Vettel wins Korean Grand Prix

Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel won the Korean Grand Prix on Sunday and the team clinched the Formula One constructors' championship.

Vettel, who started from second on the grid, passed pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton on the first lap and dominated the 55-lap race before crossing the finish line with a time of 1 hour, 38 minutes, 01.994 seconds, 12 seconds ahead of the McLaren driver.

"It was a great day for the team, securing the constructors' championship," Vettel said. "We have so many people on the track and in the factory working every day of the week and every week of the year trying to build two competitive race cars."

Red Bull's Mark Webber was third — securing back-to-back constructors' titles for the team — followed by McLaren's Jenson Button and Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso, with second through fifth tightly bunched as they crossed the line.

Vettel, who clinched his second straight drivers' championship at last weekend's Japanese GP, claimed his tenth F1 victory of the season with three races remaining, meaning he still has a chance of matching Michael Schumacher's record of 13 wins in a season.

"Ten is a nice number," said Vettel, who claimed his 20th career win.

Sunday's race got off to a clean start with Vettel passing Hamilton on turn four of the first lap and opening up a 2.9-second lead over the McLaren driver after 10 laps.

Hamilton made his first pit stop after 16 laps and was followed in by Vettel. The safety car came out on the 17th lap after Renault driver Vitaly Petrov slammed into the back of Schumacher's Mercedes, ending the race for both.

At the restart three laps later, Vettel lead by 1.1 seconds over Hamilton, with Webber and Button following.

On lap 34, Hamilton and Webber both pitted and came out with Hamilton in second and Webber third. The two engaged in side-by-side racing with Hamilton holding his position.

Vettel made his final pit stop on lap 35, briefly giving up the lead to Alonso, who had yet to make his final pit stop. The German moved back into the top position on the 37th lap and held the lead for the remainder of the race.

With Vettel holding a comfortable 11-second lead over the last 10 laps, much of the focus shifted to a heated battle for second place between Hamilton and Webber.

"We had a fight before the pit stop and after the pit stop," Webber said. "We were throwing haymakers at each other, nothing extreme, just real good racing."

Webber did finally get past the Briton, but Hamilton immediately made use of the open rear wing to repass on the main straight and did well to hold off the Red Bull driver in the closing laps to claim second place.

"It was a long, long battle and, to be honest, I didn't know if I could keep him behind me," Hamilton said.

Red Bull had used a novel strategy in qualifying to save a set of the harder tires, but forecasts of three and four-stop strategies proved unfounded, with only two stops required.

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