A visibly disappointed Fernando Alonso has in Korea finally lost his long-standing championship lead, as his title rival Sebastian Vettel won a third consecutive grand prix on Sunday. Red Bull's Ger...

A visibly disappointed Fernando Alonso has in Korea finally lost his long-standing championship lead, as his title rival Sebastian Vettel won a third consecutive grand prix on Sunday.

Red Bull's German, who finished 8 seconds ahead of his teammate and pole sitter Mark Webber, is now 6 points ahead of Spaniard Alonso with just four races still to run.

Given the new dominance of the RB8 car - whose designer Adrian Newey collected the constructors' trophy on Sunday's podium - Vettel must now be considered the favourite to secure a third consecutive drivers' title next month.

"At the moment Red Bull are difficult to beat," Alonso, who finished third ahead of his resurgent teammate Felipe Massa, admitted to podium interviewer Johnny Herbert.

Vettel said: "I'm looking forward to the next couple of races."

 

Pos

No

Driver

Team

Laps

Time/Retired

Grid

Pts

1

1

Sebastian Vettel

Red Bull Racing-Renault

55

1:36:28.651

2

25

2

2

Mark Webber

Red Bull Racing-Renault

55

+8.2 secs

1

18

3

5

Fernando Alonso

Ferrari

55

+13.9 secs

4

15

4

6

Felipe Massa

Ferrari

55

+20.1 secs

6

12

5

9

Kimi Räikkönen

Lotus-Renault

55

+36.7 secs

5

10

6

12

Nico Hulkenberg

Force India-Mercedes

55

+45.3 secs

8

8

7

10

Romain Grosjean

Lotus-Renault

55

+54.8 secs

7

6

8

17

Jean-Eric Vergne

STR-Ferrari

55

+69.5 secs

16

4

9

16

Daniel Ricciardo

STR-Ferrari

55

+71.7 secs

21

2

10

4

Lewis Hamilton

McLaren-Mercedes

55

+79.6 secs

3

1

11

15

Sergio Perez

Sauber-Ferrari

55

+80.0 secs

12

  

12

11

Paul di Resta

Force India-Mercedes

55

+84.4 secs

14

  

13

7

Michael Schumacher

Mercedes

55

+89.2 secs

10

  

14

18

Pastor Maldonado

Williams-Renault

55

+94.9 secs

15

  

15

19

Bruno Senna

Williams-Renault

55

+96.9 secs

17

  

16

21

Vitaly Petrov

Caterham-Renault

54

+1 Lap

18

  

17

20

Heikki Kovalainen

Caterham-Renault

54

+1 Lap

19

  

18

24

Timo Glock

Marussia-Cosworth

54

+1 Lap

20

  

19

25

Charles Pic

Marussia-Cosworth

53

+2 Laps

24

  

20

23

Narain Karthikeyan

HRT-Cosworth

53

+2 Laps

23

  

Ret

22

Pedro de la Rosa

HRT-Cosworth

16

Throttle

22

  

Ret

14

Kamui Kobayashi

Sauber-Ferrari

16

Accident damage

13

  

Ret

8

Nico Rosberg

Mercedes

1

Accident

9

  

Ret

3

Jenson Button

McLaren-Mercedes

1

Accident

11

  

Note - Pic dropped ten grid places for an unscheduled engine change; Ricciardo dropped five - gearbox penalty. Karthikeyan failed to set a Q3 time within the 107% requirement - raced at stewards' discretion.

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