season progresses. He can't afford to continue to be out-qualified by Sutil, and he definitely needs to stop having stupid race ending incidents. The potential is there, but he really needs to put it all together otherwise he risks losing his seat let alone being able to graduate to a top team.

gav schrieb:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I thoroughly enjoyed that race. You just accept
> that Vettel will win at the moment, so it's
> pleasing that what happened behind made for great
> viewing.
>
> First up, I'm utterly shocked at the standard of
> marshalling. First it took the marshalls a full
> minute or so to get to Webber's car, then when
> they did get there, they started extinguishing the
> side of the car that wasn't on fire! That's not
> the marshall training, that's common @#$%& sense.
>
> The cherry on the top was the horrific sight of
> seeing the fire truck wandering down the middle of
> the back straight. The only relief was that the
> truck wasn't plodding around the fast, blind
> sections in the second half of the lap, otherwise
> we could have had one hell of a scary accident.
> It was bad enough when Mansell hit a wall at about
> 30mph to avoid going under a truck in Detroit a
> few years ago. As it was, I thought the drivers
> were very well behaved under the circumstances, as
> it would have been very easy for someone unsighted
> further back to cream into the back of a car
> jamming on the brakes.
>
> Anyway, back to the racing. Obviously Hulkenberg
> was the star. Stunning, stunning faultless drive
> with no errors and keeping his head in gear all
> the time. He needs to keep up these excellent
> drives to get that top seat (which is why he's
> lost out on a great seat so far - he lacks
> consistency).
>
> Hamilton's little strops were entertaining. He
> really is a little girl at times. Still, it would
> have helped if his pitwall hadn't been on the
> Horlicks all day. They were unbelievably slow to
> bring Hamilton in when he was 3 seconds slower
> than the cars around him, and then Rosberg's car
> fell apart when they were due to bring Hamilton
> in. Even with half a front end and the other half
> scraping along the road Rosberg was as quick as
> Hamilton's 3-and-a-bit wheels at the time.
>
> Alonso wasn't at the top of his game for the first
> time in a while - he made a few errors early on.
> But the Ferrari was woeful. It had zero
> mid-corner or exit speed in the low speed corners.
> It didn't look especially poorly balanced, just
> slow.
>
> And finally, I thought Sky's commentary was poor.
> I'm seldom critical of Brundle, but he wasn't at
> all on his game today. Even halfway through the
> race he was still complaining that Alonso was
> understeering wide in the dirty air at turn 6
> whereas that's been the his line all weekend. For
> the first lap he and Croft were adamant that it
> was Alonso who'd Massa'd turn 3, but of course the
> timing screens, helmet, rollover hoop and number
> all showed it was indeed Massa who had Massa'd
> turn 3. Still, easy mistake to make...., they are
> both red after all....

In contrast I was kinda happy with the RTL-commentators. Apart from Wassers' crappy as usual introduction to the ad-sections they were kinda great. Especially Danner had one great day.
Also, Vettel is unbeatable atm. Still it was a great race for P2, the first where I wasn't actively surfing the internet and skimming the race. Super happy with the result nontheless :-p

Gotta love the conspiracy theories on Rosberg's front wing

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager