Germany's Sebastian Vettel Wins Korean Grand Prix 2011

MOKPO, South Korea -- With a crowd of 84,000 in attendance, the second annual Korean Grand Prix did not disappoint with Germany’s two-time F1 champion, Sebastian Vettel completing the 308km circuit in 1 hour and 38 minutes followed by Britain’s Lewis Hamilton coming in second for the McClaren team a full 12 seconds behind.

Hamilton won the pole position in Saturday’s qualifying race but was passed by Vettel before the completion of the first lap, from which Vettel never let go of the lead. This was a great day for Vettel whose engine blew in last years KGP as he started the 47th lap of the 55 lap contest.

Although Vettel was already crowned season champion earlier this month in Japan for the second straight year, there was no lack of tension during Sunday's race which saw the legendary Michael Schumacher crash spectaculary in turn three. While Vettel cruised to an easy victory, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton battled fiercly with Red Bull's Mark Webber for second place.

Schumacher was in the top ten and looking at a solid point gain for the season when Vitaly Petrov outbraked himself in to turn three while defending  his car from Fernando Alonso and crashed in to the rear of Schumacher’s Mercedes. Both drivers tried to continue but Schumacher stopped on the track and Petrov pulled into the pits with both drivers out for the day. Schumacher showed no ill will towards Petrov saying that the two had raced closely in the past and that clashes were inevitible.

"Well I was suddenly 180 degrees in the wrong direction and saw my wing hanging down and a Renault wing flying past," Schumacher told the BBC. "But that's racing, it does happen occasionally. I haven't seen the total circumstance of it as I was focusing forward to Perez and not really paying much attention to what happens to the back, but there you go.

The race, which took place 250 miles south of Seoul in Mokpo (pop. 245,000) was attended by an estimated 160,000 spectators over the course of the weekend. After being plagued by rookie mistakes last year including a lack of sufficient hotel accommodations and huge traffic jams outside the race area, this year’s year’s event went well by all standards with several new roads being built to accommodate the huge crowds and shuttle buses being used to ferry attendees to and from the race.

As usual, Korean spectators were not lacking for enthusiasm as many watched F1 racing for the first time.

“The people of Korea seemed to really embrace this Grand Prix — the grandstands were packed and the enthusiasm for the sport was infectious,” said Martin Whitmarsh, director of the McLaren Mercedes team, in an interview with the New York Times.

Final Standings Korean Grand Prix 2011

Pole position
Driver	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault
Time	1:35.585
Fastest lap
Driver	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari
Time	1:50.257 on lap 42
Podium
First	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari
Second	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes
Third	Felipe Massa	Ferrari

And of course, the Korean Race Girls

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