The exhilarating qualifying session (Q2) of the inaugural Korean Grand prix (Part 4)
As the Q2 session continued, most of the drivers were heading out on soft tyres in order to score a comfortable lap time to help the drivers qualify within the 10th place marker to avoid elimination from the Q3 session.
After almost 10 minutes into the Q2 session, Kubica was trying his soft tyres for the first time and the Sauber drivers were currently soothing on a clear track while the front runners were likely to come out for their final run. Heidfeld and Kobayashi were
trying to set a quick time. Button’s McLaren was all fired up as he headed out to try and move out of his current ninth position to avoid an uncomfortable scenario.
Heidfeld crossed the line to start his first timed lap but had Jenson Button immediately in front of him down the long straight. Button moved aside to give Heidfeld some way as the German continued a round with soft tyres.
Kobayashi was now also in his timed lap but the Japanese driver had to deal with even more traffic this time. The timing screen read out from top to bottom as everyone scrambled to take advantage of the best grip levels from the evolving track. Heidfeld
wasn’t pushing the Sauber too hard on this first lap and he posted a 1m41.093s and launched into another tour.
Button found some clear space but Hamilton closed in on Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso on his flying lap. Alonso was on course for improvement with his best first and second sector times and succeeded in topping the charts with a 1m36.287s. With just 2 minutes
remaining in the session, Kobayashi crossed the line and all 17 drivers were now out to set a time. Petrov, Hulkenberg, Alguersuari, Sutil and Buemi joined the Sauber drivers in the drop zone. Heidfeld improved with a lap of 1m37.970s but only moved up to
13th place and was still in danger.
Button finally moved up on the soft tyres and he was now seventh however, he was still three-quarters of a second off the pace. Kobayashi did a better lap with a time of 1m37.748s as he went 11th but was immediately replaced by Nico Hulkenberg
in that position. Vettel also improved his time with a 1m36.437s to secure the 2nd place for Red Bull. Massa surprisingly toppled his teammate with a new best time of 1m36.169s right before the flags came out but some of the drivers continued their
laps.
Rubens Barrichello was in 10th place and living dangerously while Heidfeld improved again and was now in 12th place but this was not enough for him. Hamilton was now the fastest man through the first sector and was on course for a big
improvement. Alguersuari was unable to improve and got elimination while Vettel topped the times again with a 1m36.039s as Hamilton slotted in third place. Everything changed again at the top as Webber took over with a 1m36.039s. Kubica made a late improvement
and survived Q2 as he managed to finish in 9th place.
The second qualifying session ended and 10 cars successfully qualified to proceed into the third qualifying session. Hulkenberg, Kobayashi, Heidfeld, Sutil, Petrov, Alguersuari and Buemi were eliminated and the third session was expected to begin after a
10 minute brake. Schumacher was able to improve as he finished in seventh place and qualified for Q3.
After an exciting Q2 session, the drivers will now head to the final session of qualifying to determine the first 5 rows on the grid. It is going to be intense as all 5 of the top drivers qualified for Q3 and they will throw everything to qualify on top
in order to secure a good result at the inaugural Korean Grand Prix.
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