Jung Min-ho has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2012, mostly covering social and political issues. He currently belongs to the Politics & City Desk where he covers topics such as health, labor and human rights. Prior to joining the team, he was responsible for covering North Korea and sports. His article about a biosecurity breach of Middle East respiratory syndrome won him an award from the Korea Science Journalists Association in 2016. He is also the co-author of the book, "Medical Pioneers of Korea" (2019). He served as the head of the international relations committee at the Journalists Association of Korea from 2021 to 2023.
Vettel wins Korean Grand Prix
By Jung Min-ho
By Jung Min-ho
YEONGAM, South Jeolla Province ― Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel won the Korean Grand Prix Sunday to take over the championship lead from Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.
The 25-year-old German, who started in second position, completed the 55 laps in a time of 1 hour, 36 minutes, 28.651 seconds to beat teammate Mark Webber by 8.231 seconds. Alonso finished third in 1:36:42.595.
“Fantastic. I’m very, very happy. It was a fantastic race,” said Vettel, who also triumphed in his last two events in Singapore and Japan.
“The foundation was to have a good start. I wasn’t sure as I was starting on the dirty side, but I had a reasonable start and a good lunch. Mark had a bit of slip so I could get side-by-side and had a good exit after the third corner.”
On the back of his fourth victory of the year, Vettel overtook Alonso at the top of the Formula One championship standings by six points with four races remaining to position him to possibly become the third driver in history to win three straight titles.
“The boys have been flat out each night, working very hard on the car. We have another step and that is exactly what we need and hopefully we can carry the momentum through to the next races,” he said.
“The championship has gone up and down. We have to focus on ourselves, we need to have our best possible results and we go from there.”
Australian Webber, who won twice this year in Monaco and Great Britain, drove a solid second, but failed to narrow the big gap with his teammate and claimed his first runner-up finish of the season.
After the race, he expressed disappointments, saying he paid the price for a “mediocre” start.
“The initial launch was not good,” the 36-year-old said.
“There was some wheel spin and from there I knew I would have issues.”
From the start, the two Red Bull drivers led the 24-driver pack to compete with each other in close contact, while Alonso chased closely behind, failed to catch up with Webber. Alonso’s teammate Felip Massa came fourth in 1:36:48.819.
“I think we can be happy with the performance today. We were third and fourth behind Red Bull who at the moment are difficult to beat,” said Alonso, who has not won since the German Grand Prix in July.
“We are moving in the right direction. We just need an extra step to be as competitive as Red Bull.”
Thanks to the two drivers’ performance, Red Bull became the first team to achieve a one-two finish this year and cemented its lead on the constructor’s championship with 367 points after gaining 43 combined, widening the gap with second-ranked Ferrari to 77.
The Formula One’s 17th outing of 20 this year will take place in India on Oct. 28.