Formula One: Korean Grand Prix – Practice Sessions (Part 3)
Approximately, 15 minutes remained in the 2nd practice session.
Senna was unable to set a time in the 2nd practice period due to the problems he faced during the first. On a brighter note however, Heikki Kovalainen was the fastest among the drivers of the new teams.
Meanwhile, the Ferraris, Red Bulls and McLarens battled it out for the top honours. It appeared less like a mere practice stint since the reputation of the top teams was on the line. The million dollar question remained - who would carry that psychological
advantage ahead of the final practice session and qualifying?
Mark Webber emerged the quickest at the end as he clocked a lightning fast lap. The Friday practice session drew to a close with much food for thought for the race engineers of all 12 teams in the mix. Webber topped second practice ahead of Alonso and Hamilton.
It was still difficult to predict who had the strongest car with different teams being fast in one section or the other.
The final classification for S2 was as follows:
M. Webber – Red Bull F. Alonso – Ferrari L. Hamilton – McLaren Mercedes R. Kubica – Renault J. Button – McLaren Mercedes F. Massa – Ferrar S. Vettel – Red Bull V. Petrov – Renault N. Rosberg – Mercedes GP 10. K. Kobayashi – BMW Sauber F1 11. N. Heidfeld – BMW Sauber F1 12. M. Schumacher – Mercedes GP 13. R. Barrichello – Williams 14. V. Liuzzi – Force India 15. A. Sutil – Force India 16. N. Hulkenberg – Williams 17. J. Alguersuari – Toro Rosso 18. S. Buemi – Toro Rosso 19. H. Kovalainen – Lotus F1 20. J. Trulli – Lotus F1 21. T. Glock – Virgin F1 22. L. di Grassi – Virgin F1 23. S. Yamamoto – HRT F1 24. B. Senna – HRT F1
Fernando Alonso, as always, was one of the highest lapping drivers with a total of 30 laps. The Spaniard has been criticized in the past for letting his ‘determination’ compromise the state of his machinery. Senna went around the circuit a total of 3 times
which might give him the benefit of the doubt for finishing at the tail end of the 24. L. Di Grassi finished 22nd, 2 places lower than the young driver, Ambrosio, who occupied his seat in the previous practice stint.
As the track collected more and more rubber with every passing lap, the overall grip improved. This enabled cars to go faster around the track which in turn improved lap times. Mark Webber was the only driver in the line up to touch the 1 minute 37’s as
he finished 1 minute 37.942 seconds. Fernando Alonso finished nearly 2 tenths slower with a lap time of 1 minute 38.132 seconds. Lewis Hamilton wasn’t far off either as his fastest lap was a 1 minute 38.279 seconds.
The Renault of Robert Kubica along with the McLaren of Jenson Button finished nearly half a second slower to the third placed car; with Kubica finishing 8 thousandth of a second quicker than Jenson Button. Felipe Massa has been criticized for his lack of
support at the top end. He finished 6th with a lap time of 1 minute 38.820 seconds. Interestingly, this was one occasion where he clocked more laps than his Spaniard team mate; a total of 32, which were 2 more than Alonso’s total of 30.
The final practice session was to take place the next day. As the drivers had an entire day to take a first bite at the Yeongam cherry, it all came down to a rather anxious wait. A day that started with cars twitching around and acting cautiously, posting
mediocre times around the 2 minute mark, ended with the first placed car cutting nearly over 22 odd seconds from the inaugural time. In fact, all 24 cars managed to enter the more familiar below 2 minute lap times.
The apparent ‘gamble’ with the late call on the Korean track looked to be a masterstroke in the making. Join us for the events that followed the very next day.
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