F-1 Red Bull Team Claims Front Row for Korean GP

Topics:  Korean Grand Prix, Red Bull Racing

VOA Breaking News (Voice of America)
October 23, 2010 at 7:15 pm

Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel of Germany will make his ninth pole start of the 19-event Formula One auto racing season at Sunday’s inaugural Korean Grand Prix.

This is the 14th time in 17 races this year that Red Bull has claimed the pole. It also is the second consecutive race that Vettel and Red Bull teammate, Mark Webber of Australia, have locked out the front row of the grid.

Vettel edged Webber by only seven-100ths of a second in Saturday’s qualifying on the 5.621-kilometer Yeongam circuit, with a time of one minute, 35.585 seconds.

Two-time former world champion Fernando Alonso of Spain qualified third for Ferrari, ahead of McLaren’s 2008 world title winner Lewis Hamilton of Britain.

Webber leads the 2010 drivers’ points championship standings heading into Sunday’s 55-lap Korean GP. Vettel and Alonso are tied for second place, 14 points behind Webber.

Meanwhile, race stewards issued an official reprimand to Formula One great Michael Schumacher of Germany for blocking his former Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello of Brazil during Saturday’s qualifying. Schumacher and Barrichello qualified ninth and 10th.

Barrichello and Schumacher were uneasy rivals during the five years they were Ferrari teammates. The partnership ended in 2005, when Schumacher retired after winning his seventh world championship. The German star returned to the cockpit this season to drive for the new Mercedes team. Barrichello now drives for Williams.

Saturday’s incident is the second time this season that race stewards have reprimanded Schumacher for an aggressive maneuver against Barrichello. At the Hungarian Grand Prix, Schumacher was assessed a 10-place grid penalty for the next race in Belgium for cutting across Barrichello as their cars passed by the pit wall.

Some information in this story was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.