Korean Grand Prix (2013) RESULT

Sebastian Vettel’s relentless progress to his fourth world championship in a row sees him on pole for the Korean Grand Prix.

It has looked for some of the F1 season that Mercedes – and particularly Lewis Hamilton – could get stuck in to Sebastian Vettel and slow down his race to another world championship, or that Fernando Alonso could make progress by stealth and put a stop to the German.

But that all seems a distant thought as Vettel cruised almost serenely to a win in Korea, despite his lead being compromised at times by two safety cars and even a rogue Jeep fire tender on the track.

Behind Vettel, who won by 4.2 seconds from the Lotus pair of Kimmi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean, the best Vettel’s closest rival, Fernando Alonso, could manage was sixth, with Lewis Hamilton putting his Mercedes in fifth, behind Nico Hulkenberg.

And the race between Hulkenberg and Hamilton was the star point of the race in many ways in the closing laps, with Hulkenberg managing to hold off Hamilton for fourth, Hamilton just holding off Alonso for fifth with Rosberg in seventh, Button in eighth, Massa in ninth and Perez in tenth.

Vettel’s run was superb and his position at the front from the start meant he missed the mess at turn one when Massa went sideways, forcing Alonso wide and causing damage that saw Button and Sutil subsequently pit.

Vettel had to work quite hard to keep Grosjean at bay, but at mid-point he was more than 5 seconds clear, with Hamilton behind Grosjean.

Hamilton’s tyres started to go, Rosberg passed him but then fell foul of a front wing failure in a shower of sparks. That was soon followed by the de-lamination of Perez’s right front tyre which ended up in the middle of the main straight and a safety car.

Just a lap after the safety car went in, Sutil stuck his Force India in to Webber’s Red Bull at the end of the main straight, with Webber’s car bursting in to flames.

But before the safety car could come out again, the Koreans launched a Jeep fire tender down the main straight as the pack streamed down. Amusing, but a bit of a dangerous cock-up.

By the time that was all sorted, Raikkonen had managed to leapfrog his team mate for second, we had the battle between Hulkenberg, Hamilton and Alonso, and then the race was done.

Vettel’s win in Korea means he could, if he wins in Japan and Alonso doesn’t do better than eighth, take his fourth successive title.

There seems little to stop him now.