Stats: what links Anderstorp and Yeongam?

WELCOME TO VETTEL COUNTRY

Formula 1 enters Sebastian Vettel territory for its next three events, starting this weekend in Korea.

Vettel won here and in Japan and India last year, while two years ago he won the first and last, while third in Japan was sufficient to grant him his second world title.

The Red Bull driver has always dominated in Korea. It's not only his two wins in the last two races, but he was also in the lead when his engine failed back in 2010.

This domination is summed up in the statistic for total laps led here: 153 for Vettel and 12 for Fernando Alonso. No one else has ever led an F1 race at Yeongam.

THE ABSOLUTE LAP LEADERS

That means Vettel has led 92 per cent of all F1's race laps in Korea. That's a record for a track where a driver has competed at least three times.

There are some instances in history when a driver was able to lead all the laps at a given circuit, when that race was run only once or twice.

The table below lists the records. It compares the laps led to the total F1 race laps run there. Most were achieved in one-off grands prix, so Vettel's efforts in India and Korea are striking.

DRIVER            TRACK          GPs LAPS LED
Sebastian Vettel  Buddh           2  100%
Stirling Moss     Ain Diab        1  100%
Stirling Moss     Monsanto        1  100%
Stirling Moss     Riverside       1  94.67%
Stirling Moss     Pescara         1  94.44%
Ayrton Senna      Donington Park  1  93.42%
Sebastian Vettel  Yeongam         3  92.73%
Jack Brabham      Sebring         1  85.71%

Stirling Moss leading at Ain Diab in 1958 © LAT

There are also some impressive statistics for drivers leading high percentages of the races they competed in at particular circuits that spent longer on the F1 calendar.

Alberto Ascari led every lap of the grands prix he contested at Zandvoort and Rouen, with Jacky Ickx and Juan Manuel Fangio achieving the same in their sole Rouen appearances.

Moving forward, James Hunt led 91.78 per cent of all F1's race laps on the original incarnation of the Fuji circuit, Alan Jones led every single lap in his sole Las Vegas race, and Keke Rosberg led 77.44 per cent of his two Adelaide grands prix.

Vettel is high up this chart too. In his four grands prix at Suzuka, he has led 75.94 per cent of the race laps.

Back to Korea, and remember Vettel had that engine failure in 2010. So when you look at how many of the laps he has actually completed at Yeongam that he spent in the race, his tally goes up to 98 per cent, or 153 laps out of 155.

This also throws up some interesting historical stats.

For example, David Coulthard led all the laps he raced in Adelaide: 19 in 1995. A shame he crashed in the pit entry on his 20th...

Bruno Giacomelli is another interesting one. He led all 31 race laps he completed at Watkins Glen when he led the 1980 United States GP from pole until an electrical failure on his Alfa Romeo. Those were the only laps he ever led in F1.

NO WINNERS FROM POLE

We've now had three races in Korea and never had a winner from pole position.

Yeongam is one of the six F1 tracks where there were no victories from pole in the venue's first three grands prix. It joins Anderstorp, Imola, Indianapolis, Jarama and Montjuich Park on that list.

In fact, Montjuich never had a polesitter winner as that record stood for its fourth and final year in F1 too.

Senna, the first man to win from pole at Imola in 1988 © LAT

At the time, the Barcelona street venue was alternating with Jarama as the Spanish GP's home, and that meant there were six straight years from 1968-73 when F1 did not have a polesitter winner in Spain as the trend continued in Madrid.

Conversely, Spain's current F1 host - Barcelona's Catalunya track - recently featured a string of 10 years of winners from pole in 2001-10.

Imola is the track with the longest streak of polesitters failing to win, which stands at eight years. Its first grand prix was in 1980, yet the first polesitter to win there was Ayrton Senna in 1988. The Brazilian legend also holds the joint record for the most poles at a single track at the venue where he lost his life, taking eight, a tally later matched by Michael Schumacher at Suzuka.

THE CLASS OF 2013'S YEONGAM STATS

Korea holds happy memories for...

• Red Bull not only won the last two editions of the race, but also put both cars on the podium, scoring a one-two last year, while two years ago Vettel won with Mark Webber third. Neither finished in 2010, though, due to Webber's crash and Vettel's late engine blow-up.

Their qualifying performances are striking, as Red Bull cars have taken five of the six front-row spots available in Korea's F1 history. Webber's fourth place on the 2011 Yeongam grid is Red Bull's lowest starting position there.

• Nico Hulkenberg has scored points in his two races here. He was 10th two years ago and sixth last year.

• Daniel Ricciardo has the record for the best comeback at Yeongam, finishing ninth from 21st on the grid in 2012.

• His Toro Rosso team has a curious record here. It has never had a top-10 start in Korea; Jamie Alguersuari's 11th on the 2011 grid is its best. Yet it has got both cars in the points at Yeongam in each of the last two years.

• Force India has been able to score points three times out of six starts at Yeongam, its best results being sixth places from Tonio Liuzzi in 2010 and Hulkenberg last year.

Korea is less popular with...

Korea has not been kind to Button © LAT

• Jenson Button has had a horrible time at Yeongam, his best result being a fourth from third on the grid two years ago. He was hit by Kamui Kobayashi on the opening lap last year, in 2011 he had to change a broken chassis overnight and in 2010 was pushed off-track by Adrian Sutil.

• Nico Rosberg has only finished one Korean GP, in eighth place in 2011. In 2010 and '12 he was hit by other drivers, collected by Webber's accident three years ago and by Kobayashi last time out.

• Sergio Perez has never scored points nor started from the top 10 in Korea. He was 11th last year and 16th two years ago.

• McLaren has not only never won the Korean GP, despite coming second with Lewis Hamilton in 2010 and '11, but last year it scored only one point, with Hamilton in 10th. Back then, such results were anomalies for the Woking team...

• Mercedes has scored points here only twice out of six starts: a fourth for Schumacher in 2010 and an eighth for Rosberg two years ago. Mercedes' cars have been taken out by rivals in half the team's Korean starts: Rosberg in 2010 and '12 and Schumacher in '11.

Korea's other winner...

• Fernando Alonso won the race in 2010 after Vettel's engine expired, and he also climbed on the podium in third last year, but he was never in a position to challenge the dominant Red Bulls ahead.

He has never started from the front row here, his best grid spot being third in 2010.

All stats courstesy of FORIX - the most comprehensive motorsport statistics database on the internet