Alonso wins dramatic Korean GP

Fernando Alonso won Sunday’s inaugural Korean GP and took the lead of the drivers’ championship, as Red Bull had a disastrous afternoon with Webber crashing out and Vettel suffering from an engine failure.

After heavy overnight rain, the track was wet when the pitlane was open for drivers to make their way around to the grid. Many of them completed a few reconnaissance laps to sample the conditions before heading to the grid.

Five minutes to the start of the formation lap, it was raining quite heavily, prompting Race control to delay the start by ten minutes. It was then announced the race would start behind the Safety Car.

The Mercedes SLS AMG driven by Bernd Maylander led the field away as the lights went off.

Bruno Senna pitted at the end of lap 1 to take on a new set of tyres.

The conditions and visibility were so poor that the race was red-flagged on lap 3. The drivers made their way back round to the grid and the mechanics rushed onto the circuit to attend their cars.

Some drivers got out of their cars and walked back to their garages as rain was still falling on Yeongam. Even Maylander took his helmet off and climbed out of the Safety Car.

Mark Webber explained to BBC TV that visibility was the main issue and that there was quite a lot of water on the run to Turn 3.

The race eventually resumed at 16.05pm, behind the Safety Car.

The conditions slightly improved as the field lapped the track at a moderate pace. The Safety Car released the cars at the end of lap 17.

Sebastian Vettel negotiated well the restart and held on to his lead. There was some action behind him as Nico Rosberg attacked Lewis Hamilton and moved up to P4. There was also a good scrap between Button, Massa and Schumacher.

Championship leader Mark Webber crashed out of the race on lap 20. Nico Rosberg couldn’t avoid hitting the spinning Red Bull RB6 and his race was over as well.

The Safety Car was immediately deployed. Some drivers at the back of the field took the opportunity to pit and swap to intermediate tyres. The race resumed at the end of lap 23.

Vettel safely restarted, while Trulli lost control of his Lotus and hit the HRT of Bruno Senna, losing his front wing in the process. The race leader found good pace in the tricky conditions and slightly pulled away from his pursuers.

He was enjoying a 2.5 seconds lead over Alonso after a couple of laps and kept on pushing. Third-placed Hamilton upped the pace to close the gap on Alonso’s Ferrari in front of him. In the meantime, his teammate Button pitted for intermediate tyres and rejoined in 16th place.

On lap 31, Sébastien Buemi lost control of his Toro Rosso under braking and crashed. The Safety Car had to be deployed once more. Vettel and Alonso were already past the pitlane entrance but their pursuers were able to dive in the pits.

The leaders came in at the end of lap 32 and swapped to inters. Vettel rejoined in the lead while a problem with the right-front wheel cost Alonso some time. He fell behind Hamilton.

The race restarted on lap 35. Vettel did well to keep Hamilton at bay. The McLaren driver then ran wide at Turn 1 and lost 2nd place to Alonso. Further down the order, the Briton’s teammate was pushed wide by Sutil’s Force India.

Up front, Alonso pushed hard to try and close the gap on Vettel, but the Red Bull driver was able to respond and had a 2.3 second lead at the start of lap 40. As the Spaniard was told to look after his tyres, he came under pressure from a charging Hamilton.

Vitaly Petrov crashed at the final corner on lap 41. The Safety Car was ready to go but didn’t need to intervene this time.

Vettel lost some time lapping Yamamoto and his lead was down to 1.1s at the end of lap 43. Disaster struck for the German on lap 46, when his Renault engine blew up!

Alonso was promoted into the lead. Further down the field, Sutil launched an attack on Kobayashi and made contact with the Sauber. While the Japanese was able to continue, the German retired.

Alonso went on to win the race ahead of Hamilton and Massa. Schumacher finished fourth with Kubica fifth and Liuzzi sixth.

Red Bull’s disastrous day means Alonso now leads Webber in the drivers’ championship by 11 points. Vettel is down in fourth place, 25 points down on the Ferrari driver.