Runaway leader Sebastian Vettel can put one hand on the Formula One world title this week as he aims to stretch his astonishing winning streak to four races at the Korean Grand Prix.
Last month in Singapore, the brilliant young German left other drivers in his wake to move 60 points clear of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and ever closer to a historic fourth straight championship.
With six races left, a wipeout from his rivals would leave Vettel capable of being crowned world
champion next week in Japan, a triumph that would catapult him among the sport's greats.
Victory this year would make Vettel, 26, the youngest man to win four in a row, trumping Michael Schumacher and Juan Manuel Fangio.
Alain Prost is the only other man to win four or more titles.
Vettel's consecutive wins in Belgium, Italy and Singapore have not been universally popular and he has been unsportingly booed on the podium by a section of disgruntled fans.
The German, with seven wins in 13 grands prix this year, is also on a hat-trick in South Korea after winning the last two races at the Korean International Circuit in the country's rural south.
Alonso is the only man with a realistic chance of reeling in Vettel, although Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen, Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg are mathematically still in the hunt.
