YEONGAM, South Korea — Sebastian Vettel may have won the Korean Grand Prix on Sunday in his usual dominating manner, taking his 10th victory of the season and the 20th of his career. And his team, Red Bull, may have won the 2011 constructors’ title thanks to that result. But all of the excitement both on track and off throughout the weekend came from another man: Lewis Hamilton.
The British driver started from the pole position and finished second, providing a stunning show of tight racing and creating for himself the kind of redemption he has been seeking for months after a fall from grace this season for the 2008 champion.
‘‘It is a good weekend for me compared to what I have had in the past, so I’m happy,’’ said Hamilton after the race, trying to remain low-key. ‘‘I was able to keep the car on the track and not have any penalties, so that is a positive.’’
Hamilton, who drives for the McLaren Mercedes team, had been involved in one controversial move, accident or penalty after another all season, including at the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka last weekend, when the saga reached its peak. He had not finished on the podium since he won the German Grand Prix on 24 July, while since then his teammate, Jenson Button, won two of the five races and finished second and third in the others.
The weekend in Korea had begun with a press conference on Thursday in which Hamilton was questioned more than Vettel, who had just won his second world title in a row four days earlier, in Japan. Then things began to change: On Saturday, Hamilton grabbed the pole position for the first time since June last year, and more significantly, he was the first non-Red Bull team driver this season to do that, as Vettel and his teammate Mark Webber had scored all previous 15.
Hamilton lost the lead at the start of the race to Vettel, who sped off in the distance and never let go. But the second half of the 55-lap race revolved around the wheel-to-wheel battle between Hamilton and Webber for second place.
Hamilton and Webber, along with Button and Fernando Alonso in a Ferrari, who finished fourth and fifth, are all fighting for second in the drivers’ series.
Although Hamilton’s second place looked like a victory to some in the media, the 26-year-old downplayed suggestions that he was fighting back from a period of self-doubt.
‘‘I have never questioned myself,’’ Hamilton said. ‘‘I’ve got the trust and confidence from the team, so it is really just about staying out of trouble, staying out of the stewards’ office, putting my head down and doing as best as I can.’’
Still, several small smiles and references to escaping penalties in Sunday’s race were a reminder of past events, which began with a penalty at the second race of the season, in Malaysia, for illegal defense of his position. At the Monaco Grand Prix in May he was penalized twice, and he complained that the race stewards had perhaps been punishing him repeatedly because he was black. He later apologized to the International Automobile Federation, the sport’s governing body, that provides the stewards.
Although he has been involved in controversial incidents in at least seven races this year, his problems had been worsening in recent races. A feud had erupted between him and Felipe Massa, of Ferrari, with whom Hamilton had collided on several occasions.
The battle had heated up over the previous two races, after Hamilton and Massa had almost come to blows in Singapore over a collision on the track.
Massa accused him of ‘‘not using his mind again.’’ He and Massa again collided at the Japanese Grand Prix last weekend, two weeks after Singapore.
‘‘The only thing I have to say is that I can’t see anything out of my mirrors and they vibrate down the straight so much that I had no idea he was there,’’ Hamilton said.
But Massa was beyond consolation.
‘‘I don’t care, to be honest, about what he said,’’ said Massa. ‘‘The only thing I care about is what he did.’’
Hamilton came into the race weekend in South Korea with an apologetic approach as he was bombarded with questions from the media.
‘‘The situation has not been great for some time now,’’ he said on Thursday, before again referring to Massa: ‘‘But regardless, I’ve tried to show respect, particularly in the last race, I’m very, very sorry for that. I really didn’t see him.’’
After scoring pole position on Saturday, Hamilton did not even smile, and looked distant.
‘‘I don’t feel I deserve it,’’ he said in explanation. ‘‘I’ve had some tough races in the second half of the season, but tomorrow and the rest of the races are what count, avoiding penalties and all those different things.’’
The speculation about what was going on was rampant in the paddock: He had dropped his father, Anthony, as a manager in order to work with an entertainment management agency that some pundits said did not understand the needs of a racing driver; another rumor was that he was having problems with his American girlfriend, Nicole Scherzinger, a member of the pop band the Pussycat Dolls; and others wondered if he was over-driving to compensate for being out-driven by his teammate, Jenson Button, who has won three races this season.
Little discussed is the fact that when he entered the series in 2007 after winning at every level of racing before that from carting up to Formula One, Hamilton’s gutsy driving style was praised as a refreshing change from what the series was lacking. He then applied the same kind of racing to his Formula One career, and again impressed the fans and media.
This year, it was as if that same driving had gone just one step too far, past the luck and precision that were on his side in the past, as he met with failure at each turn in 2011.
On Sunday, it looked as if that mixture of precision, courage and skill had returned, as he held off Webber in the faster car.
His result on Sunday may have ended his problems, and it shows that the advice that Rubens Barrichello, who drives for the Williams team, gave to Hamilton was perhaps the correct one: Simply ignore the criticism and continue racing the way he believes he should.
Still, big smiles were again absent after the race.
‘‘I came here in a decent mood, but I didn’t win, I went backwards,’’ said Hamilton. ‘‘But I was able to keep the car on the track and not have any penalties so that is a positive.’’
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