Perfection from Vettel, if not the tyres

The mob rule of the majority of the teams against Red Bull's recent dominance pressured Pirelli into bringing the super-soft/medium tyre combination to South Korea.

The tougher the tyre, the more of Red Bull's downforce advantage can be used. Funnily enough, the others didn't fancy that and pressed for a more marginal choice, to stop Sebastian Vettel disappearing into the distance.

The original soft/medium chosen for Yeongam would have made for a more balanced stint length between the two compounds, and that would have made two-stopping - much the fastest way here - much less marginal on tyre life.

Everything is cracking around the immense pressure that Red Bull's and Vettel's domination has been placing upon F1 for the past four years, from fractured relationships between teams and their drivers to behind-closed-doors arguments between drivers and Pirelli.

Fernando Alonso probably wouldn't have damaged his partnership with Ferrari were it not for the relentless success juggernaut of the Seb/RB combo; Kimi Raikkonen probably wouldn't have been recruited there in reaction to that; Lewis Hamilton might not have left McLaren a year ago. That feeling of competitive paranoia was behind the pressure applied to Pirelli to bring the super-soft.

So with that backdrop, it was sort of ironic that Vettel dominated regardless and that a tyre failure livened up the race behind him.

Pirelli's more aggressive approach failed to halt Vettel, but did lead to problems for others © XPB

Yeongam's Turn 11, the long fourth-gear left-hander that tightens on itself, is the corner that defines this track - the tyre wear, the strategy, the competitive order of the field.

It shears the rubber from the front-right, creates that dreaded dark strip on the outside of the tread signifying graining.

"Once that phase is over, the tyre feels great," explained Vettel afterwards, "and you get the feeling from the cockpit that the car is alive again. But actually the tyre is dead." The graining only stops because the remaining tread is so thin, and a couple of laps after that you're down to the gripless base, and losing three seconds per lap or more.

The front-right was only being taken into this territory because everyone was trying for the faster two-stop rather than a three. A more-robust option tyre - the soft, as opposed to super-soft - would have enabled a longer stint on it, thereby shortening the runs on the medium.

Vettel was unchallenged even from the start, with front-row partner Hamilton feeling that his Mercedes' getaway was merely ordinary. In that moment, Lewis was forced to switch his focus from attacking Vettel to defending from Romain Grosjean. "Any possibility of the win was gone from that moment," he reflected later.

Had the Merc got ahead in those closely-spaced opening moments, before the Red Bull had a chance to sprint clear, then the challenge for Vettel of how to repass a car that was slower over the lap, but faster at the end of the long back straight, could have been interesting.

As it was, Seb was relieved when he looked in his mirrors to see Hamilton side-by-side with Grosjean as they raced up the straight towards Turn 3.

Lewis's defensive line into the first turn had given the advantage to Grosjean, allowing the Lotus the ideal line through the first two turns. With a higher wing setting, Grosjean got onto the back straight much faster, on the KERS button and was flicking right out of Hamilton's slipstream down that long, long straight to claim the inside line into the tight hairpin.

Hamilton's victory hopes were dashed by an ordinary start © XPB

Late, clean and confident on the brakes, he ran the car out wide on the exit to block Lewis from getting early on the throttle, and the place was his.

Hamilton had saved some KERS once he realised he was going to be done, ready for the retaliation down to the short straight to Turn 4.

Behind them, Alonso had been hung out to dry over the Turn 1 exit kerb by Nico Rosberg's Mercedes, leaving Fernando a distant fifth ahead of the fast-starting Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and a tightly-packed bunch, out of which emerged an optimistic Felipe Massa, lunging his Ferrari down the inside into Turn 3.

As Rosberg turned in from the outside, Massa realised he'd left things too late, stood even harder on the brakes, locked the rears and spun, lightly nudging Alonso as he did so, fortunately without damage to the other Ferrari, but costing it a place to Hulkenberg.

Cars speared off onto the run-off area in avoidance, allowing Daniel Ricciardo to make up a whole bunch of places, now seventh, right behind Alonso and ahead of Kimi Raikkonen's Lotus. Ricciardo's Toro Rosso was the only car to have started the race on the medium tyre.

Massa got going again, plum last, while both Jenson Button's McLaren and Adrian Sutil's Force India had suffered front-wing damage in the confusion and would be in for replacements soon enough.

Grosjean had fended Hamilton off perfectly up to Turns 4/5, despite Lewis's most forceful KERS-assisted efforts. After that came the no-overtaking of the flowing middle sector and the tight twists of Turns 12 to 18, meaning Romain was safely ahead.

Vettel was in familiar territory: sprint flat-out to pull out of DRS reach, then pace back to the car behind, minimising stress on the tyres. He was over two seconds ahead already as he flashed out of that demanding final kink onto the pit straight for the first time, this gap the foundation of victory like so many times before.

This was to be no Singapore-like flat-out demonstration of superiority; the tyres were not robust enough for that and it would have to be a more traditional Pirelli-era Vettel approach.

Massa spun at Turn 3 on the opening lap © LAT

He would stabilise his advantage to Grosjean at just over 3s, with Hamilton still chasing hard and well clear of the more circumspect Rosberg.

Mercedes decided to bring Lewis in early, on lap nine, in an attempt at undercutting Grosjean, and he was followed in by Alonso a few seconds back, trying to do the same to Hulkenberg.

These moves, of course, triggered a concertina effect of reactive stops, three or four laps earlier than the super-softs could have gone, and thereby making achieving the desired two-stops tougher for everyone.

Vettel responded to Grosjean's stop, pitted on lap 11 and rejoined a few seconds behind his yet-to-stop team-mate Mark Webber, who pitted a lap later. Everyone was now on the more robust medium tyres, which had an expected life of around 20 to 22 laps, theoretically just enough for two sets to get you to the end.

But that was heavily dependent upon giving them an easy time, particularly through Turn 11.

Hamilton was in no mood for that. His attempt at jumping Grosjean had not worked and he'd rejoined still on the Lotus's tail. He immediately tried for a dummy up to Turn 3, but Romain was not falling for it and over the next few laps Lewis pushed as though tyre wear was only for other people.

The Merc's best sector was the middle one, Hamilton having been quickest of all through there in qualifying and, as he hustled trying to force Grosjean into an error, he was using up that precious right-front very quickly.

Things just hadn't fallen into place for Lewis and his reaction to that ensured his problems would snowball. Team-mate Rosberg, driving to that right-front, was 10s back, behind the yet-to-stop prime-tyred Ricciardo.

Not far behind Rosberg, Hulkenberg was doing a perfect defensive job in keeping Alonso behind him, level-headed and displaying perfect judgement in where to defend and where it wasn't necessary.

Hulkenberg's superb defence kept Alonso at bay and allowed Raikkonen and Webber to close in © XPB

It was reminiscent of his similarly excellent Monza drive, although he was helped here by the fact that every time Alonso got tight under the Sauber's rear wing, the Ferrari's front wing simply stalled out, throwing it wide over the exit kerbs and even occasionally the grass beyond. A few laps of this allowed the nose-to-tail Raikkonen and Webber to join the train.

Rosberg used DRS to pass Ricciardo on the 18th lap, just before Daniel made his first stop and had another set of primes fitted.

Not far behind, Alonso was getting increasingly forceful with Hulkenberg, especially up to Turn 4. Then the graining began, accentuated when running close behind another car, giving the Hulk a bit of breathing space before the Sauber's right-front began to suffer the same fate.

Just as Vettel set the fastest lap of the race so far to tease his lead out to over 4s, Hamilton's front-right cried enough after just 11 laps. He dropped 0.7s on the 22nd lap, then went slower and slower by big chunks each time until eventually he was losing over three seconds per lap.

"The right-front is destroyed," Lewis radioed in. He was advised about the graining period. "No, already been through that. They are finished."

Over the next seven laps he surrendered 18.5 seconds. He was in a strategically difficult position. It was way too early to bring him in and remain on a two-stop, but Mercedes was reluctant to switch to a three.

Yet a three-stop race was theoretically only eight seconds slower than a two, and Hamilton went on to lose much more than that. The extra stop costs an immediate 25 seconds, but 17s of that is clawed back over the distance by the fresher tyres - provided you don't get snarled in traffic.

By the time it was realised this wasn't just the graining phase, that they really were finished, it had seriously worsened the penalty of a three-stop. Merc had effectively missed the window by not reacting immediately.

Hamilton was going to have to be left out on the track, and hope the right-front didn't delaminate. Rosberg and Hulkenberg were a respective 16.5s and 20s behind him when the problem first manifested itself, so the positional penalty was unlikely to be costly.

Hamilton's front-right was destroyed after just 11 laps of his second stint © LAT

How long to leave him out? Further back, they were coming in from the 25th lap onwards. Yet the plan was to keep Hamilton out until lap 28. Was this to get Rosberg ahead first, to ensure his race wasn't compromised by Hamilton rooting another set of tyres while in front of him and holding him up? It would make sense. In fact, it's the only way of making sense of Merc's decisions around this time.

Nico was catching quickly and Hamilton was getting paranoid. "Am I under threat here?" he radioed. He was told his gap back to his team-mate. "That's not what I asked. Am I under threat?" Clearly, he was.

On the 28th lap, Rosberg got onto his DRS on the back straight, pulled out of his team-mate's slipstream and passed to the right. But at the very moment he got alongside a mounting point between the nosebox and chassis broke, dropping the underside of Nico's front wing onto the track.

Sparks cascaded dramatically and it was obvious he was going to have to pit immediately, but awkwardly he was now past Hamilton, thereby delaying Lewis on his dead right-front for yet another lap. Understandably he was getting impatient.

Rosberg was stationary for 22s as a new nose was attached and Hamilton came in on the next lap, stopped for just 2.5s and got under way, finally on a fresh set of primes and exiting still a few seconds clear of Hulkenberg.

But he'd lost a place to the early-pitting Raikkonen, who had leapfrogged the Sauber by stopping earlier. Had it not been for the extra lap enforced on Hamilton by Rosberg's nose failure, he'd have cleared Raikkonen.

Prior to being brought in early, Raikkonen had been stuck in the train behind Hulkenberg and Alonso. Now he'd not only leapfrogged them, but got a bonus of passing Hamilton too and now was effectively third (once the late-running pitters got out of his way). But still he was a net 25s down on his second-placed team-mate Grosjean, who was driving a faultless race.

Romain realised he could do nothing about Vettel, but kept the Lotus on the perfect cusp between right-front wear and pace. The Mercedes dramas had gifted him a massive advantage over third place and all he had to do now was keep the Red Bull in sight and stay on course for a two-stop. Occasionally he'd nibble into its 5s lead, but then Seb would respond.

Raikkonen leapfrogged several drivers in the second round of stops... © LAT

But Grosjean's day was about to be compromised by an incident out of his control. By lap 31 Sergio Perez had still yet to stop. His tyres were 21 laps old, that front-right had virtually no tread rubber left and, as he stood on the brakes for Turn 1, it locked in a big way - enough to put a hole in the tread.

It lasted only a few seconds as he accelerated up the back straight, suddenly unwrapping itself spectacularly from the carcass like an uncoiled spring, taking out bodywork as it did so and landing in the middle of the track. Webber had just exited the pits and ran over the debris, puncturing one of his new tyres.

The safety car was deployed, Vettel and Grosjean dived into the pits for the fresh primes and rejoined still in the first two places, but with their advantage over Raikkonen now wiped out. Behind the Red Bull and the two Lotuses in the queue ran Hamilton, Hulkenberg, Alonso, Button and Rosberg.

Jenson was flattered in an artificially high place from being out of sequence because of that early wing damage but had now decided to stay out, which would entail asking his tyres to do a stint of 33 laps!

Webber's puncture meant he was back in one lap after he'd left. Upon noticing the red stripes on his tyres, he enquired why he'd been fitted with super-softs. "Because we have no more primes left, mate," came the reply. That was soon about to be the least of his problems.

The safety car came in at the end of lap 36. In the last section of the lap before the restart Vettel sprinted away from the Lotuses, while Grosjean made a small mistake, making him slow onto the pit straight.

Raikkonen sensed his opportunity: he aimed the Lotus to the inside of his team-mate, Grosjean came across on him, requiring Kimi to react to prevent an interlocking-wheel accident, but he was through.

Had it not been for the safety car, Raikkonen would have still been 25 seconds behind and at no stage during the weekend had he been on Grosjean's pace. Romain was not happy.

...while the safety car set up his Turn 1 pass on team-mate Grosjean © XPB

"We have rules in the team that we do not fight," he said. He was asking that he be allowed back through as the faster Lotus - just as he had stood aside for Raikkonen on previous occasions.

It was pretty obvious to the Lotus management the response they'd get if they requested Raikkonen to give the place back.

Grosjean had reason to feel hard done by. He, and not Raikkonen, was the one with the pace to take the fight to Vettel. He, not Raikkonen, was the driver staying with the team next year. "But if I hadn't made the mistake we wouldn't be having the conversation," was his honest assessment post-race.

Into Turn 3, just after Hulkenberg slipstreamed himself past Hamilton, Sutil spun under braking on his slow-to-warm tyres, the Force India's gearbox hitting the side of Webber's Red Bull just where the oil cooler is.

The oil ignited immediately on the hot exhausts and Mark pulled off with the car well ablaze. That taxi ride back to the pits in Singapore had sure been an expensive one...

Up to Turn 4, Hamilton was having to get aggressive to stop Alonso from taking advantage of his compromised line from being passed by Hulkenberg. The Ferrari managed to draw ahead on the drag race between 3 and 4 but was on the outside, and Lewis did a brake-locking dive up the inside to reclaim the place.

With Webber's car blazing away, race director Charlie Whiting gave permission for a fire-marshal vehicle to attend as he prepared to deploy the safety car. The assumption was that it would be a vehicle already stationed at Turn 3 that would access the Red Bull via the perimeter road. Instead, the Turn 1 fire car was sent onto the back straight!

White flags, denoting a slow moving vehicle, were shown but still Vettel was confused as he was confronted by the sight of a four-by-four dawdling up the straight. He backed off, as did the rest of the pack, and the safety car passed them to take control.

The race was neutralised until the end of the 40th lap, giving those struggling to stay on a two-stop strategy some respite. This definitely included Alonso. "I think a lot of people would have been forced to do the extra stop had it not been for the safety cars, not just us," said Ferrari's Stefano Domenicali.

Webber's blazing Red Bull prompted a second safety car © XPB

Upon the restart Vettel again sprinted away again, Raikkonen unable to do anything about him. Grosjean was still asking the team to get Raikkonen to pull aside; they were still refusing to do so. Eventually Eric Bouillier himself came over the radio, instructing his driver to race for the place. But with the yellow flags into the only real passing place of Turn 3, this was not feasible.

Hamilton was finding a similar frustration in trying to repass Hulkenberg, who was absolutely as perfect in defence against Lewis as he had earlier been against Alonso. At one stage Hamilton dived through into Turn 1, but Hulkenberg was able to simply repass using his DRS up the back straight, back ahead well before the braking zone.

"I knew all I had to do was exit cleanly through Turn 1 because we were too fast up the back straight for him," he explained. With Alonso hovering right behind, Hamilton wasn't keen to repeat the Turn 1 attempt. "Anyone got any ideas?" he radioed in. Remarkably Hulkenberg kept this up for the remaining 15 laps.

The safety car had created a queue of squabblers further back too as Pastor Maldonado, Esteban Gutierrez, Massa and Perez ducked and dived, exchanging places in a wild wheel-locking frenzy over ninth place. Massa eventually came out on top of this one from Perez. Ricciardo should have been involved too, but had to slow and then retire with a serious brake problem.

Hulkenberg's defence from the queue comprising Hamilton, Alonso, Button and Rosberg allowed the front three to ease themselves over 20 seconds clear in the remaining laps. Button surrendered to the fresher-tyred car of Rosberg for seventh place but did remarkably well to get to the end on tyres that had been on since lap 21.

Vettel's victory surely allows him to put one hand on the championship trophy. Even on a tyre compound that reduced Red Bull's usual advantage, the result had never really been in doubt. Or had it?

"I think without the safety cars we might have had a chance to catch him," said Grosjean. "We had a bit of a tyre advantage at the end of the stints. We planned to pit quite early, trying to jump him and go for a very long last stint, but the safety car meant we had to pit at the same time and the same tyre age."

So maybe Vettel might have been beatable, after all. What did Grosjean's trackside chief Alan Permane think of that possibility? "No chance!"