Alonso wins and takes the lead in the championhsip

Alonso is after the Korean Grand Prix the new leader of the Formula One World Championship standings after clinching victory in a rainy and delayed race. The Spaniard from Ferrari benefitted from a disastrous day for Red Bull, with both drivers retiring. Webber crashed and Vettel had an engine failure.

Hamilton finished second in Korea, boosting his title chances. As for his team-mate, Jenson Button ended his chances to dream with the title after finishing in 12th place.

Race at the Yengoam circuit started with more than hour of delay, due to heavy rain. First there was a short delay, then the race started and after four laps behind the safety car it was stopped for almost an hour. The race restarted with the cars once again behind the pace car. For the delight of Hamilton and several drivers, thirteen laps later the conditions were satisfactory for the real race to start.

Vettel was in the command and after the first lap he already managed to pull away from his team-mate, building a gap of 2.8 seconds. After that the things started going wrong for the pre-race leader of the championship. Webber ran slightly wide at the right-hander heading into the 'city' section, and spun into the opposite wall. He rebounded back and went on to crash against the passing Nico Rosberg, that had just overtaken Hamilton on Turn 3.

The safety car made another entrance while the wrecked cars and the debris were being taken out from a narrow section of the track.Vettel and Alonso had passed the pits when the yellow came out so had to do another lap, but Vettel retained his lead. Having a problem with the right-front wheel change, Alonso was overtaken by Hamilton into second place. But the change didn't last for long as Hamilton went wide on Turn 1, with the Spaniard recovering is runner-up position.

Vettel was leading with a comfortable lead, but a on the same Turn 1 he also went wide, with the Alonso and Hamilton recovering a little bit of lost time. The German still seemed safe in top place and running for a second win in a row until his engine erupted on lap 46, forcing him to abandon. The Red Bull weekend was definitely ruined.

Alonso then had a door open to take his fifth win of the season and to take the command of the drivers' standings with a 11-point lead over former leader Mark Webber. Thanks to his second place finish Hamilton climbed up to third place in the standings, overtaking Vettel, but still with a 21 point disadvantage over the Ferrari driver.

Felipe Massa made a return to the podiums in Korea finishing in third, in what was his most consistent race over the last few races. Michael Schumacher had his best performance of the season with a fourth place, using his expertise during the very wet opening laps.

On the last laps Robert Kubica took to his advantage the tyre deteroration on both Williams, overtaking Barrichello and Hulkenberg on the closing stages. Force India's Tonio Liuzzi also took the same path finishing in sixth position, ahead of the Brazilian. Hulkenberg closed the top ten.

Sauber put once again both of its cars in the points. Kobayashi was eighth ahead of Nico Rosberg.