Red-letter day in Korea
Ferraris Fernando Alonso won a rain-hit and chaotic Korean Grand Prix to seize back the Formula One world championship lead.
Ferraris Fernando Alonso won a rain-hit and chaotic Korean Grand Prix to seize back the Formula One world championship lead on a nightmare Sunday for his Red Bull rivals. In an inaugural race that turned out to be one of the longest in Formula One history delayed by a downpour,started,stopped and then re-started behind the safety car after a 48-minute wait before ending almost in the twilight the Spaniard could scarcely believe his good fortune.
With two races to go,and a maximum 50 points to be won under the new 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 scoring system,Alonso celebrated his fifth win of the year to turn a 14-point deficit into an 11-point lead over Red Bulls Australian Mark Webber.
Webber crashed out early on,handing the championship baton to team mate Sebastian Vettel before the German suffered an agonising engine failure nine laps from the end while leading.
McLarens 2008 champion Lewis Hamilton finished second,14.9 seconds behind,and moved up to third overall with 210 points,21 behind Alonso. Brazilian Felipe Massa took the final podium place for Ferrari. Vettel fell to fourth on 206 points with McLarens reigning champion Jenson Button finishing 12th. The Briton is now 42 points off the lead and effectively,if not mathematically,out of the title equation.
Unpredictable race
If events again fall into Alonsos lap,in the most unpredictable of seasons,he could even wrap up his third title in Brazil in two weeks time at the same Sao Paulo circuit where he won the other two for Renault in 2005 and 2006.
Beautiful,beautiful. You and the whole team deserved this. Grande! declared Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali over the radio to Alonso.
The Asturian,now with three victories in the last four races and a career 26 wins,cackled and whooped wildly in reply after taking the chequered flag a full three hours after the race had been due to start.
The official winning time was two hours 48 minutes 20.810 seconds.
Webber skidded on the wet and slippery track,hit the wall and then collided with Nico Rosbergs Mercedes with the race proper barely started after what seemed an eternity behind the silver safety car.
Totally my fault,the Australian,winner of four races this season, told the BBC after making his way back to the paddock. It was only his second retirement in 17 races.
Vettels failure came with the championship lead in his grasp for the first time this year,and with the fast-approaching dusk threatening to end the race before the full distance. It also allowed McLaren to cut Red Bulls lead in the constructors standings to 27 points.
Seven times world champion Michael Schumacher finished fourth for Mercedes,equalling the best result of his difficult comeback season,with Polands Robert Kubica fifth for Renault.
Liuzzi finishes sixth,Sutil fined
Vitantonio Liuzzi recorded his best result of the reason by finishing sixth in the inaugural rain-hit South Korean Grand Prix as Force India garnered eight points. It was a tremendous finish for Liuzzi,who is not sure of retaining his spot with the next season,after he started as low as 17th on the grid.
Before this,a seventh place finish at the Australian GP was the best result for the Italian.
However,Adrian Sutil returned empty handed after failing to finish for the second consecutive time,following an accident. Worse still,FIA stewards punished Sutil for colliding with BMW Saubers Kamui Kobayashi at Turn Four on Lap 47. The German has been handed a five-place grid penalty carrying into the Brazilian Grand Prix next month.
He was additionally fined 10,000-dollars after admitting he had been aware of brake problems throughout the race.
I was just struggling with my brakes all the time. I had so much brake force that I always locked up and it was hard to drive consistently. There were a lot of times I was off the circuit,or locked up,and then got past a driver and went off the road, Sutil said.
At the Japanese Grand Prix,early this month,both Sutil and Liuzzi had retired mid-way. The DNF result pushed Sutil to 11th in the drivers championship as Williams Rubens Barrichello replaced him by finishing seventh. Both are tied at 47 points. Liuzzi has moved up to the 13th spot with 21 points.
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