India plays host for the 17th round of the 2012 Formula One World Championship with teams arriving in New Delhi and making their way to Greater Noida and the impressive Buddh International Circuit. With only three races to follow, India marks the beginning of the endgame in the race for Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship glory.
Sebastian Vettel completed Formula One’s tour of the Far East with a third straight victory, in the process taking the lead in the Drivers’ Championship.
While practice times had Sebastian Vettel favourite to take pole position in Korea, it was team-mate Mark Webber who finished qualifying in P1.
Red Bull Racing’s Webber won the Monaco GP earlier this year after inheriting pole position when quickest man Michael Schumacher was. However, at the Korea International Circuit, pole position was all Webber’s own work.
Red Bull Racing charged to the top of the timesheets in the second practice session ahead of this weekend’s Korean Grand Prix.
Having taken third and fifth places respectively in the opening session, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel found more pace in the afternoon, with Vettel moving to the top of the standings and Webber finishing just three hundredths of a second behind his team-mate in second place.
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton set the fastest lap on Friday morning as practice got under way at the Korea International Circuit. Hamilton set the time of 1:39.148 in the final seconds of the session, narrowly extending the advantage he already had.
Round 16 of the 2012 Formula One championship sees the teams make a relatively short journey from Suzuka across to the South Korean port city of Mokpo and the nearby Korean International Circuit.
Sebastian Vettel took pole, fastest lap and a lights-to-flag victory at Suzuka.
The win, Vettel’s third in four years at Suzuka, leaves him just four points adrift in the Drivers’ Championship after Fernando Alonso crashed out of the race at the first corner. Vettel was followed to the chequered flag by Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, who took his first podium in two years, and Kamui Kobayashi. The third place for the Sauber driver was his first podium, and made him the first Japanese driver to stand on the F1 podium here since Aguri Suzuki in 1990.
Sebastian Vettel took a dominant pole position at Suzuka and Mark Webber was second as Red Bull recorded their first front-row lockout since last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix.
After topping the timesheet in the final free practice session on Saturday morning, Vettel set about confirming his dominance in qualifying. He was content with a single run in Q1, and another in Q2. His first effort in Q3 set the benchmark of 1:30.839. It was not bettered and he duly collected his fourth consecutive pole at Suzuka.
Sebastian Vettel did his chances of claiming a fourth consecutive Japanese Grand Prix pole position no harm this morning with a convincing run to the top of the timesheet in the final free practice session ahead of qualifying at Suzuka.
