There was barely time to catch a lungful of exhaust fumes between the Japanese and Korean races, but it allowed enough of a gap for Peter Sauber, now 69, to formally hand of the reigns of his team to Monisha Kaltenbourn, making her the first female Team Principal in a notoriously male-dominated world.
Korea again supplied a race that seemed to have been dropped into a field from the sky at random, without time to tell anyone where it was, so devoid of atmosphere (and punters) was it’s slot on the calendar.
Q1 saw Senna out again (and an even greater likelihood of him losing his seat at the end of the season), whilst Hamilton and Alonso barely squeaked through.
Vergne parked his Toro Roso towards the end of Q2, wrecking several flying laps for his fellow competitors, notably Button, who would up a despondent 11th, whilst any chance of the title sailed off into the sunset. Perez and Kobayashi failed to make the cut too, leaving only Hulkenberg as the surprise in the final 10.
Vettel had once again been dominant during the build up to qualifying, but it was Webber that snatched pole, with Hamilton 3rd and Vettel’s nearest rival for the title, Alonso, 4th.
Unsurprisingly, Seb zipped past Webbo at the start, whilst Alonso passed Hamilton for 3rd. After his heroic podium in Japan, Kobayashi undid his good work by climbing over Button’s car, leaving JB with a long walk back to the pits. Kamui belted Rosberg too, and when Nico finally parked up from the damage sustained, on lap 2, it took the marshals forever to find a vehicle to move his mangled Merc. This was unfortunate, as it was poking out at the end of the DRS straight, meaning the remaining boys had one less toy to play with until it got removed after ten laps.
Kobacrashi was given a drive-through by way of a reprimand but, having had to pit himself for repairs, he was already 75 seconds behind Karthikeyan, so the penalty actually sent him back to a week last Tuesday instead.
After 10 laps, Seb was a couple of seconds clear of Mark, whilst both Toro Rossos, who had blinding straight line speed, were busy making their way up the order. Behind the Red Bulls, Alonso was hanging in there, chased by Hamilton, Massa (on another good weekend) and the always-thereabouts Raikkonen.
Hamilton was the first to pit on lap 14, followed in by Webber and Massa a lap later and Vettel and Alonso on lap 16. Everyone retained their positions, but Fernando had to battle Perez for his place, with Sergio on a strategy that was fast turning out to be too much even for his tyre-nursing skills.
Lap 18 saw Kobayashi and de la Rosa retire, presumably because they both realised they’d miss their flights if they tried to go full distance. The following lap finally gave Perez the chance to get new tyres, but if he was having a tough time on old rubber, Maldonad’oh was still trawling round, going steadily slower each lap as Williams clung on to the idea that they might be able to make 1 stop work out for them.
Happy Hami was on the radio to his long-suffering engineers, complaining first about his tyres, and then about a downforce problem (it later transpired that his suspension had got fed-up with the whinging and had given up on him). His pace dropped away, and on lap 21 Massa was past him into 4th.
Kimi caught him a couple of laps later, as the team were explaining he was suffering from a “mechanical balance” problem (Translation: The car’s knackered, Lewis), and Kimi finally passed him on the second attempt, only for a determined Hamilton to grab the place back.
With 29 laps completed, Alonso was creeping up on Webber, but Seb was a full 9 seconds clear. Lewis suffered a slow-ish pit stop (doubtlessly sending the Mclaren-are-working-against-Lewis conspiracy theorists apoplectic), whilst Hulkenberg and a resolutely-staying-out-of-trouble Grosjean battled for 5th.
The pair resumed their scrap after pit stops, and Grosjean finally slipped past into what was now 9th place. As the lead group pitted, their positions remained unchanged, but Webber has closed-down Seb to 4 seconds.
Massa was driving well again, and gaining on Fernando, until the inevitable radio message telling him he was too close, and it was time to back off.
Seb gradually increased his lead back out to 9 seconds by lap 40, and as Hamilton came under pressure from Grosjean, Hulkenberg cheekily nipped past both into 6th. Lewis had his low-level of happiness reduced even further when he was told a 3rd stop would be needed. Complying on lap 43, he returned in 10th, but was soon challenging Vergne.
Vettel started getting some worried messages from his team about the imminent failure of his tyres, and with three laps left, these has increased to dire warnings.
Ricciardo’s excellent 8th position slipped away from him as he locked up and went off circuit, before being passed by Vergne shortly afterwards.
Hamilton added to his gansta image by entering into a turf war... with some Astroturf. Running wide, he picked up a trail of the stuff on his sidepod, finally sealing any chance of making up places once and for all. Yeah – McLaren arranged that too. Right.
Seb received pleading messages again with a lap to go, so for once Webber was able to grab fastest lap right at the end. Vettel’s tyres somehow held together though, and he clocked up his 3rd consecutive win to bag a 6 point lead in the championship.
Webber managed a tidy second place, but his body language on the podium showed his disappointment, and Alonso finished his first race in a while in a solid third.
4 races to go, then – Seb seems to have the fastest car and the lead in the title race. Is it game over? I’m guessing no-one’s told Fernando that...
(Stumbling through the letter N of my CD collection, it's the turn of obscure early 80's band New Musik and their "From A To B" album. Nice.)
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