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Posted on Sunday, October 14, 2012

Williams bemoan lack of pace

Williams drivers Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna had a challenging day in Korea as neither came close to scoring a point. Both drivers elected to start the race on the option tyre, with Maldonado stopping just once and Senna adopting the more traditional strategy of stopping twice. But Maldonado could only manage fourteenth, narrowly ahead of Senna, who lost a lot of time early on with debris caught in his front wing. "At the beginning of the race, we were too hard on the front […]

Posted on Sunday, October 14, 2012

Vettel wins in Korea

Sebastian Vettel claimed his third successive victory by dominating the Korean Grand Prix. The German took the lead from team mate Mark Webber at the start of the race and was always in control. Webber finished eight seconds behind Vettel to wrap up the first Red Bull 1-2 of the year. Fernando Alonso finished in third, ahead of Felipe Massa. The result sees Ferrari leapfrog McLaren in the Constructors Championship. Lewis Hamilton struggled all afternoon and came home tenth, battling the final few laps with […]

Posted on Sunday, October 14, 2012

Marko suspects Massa spoiled Vettel on purpose

Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko has hinted Felipe Massa deliberately impeded Sebastian Vettel at the end of qualifying in Korea. Vettel's last Q3 run was indeed interrupted by Ferrari's Massa, but the German - who ultimately qualified second behind his teammate Mark Webber - initially blamed his engineer. "Why did you not tell me about Massa?" Vettel shouted to his engineer Rocky on the radio. Vettel told reporters afterwards: "These things happen, it's not Felipe's fault at all. If anything it was my mistake." Outspoken […]

Posted on Saturday, October 13, 2012

Hamilton 'ragged the life out of the car'

Lewis Hamilton claims that he extracted every last tenth out of his McLaren MP4-27 during qualifying for the Korean Grand Prix. Hamilton qualified in third position, the best non-Red Bull driver on the grid. "It’s been quite a tough weekend in terms of getting a fast lap-time out of the car, so third on the grid is very satisfying", he said. "In Q3 I’ll happily admit that I ragged the life out of the car and got everything from it, yet Mark [Webber] and Seb […]

Posted on Saturday, October 13, 2012

Brazil TV says Massa signs 2013 deal

Ferrari has denied claims in Brazil Felipe Massa has signed a new contract for the 2013 season. The news was reported from Korea by the Brazilian broadcaster Globo, but the famous Italian team hit back by insisting it is in "no hurry" to make its decision. But Globo's information was precise, insisting the news will be announced officially on Tuesday. "To those who think they know it all," Ferrari said via its official Twitter feed, "we can only say is there's nothing new under the […]

Posted on Friday, October 12, 2012

Red Bull take charge in Korea

Red Bull Racing take command ahead of the third Korean Grand Prix

Posted on Friday, October 12, 2012

Ecclestone agrees lower fee for 2016 Korea GP extension

Bernie Ecclestone agreed to reduce the race fee as he extended Korea's grand prix contract through 2016, the AFP news agency reports. F1's annual trip since 2010 to Mokpo is among the most controversial and least popular on the calendar, but promoter Park Won-Hwa said on Friday a new contract has been signed. "We had to renegotiate with Mr Ecclestone and brought a few ideas and persuaded him that Korea cannot continue the event with such a big financial loss," he said. "It took a […]

Posted on Friday, October 12, 2012

Two pit stops likely at warmest-ever Korean Grand Prix

Pirelli’s P Zero Yellow soft and P Zero Red supersoft tyres took to the track in Korea for the first time this season, during the two free practice sessions at the 5.615-kilometre Yeongam circuit. Ambient and track temperatures were higher than they were last year, with ambient temperatures of 21 degrees centigrade and track temperatures approaching 31 degrees centigrade. With the track containing a wide variety of characteristics – a fast and open part at the beginning of the lap, followed by a tight and […]

Posted on Friday, October 12, 2012

Vettel the clear favourite now says Schumacher

Sebastian Vettel is now the outright favourite for the 2012 title, his countryman Michael Schumacher says. But the seven time world champion has admitted his predictions underwent an about-face at Suzuka, where championship leader Fernando Alonso crashed at the first corner. "For me, the championship was already decided," Schumacher is quoted by Bild newspaper in Korea. "With his points gap, when Fernando went into the race at Suzuka, I thought he was clearly on the home stretch. "I now see the advantage clearly with Sebastian," […]

Posted on Friday, October 12, 2012

Raikkonen says Spanish conspiracy theory 'rubbish'

Kimi Raikkonen has dismissed as "rubbish" a conspiracy theory about Fernando Alonso's retirement from recent grands prix. A Spanish newspaper correspondent said last week he saw a possible link between the fact Lotus drivers Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean were involved in the incidents that knocked former runaway championship leader Alonso out of the races at Suzuka and Spa respectively. The reporter also recalled that it was Renault's Vitaly Petrov who blocked Alonso at the 2010 world championship finale, with all three incidents helping the similarly […]

Posted on Friday, October 12, 2012

Petrov says F1 career not definitely over

Vitaly Petrov has hit back at reports he will definitely slide out of Formula One at the end of the season. Previously boosted by his Russian supporters, Petrov's manager Oksana Kosachenko suggested recently that she was looking at alternative projects for 2013 because the 28-year-old driver's financial backing had dried up. But Petrov has suggested in Korea that Kosachenko was simply laying out their strategy to stay in Formula One next year. "We decided to talk about it now, not at the end of the […]

Posted on Friday, October 12, 2012

Glock open to Marussia team switch

Timo Glock is expecting to be with Marussia for a fourth consecutive season in 2013. But the German is also open to "the possibility" of a change. "It (an alternate team) would have to be a clear step forwards," the former Toyota driver is quoted by DPA news agency. "But at the moment I am fulfilling my contract and so I am not in talks with anyone else," added Glock. The 30-year-old is one of the more highly-regarded of the drivers at the back of […]