The complete 2010 Korean GP review

PRACTICE

Practice 1 - Friday AM

With a carpet of dust on the recently-completed track initially, practice began with the odd sight of drivers tip-toeing around Yeongam, scarcely daring to accelerate out of the corners, and lapping half a minute or more slower than they eventually would.

Lewis Hamilton ultimately emerged fastest, by 0.081s over Robert Kubica, with Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button next up, and points leader Mark Webber back in seventh behind Michael Schumacher. Ferrari hung back - Fernando Alonso only 15th-fastest.

Despite the treacherous conditions, there were no accidents, although a suspension breakage did send Bruno Senna's Hispania spinning down into the run-off.

Practice 2 - Friday PM

Webber and Alonso came to the fore in the afternoon, although it was still hard to tell who was in best shape, with the constantly-evolving track surface the main factor in the lap times. The points leader also had a quick spin through the dust in the middle sector, although it perturbed him so much, he took first place back next time around...

Hamilton and Button were third and fifth, split by Kubica, despite a slight interruption for the reigning champion when extinguishers were required on the over-warm McLaren's rear end.

Vettel was seventh, ruing an early puncture that disrupted his tyre plans for the afternoon.

The session saw the weekend's first stoppage, caused by Sakon Yamamoto spinning and stalling between the walls in the final corners. His team-mate Senna spent most of the afternoon waiting for his car to be repaired after the morning incident, and only got out for three laps.

Saturday Practice

Not in recent Formula 1 history has so much hand-waving gesticulation been seen from inside the cockpit as in the first three official sessions on the new Yeongam venue. Perhaps it's because drivers expect traffic at Monaco, or perhaps it's because the gripless nature allows little from error let alone delay, but there was a significant lack of patience as the event moved to towards qualifying.

In certain cases it was understandable, Alonso was enraged by Rosberg as his fastest lap was fundamentally ruined by the Mercedes. Hamilton and Vettel too, found their final qualifying simulations compromised. This all left Kubica to sweep through the dust to snatch the fastest time.

All this though took place amid concerns that drivers might be facing a Montreal-esque task to manage significant tyre graining. This was universal up and down the pitlane, as a film of dust, perhaps a legacy of improvements to inside kerbs at Turn 16 and Turn 18, played havoc with the Bridgestone tyres once again on Saturday morning.

QUALIFYING

1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
Team-mate qualifying battle 10-6

Even if it was clear that Red Bull would not have the same advantage as in Japan, Vettel made it clear the car was still the one to beat with his ninth pole of the season. The German didn't have an easy start to the weekend, but managed to turn things around when it counted and was understandably delighted with his effort.

2. Mark Webber, Red Bull
Team-mate qualifying battle 6-10

So close and yet so far. Webber put on a good effort in qualifying and matched the pace of Vettel, but he lost pole by less than a tenth, and that meant having to start from the (incredibly) dirty side of the road, which was set to make his life hard at the start.

3. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
Team-mate qualifying battle 13-3

The Spaniard conceded he preferred to be third than second, and so he must have been relieved to see Webber outpace him in the dying second of qualifying. For a moment it looked like Alonso had pole, only to drop down to third, a result that still left him very pleased.

4. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
Team-mate qualifying battle 11-5

Hamilton looked very strong during practice, but had to concede fourth was the maximum he could achieve given the speed of his McLaren. The Briton was left baffled by Red Bull's ability to find half a second for qualifying.

5. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
Team-mate qualifying battle 14-2

Another driver who believed he had extracted all from his car, Rosberg was a happy man after qualifying. The German was upbeat to have finished ahead of Massa and Button, and was aiming for a great result on Sunday.

6. Felipe Massa, Ferrari
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-13

Massa seemed unable to keep his promise of helping Ferrari and Alonso in Korea, the Brazilian again far from his team-mate's pace. He admitted he had failed to extract the maximum from a car that competitive and finished eight tenths behind Alonso.

7. Jenson Button, McLaren
Team-mate qualifying battle 5-11

The world champion was happy with the handling of his car on Friday and in final practice, but much less so when it mattered. Button struggled to get his tyres working properly and complained about a lack of grip during much of the session.

8. Robert Kubica, Renault
Team-mate qualifying battle 15-1

Having topped the times in final practice, Kubica was expecting more than eighth place from qualifying. However, the Pole complained that his car's handling had changed, and oversteer became a problem which hindered the Pole too much to achieve bigger things.

9. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-14

Despite finishing four places behind team-mate Rosberg, Schumacher felt there was no room for much more. The German was still happy with his performance, having endured a busy day trying to get his car more to his liking.

10. Rubens Barrichello, Williams
Team-mate qualifying battle 12-4

The Brazilian was delighted with his effort after making it into Q3, admitting his car was not as competitive as he was expecting. Barrichello was again the protagonist in an incident with Schumacher, who was later reprimanded for impeding the Williams driver.

11. Nico Hulkenberg, Williams
Team-mate qualifying battle 4-11

Hulkenberg reckoned he could have made it into the top 10 if not for a mistake during his final flyer. At it was, however, the German missed the cut by slightly over a tenth of a second, but he was still satisfied with his performance.

12. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber
Team-mate qualifying battle 7-8

Kobayashi was another driver to claim he had extracted the very best from his car, the Japanese knocked out in Q2 by a mere tenth. He had to work hard on Saturday after Friday's set-up did not work given the different track conditions.

13. Nick Heidfeld, Sauber
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-1

Like team-mate Kobayashi, Heidfeld was happy with his effort in qualifying, having managed to get the best out of the Sauber. He felt he could have been quicker, but on his second flying lap his option tyres were graining too much.

14. Adrian Sutil, Force India
Team-mate qualifying battle 13-2

Sutil had to be content with being close to the top 12, and claimed that with a bit of luck he could have been near the top 10. The reality was that he finished down in 14th place though, and that was not ideal for the German.

15. Vitaly Petrov, Renault
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-14

Carrying a five-place grid penalty from Japan, Petrov admitted he was hoping for a place in the top 10 to minimise the damage. That proved unrealistic, however, and the Russian paid the price for a mistake that got his tyres so dirty it proved impossible to improve on his final run.

16. Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso
Team-mate qualifying battle 6-10

With his team having decided against running the F-duct in Korea, things were difficult for the Toro Rosso driver. Still, Alguersuari was satisfied with his performance, having managed to clearly outqualify team-mate Buemi.

17. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso
Team-mate qualifying battle 10-6

Buemi was a disappointed man following his below-par performance during qualifying. The Swiss decided to go out with less fuel for his final run, hoping to maximise his car's potential over a single flyer. At it was, however, his lap was far from perfect and he had no chance to do another one.

18. Tonio Liuzzi, Force India
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-14

The Italian struggled with his option tyres, which suffered from severe graining, and he was therefore unable to set a decent time during his final run. Liuzzi's problems were not a good omen for the race.

19. Jarno Trulli, Lotus
Team-mate qualifying battle 9-7

Having lost valuable track time on Friday because of mechanical issues, Trulli did a good job to recover on Saturday, securing the top spot among the drivers in new teams with a last-gasp effort. The Italian conceded there was not much more to extract from his Lotus.

20. Timo Glock, Virgin
Team-mate qualifying battle 14-2

Glock was happy after finishing just two tenths of the quickest Lotus, the Virgin racer having looked like the winner of the new teams' battle until the dying seconds of qualifying.

21. Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus
Team-mate qualifying battle 7-9

The Finn was disappointed with his qualifying effort, feeling his strategy for the session had not allowed him to go as quick as possible. Nevertheless, he was just two tenths off Trulli and 0.020 seconds off Glock.

22. Lucas di Grassi, Virgin
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-14

A poor day by any standards for the Brazilian, who was hit by traffic and then made a mistake while trying to use his option tyres. A 1.5-second gap to Glock was a reflection of di Grassi's bad session.

23. Sakon Yamamoto, Hispania
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-5

A good effort for the Japanese driver, who managed to outqualify a team-mate for the second time in his Formula 1 career, and also finished just a tenth off di Grassi. Yamamoto was understandably happy with his performance.

24. Bruno Senna, Hispania
Team-mate qualifying battle 10-6

Another disappointing qualifying for the Brazilian, who seemed to pay for the lack of running following problems on Friday. Finishing nearly a second behind Yamamoto, Senna had nothing to write home about.

QUALIFYING RESULTS

Pos  Driver         Team                   Q1        Q2        Q3
 1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1:37.123  1:36.074  1:35.585
 2.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1:37.373  1:36.039  1:35.659
 3.  Alonso         Ferrari                1:37.144  1:36.287  1:35.766
 4.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:37.113  1:36.197  1:36.062
 5.  Rosberg        Mercedes               1:37.708  1:36.791  1:36.535
 6.  Massa          Ferrari                1:37.515  1:36.169  1:36.571
 7.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:38.123  1:37.064  1:36.731
 8.  Kubica         Renault                1:37.703  1:37.179  1:36.824
 9.  Schumacher     Mercedes               1:37.980  1:37.077  1:36.950
10.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1:38.257  1:37.511  1:36.998
11.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth      1:38.115  1:37.620
12.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         1:38.429  1:37.643
13.  Heidfeld       Sauber-Ferrari         1:38.171  1:37.715
14.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1:38.572  1:37.783
15.  Petrov         Renault                1:38.174  1:37.799 
16.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:38.583  1:37.853
17.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:38.621  1:38.594
18.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes   1:38.955
19.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth         1:40.521
20.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth        1:40.748
21.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth         1:41.768
22.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth        1:42.325
23.  Yamamoto       HRT-Cosworth           1:42.444
24.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth           1:43.283

THE RACE

After all the months of rumours and fears, the Korean Grand Prix organisers had done it. Their circuit existed, it was far from perfect but facilities were better than many expected, and the drivers' verdicts were generally positive. Most were confident there would be plenty of passing, and some suggested that the tyre graining situation might see a race as exciting as Montreal's thriller.

But then came the rain...

It was deeply ironic that after so much talk about whether Yeongam would be completed in time to host the race, the circuit was ready to go but the weather was preventing anything from happening. Four abortive laps behind the safety car saw drivers complaining that they had never known such bad conditions, with standing water the main issue. The red flag came out, a long wait followed, and then there was another trundle behind the safety car, for 13 long laps.

The daylight hours were starting to run out, and it began to look like the race would be truncated at best, postponed or called off at worst. Lewis Hamilton kept insisting over the radio that conditions were fine for racing, and that the track was virtually ready for intermediates, but his was a lone gung-ho voice amid more cautious tones.

Then, finally, just over 100 minutes after the cars were originally scheduled to blast off the grid, the safety car pulled in. It didn't stay idle for long though, coming back out after only two laps of racing - and it was a crash that changed the whole face of the championship that caused its reappearance.

The leading order had remained static into the first corner, but Sebastian Vettel made the most of his clear vision advantage to pull away from Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber in second, establishing a 2.8-second cushion on the first lap racing lap alone. Webber would not complete the second, sliding wide at Turn 12 and spinning into the opposite wall, before rebounding into Nico Rosberg's Mercedes - cruel misfortune for the German as he had already moved up to fourth place by overtaking Hamilton, whose pace was not as great as his enthusiasm to go racing had been.

"Totally my fault," Webber admitted. "I got a wheel on the kerb on the exit of Turn 12 and it was a very slow-motion moment off the back of it. Totally my mistake. Today isn't my day. The wall obviously was close and did some damage and then I wrecked Nico's race as well."

Had the timing or Webber's spin angle been a tiny amount different, then it could very easily have been Fernando Alonso's Ferrari that got wiped out by the crashing Red Bull. Instead, the Spaniard dodged around the accident and moved up to second. It was the first lucky break of Alonso's afternoon.

The next wasn't far away. Eight laps of green flag racing were achieved - during which Vettel inched into a four-second lead over Alonso, while Hamilton rapidly lost touch in third - before a clash between Sebastien Buemi and Timo Glock brought the safety car back out again.

By that point conditions had improved enough for many in the midfield to try intermediates, and though the case for shallower grooves wasn't yet clear-cut, not changing under yellow and restarting with a crowd of intermediate-shod rivals on your tail on a drying track would've been potentially disastrous.

So it was a bit of a scare for Vettel and Alonso when the safety car was called after they had passed the pits, allowing everyone else to dive straight in while they completed a further lap. Fortunately for the leaders, the safety car did not pick them up too quickly, so they got back around in plenty of time to make their stops.

Then another near-miss for Alonso, as he lost four seconds in his stop when a wheelnut went astray.

"It was my mistake," he said, "I locked the tyres and I arrived sideways, so I think it was difficult for the mechanic in the position I stopped."

Four seconds with a safety car train approaching could have been critical, but again fortune smiled on Alonso. The field had not yet formed up, so he only lost out to Hamilton - and then the McLaren driver inadvertently handed second straight back to Alonso at the restart by running wide at Turn 1.

"I was really struggling with the brakes, and locked both fronts into Turn 1," Hamilton explained.

Despite his brake issues, Hamilton was quick enough to stay in touch with the top two through the next stint, the trio running just a few seconds apart. Vettel looked like he had everything under control, but with the track drying, intermediates tyres fading, and visibility disappearing as evening approached, there was still scope for a final twist.

It came as they crossed the line to start lap 46 out of 55, when Vettel's engine note suddenly turned deathly, followed closely by smoke from the Red Bull-Renault's exhaust, and then some spectacular sparks and flames, forcing Vettel to park on the back straight and do some Heikki Kovalainen-style fire-fighting.

"It was totally surprising," said Vettel. "Our heads are up because I think we did everything we could. But this has been the story of our season so far."

Now Alonso just had to fend off Hamilton, but this proved straightforward - the Ferrari keeping its intermediates alive better and pulling away to win by a comfortable 14.9 seconds, jumping to the head of the championship table as a result, 11 points clear of Webber.

Hamilton's second place had brought him a little closer - 21 points behind new leader Alonso compared to his previous deficit of 28 to Webber. But given that McLaren had been doggedly hanging in there rather than setting the pace in recent weeks, he will need a very special end to the season to become champion again.

His team-mate Jenson Button will need an absolute miracle. This was Button's least competitive race of the year. He made an early switch to intermediates when struggling in sixth place, but came out behind a gaggle of midfielders who had already made their tyre changes. Then a host of other cars jumped him too because they were able to pit under the safety car. A trip through the mud with Adrian Sutil and a late spin didn't help either, but Button admitted that the main problem was just that he hadn't been very fast.

"I just didn't have any grip, I was so slow," he said after finishing a lowly 12th. "I was pretty much the slowest person on the circuit. I was struggling with locking fronts, I couldn't not lock them so when I hit the brakes we locked up."

There were plenty of adventures among the 19 drivers outside the title battle too, but none of them involved Felipe Massa, which made a nice change for the Brazilian, who delivered a sensible third place for Ferrari after a quiet race.

His old team-mate Michael Schumacher showed some flashes of his old wet-weather verve when he sliced past Robert Kubica and Button in the opening laps, setting him up for an eventual fourth place, which equalled his season-best.

Williams looked set for fifth and sixth with Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg, until tyre trouble - severe wear for the former and a slow puncture for the latter - saw them drop to seventh and 10th. Robert Kubica's Renault and Tonio Liuzzi's Force India slipped into the top six in their pace, with Kubica finally finding speed late on after struggling with his handling at the start and then losing ground in the pitlane traffic during the safety car period.

Sauber's early switch to intermediates was not entirely successful, but there was enough mayhem ahead that Kamui Kobayashi and Nick Heidfeld made it up to eighth and ninth. Jaime Alguersuari had been set for the final point until Hulkenberg surged back through on his fresh tyres on the final lap.

Inevitably there was quite a lot of wreckage for the teams to pack up too. Vitaly Petrov had been running a promising seventh - ahead of Kubica, having been among the quickest of the early stoppers - when he demolished his Renault with a massive crash at the final corner on lap 39. Lucas di Grassi spun his Virgin into the tyres while trying to pass Sakon Yamamoto's Hispania, and Jarno Trulli had a clash with Bruno Senna while trying to recover from an early spin, though it was a hydraulic problem that ultimately stopped his Lotus.

Trulli's team-mate Heikki Kovalainen was the best of the new team drivers yet again in 13th, ahead of the Hispanias, despite a pitlane speeding penalty and being punted into a spin by Buemi. That incident, as the Toro Rosso tried to come back through after an early intermediates switch, was closely followed by Buemi ploughing into Glock ("he was all over the place," reckoned the Virgin driver), which earned him a five-place grid penalty for Brazil. Sutil was given one too, after a wayward race in which brake problems saw him repeatedly shoot off the circuit and bang wheels with rivals. He eventually retired after smashing a wheel off against Kobayashi, who was fortunate to be able to keep going.

A five-place grid penalty might not matter much in Brazil, where as recent years have proved, pretty much anything can happen. But looking at the storyline from Korea - Red Bull being very fast but not turning it into results, McLaren not quite being quick enough, and Alonso relentlessly getting the maximum possible, amid all the chaos, the final outcome was very much in line with the pattern of the second half of the season. You don't want to give a man like Alonso a points advantage going into the deciding races, but the winner himself was adamant that it wasn't all over yet.

"I think nothing has really changed - we know that with the new points system anything can happen in one race," said Alonso. "If you don't score, obviously you lose 25 points to one of your main opponents. Here it was bad luck for Mark and Sebastian - anything can happen in the next two races and there are still four or five contenders."

RACE RESULTS

The Korean Grand Prix
Korea Auto Valley, Yeongam, Korea;
55 laps; 308.825km;
Weather: Wet.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time
 1.  Alonso        Ferrari                    2h48:20.810
 2.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +    14.999
 3.  Massa         Ferrari                    +    30.868
 4.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +    39.688
 5.  Kubica        Renault                    +    47.734
 6.  Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes       +    53.571
 7.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +  1:09.257
 8.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +  1:17.889
 9.  Heidfeld      Sauber-Ferrari             +  1:20.107
10.  Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth          +  1:20.851
11.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +  1:24.146
12.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +  1:29.939
13.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Cosworth             +     1 lap
14.  Senna         HRT-Cosworth               +    2 laps
15.  Yamamoto      HRT-Cosworth               +    2 laps

Fastest lap: Alonso, 1:50.257

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                       On lap
Sutil         Force India-Mercedes         46
Vettel        Red Bull-Renault             45
Petrov        Renault                      39
Glock         Virgin-Cosworth              31
Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari           30
Di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth              25
Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth               25
Webber        Red Bull-Renault             18
Rosberg       Mercedes                     18


World Championship standings, round 17:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Alonso       231        1.  Red Bull-Renault          426
 2.  Webber       220        2.  McLaren-Mercedes          399
 3.  Hamilton     210        3.  Ferrari                   374
 4.  Vettel       206        4.  Mercedes                  188
 5.  Button       189        5.  Renault                   143
 6.  Massa        143        6.  Force India-Mercedes       68
 7.  Kubica       124        7.  Williams-Cosworth          65
 8.  Rosberg      122        8.  Sauber-Ferrari             43
 9.  Schumacher    66        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         11
10.  Barrichello   47       
11.  Sutil         47       
12.  Kobayashi     31       
13.  Liuzzi        21       
14.  Petrov        19       
15.  Hulkenberg    18       
16.  Buemi          8       
17.  De la Rosa     6       
18.  Heidfeld       6       
19.  Alguersuari    3       
       
All timing unofficial

Lap-by-lap as it happened on AUTOSPORT Live

TEAM BY TEAM

McLaren

Hamilton was quickest in practice one and McLaren looked like a definite pole contender, only for both drivers to struggle in qualifying. Hamilton was happy enough with his car, just puzzled by the Red Bulls and Alonso going quicker. He took fourth. Button was less happy, and only seventh.

Not fast enough to race with Vettel and Alonso, Hamilton hung on for second in the race, making a welcome return to the podium after a three-race absence for his team. He might even have won, having got ahead of Alonso when the Ferrari lost a few seconds in the pits, but he handed the place back by running wide at the restart soon afterwards.

Button had a few incidents, lost ground with an ill-timed change to intermediates, but his main problem was a general lack of pace and issues with his brakes, which left him 12th and looking highly unlikely to win this year's title.

Mercedes

Mercedes' recent upturn continued, with Rosberg thrilled to qualify fifth. Unfortunately his pace was wasted when he was taken out by Webber's spinning car just after racing got underway, having already taken fourth from Hamilton.

Schumacher was a quiet ninth on the grid, but charged forward in the race and equalled his best result of the year with fourth place.

Despite fears that the long straight would make this circuit a tough one for Red Bull, the cars were plenty quick enough, with Webber fastest on Friday and Vettel narrowly beating him to pole in yet another all-Red Bull front row.

Sadly for them, that qualifying result preceded yet another race day disaster - with Webber crashing from second soon after racing finally began, and Vettel losing his lead when his engine failed in the closing stages.

Alonso looked set for pole until the Red Bulls nipped ahead in the dying seconds of qualifying. But luckily for him, Webber crashed and Vettel's engine detonated in the race, so he ended up winning, having fended off Hamilton and got back in front of the McLaren following a slight pit delay. Massa was sixth in qualifying, then turned that into a podium with a quiet run to third.

Barrichello had a new row with Schumacher, this time over qualifying blocking, on the way to 10th on the grid, while Hulkenberg narrowly missed the Q3 cut and started 11th.

They moved forward steadily in the race and appeared on course for fifth and sixth until rapidly-fading tyres saw Barrichello overtaken by Kubica and Liuzzi, dropping him to seventh, and Hulkenberg had to pit with a slow puncture. He rejoined 11th but managed to grab 10th back from Alguersuari on the last lap.

Kubica's great practice pace saw him quickest on Saturday morning, but his car's handling went off when it really mattered and he only qualified eighth. He didn't have much speed early in the race either, and also lost time in a pitlane traffic queue, but gained speed late on and made it through to fifth.

Petrov was only 20th on the grid following his five-place penalty for causing a Suzuka startline shunt, but drove a strong race, showing great pace on intermediates after an early change, and was running seventh when he crashed heavily at the final corner 16 laps from the end.

Once again, Force India didn't have much pace in qualifying - Sutil and Liuzzi only 14th and 18th - but showed much better form in the race. Liuzzi was the star as he surged through to sixth place, a well-timed result.

It was a disaster for Sutil, though. Struggling with brake issues, he had a variety of excursions before crashing into Kobayashi and ending his race, as well as earning a five-place penalty for Interlagos qualifying.

A weekend of disappointment for STR. Its cars were only 16th and 17th in qualifying, and Buemi was an early retirement after crashing into Glock while trying to make progress following an early stop for intermediates. By that time he had already tapped Kovalainen into a spin.

Alguersuari made it through to 10th place, only to lose that potential point on the very last lap when Hulkenberg charged past after pitting with a puncture and getting new tyres.

Virgin seemed to have the edge in practice, but a superb lap from Trulli saw him grab the coveted 19th spot and 'class pole', even though gearbox problems had cost him practice time. Kovalainen was two places behind and not happy.

It turned around in the race though, with a hydraulic problem affecting Trulli from the outset. He spun at the first corner of racing, clattering into Senna, and then retired. Kovalainen survived a punt from Buemi and later a pitlane speeding penalty to finish 13th, best among the new teams.

A fraught Friday saw Senna lose most of the day to a suspension breakage and Yamamoto cause a red flag by spinning and stalling. Yet the Japanese driver then produced his best performance of the year to outqualify Senna, get within 0.1s of di Grassi and 0.7s of Kovalainen. Senna was slowest, ruing his lack of track time.

They weren't quick enough to fight with anyone else in the race though, and while pit vagaries sometimes got them ahead of rivals, they were back in 14th and 15th - Senna ahead - by the end.

Glock flew in practice, so was a bit disappointed to be pipped by Trulli in qualifying. He got to the head of the new teams pack in the race, only to be taken out by Buemi.

Di Grassi was two places behind Glock in qualifying, and only just ahead of Yamamoto, then crashed out of the race trying to pass the Hispania.

Qualifying was nothing special for Sauber - Kobayashi 12th and Heidfeld 13th - and their early change to intermediates didn't look like it was going to bring them much joy at first either.

But they kept their heads, maintained a solid pace, survived attacks from the wayward Sutil, and came home eighth and ninth.