Korean GP review: Who stops Vettel now?

PRACTICE

Practice one - Friday am

Two years into its Formula 1 life, the Yeongam circuit is starting to settle in.

The city and marina that were supposed to blossom in its vicinity are still conspicuous by their absence, and the track was still extremely dusty at first (leading to tyre graining for the early risers), but it cleaned up much quicker than teams were expecting and first practice proved more productive than might have been feared.

For most of the session it was Fernando Alonso on top. A few days on from his Japanese Grand Prix disaster, that looked like a statement of intent as the Ferrari blasted round a long way clear of its rivals in the opening half of the morning.

In the end, though, the pack got closer and closer, and finally Lewis Hamilton nipped ahead of the Ferrari to end the session as pacesetter. Most impressive about Hamilton's performance was not the laptimes, but when he set them - as he produced two laps quicker than anyone else could manage over 20 laps into a stint.

The Red Bulls were third and fifth, split by Felipe Massa's Ferrari. Kimi Raikkonen was slightly underwhelmed by Lotus's major upgrade package as he took 11th.

Four teams had Friday drivers in action, and it was Force India's Jules Bianchi who fared best in 13th. Valtteri Bottas carried out intensive update comparison work for Williams in 18th, while Giedo van der Garde and Dani Clos turned out for Caterham and HRT respectively.

Practice two - Friday pm

Red Bull started to show its hand in the second session. Either Sebastian Vettel or Mark Webber was on top virtually every minute. By the end, it was the champion ahead, but only by 0.032s. Alonso and Jenson Button, best of the rest, were three tenths adrift.

While both were happy with their long-run pace, Button in particular reckoned Red Bull's form meant the identity of the polesitter was already certain.

While one McLaren driver had reason to be upbeat, the other was perplexed. Morning pacesetter Hamilton slumped to eighth amid issues with understeer.

Both Mercedes were in the top 10 again, leaving Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher confident that the team's mini-slump was coming to a close.

Incidents were in short supply, bar Bruno Senna spinning his Williams and an engine actuator issue halting Sergio Perez's Sauber.

Practice three - Saturday am

Honours had been split between Red Bull and McLaren on Friday, but final practice would prove an ominous portent of Red Bull's qualifying advantage as Vettel eclipsed the field in the final minutes.

It was not just the fact Vettel found half a second more than anyone else that impressed though - it was the manner in which he achieved his time, at the end of a three-lap run that yielded increasing performance each time around.

Hamilton and Button put McLaren second and third, but in truth the pair were flattered by an electrical engine issue which prevented Webber from joining the fray on super softs.

As the Australian would prove in qualifying, he too had chart-topping pace.

McLaren did have the comfort of knowing it was more of a match on the soft compounds, a scenario which was also true of the Ferraris.

Alonso, for example, was quickly up to second once he emerged from the pits, while Massa set the overall best in the third sector, even if it didn't yield an improvement on seventh.

The Scuderia struggled more than McLaren on the super softs however, opening the door for Lotus to come through. Romain Grosjean was in fine form to snatch fourth ahead of stablemate Raikkonen, who had the benefit of the team's new Coanda-effect exhaust layout.

There was precious little in the way of on-track drama, save for Senna having to pit with a front-wing issue and Vitaly Petrov being warned against riding both pedals simultaneously.

Petrov did at least have the comfort of managing to outpace team-mate Heikki Kovalainen to finish 19th fastest. For Senna there was only misery as he came home 18th, nine spots down on Pastor Maldonado.

QUALIFYING

1 Mark Webber

"I was happy with my lap there, it was solid and it's good to get pole. It's a great place to start the race from. I'm looking to get off the first corner very well, that's important as there are two long straights after that."

2 Sebastian Vettel

"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 OK all weekend, but when the circuit ramped [up] I wasn't able to go with it, so I lost a bit."

3 Lewis Hamilton

"It's been quite a tough weekend in terms of getting a fast laptime out of the car, so third on the grid is very satisfying. In Q3 I'll happily admit that I ragged the life out of the car and got everything from it, yet Mark and Seb both claim they had a little bit left over."

4 Fernando Alonso

"I'd say we've made a step forward compared to Japan, just a week ago, both in terms of grid position and also the gap to the front. You can see that our car is better suited to this track, given that it is basically the same one we raced in Japan. It's no surprise to see the two Red Bulls on the front row."

5 Kimi Raikkonen

"Qualifying was OK and I think we did the best we could have done. We tried some different things on the car over the weekend and qualified in a reasonably good position, but of course you always want to go faster."

6 Felipe Massa

"It was a reasonably good qualifying, even if it was not perfect. I made a few small mistakes that maybe cost me one or two places, but all in all, sixth place is definitely not a disaster. The most important thing today is that we made the cut through from Q2."

7 Romain Grosjean

"It was a bit of a strange qualifying session for me to be honest; In Q1 the car felt nowhere, in Q2 it was good, then in Q3 it wasn't fantastic either so we need to spend some time analysing what happened."

8 Nico Hulkenberg

"It was not an easy qualifying session, but in the end everything went to plan. I did struggle in Q1 and Q2, and I've been fighting some understeer in the car all weekend, especially through the first sector. We never really managed to dial it out of the car, but it didn't hurt us too much."

9 Nico Rosberg

"Ninth place was the maximum that we could have achieved today. We set up the car well but we're lacking the performance to challenge any further towards the front. We're working hard to improve the situation, and hopefully our race pace will be better and we can score some decent points."

10 Michael Schumacher

"The positive aspect about today's performance was that we made a step forward relative to last weekend and got into Q3. But overall, it was an average kind of day. We were expecting to end up somewhere between positions eight and 10, but things didn't go quite right in the final sector of my quick lap."

11 Jenson Button

"I locked up in the final sector on my first Q2 lap, ran wide and had to go down to first gear - losing quite a lot of time in the process - so I reckon there was easily a couple of tenths that I could have had there. Then, on my final Q2 run, I lost time because of the yellow flags."

12 Sergio Perez

"It is a shame, as we were so close to getting into Q3 but, of course, I had to back off because of the yellow flags in the last sector. Well, the positive side is that we have saved a set of fresh tyres for the race."

13 Kamui Kobayashi

"I would have been easily five tenths faster but I had to back off when the yellow flags came out. I am quite disappointed, especially as we had improved the car for Q2. In Q1 initially I had problems with oversteer, but our set-up changes worked out nicely."

14 Paul di Resta

"The car was capable of Q3 today but once again my lap in Q2 was compromised by traffic. There were some cars backing off in the last three corners and that cost me those crucial tenths I needed to make Q3. So I'm a little bit disappointed."

15 Pastor Maldonado

"We've found it hard to improve from our practice sessions this weekend. I drove a clean lap in Q2 and got everything I could out of the car, but we just didn't have the pace today."

16 Daniel Ricciardo (Set to be hit with five-place grid penalty, yet to be confirmed)

"In Q2, we were only doing two runs of one flying lap each and on my last one, I simply lost drive coming out of Turn 12, feeling as if the car was in neutral and I couldn't find any gears. I could not bring the car back to the pits and had to abort the run at the side of the track."

17 Jean-Eric Vergne

"Unfortunately I tried to take the final corner flat on my very last run, but I got it wrong and ruined my lap, nearly losing the car, so I am angry with myself for that."

18 Bruno Senna

"I'm naturally disappointed with today. We had a few problems during practice with different elements of the car and this meant we couldn't pull it all together for qualifying. We'll just have to recover from this moment and try to have a good race tomorrow."

19 Vitaly Petrov

"My last lap was really good, probably as quick as we could go around here. We timed it right so traffic wasn't an issue and to finish over a second clear of the cars behind is good for the whole team."

20 Heikki Kovalainen

"We went for three runs, one on the softs and two one lap runs on the super softs to help try and find a balance but it just wasn't there today. On my last lap in Q1 I still had understeer in the last four corners - perhaps without that I'd have been able to find a bit more time, but it just wasn't there."

21 Timo Glock

"My run on the prime soft tyre was OK but then when we switched to the super soft I made a mistake out of Turn 10, went a little wide and lost traction. A bit of a shame as I lost a couple of tenths there."

22 Pedro de la Rosa

"We did a more than acceptable qualifying session; especially the second lap which was pretty good. But we had a lot of understeer and as a result were unable to post a perfect lap."

23 Narain Karthikeyan

"When you first come out of the pits, you don't brake at first. I got to the third corner, touched the brakes and it [the brake disc] broke in two. I don't know the cause and it was a huge spin. Fortunately, my pace was good in practice so I can start."

24 Charles Pic - 10-place engine change penalty

"It was a great qualifying for me. On the first run, with the soft tyre, there was a little bit of traffic and I lost temperature in the tyres. Then for the second run we used the super soft tyre. We lost 0.2s in sector one at the braking point, but then the middle sector was very good and overall it was a positive."

Starting grid:

Pos  Driver              Car
 1.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault
 2.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault
 3.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes
 4.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari
 5.  Kimi Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault
 6.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari
 7.  Romain Grosjean     Lotus-Renault
 8.  Nico Hulkenberg     Force India-Mercedes
 9.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes
10.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes
11.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes
12.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari
13.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari
14.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes
15.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Renault
16.  Daniel Ricciardo    Toro Rosso-Ferrari
17.  Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Ferrari
18.  Bruno Senna         Williams-Renault
19.  Vitaly Petrov       Caterham-Renault
20.  Heikki Kovalainen   Caterham-Renault
21.  Timo Glock          Marussia-Cosworth
22.  Pedro de la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth
23.  Narain Karthikeyan  HRT-Cosworth
24.  Charles Pic         Marussia-Cosworth

THE RACE

Remember the first half of the 2012 Formula 1 season?

When the advantage swung between Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari from race to race as if at random? When Williams and Mercedes were winning, and Sauber and Lotus appeared to be on the brink of doing so? And when there were at least five drivers who seemed to be in contention in the most wide open title battle in years?

Seems a long time ago now.

Yet while the current Red Bull momentum seems so familiar, in 2012 terms it's a very new trend - only just over a week old, in fact.

Korea may have been Sebastian Vettel's third consecutive grand prix victory, but the triumph that kicked that run off, in Singapore, was inherited when Lewis Hamilton's McLaren wilted.

And only a fortnight before that, Red Bull had been a non-scoring non-factor at Monza.

Vettel's back-to-back crushing demolitions of the opposition in Japan and Korea feel very ominous, though. His run of success since Red Bull's mid-2009 breakthrough is such that when he's not in Suzuka/Yeongam-style form, it feels like an aberration, only an inevitable matter of time before the jubilant finger of victory is being thrust around a parc ferme again. What they did in Korea is now regarded as Vettel and Red Bull's natural level. When others get a look-in, it's because the 2010/11 champions have let something slip.

Losing pole to team-mate Mark Webber had left Vettel a little nonplussed given his practice pace. But immediately after qualifying he was recalling how in the 2011 Korean GP he had swiftly converted second to the race lead by passing polesitter Lewis Hamilton on lap one.

This time he was back up front even quicker. Vettel beat Webber off the line, made sure of it under braking for Turn 1, and then held off his team-mate's attempted retaliation at Turn 3.

And that was the race settled.

Lap one was quite frenetic. As well as the wheel to wheel Red Bulls, Fernando Alonso, Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen were three-abreast down the back straight, emerging from Turn 3 in that order.

In their wake, Suzuka podium superstar Kamui Kobayashi was about to fulfil some hero-to-zero stereotypes by contriving to crash into both Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button within about a second - misjudging a gap and bouncing off the Mercedes into the McLaren. "Idiot," was Button's radio summary. Kobayashi held his hands up. All three ultimately had to retire as a consequence.

That was most of the race's fireworks over, although the podium battle had some intrigue potential as Webber, Alonso and Hamilton ran in relatively close company at first.

Then Hamilton dropped off the pace dramatically around the first pitstops. It looked like a return to the days when he so often burned through a set of tyres too fast, but in fact the McLaren's rear anti-rollbar had broken.

Felipe Massa was soon past and into fourth, with Raikkonen then further demoting Hamilton, despite some feisty resistance.

With the suspension issue taking its roll on tyre life, Hamilton was switched onto a three-stop strategy.

That initially dropped him into an entertaining battle between Nico Hulkenberg and Romain Grosjean. The Lotus had fought long and hard to pass the Force India, but shortly after doing so it came up behind Hamilton.

As Grosjean battled to go around the outside of Hamilton into Turn 3, Hulkenberg took advantage and slipped down its inside - then masterfully pounced on Hamilton around the outside through the next sequence. This may well have left a few top-team managers wondering whether they had been right to overlook Hulkenberg when sorting their 2013 seats...

With an additional pitstop still to come, Hamilton would not even manage to stay with Hulkenberg and Grosjean. Instead he went into the final stint chasing the Toro Rossos of Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne, which had made outstanding progress from 21st and 16th on the grid to hold eighth and ninth, making big gains through early first pitstops.

Ricciardo's tyres were wilting by the final laps, allowing Vergne past and leaving him vulnerable to Hamilton. But then the McLaren man's miserable race got more depressing still when his car collected a large strip of displaced astroturf and became even harder to handle.

Hamilton therefore had to let Vergne and Ricciardo escape and focus on retaining 10th as Sergio Perez closed in.

It might have been some consolation for Hamilton had he been able to look down the pitlane to his 2013 home Mercedes and see a bright future. But with Rosberg out early and Michael Schumacher's inability to get the tyres working resulting in Perez and Paul di Resta pushing him back to an underwhelming 13th, the grass in Brackley definitely wasn't a more inviting shade of green this weekend.

Further back, Williams was also firmly on the 'bad day' list as Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna could manage no better than 14th and 15th. The rear three teams finished in the traditional order, bar Vitaly Petrov being top Caterham on this occasion and Marussia's Timo Glock keeping the green cars firmly in sight for much of the afternoon.

No one can begrudge Vettel and Red Bull success when the German is driving sublimely and his team is producing a class-of-the-field car. But with the 2012 title fight having once promised so much, it was hard not to feel a little deflated at the end of the race, with a late-season Vettel runaway now looking very, very likely.

But the last man with a realistic shot at stopping Vettel's title run would scoff at such talk. Alonso was far from downcast on the podium, instead celebrating how close he had been to the Red Bulls, pointing out that he only needed to outscore Vettel by seven points across four races (something he made sound fairly routine...), and predicting a "beautiful" fight to the Interlagos finale.

Whoever comes out on top, hopefully Alonso is absolutely right about the entertainment ahead, because F1 2012 deserves to finish with a few more epics, and not too many repeats of Yeongam.

Lap-by-lap as it happened on AUTOSPORT Live

Results - 55 laps

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time
 1.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           1h36:28.651
 2.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +     8.231
 3.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +    13.944
 4.  Massa         Ferrari                    +    20.168
 5.  Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault              +    36.739
 6.  Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes       +    45.301
 7.  Grosjean      Lotus-Renault              +    54.812
 8.  Vergne        Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +  1:09.589
 9.  Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +  1:11.787
10.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +  1:19.692
11.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +  1:20.062
12.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +  1:24.448
13.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +  1:29.241
14.  Maldonado     Williams-Renault           +  1:34.924
15.  Senna         Williams-Renault           +  1:36.902
16.  Petrov        Caterham-Renault           +     1 lap
17.  Kovalainen    Caterham-Renault           +     1 lap
18.  Glock         Marussia-Cosworth          +     1 lap
19.  Pic           Marussia-Cosworth          +    2 lap2
20.  Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth               +    2 laps

Retirements:

Driver        Team                       On lap
De la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth                 17
Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari               17
Rosberg       Mercedes                     2
Button        McLaren-Mercedes             1

World Championship standings, round 16:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Vettel       215        1.  Red Bull-Renault          367
 2.  Alonso       209        2.  Ferrari                   290
 3.  Raikkonen    167        3.  McLaren-Mercedes          284
 4.  Hamilton     153        4.  Lotus-Renault             255
 5.  Webber       152        5.  Mercedes                  136
 6.  Button       131        6.  Sauber-Ferrari            116
 7.  Rosberg       93        7.  Force India-Mercedes       89
 8.  Grosjean      88        8.  Williams-Renault           58
 9.  Massa         81        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         21
10.  Perez         66       
11.  Kobayashi     50       
12.  Hulkenberg    45       
13.  Di Resta      44       
14.  Schumacher    43       
15.  Maldonado     33       
16.  Senna         25       
17.  Vergne        12       
18.  Ricciardo      9       
       
All timing unofficial

PRACTICE

Red Bull

Comfortably clear in qualifying and comfortably clear in the race. This was the Red Bull of 2011, as another peerless weekend put them in prime position for a third straight drivers'/constructors' double.

It was always likely to be that way, at least since Sebastian Vettel's dominant turn at Suzuka. Having traded fastest times with Hamilton in the opening practices, the German fired an ominous warning in the final session when he eased half a second clear on his super soft run.

As it was, pole didn't quite materialise for Vettel, with Mark Webber instead snatching the spot. The result was still a front-row lockout for Red Bull, an advantage it preserved at the start, with Vettel jumping Webber to lead early on.

The dominance continued throughout the race, and it was fitting that Vettel's biggest chance of being denied came not from the chasing Ferraris but his own internal battle with tyres. That tension was far greater than any he faced in the race, as he cruised to victory and a six-point championship lead.

With Webber second, Red Bull strengthened its hold on the constructors' fight, pulling 77 points clear of Ferrari with four races to run.

McLaren

A disastrous weekend for McLaren effectively ruled both its drivers out of the title race and dropped the team behind Ferrari in the constructors' fight.

The team's struggles began in qualifying, when Jenson Button failed to make it into Q3 and lined up 11th. A good start gave him the chance to progress, but Sauber had other ideas as first Sergio Perez forced him wide at Turn 1 and then Kamui Kobayashi barrelled into him two corners later. Button was out on the spot.

Hamilton meanwhile had lined up third, but after surrendering position to Alonso at the start, he began to struggle with what was later revealed to be a rear anti-roll bar problem. A victim to several overtakes on track, he also lost ground through having to make a third stop and wound up clinging on to 10th, stray astroturf make his car appear as bedraggled as his title ambitions.

Ferrari

It says a lot about Ferrari's predicament that this weekend was, on balance, encouraging and disheartening in almost equal measure. Sure, Alonso surrendered a championship lead that he had held since Valencia in June. Sure, he has also surrendered 35 points to Vettel in the past three races. But in finishing third he not only kept himself in the fight, but confirmed that Ferrari will be waiting in the wings should Red Bull slip up; that the Scuderia, on race pace at least, now appears to have moved up into second.

Felipe Massa provided a further boost with another strong drive to fourth, the Brazilian's pace such that at one point he was asked to drop back slightly from his team-mate's tail.

Of course there is still work to do, but given events at Suzuka, Red Bull was always likely to win here. In that sense at least Ferrari limited the damage as best it could. What it needs now is to find a way to fight back and inflict some damage of its own.

Mercedes

A point-less weekend was not on the requirement list for Mercedes as it battled back from a massively below-par showing at Suzuka. It didn't always appear to be heading for such an outcome, particularly not when both cars made it through into Q3, Nico Rosberg ahead of Michael Schumacher in ninth and 10th.

Come the race, however, the weekend fell apart. Like Jenson Button, Rosberg fell victim to Kamui Kobayashi's optimistic aggression at Turn 3, and while he coasted for half a lap more his race effectively ended there and then.

It would have been interesting to see whether he would have been afflicted with the same problems as his stablemate. Unable to dial the tyres into race distances, Schumacher could find no consistency and slipped back as the race wore on, eventually finishing 13th. It was, in his words, a race to move on from straight away.

Lotus

There were two points of interest surrounding Lotus this weekend: would its Coanda-effect exhaust update work? And would Romain Grosjean steer clear of first lap trouble?

On the evidence, both were answered in a positive fashion. There is still some way to go before the team becomes a realistic victory challenger as it was earlier this year, but in securing fifth Kimi Raikkonen did at least confirm the new system had promise.

Grosjean, understandably nervous, did well to keep his nose clean on what was a busy opening lap. His caution perhaps extended into his battle with Lewis Hamilton, during which both he and the Briton were jumped by Nico Hulkenberg, but the element of right time, right place also played a part. Graining in his final stint dropped him back from the Force India, with seventh a decent reward for his efforts.

Force India

Force India exemplified why qualifying is so key to the current F1 arena, with Nico Hulkenberg and Paul di Resta's race fortunes both influenced by their grid slots.

For the former, that was good news. Eighth in qualifying kept him ahead of the carnage behind and, when Lewis Hamilton began to struggle, put him in the perfect position to attack just as Grosjean was held up. Two places to the better, he held on to take a 'mega' sixth-place.

Di Resta, in contrast, was hampered by his failure to break into Q3, and the subsequent failure of a decision to start on softs and switch to supersofts. That left him struggling for pace and mired in the midfield traffic, from which he was unable to rise higher than 12th.

Sauber

From hero to zero, all in the space of a week. Kamui Kobayashi may have been the main culprit behind Sauber's fall, but Sergio Perez also suffered from first-lap optimism and was then waylaid by a pitstop delay.

A points finish proved just out of reach as a result, although the Mexican did his best to deprive Lewis Hamilton of 10th, coming home just 0.4s behind the astro turf-stricken McLaren.

The Mexican at least had a chance to fight for the top 10. Kobayashi managed to eliminate Rosberg and Button on the first lap and lasted just 17 himself before the damage took its toll.

Toro Rosso

Toro Rosso delivered one of its strongest performances of the season in Korea, with both Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo finishing inside the points - only the second time they have done so this year.

There was little to choose between the pair throughout the weekend. Ricciardo narrowly had the edge in qualifying, lapping two tenths faster than Vergne but lining up just one spot higher.

It was a similar story in the race, although the advantage swung several times. Underpinned by excellent top-line speed, the pair made steady progress through the field. Ricciardo was primed to finish eighth until brake issues dropped him back into Vergne and then Hamilton's clutches, and while he surrendered position to his team-mate, he hung on to follow him home in ninth.

Williams

Pastor Maldonado warned that Williams was in danger of being left behind by its rivals in the season run-in, and on the evidence of Korea it was hard to disagree.

First, Bruno Senna suffered the fate of joining Caterham, Marussia and Caterham in failing to make Q2, before Maldonado fell at the next hurdle, qualifying 15th.

There was little reprieve in the race. A one-stop strategy didn't pay off for Maldonado, and left him vulnerable to his team-mate in the closing stages. Senna couldn't find a way past, but there was little joy for Maldonado as he came home just 14th.

Caterham

Caterham was once again best of the rest in Korea, with Vitaly Petrov getting the edge over Heikki Kovalainen in both qualifying and the race.

In truth, both affairs were relatively straightforward for the team. Two-top strategies worked for both its drivers, and while neither was able to challenge those in front they also came under no pressure from behind, cruising home 16th and 17th.

HRT

Mechanical woes were the main source of contention for HRT in Korea, as both drivers suffered afflictions over the weekend.

The trouble started in qualifying when Narain Karthikeyan suffered a high-speed spin, later found to have been caused by his front-right brake disc splitting in half.

In the race it was Pedro de la Rosa's turn, as a jamming throttle pedal worsened from lap until the team eventually retired him on lap 17. Karthikeyan, meanwhile, came home 20th, two laps down on the leaders.

Marussia

Charles Pic once again bested Timo Glock in qualifying at Korea, although a 10-place grid penalty for an engine change ensured he started from the back row.

He lost time and ground fighting the HRTs as a result, and ended coming home two laps down on the leaders. Glock rallied in the race and hounded the Caterhams, although a long final stint dropped him back at the finish.

RACE DATA

The Race in Action

Full race lap times (H)

Full race lap times (V)

Lap chart (positions)

Lap chart (gaps)