Grand Prix 2011 Korean Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Party time has officially begun... if you are Red Bull anyway

So, its now over, Sebastian Vettel is the 2011 world champion after finishing third behind Fernando Alonso and winner Jenson Button. Vettel is not only the youngest ever world champion, but the youngest person to defend his championship after walking to the championship with (so far) a podium in every race bar one and a phenomenal record in qualifying with pole in near enough every single race.

The RB7 has no doubt been the best car of the season and has been night and day quicker than anything else on wheels. Adrian Newey must now be known as the scourge of F1 as he has designed yet another car that has won the championship but surely this has to be one of if not the best car he has ever designed as the RB7 doesn't have the fragility that has struck Newey designed cars.

For Mclaren they have finally found the winning formula again after winning a track that everyone thought Red Bull would walk, however , like in 2010 and 2009, it has come too late and has cost them a shot at the title, but Mclaren really have been Red Bulls only consistent challenger this year due to the surprise lack of speed from the Ferraris.

It hasn't been a great season for Ferrari, in pre season all the signs pointed towards a very strong year for the Scuderia, but it was apparent early on that they were only the third fastest team behind Mclaren (whose pre season was shocking in comparison). After an early season shuffle and because of new regulations they were able to win in Silverstone but that has been the only highlight for Fernando Alonso and as for Massa it has been even worse.

Going into Korea we go into the real unknown as it is unclear who has the best package suited to Korea as the only race we've had at the circuit was severely rain affected so it should be a jump into the darkness, although it will be an even bigger jump when we go to India in the not too distant future.

So congratulations Seb, who is starting to rewrite the record books almost with the ease that Schumacher did in his pomp. Eight world championships for Seb by the time he's finished?

For Galahads brilliant circuit write up, see here http://cliptheapex.com/pages/korean-international-circuit/
 
Click to expand
Lap chart times of the top 5 drivers; I've cut off the safety car laps to give better clarity.

What it shows is in the first stint Hamilton and Vettel were pulling away comfortably.
Alonso was by far the quickest in the last stint, but it's fair to assume Vettel had backed off, as evidenced by the fastest lap he put in on the last lap.

Click to enlarge.

f1-2011-korean-grand-prix-lap-chart.webp
 
Hmm, lots of time loss for Alonso in the middle stint there.

An outstanding race for Toro Rosso. They seem to do well whenever things are a little bit uncertain - in this case with the lack of dry running - and Alguersuari in particular was brilliant. Must be the wise old heads in the senior posts in the team. They've joined the battle with Sauber and Force India now.
 
I think, compared to most other races this year, there is only one word to describe this race..... underwhelming. It was a bit anti-climatic. It was missing more genuine scraps, it was just cars running in tandem, not really trying to get past (aside from Webber and Hamilton). The battle in Monaco (which people will inevitably compare this to) involved Alonso going left, going right, trying to get past. It was NOT like today. However, I enjoyed the HAM/WEB scrap, but the DRS made any overtakes into turn 1 meaningless. The first lap was really exciting, and the rain caused some headaches, pity it couldn't have stayed around. And no-one predicted it! I'm disappointed, Jos!

It was a bit stale. But maybe I'm being a bit harsh.
 
Galahad said:
Hmm, lots of time loss for Alonso in the middle stint there...
Click to expand

It would help to have Massa's chart in that stint as he was pulling away from Alonso on some laps and Alonso himself admitted he struggled on the tyres during the first two stints when they were both stuck behing Webber and Rosberg respectively.

Any chance of Massa's chart being included, Brogan? :)
 
I actually found the Grand Prix a bit exciting, but that was only because of Webber and Hamilton fighting, the two Ferrari's with Rosberg and Button just watching them. DRS did ruin it though as always...

Think at the front it looks as if Red Bull now has the stronger race package but McLaren in qualifying. Great by Vettel once again, think Red Bull got their strategy right judging by Webber's strategy. Webber also drove a really good race suprisingly. Hamilton defended really well, great race from him too. Button...is he back to "Mr.Anonymous" again? Ferrari just seem to be there or there abouts. To Alonso now, "I give up"? Wonder what that was all about, but seemed to me as if he didn't give up, he had a lot of pace in the 3rd sector, but he was losing time to Massa in the second stint, what was even more interesting is, he was behind Massa in the first stint in the DRS zone when Massa didn't have it, but still didn't even get close to making a move :s

Impressed by Massa he didn't have the new front wing, but he was running right up there until the end, some say he held Alonso up, but he was either maintaining the gap or pulling away in the first 2 stints, and a few bad pitstops cost him. Loved his first lap! :)

Alguersuari drove really well too, but I think he benefitted most from the safety car since the drivers around him pitted one to two laps before him and he ended up getting a free stop, but great result from him. Rosberg as started off well, then just kind of dropped back, flat spotting the tyres must have not helped his race at all. Buemi I think drove a really good race too, he lost a lot of time in the opening lap and in the first stint since he got tagged by Perez and dropped back to around 20th, made his way through the field and even though he pitted one lap before the safety car he only finished 10s behind Alguersuari, so great performance by him too. Great job by Toro Rosso, with Sauber slipping back it seems, Toro Rosso seem like the ones that could take the fight to Force India!

Slightly puzzled by Force India, they used the same amount of tyres compared to Toro Rosso in qualifying, yet had better track position, but both of their drivers lost out to Toro Rosso, di Resta seemed to be eating his tyres up a bit more than those around him, but still got a point, good race by him? I would say so since he bet Sutil, but I think Force India lost out here if they wanted a chance to close the gap to Renault, instead they should be looking over their shoulder at Toro Rosso.

Renault, seem to have the pace with Petrov, Senna is just not that impressive especially in this race. Williams seemed to have good race pace, Maldonado was looking good for a point until he got a penalty and retired.

Team Lotus! Surprising pace by them in the race, not that far off those in the midfield, and interestingly one of their cars beat both Sauber's, I understand that Kobayashi lost a lot of time in an incident and because of his front wing, but Perez who had no incident at all apart from the small tag at the start was quite poor, so I would say getting Perez was on merit.

Schumacher and Petrov both were running well, I think the race would have been more interesting if these two where still in the race, think Schumacher could have got ahead of Rosberg, I like both drivers and find them exciting this season, so I would have expected something from Petrov if he stayed in. However, he got into a silly incident, and I would say deserved his penalty.

That's my alarm clock failing me 3 times out 4 the past 2 weeks! :(
 
On the Petrov/Schumacher incident, I think Petrov was watching Alonso and trying to brake at the same time to try to keep the place, its just that Alonso massively overshot his braking zone (if he didn't, he would have probably been collected too, but he didn't know that at the time). Amatuerish from Petrov and deserved the 5 place drop, but what was Alonso thinking at the time?!?
 
RickD said:
On the Petrov/Schumacher incident, I think Petrov was watching Alonso and trying to brake at the same time to try to keep the place, its just that Alonso massively overshot his braking zone (if he didn't, he would have probably been collected too, but he didn't know that at the time). Amatuerish from Petrov and deserved the 5 place drop, but what was Alonso thinking at the time?!?
Click to expand

Oh I think Alonso was well aware of what he was doing, after all Petrov is his new nemesis since after Abu Dhabi! ;)
 
WOW. Absolutely WOW!

I went to Spain this weekend on a whim. First time I have missed a live GP for 5 years. So I've just watched qualifying and am about to watch the race. What a lap. I have never heard DC and MB so excited commentated on a quali drive. That was one hell of a lap by Lewis. More of this please. I've missed watching this guy chuck a car round such as he did in Korea on Saturday.
 
It's OK. I couldn't bare not to know. I was on my iPad in the hotel room as soon as I rose from the dead on Saturday and Sunday. It was inevitable that I would be unable to avoid the news.
 
I was quite surprised to hear Anthony Davidson's take on Vettel's overtake on Hamilton.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/cff1

My initial thought was that his moves on Alonso in Monza and Spa, as well as on Rosberg in Spa were better but Ant gives a very technical viewpoint from driver's perspective. Also from the onboard camera it was clear that Vettel was not even ahead of Hamilton but out braked him and just kept it on the racing line being at the "rugged edge". The "crashkid" keeps on improving and impressing.
 
I don't think we've ever had a thread just for a single overtake before.

Nothing about it struck me as particularly special when I saw it, and that opinion hasn't changed with time.

Plenty of drivers have overtaken others by out-braking them and making it stick.
 
A very traditional manoeuvre, methinks. To me it looked like the Mclaren didn't have the traction Hamilton needed to respond. The track was seriously dusty "off-line" and the need to defend against Webber effectively sealed the move.
 
All the stuff Crofty said with his "very technical viewpoint from driver's perspective" about Redbull having the fastest car, Hamilton should not have come second, Vettel not adjusting to the new track as quick as Hamilton, Webber and RB making a mistake with the pitstop, some interesting stuff about Alonso, Torro Rosso................and yet we have a thred about Vettels overtake on Hamilton. :whistle:
 

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