Vettel Wins In Korea Despite Strange Jeep Fire Truck Incident

Image source: Getty Images

Sebastian Vettel has taken his eighth win of the 2013 season after a dramatic Korean Grand Prix. He finished four seconds clear of 'Iceman' Kimi Raikkonen with Lotus team-mate Romain Grosjean completing the podium finishers.

He didn't have it too easy though after being put under some pressure from the Lotus duo, negotiating two safety car periods and keeping his tyres in one piece. The action in the midfield was frenetic from start to finish. The race began with an unusually clean first corner, but the real action took place after the long back straight at turn three.

Image source: Getty Images

We saw cars running five wide down the straight before the entry to turn three, a tight hairpin, and Felipe Massa was obviously overwhelmed by it all. He lost control under braking and spun on the apex, narrowly avoiding his team-mate and causing chaos behind. Button and Sutil were just two drivers to gain damage from the incident.

Lewis Hamilton had already lost out to Romain Grosjean and it didn't get much better for the Brit. Kimi Raikkonen took advantage of the Mercedes driver's tyre woes in the second stint to move into a podium position. He then hunted down team-mate Grosjean, flying past the Frenchman on lap 37 after a late move up the inside at turn one.

Grosjean couldn't respond as there were yellow flags at turn three thanks to Mark Webber's Korean BBQ. On the restart of the first safety car Adrian Sutil lost control under braking for third corner, hitting Webber's Red Bull RB9 with some force. The hit caused his KERS unit to burst into flames, burning his car's bodywork - which did look pretty cool on the thermal imaging camera - and causing the most bizarre moment of the race.

Despite marshals putting out Webber's KERS fire, the local Chief Fire Marshal at the circuit decided to deploy a fire truck without the consent of race director Charlie Whiting. So when Sebastian Vettel took turn two on the following lap he found himself chasing the fire truck - which was a Jeep - instead of the safety car. The Chief Fire Marshal reportedly got a good telling off after the race.

Webber had only been in the position that he was in after, as he put it, suffering "a Pirelli puncture from a Pirelli tyre". He had to pit for a fresh set of tyres thanks to running over debris from Sergio Perez's spectacular tyre delamination.

Nico Hulkenberg was one of the stars of the Korean Grand Prix after climbing to fifth place on the first lap. He moved up to fourth thanks to an unusual front wing failure for Nico Rosberg which sent sparks flying from his car. He then kept his head under intense pressure from Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso to finish as best of the rest.

Image source: Sauber F1 Team

Rosberg took the chequered flag in seventh, just behind Alonso, after his front wing failure mentioned above with Jenson Button completing the top eight. Massa recovered to take two points in ninth with Perez also driving through the field after his tyre troubles for the final point.

Paul di Resta crashed out for the second race in a row, admitting that driver error sent his Force India VJM06 into the barriers at turn 12.

F1 now heads to Suzuka for the Japanese Grand Prix next weekend. Vettel could take his fourth consecutive world title at the iconic circuit, but can anyone stop him now? We doubt it.