Seven things we learned on Sunday

Phil: Yes. Don't ask what I've been doing. Anyway...

1. Formula 1 is less boring than we thought. In the first half of Sunday's race in Korea, we had Sebastian Vettel pulling out two seconds in the first lap, everyone pitting within a lap or two of each other, and, er that was pretty much it. In the second half, we had overtaking, not overtaking, overtaking back, sparks, tyre delaminations and rogue safety cars. No change at the front, but at least the rest of the pack kept us guessing.

2. Nico Hulkenberg is a world champion waiting for the right car. In these days of DRS when it's all about overtaking, keeping a faster car behind you has become something of a lost art. Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes should have dispatched Hulkenberg's Sauber in a lap or two after the second safety car incident, but despite a much faster car, DRS and a world championship under his belt all he could do was ask the pit for suggestions.

3. Romain Grosjean is Lotus' man for 2014. After Kimi had mugged Grosjean of his second place you'd have expected Lotus to tell both cars to keep station and protect their two podium places and valuable points for the constructors' championship. Not so, and Eric Boullier not only reminded Grosjean that he should feel free to race Kimi for second but chose to do so in English when both are native speakers of French. In other words, he wanted the whole world, including Kimi, to know who he's backing.

4. Mark Webber really is the unluckiest man in Formula 1. While one half of the Red Bull garage has enjoyed seemingly effortless victories in the last four races, the other half has struggled somewhat. Mark seemed to be making good progress in Singapore when his pit told him to back off a bit. Not enough, unfortunately, as his engine blew up with half a lap left. His mate Fernando Alonso stopped to give him a lift back to the pit lane - a sporting gesture some would way, but not the Singapore stewards who slapped him with a 10 place grid penalty for this week's outing in Korea. So it was that despite having qualified towards the front of the grid Mark was leaving the pit lane immediately behind Sergio Perez when a huge lockup by the Mexican caused a spectacular tyre delamination. Mark was right behind him and picked up a puncture of his own from the debris. While the pack formed up behind the safety car, Mark pitted, only to come out again a few places in front of Adrian Sutil. When Sutil lost it soon after the restart he struck Mark a glancing blow, which coincidentally severed a fuel pipe which set fire to the back end of his car, leaving one Red Bull in parc ferme under the podium and the other half burned out by the side of the track.

5. There is a bleep button in Formula 1. It just took a Lewis Hamilton toys out of the pram moment to find it. No longer can teams avoid giving away their pit stop strategies or their cars' mechanical ailments by giving their drivers messages like, 'Box this lap, fuckwit'.

6. Korean 4x4s are faster than we thought. Anyone reading this who has a Ssangyong or something like that sitting in their drive (which probably means they really wanted a Range Rover but couldn't afford one) can now tell their grandchildren of the day a car like theirs led a grand prix. Which by my reckoning actually puts them just ahead of Caterham in the constructors' championship.

7. Gavin plays with his organ in public. Fact.