Lewis Hamilton sets pace in FP1 of 2012 Korean Grand Prix – Formula 1 news
McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton has topped the timesheets in the first free Friday practice session of 2012 Korean Grand Prix held at Korea International Circuit.
Hamilton set the best time of 1 minute and 39.148 seconds on his last lap as the conditions of the track improved towards the end of the morning session. Moreover, he completed 23 laps and remained ahead of Fernando Alonso of Ferrari who is presently leading
the drivers’ championship with 194 points. The Spaniard was followed by Mark Webber of Red Bull Racing who covered 21 laps.
Furthermore, Alonso’s teammate, Felipe Massa set the fourth fastest time and remained ahead of Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull.
The defending champion was followed by Michael Schumacher of Mercedes who stayed ahead of his teammate, Nico Rosberg. Besides, the veteran German driver remained ahead of Romain Grosjean of Lotus who seemed comfortable behind the wheel of his car and successfully
gathered the essential information about the car’s update package.
Paul di Resta of Force India came 9th in the charts and was followed by Jenson Button of McLaren who struggled a bit with the pace of his car as compared to his teammate.
Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus came 11th in the timesheets and could only cover 14 laps during the first session. The Finnish driver was followed by Pastor Maldonado of Williams who stayed ahead of Force India reserve driver, Jules Bianchi.
Sauber driver, Kamui Kobayashi came 14th in the charts and was followed by his teammate, Sergio Perez who remained ahead of Toro Rosso pair of drivers, Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne.
Vergne stayed ahead of Williams test driver, Valtteri Bottas who was further followed by Heikki Kovalainen of Caterham.
Kovalainen was followed by Marussia drivers, Timo Glock and Charles Pic who remained ahead of Caterham reserve driver, Giedo van der Garde.
It will be important to mention that many drivers faced issues in finding the grip as the track was quite dusty. Nevertheless, almost all the drivers remained busy in collecting the necessary data regarding their updates and it will be interesting to see
how everyone comes up in the second session in the afternoon.
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