2011 F1 Korean Grand Prix - Mercedes Qualifying Report: Nico Claims 7th and Michael slips to 12th

And Vettel wins his 20th F1 GP.
A very good placed DRS zone kept this race very exiting and gave some good overtaking and defensive moves.
A shame for Schumacer, who was torpedoed by Petrov, who just overtook Alonso and overshoot his breaking point, taking out MS.
Verry strong drive from Vettel, also ticking the fstest lap box in his last lap.
Also Alonso, who was stuck behind Massa, made a strong effort at the last part, getting clear of Massa at his last pitstop.
I enjoyed this race

Despite a promising weekend for Mercedes GP, the team couldn't show it where is counts, the race. Rosberg could only manage to claim eighth place, after battling it out with Jenson Button and the Ferrari's. In the end, he's tires gave out and was passed by Torro Rosso's Alguersuari on the last lap of the race. Michael had an unfortunate race and had to retire after Ranault's Vitaly Petrov completely over-braked and took out Schumacher on turn 3. Petrov and Alonso were battling for position after the first pitstops and both outbraked themselves. Alonso was on the outside and went off the track, but Petrov on the inside, ran into Schumacher, destroying his rear wing and puncturing his rear tire.

At the end of the race, it was Sebastian Vettel, who crossed the line first, handing him his tenth win of the season, after passing Hamilton on the first lap on turn 4. After the second pitstop, the battle raged between Hamilton and Webber for second. Both racers drove professionally with the advantage switching back and forth and running wheel to wheel on their outlaps from the pits. In the end the Red Bull lost out with Hamilton keeping Webber at bay to claim second. With Webber finishing third, Red Bull laid claim to the Constructor's Championship.

Button finished fourth, after being held up by both Ferrari's and gain his position after the first round of pitstops, but wasn't quick enough to join the Hamilton-Webber fight. Alonso finished fifth ahead of Massa, after being outqualified by his teammate. Questions by Ferrari bosses will be raised when a frustrated Alonso told his team over the radio "I give up" after being faster than Button by 0.5 sec and was unable to pass him. Torro Rosso's Alguersuari finished 7th, His team mate Buemi took 9th after passing 10th place finisher Paul Di Resta on lap 31.

In two weeks time, F1 heads to India for the inuagural Indian Grand Prix. Even though Red Bull has wrapped up the F1 top titles, still expect to see some brilliant battles between the teams.

After being forced to retire on lap 16, Michael had:

"It was another unfortunate end to a race which could have been encouraging today. It's a big pity as the car was again very good in race trim and I had already gained some positions. It would have been interesting to see what was possible, and I think we could certainly have taken some points. As for the incident, I didn't see Vitaly coming; I was just suddenly spun into a direction I had not intended to go, and then I saw my rear wing hanging off. It was unfortunate but these things happen when you fight hard - that's racing."

After the race, Nico said:

“I had good speed at the start of the race today but after we changed to the prime tyres, it became more difficult as the degradation was too strong. I had some nice battles against Jenson and the Ferraris, and was pushing hard to defend my position against Felipe and Fernando in the middle stint. During this, I flat-spotted my front tyres so I had to pit earlier than expected which made my last stint on the primes very long. I didn't have enough grip by the end and so I just wasn't able to defend the position against Jaime. A difficult race for me today but I'm still happy to score some points."

For Ross:

"The early stages of the race looked encouraging and both drivers were making good progress on the option tyres, with Nico fighting among the top three teams and jumping the Ferraris thanks to more strong pit work. We fitted prime tyres to both cars at the first stop in order to ensure we could complete a two-stop race - something that would have been marginal if we had run options in the second stint. Nico was driving well but had a big flat spot on his left-front tyre on lap 27, which forced him to pit out of sequence for another set of primes.

From that point on, he had to nurse the tyres for over half the race distance to the flag. He did this extremely well, climbing back from P14 to P7, but was unable to hold off Alguersuari on the final lap, whose tyres were ten laps fresher. As for Michael's incident, he was driving well, making up positions and minding his own business when somebody simply forgot to brake at turn three. Although we didn't score points to our full potential today, there were encouraging signs of our competitiveness for the remaining three races of the season, and we will aim to build on this in India - which will be a new adventure for us all."

Norbert felt that:

"Our race started well, with Nico lying fifth after the first round of stops and ahead of both Ferraris, and he had some thrilling battles with Jenson Button, the winner of the last race. The end of Nico's race was less satisfying. He came in early after flat spotting his front left tyre, had to do a very long third stint and was overtaken on the very last lap courtesy of DRS. Michael drove strongly from 12th on the grid, fighting his way through the field and running ahead of Alonso's Ferrari when he was taken out by a very optimistic competitor. Our team can take some positives from this weekend as the beginning of the race with heavy fuel loads on the softest tyre looked strong - something we struggled with earlier in the season.

Our learning process is certainly guiding us in the right direction, which is one of the targets we set ourselves. Lewis Hamilton's second place is the 100th podium finish in 105 races for our V8 engine, which has won 34 times in the last 86 races. Well done to all our colleagues at Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines in Brixworth for reaching this milestone. Now we are all looking forward to the inaugural Indian Grand Prix in a fortnight."

Results
01. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h30:01.994
02. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 12.019
03. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 12.477
04. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 14.694
05. Alonso Ferrari + 15.689
06. Massa Ferrari + 25.133
07. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 49.538
08. Rosberg Mercedes + 54.053
09. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:02.762
10. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1:08.602
11. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1:11.229
12. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1:33.068
13. Senna Renault + 1 lap
14. Kovalainen Lotus-Renault + 1 lap
15. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap
16. Perez Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap
17. Trulli Lotus-Renault + 1 lap
18. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 1 lap
19. Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth + 1 lap
20. D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth + 1 lap
21. Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth + 3 laps
Did Not Finish
Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 31
Petrov Renault 17
Schumacher Mercedes 16

it was a fun race, the Hamilton and Webber battle was amazing, suprised the didn't take themselves out. They managed to keep it professional. I was suprised to see Alonso give up like that and again bad luck strikes Schumacher again.

Nah, Alonso didn't really give up. It was just a trick trying to lull Button to sleep.
But he didn't fall for that. First 4 competitors for second place finishing within 5 seconds.
Exiting race. Tactically very strong drive for Lewis H. Side by side actions with Webber had me on the point of my seat.

Ah gotcha. I haven't seen the race yet, It just seemed really out of character from Alonso to say I give up.

They're showing it in 20 mins. I had to follow the live commentary from Formula1.com to get the info for the article.

Oeps. Hope I didn't spoil it for you. Anyways, the race is worth watching. Hardly knew where to look at the start.

Nah, yuo didn't. I was reading the live commentary, I couldn't wait to actually watch it, plus Sticky likes his article on time

Originally Posted by Scourge82

plus Sticky likes his article on time

That I do