Following back-to-back race wins, the reigning Formula One double World Champion Sebastian Vettel went into Korea as the hot favourite.
The Red Bull car had shown it was the dominant car in Japan and it was expected to be same in Korea. With the car advantage and only four points behind Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, the target for the German was to beat Alonso and take the lead in the hunt for the 2012 World title and a place in the history books.
The young German, who is already the youngest ever double world champion in the sports history, could become the first driver to win their first three titles in succession and of course become the youngest ever three time world champion.
Everyone knows that Vettel is a fan of the history statistics and the pressure of taking a title, a once in a lifetime chance, will weight on his shoulders at some stage, but not this weekend.
From Free Practice 2 Vettel was the clear star of the weekend, he topped the second practice session, he topped the third practice session and qualified on the front row of the grid behind his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber.
After locking out the front-row Vettel told the formula1.com press at the media gathering: ?Overall we can be very happy with the result. We were quite quick in the first and second qualifying sessions and had a good start to Q3. On the last run, I had to back off starting the lap as Massa was there, it wasn?t his fault, but I had to back off. Nevertheless, the second lap in Q3 wasn?t good enough. I lost time in the middle sector, which seemed to be okay all weekend, but when the circuit ramped I wasn?t able to go with it, so I lost a bit, but second is a good position so start from. There are long straights near the start, so it could be interesting tomorrow.?
Vettel was right about the long straights at the start, he used the first one to take the lead of the race at the first corner and then had to defend in a drag race against Webber going down the second straight.
If DRS had been enabled, Vettel would have lost the place, but in identical cars with no drag benefits, both drivers out of kers and drs disabled during the opening two laps, Vettel defended the lead and never looked back.
The German’s biggest challenge was to look after the Pirelli tyres with his team very concerned during the final stages of the race, not that it appeared to bother Vettel.
?I think it was a perfect day for me and the team. It was important to get a good start. I was able to out-accelerate Mark and get side by side, I had the inside for Turn Three and a good exit, which meant I could stay ahead for Turn Four. I was in the lead, but we have seen before that it doesn?t always stick. My one mistake today was a lock-up going in to Turn Three, but with the tyres it was marginal for everyone. You couldn?t push so much and my front right didn?t look too happy from the inside many times. We were able to pull away in the first and second stint and hold it for the third. We will have to do our best to remain where we are now. We have to just keep it simple and do our job.?
Vettel now leads the championship for the first time since Monaco, holding a 6 point lead over Fernando Alonso.
With Kimi Raikkonen a further 42 points behind the 2012 Formula One World Championship is now between Vettel and Alonso with the winner becoming only the ninth driver to ever win three world championships.
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