Red Bull Motor Sports Racing

At last lap the two Red Bulls going hammer and tongs for third place. Max Verstappen holding of last attempts by Daniel Ricciardo to grab the last step on podium. Lewis Hamilton wins Chinese Grand Prix ahead of Sebastian Vettel.

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel took a dominant victory in the Korean Grand Prix to take the world championship lead from Ferrari's Fernando Alonso. Vettel's victory was his third in a row and it makes him the first driver to win four races this season. Team-mate Mark Webber was second ahead of Alonso. Vettel has a six-point lead over the Spaniard with four races to go.
Lewis Hamilton's title hopes are effectively over after his McLaren struggled to 10th. Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen took fifth, stretching his lead over Hamilton in third place in the championship, but Vettel has a 48-point lead over Raikkonen and a further 14 over Hamilton with only 100 points still available in the remaining races in India, Abu Dhabi, the USA and Brazil.
Vettel's second crushing victory within a week - along with Webber's comfortable second place - confirms the impression that Red Bull have made a significant step forward with their car and that the German is on course for a third consecutive title.
The Red Bull driver got the jump on team-mate Mark Webber from second on the grid and was able to ease away to his third win in a row and go six points clear of Fernando Alonso, despite concerns his right-front tyre would wear out in the closing laps. Webber was a solid second as Red Bull became the first team to secure a one-two finish in 2012, with Alonso getting the maximum out of his Ferrari with third place.

After becoming a double world champion at the Japanese Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel insisted there is no secret to Red Bull's success, just a very good team. Vettel finished third at Suzuka to ensure he took his second title with four races remaining. After a dominant year for Red Bull, in which Vettel took 12 pole positions and nine victories, he gave full credit to his team. "There is no secret, it's step-by-step," Vettel said. "I think in a way the hardest thing, after winning the title last year when it was so close and so exciting, was to go out and do it again, and even though you know how to do, it doesn't allow you to make all these little steps. I could not have got close to this alone, so I needed all the support I could get, from the team, from Mark [Webber] and from everyone outside the team working for me.



It's as confusing as the first one I have to say. So it's hard to find the right words." He said taking the title at Suzuka, the scene of several championship deciders down the years, was also very special. "It's phenomenal, especially next to the strong result again today," he added. "To win the championship here is just fantastic. There are lots of things that you want to say but you can't remember all of them. I'm just so, so thankful to everyone in the team. We've got so many people here at the track, but also in Milton Keynes working day-in-day out every day, pushing hard to build those to cars to fight for the points and also fight for the championship. We find ourselves in a very, very strong position and it's great to achieve the results we set for ourselves going into this year already."


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The defending World Champion started Sunday's race at the Hungaroring in pole position but he slipped to P2 behind Lewis Hamilton as he struggled on the wet track. Things didn't get much better after the second round of pit stops as he dropped to fourth behind the two McLarens and his team-mate Mark Webber.
However, the move to put him on super soft tires for his last stint, as well as the decision not to bring him in for a change to intermediate tires, paid off for the German and he was able to move up to P2.

"I was struggling a bit in the first stint with the intermediate tires, Lewis (Hamilton) was a bit faster, then I lost it down into Turn 2," Vettel said after the race. "I lost the lead and obviously the circuit was drying, so we maybe could have come in a lap earlier.

"On the super soft tire I was feeling quite good initially but there was quite a lot of drop off, I think it was the same for all of us with the track being quite green. I think both times I would love to have pitted one lap earlier, although it was quite fun to see the McLaren's very close again. But then in the last stint, I had to let Jenson go."


Vettel finished just 3.50 seconds behind Button in the end, but he says he couldn't push any harder as he had a problem with his brakes.

"I felt that I had a bit more speed in the car but I had a couple of problems with the brakes and it was difficult to know how the car would be at the end. I couldn't push as hard as I would like to, second today is an important step, but I think the win was within reach today and we didn't get it.


"We need to work hard because both of the McLarens are very, very strong in all sorts of conditions, so it's clear now for a couple of races that they have done a step forward. We need to make sure that we come back, definitely."
Credits: f1 Planet

Sebastian Vettel unleashed an electrifying display of pace to capture the first pole of the new season for Red Bull in Australia. With just a few hours to the start of the first Formula 1 Grand Prix 2011 here a analysis by BBC F1 co-commentator David Coulthard who knows Sebastian Vettel well as a former rival and in his position as a consultant to the German's Red Bull team.

Q: Will winning the title make Vettel a better driver??
"Drivers go through various stages in their career. Winning the title will move Vettel out of the first one - when, if you like, you're young and somewhat naive and everything's new and exciting and you're driving on your instincts - into the next one, when you're established and starting to mature.

"Drivers are very young when they come into F1 these days - and Sebastian was no exception; he made his debut at 19. So they have not had the chance to develop fully into adult life before being put under the spotlight of the media and public, and all the adulation that comes with that.

"I remember people saying to me: 'Don't change.' But the reality is you have to change. Your environment changes, you're growing as an individual, you develop tastes.
"That's a long-winded way of saying what I've been impressed with about Sebastian is how inwardly calm and confident he is without being arrogant.
"If you compare him to Michael Schumacher, Michael was often pigeon-holed as having what appeared to be an arrogant persona. At no time has Seb displayed that in his short time in F1.


"Whether that's the way he's wired, the way he's been brought up, we'll find out in time. But I would be surprised if he became a slightly distant and aloof champion.


"He has achieved a goal and a milestone in his life and reset the counter and is now going to try to do it again, in the same way as Fernando Alonso has always had the same approach to his racing, whether he was at Minardi, Renault, McLaren or Ferrari.
"Fernando has a steel edge to him - his whole demeanour shouts: 'Don't mess with me, otherwise I'll use all the tools at my disposal to screw you back.' But if you don't poke him, he doesn't come looking for trouble.

"I've always respected his position, even when it was easy to give him a bashing when it was Lewis and him in the same team and it was the Brit and the 'nasty Spaniard'.

"You've got to respect someone's position if they're consistent in what they ask for and how they react. I think that's a quality not a negative and it's one Vettel has, too."

Q: How does Vettel approach his racing?
"He keeps his private life very private. That's a conscious decision - he's a racing driver, he comes to the track and does his racing and when he's not at the track he does whatever else it is he does.
"He's very clear on what he wants and how he expects things to be, but equally if it's explained to him that's not the way it's going to be, then he moves on. He fights the battles he can win and steps over the ones that are just going to use energy.

"So there's a high degree of intelligence and social skills there that I'm hoping will make him a very good ongoing champion and representative of the sport.

"It should also ensure he can really enjoy this period of his life because the demands on his time will increase as he gets more and more recognised."


Q: Will he make fewer mistakes than in 2010?
"Irrespective of whether he'd won the championship or not, you've got to hope you make fewer mistakes as you go through life.
"Inevitably, when your job is balancing a racing car on the limits of adhesion, then occasionally you will get that wrong.

"Alonso hasn't made a great deal of mistakes in his career but he dropped it in his McLaren year in Japan and he dropped it in Spa last year while running all alone.
"These guys will make mistakes. They are only human.

"What will be telling is how Vettel deals with the aftermath - such as walking away doing the 'nutter' symbol after he and Mark Webber crashed into each other in Turkey. I think Seb would do that differently next time around having lived through that.
"You've got to imagine there has to be something that clicks within you when you've achieved your goal and won a world championship - a tick against the inner peace box.

"I'm curious to see how he reacts. I'm a fan not because I have an association with the team, but because he shows a level of respect for the sport but equally he knows it's his journey and he has to do it himself without getting a leg-up."

Q: What are Vettel's F1 ambitions?
"It's interesting, listening to some of the things he says, that he clearly wants to set new statistical records. Often during the race he will ask what the fastest lap time is so he can better it despite no points being on offer."
"Whether that is about statistics or ego is an open question, but I think it's more about statistics. I think he's entirely comfortable in his own skin.

"I've read that he has his sights on beating Schumacher's records. He's never come out and said that, but I suspect that's true. Look at the way he's going after fastest laps.

"Unless he turns around and says that's not the case, we have to presume he's doing it for the pleasure of having the fastest lap, and having it down in the record books."

Q: How ultimately good is he?
"This is one of the things we're going to find out - is he has good as Hamilton, is he as good as Alonso? Well, that remains to be seen. I think it's a valid question and it has to be asked.
"So far, in terms of top-line drivers, Vettel has only been up against Mark Webber in equal equipment.
"Mark had a long journey to a front-running car - from Minardi to Jaguar to Williams before going to Red Bull, where he was involved in building the team up to where it is today.
"I think that took the wind out of Mark's sails a bit. And when he got a winning car, he was already 33 and had a lot of other stuff going on in his life, such as being an investor in a GP3 team.

"The difference between Vettel and Webber last season was on average about a 10th of a second in qualifying, which is absolutely nothing. And you have to remember that Mark was never able to achieve the same weight distribution in the car for qualifying because he is a bigger, heavier guy.
"If Mark could have got the weight to absolutely the right position, it could have been a 10th the other way. And track position being king, suddenly the whole balance of power changes.

"You've got two guys with potentially equal speed, one with the responsibilities that you assume through life and the other starting his journey and presumably with fewer commitments away from the track.
"If he was up against Mark five years ago without all the other stuff going on, then maybe Mark would have walked away with the championship.

"He did lead it for most of the season, and it's such a fine line between success and failure.

"So I think Seb was allowed a comfort zone - because of his natural speed and his youth.

"Let's wait and see. I just hope we get the chance to see a real good wheel-to-wheel battle between them and Fernando and Lewis while they're all at their peak.

"Seb is very much at the beginning of his career. He is the youngest world champion, a class driver, a great ambassador for the sport. He has, in many ways, rebuilt some of the bridges that were damaged during Michael's time as a German world champion.

"He's very special. I'm a fan. He's a very level-headed young racer, and he's at an exceptionally high level. But I think it's fair to say in the fullness of time we'll be able to answer more questions."

Content credits: BBC Formula 1

Mark Webber got his season off to the best possible start by topping the times during the first free practice session of his home Australian Grand Prix. As predicted, the Red Bull looked quick with Sebastian Vettel second fastest - 0.327 off Webber's 1:26.831 - and Fernando Alonso's Ferrari nearly a second adrift. However, the times should not be taken too literally as fuel loads are completely unknown and the drivers only ventured out on hard tires, saving their set of softs for the second session.


But for Webber it was the start of the mind games with his team-mate, as the Australian clocked the fastest lap on his very last attempt after Vettel had looked set to finish on top. It will only be a minor victory in the grand scheme of things, but a confidence booster nonetheless.



The tires look likely to play a major part in the story of Sunday's race as drivers experienced pretty serious wear, with chunks of rubber shedding from the surface. Vettel's first set looked in particularly bad shape after 16 laps of running, but the Pirellis should have an easier time once the track surface has been rubbered in and temperatures increase over the course of the weekend.
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Content credits: ESPN f1

Sebastian Vettel snatched the drivers' title from the grasp of his rivals after a brilliant drive in the Abu Dhabi night sky ended with glory for Red Bull. The race hinged on a backfiring gamble from Ferrari to bring Fernando Alonso in from fourth for an earlier than expected pit stop but the Spaniard's hard tyres failed to come to him and he languished in the midfield behind the longer running cars before finishing a disappointing seventh.

Vettel made the most of his pole position to lead into the first corner from Hamilton and a fast-starting Jenson Button who got the jump on Alonso. But the big incident came immediately behind the leaders, Michael Schumacher spinning his Mercedes in an attempt to defend position from team-mate Nico Rosberg.

Unable to put the brakes on in time, Tonio Liuzzi ploughed into Schumacher's car, his front wing and nosecone just missing the seven-time world champion's head. It marked the end of a disappointing return to Formula One for Schumacher but it could easily have ended in far worse circumstances.

When racing resumed after the safety car period, Vettel was disappearing into the distance, pulling out a second a lap to Alonso by lap eight. Red Bull was the first team to blink on lap 12, Webber coming in for an early tyre change, the Australian paying the price for running his one set of soft tyres longer in qualifying. Four laps later it was Alonso's turn, Ferrari reacting to Red Bull's move and the Spaniard coming out just ahead of Webber.



But with the tires failing to come to Alonso, so his title chances disappeared into the Abu Dhabi night, Webber also struggling to make any inroads from the midfield. In stark contrast, Button's legendary tyre management and race craft paid handsome dividends, the 2009 champion staying out and momentarily grabbing the lead of the race.

But there was to be no denying Vettel, who once again took the lead after Button's late stop to win the title in style by taking the chequered flag from Hamilton and Button. In truth, it has to be said that Vettel is a deserved world champion and but for some technical misfortunes and unfortunate retirements could well have wrapped up the title earlier in the season.

As it was, Vettel won by four points from Alonso with Webber 14 points behind in third. But McLaren's double podium means they finished second in the constructors' standings ahead of Ferrari.

For Alonso, the quest for a third drivers' title must wait for 2011 and there will now be no repercussions into the rigged German Grand Prix result. Some may say that justice was done.

Credits: ESPN F1

Mark Webber put his disappointment of yesterday behind him with a barnstorming performance to win the British Grand Prix, dominating from the moment he beat team-mate Sebastian Vettel into the first corner. The gap between him and second-place Lewis Hamilton was five seconds, but had it not been for a safety-car period it would have been far bigger.

In trying to ensure Hamilton did not pass him, Vettel touched wheels with the McLaren in the first corner and headed off with damage to his rear wheel. He battled back through the field to finish seventh.

Behind Webber, who reeled off a succession of fastest laps, Lewis Hamilton exceeded his expectations by taking second, while Jenson Button produced if anything a better drive in taking fourth after starting in 14th and yesterday describing his car as "undriveable".

Nico Rosberg separated the McLarens in taking the third podium spot, keeping out of trouble from start to finish after a good getaway from the grid. Rubens Barrichello impressed to finish fifth for Williams at its home race, ahead of an equally heartening performance by Kamui Kobayashi in the Sauber.

Vettel's drive through the field to seventh was impressive and required bold overtaking manoeuvres on Adrian Sutil, Michael Schumacher and Nico Hulkenberg among others. He was undoubtedly helped by the safety car bunching up the pack, but did very well to manage a set of hard tyres for the entire race. Sutil finished eighth ahead of Schumacher, who again struggled and fell back down the field after a good start.



Not for the first time Fernando Alonso was left fuming after stewards hit him with a controversial drive-through penalty for cutting a corner when passing Robert Kubica. The Ferrari team were then told that Alonso had to let the Renault back through but by that time Kubica had retired with a seized differential. As a result the stewards decided the best course of action was to issue Alonso with a penalty, but the situation was made several times worse for the Spaniard when the safety car came out and bunched up the pack behind him. As a result, when he came into the pits to serve his punishment he dropped down to 15th and out of contention for points.

He then started a spirited drive back through the field, but even that was cut short when Tonio Liuzzi tagged his left-rear tyre as he passed him and punctured it. Felipe Massa in the other Ferrari also had a terrible race, after contact with Alonso at the start shredded his right-rear tyre. He made some progress back through the field but a spin 12 laps from the end forced him to pit again for tyres and meant he finished the race 15th. As if to prove a point, Alonso set the fastest lap of the race on his last lap.

Behind Massa, the two Lotuses finished a lap down but ahead of Timo Glock in the Virgin and the two HRTs of Karun Chandhok and Sakon Yamamoto. Among the DNFs, Pedro de la Rosa retired with disintegrating rear bodywork (which caused the safety car), Jaime Alguersuari beached his Toro Rosso in the gravel at Luffield and Lucas di Grassi retired with a mechanical problem.

Credits: ESPN F1