The dramatic Korean Grand Prix (Part 5)
With 45 laps remaining in the 55 lap Korean Grand Prix, the drivers were still stuck behind the safety car and the action was expected to resume as soon as the conditions stabilize as the stewards were still investigating track conditions.
Officials were trying to remove the water that flooded the track while the official Formula 1 radar predicted that the rain should eventually stop after around three minutes. Vettel led the pack with his teammate Mark Webber in second place followed by Fernando
Alonso, Hamilton, Rosberg, Massa, Button and Kubica in their respective qualifying positions behind the safety car as they began the 11th lap of the Korean Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso was told by his team over the radio that they were expecting the rain to stop after 5 minutes, maximum. Bruno Senna and Lucas di Grassi were also asked to pit in order to change their tyres as both drivers were running
in the last two positions on the track.
It had been almost 13 laps since the cars were following the race behind the safety car in the inaugural Korean Grand Prix as the crowd waited for a decision from race control about the safety car period.
The conditions were getting comparatively better as compared to the beginning of the race. However, there was still a good deal of spray that was being thrown up by the speed of the cars, especially down the tunnel-like straight in the beginning of the lap,
and this really decreased visibility.
Before the beginning of the 14th lap, Lucas di Grassi decided to pit for another set of full wet tyres as he thought he was struggling with his older tyres. Lucas rejoined the race after a pitlane time of 25.2 seconds and remained at the rear
end of the field in the last position, which was the 24th place.
Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton was told about the concerns of his fellow drivers and said that it was a wet race so that was bound to happen. Sebastian Vettel led the cars behind the safety car until lap 16, along with his teammate Mark Webber. Hamilton once
again told his team about the conditions and said that the team should get the intermediates ready after a while. The clouds were moving away from the racetrack and conditions seemed to improve as time passed.
With just 38 laps remaining in the 55 lap Korean Grand Prix, race control announced that the safety car would come back into the pits by the end of that lap and racing would finally begin. As the cars crossed the line, the crowd roared at the top of their
voices as racing finally began. Vettel defended his lead from his teammate as he drove exquisitely past Turn 1. Nico Rosberg slipped his way past Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren at Turn 3 and went up to fourth place.
The grip level was tremendously low but the cars continued to race without any major incident. Ferrari driver Felipe Massa was in sixth place followed by Jenson Button and Michael Schumacher in 7th and 8th places respectively. Vettel
was now 2.8 seconds ahead of the Spaniard while Nico Rosberg made a big move on Lewis Hamilton after he under braked into Turn 3.
During the 19th lap, the crowd witnessed a horrible crash as Mark Webber slid off the track and crashed into Rosberg taking both drivers out of the race. The safety car was deployed once again and it seemed that the Korean Grand Prix wasn’t as
good for the Red Bulls as it seemed. Ferrari and McLaren were delighted to see the Australian retire and now, the game was on as the championship leader was out of the race and the rest of the contenders had the ultimate opportunity to take an advantage in
the rest of the race.
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