Vettel grabs commanding win, moves into championship lead
Vettel's third consecutive race win came at the head of a Red Bull one-two, with team Mark Webber in second.
Polesitter Webber had immediately lost the lead to Vettel off the line, and after fending off the Australian's attempted retaliation at Turn 3, Vettel was free to pull away. His lead got up to around 10 seconds before he focused on nursing his tyres to the flag.
Fernando Alonso muscled his way up to third in a busy first lap, but had no answer to the Red Bulls' pace.
The erstwhile points leader kept Webber vaguely in sight as he completed the podium.
McLaren had a disastrous day. Jenson Button was taken out on lap one when Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi hit both Button and Mercedes' Nico Rosberg at Turn 3.
Lewis Hamilton ran fourth behind Alonso in the first stint before losing pace on his second set of tyres. He was overtaken by both Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen before switching to a three-stop strategy.
That left Hamilton back in 10th, his efforts to recover positions stymied when he picked up a large piece of astroturf in the final laps.
Having dispatched Hamilton, Massa closed in on Ferrari team-mate Alonso. He received a radio message requesting that he hold formation, and duly finished fourth, ahead of Raikkonen's Lotus.
Nico Hulkenberg drove an excellent race to sixth for Force India, delivering one of the most exciting moments of a largely tedious race when he passed both Romain Grosjean and Hamilton in one sweep as the Lotus and McLaren diced. Grosjean took seventh.
Toro Rosso had a superb afternoon. Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo came through from their lowly grid positions to eighth and ninth, swapping places late on as Ricciardo's tyres faded. Hamilton's astroturf drama meant the McLaren fell back after putting the STR duo under heavy pressure.
Mercedes' race was as disappointing as McLaren's. Following Rosberg's early exit, Michael Schumacher lacked pace throughout and was eventually pushed back to 13th behind Sergio Perez and Paul di Resta.
RACE RESULTS The Korean Grand Prix Korean International Circuit, Korea; 55 laps; 308.630km; Weather: Clear. Classified: Pos Driver Team Time 1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h36:28.651 2. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 8.200 3. Alonso Ferrari + 13.900 4. Massa Ferrari + 20.100 5. Raikkonen Lotus-Renault + 36.700 6. Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes + 45.300 7. Grosjean Lotus-Renault + 54.800 8. Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:09.500 9. Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:11.700 10. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 1:19.600 11. Perez Sauber-Ferrari + 1:20.000 12. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1:24.400 13. Schumacher Mercedes + 1:29.200 14. Maldonado Williams-Renault + 1:34.900 15. Senna Williams-Renault + 1:36.900 16. Petrov Caterham-Renault + 1 lap 17. Kovalainen Caterham-Renault + 1 lap 18. Glock Marussia-Cosworth + 1 lap 19. Pic Marussia-Cosworth + 2 lap2 20. Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps Fastest lap: Webber, 1:42.037 Not classified/retirements: Driver Team On lap De la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 17 Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 17 Rosberg Mercedes 2 Button McLaren-Mercedes 1 World Championship standings, round 16: Drivers: Constructors: 1. Vettel 215 1. Red Bull-Renault 367 2. Alonso 209 2. Ferrari 290 3. Raikkonen 167 3. McLaren-Mercedes 284 4. Hamilton 153 4. Lotus-Renault 255 5. Webber 152 5. Mercedes 136 6. Button 131 6. Sauber-Ferrari 116 7. Rosberg 93 7. Force India-Mercedes 89 8. Grosjean 88 8. Williams-Renault 58 9. Massa 81 9. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 21 10. Perez 66 11. Kobayashi 50 12. Hulkenberg 45 13. Di Resta 44 14. Schumacher 43 15. Maldonado 33 16. Senna 25 17. Vergne 12 18. Ricciardo 9
By Matt Beer