ALONSO ON TOP AFTER KOREAN SHAKE UP
Well at one point they thought it wasn't going to happen. 100 days to go and the place bore very little resemblance to a motor racing circuit. Eventually the powers that be behind the Korea International Circuit(by the skin of their teeth) and there was yet another new stop on the F1 world tour! Though the locals still seemed to think that Michael Schumacher was running the show - I presume they weren't too dissapointed with what they were given. Five drivers still in the title mixer and that included both Brits, albeit in need of a reasonable degree of luck by this point. Still, McLaren were expecting to have their uses on this track, so fingers crossed.
So, qualifying. Well Jenson had some issues in Q1 given that his car wouldn't behave itself but both he and Lewis made it through. As per usual, those driving for the new teams didn't make it through and Trulli was the best of that bunch. Q2 again saw a solid performance from the McLarens with Hulkenburg being the main name that got booted from there. Webber opened the running in Q3 but was soon beaten by first Lewis, then Alonso. That's how things stayed till late on when Vettel went on to secure his second pole in a row. Webber finished P2 to complete the second all-Red Bull front row in a row. Alonso grabbed P3 and Lewis P4. Further down, Jenson settled for P7.
In the race itself...well the race itself didn't actually start for ages. The safety car led them round for three laps before the red flag came out and eventually they restarted behind the safety car for another fifteen. Eventually they went racing and the reigning world champion initially settled into 7th untill Webber and Rosberg took each other off, moving him up to 5th. So far so good but then disaster struck Jenson after a dodgy pitstop and that originally put him down to 12th before he dropped further back to 15th. Thanks to retirements he was able to work his way back up to 12th but even he knows that that is not the way you defend a world title!
As for Lewis well while the safety car was out he was going nuts trying to get the race started - unfortunately for him the other drivers had other ideas. When the race finally got started properly though, he got mugged by Rosberg which pushed him down to 5th only for Webber and Rosberg's collision to push him up to 3rd. Things got even better for him when a dodgy Alonso pitstop put him up to 2nd only for him to give the place back to the Spaniard after sliding off the track briefly. However then Vettel's engine blew up, Hamilton slid past into 2nd and while he tried and failed to catch the new leader, it's still his best result for a while.
However once Vettel blew up, the first guy to overtake him was Alonso and from there on in there wasn't much anyone could do. The biggest unanswered question at that point was whether the race was going to go the distance given that with all the delays it was actually starting to get dark over there. As it was though the race was so close to full distance anyway that it didn't really matter about the dark, the drivers just had to keep going. In the end, the Ferrari driver lost all the opposition and went on to grab his fifth win of the season. Credit where credit's due for a smooth drive by the double world champion that's really made things interesting going into the final two races.
So, after that the championship looks like this. Alonso's moved up to the top on 231 points. Webber's dropped down to 2nd on 220 points. Lewis has risen to 3rd with 210 points. Further down, Jenson remains 5th on 189 points - the reigning world champion still doesn't have to white flag but it's getting particularly tricky for him.
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