Exhilarating qualifying session (Q1) of the inaugural Korean Grand prix (Part 1)
After a mixed set of results from the three practice sessions, the qualifying session was expected to be unpredictable and boy, it was a h**l of a ride. The qualifying session had the crowd roaring until the very last minute.
Finally, after waiting for almost 2 hours, the qualifying session was finally underway as the 20 minute Q1 session began. Heikki Kovalainen was the first man to come out of the pits to burn some rubber on the track. Many of the drivers were preparing themselves
and it seemed they would join Heikki after a minute or two.
Petrov joined Kovalainen on the brand new circuit before Nico Hulkenberg took his Williams onto the circuit and was followed by Jaime Alguersuari and Bruno Senna.
Kobayashi also decided to test the track in his Sauber before scoring some timed laps, with Glock in the Virgin following him for a run. Sakon Yamamoto was followed out of the pits by Barrichello and then Schumacher as Vettel started to get ready for the
session patiently.
Traffic was expected to be a problem during Q1 as there was a queue through the tight walled section likely to cause some problems.
Nico Rosberg joined the battle and was followed out by Sebastien Buemi making it a total of 17 cars on track. Kovalainen started first flying lap after his usual pit lap near.
The drivers usually try to get a clear lap in Q1 to make sure that they save their tyres for the remaining session. Kovalainen had the much quicker soft tyres on his Lotus already and scored the first time of the session at a 1m45.450s.
Alonso was the first out of the championship contenders to head out on the track with hard tyres on his Ferrari as expected. Michael Schumacher posted the fastest first sector time up until now as he hoped for an early breakthrough in his Mercedes. Alguersuari
topped the charts with a lap time of 1m41.270s.
Schumacher did not want to stay behind so he took over with a 1m40.557s lap ahead of Alguersuari. Hulkenberg slotted in seventh place in his first attempt with team-mate Barrichello down in 10th.
After the 5 minute marker, Alonso was finally on his first flying lap after the obligatory pit lap but was catching some traffic in the form of Heidfeld's Sauber. Nico Rosberg faced the same problem as Fernando and only managed 13th place after a 1m46.440s
lap.
Alguersuari hammered a round for another flying lap and succeeded to lower the benchmark to 1m39.690s taking the time to out of the 1m40s marker. Alonso was forced to back off as Bruno Senna added another constriction for the Spaniard. Petrov was now up
as the third quickest driver with the fastest first sector in his Renault.
After 8 minutes into the session, Hamilton grabbed the benchmark time with an astonishing lap of 1m38.677s. Vettel and Webber drove out of the Red Bull garage in order to join the high-speed traffic jam.
Nico Hulkenberg surprising beat Hamilton’s time and scored the quickest lap time of 1m38.561s. Alonso secured the 10th place after his next effort as he was forced to back off by yellow flags.
Kobayashi was in second place so far with Hamilton in third, Petrov fourth, Alguersuari fifth and Schumacher as the sixth fastest driver. Nico Rosberg popped back to the third position in his Mercedes after posting a lap of 1m38.178s.
Hamilton warmed up his tyres to speed up on the hard tyres and clocked a quick 1m37.517s – the quickest lap so far. Massa became the second fastest driver before Alonso piped Hamilton to take over the Q1 session.
After 10 minutes in to the session, the Red Bull duo were taking things carefully on their first lap as Vettel managed to score the fifth fastest lap while his teammate Mark Webber became the 9th fastest. The Q1 was going pretty need after 10
minutes in to the session.
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