F1 2012 - Mercedes AMG GP Korean Grand Prix Race Results: Mercedes leaves empty handed with a race to forget

[DavidV]

So Vettel wins again. A 1 - 2 for Red Bull. The first 1 - 2 for Red ull this year.
Alonso got 3rd,team dicision because Massa was faster but was told to keep a gap.
Bad performance from Kobayashi taking out Button.
Rosberg was also collateral damage from the first round, due to Perez.
Schumacher was not able to impress at all, ending 13th.

[Scourge82]

Despite claims from the team that the car was well suited for the Korean circuit, the team fell flat and failed to score a single point. Schumacher managed to finish in 13th place, while Rosberg was forced to retire on lap 2 after a collision with Kobayashi on the first lap into turn 3. At the start of the race, both Mercedes driver made a clean get away after going into the first turn but Rosberg gets pushed to the outside and loses a few spots. Going down the straightaway to turn three Button, Kobayashi, and Rosberg arrive at the same time. Kobayashi gets sandwiched between them and as they brake, Kobayashi hits Rosberg in his side pod damaging his radiator and then takes out Button's front right wheel. Button had to retire on the same lap, while Rosberg continued until giving up down the same straight a lap later.

Even though Schumacher finished the race, it was still a race to forget. The car lacked any grip all day and was unable to hold off the Torro Rosso and Force India drivers.

Sebastian Vettel again dominated the race. He took the lead from Webber at the start and never looked back. Webber, also was never threatened the whole race to finish second. Alonso held on to third place from the faster Massa after team orders. Raikkonen took forth 10 seconds ahead of Force India Mercedes' Hulkenberg. Grosjean managed to have a clean race and take 7th. then it was the pair of the Torro Rosso drivers. Hamilton finished 10th after suffering an anti roll bar failure, and pick up a sheet of astro turf as a passenger for the last few laps.

Full Race Results

After 55 of 55 laps

Position	Driver		Team
Race completed. Best Lap: M. Webber 1.42.037 on Lap 54
1	Germany	S Vettel	Red Bull
2	Australia	M Webber	Red Bull
3	Spain	F Alonso	Ferrari
4	Brazil	F Massa	Ferrari
5	Finland	K Raikkonen	Lotus
6	Germany	N Hulkenberg	Force India
7	France	R Grosjean	Lotus
8	France	J Vergne	Toro Rosso
9	Australia	D Ricciardo	Toro Rosso
10	Great Britain	L Hamilton	McLaren
11	Mexico	S Perez	Sauber
12	Great Britain	P Di Resta	Force India
13	Germany	M Schumacher	Mercedes
14	Venezuela	P Maldonado	Williams
15	Brazil	B Senna	Williams
16	Russian Federation	V Petrov	Caterham
17	Finland	H Kovalainen	Caterham
18	Germany	T Glock	Marussia
19	France	C Pic	Marussia
20	India	N Karthikeyan	HRT
21	Spain	P de la Rosa (ret.)	HRT
22	Japan	K Kobayashi (ret.)	Sauber
23	Germany	N Rosberg (ret.)	Mercedes
24	Great Britain	J Button (ret.)	McLaren

Driver And Team Quotes


Michael Schumacher:

"There are some races where nothing comes together and which you simply have to move on from straight away. This was one of them. We didn't manage to get the tyres working properly over the race distance, which made for inconsistent lap times, and accounted for our step back in performance. So we will write this one off, look forward and hope that we will be able to get back on the front foot again in the upcoming races."

Nico Rosberg:

"Unfortunately this has been the second poor weekend in a row for me, and it's very frustrating to be taken out twice in the first corners of the race. Kobayashi hit me from behind today and that was my race over. The one small positive to be taken from the weekend is our qualifying performance which was a small step forward. Now I'll look forward to India and hope for a bit more luck there."

Ross Brawn:

“It was a difficult race for us today. Nico was hit by Kobayashi on the first lap for the second race in succession, and to lose him again through the error of another driver was extremely disappointing. Michael did all that he could today but we struggled to keep the tyres up to temperature. There were parts of the race where the tyres were working properly and we were more competitive, but too many periods where we struggled. We need to look at how we can improve that situation, and we will keep working hard to make progress at the final four races.”

Norbert Haug

“Nico was once again the victim of a crash on lap one when a competitor drove into his car. This damaged the radiator which put an end to his race and, as in Japan, it was through no fault of his own. At no stage did Michael's car produce the grip we had anticipated. We need to quickly put this race behind us but not before a thorough analysis, with an understanding of why we got it wrong today.”

[Sticky]

What a waste of a season for Mercedes. Shame Schumacher is going out like this.