The final practice session of the Korean Grand Prix (Part 2)
We were now just minutes away from the final practice session. Webber had an eighth set engine that he still had to use and he decided to unload it at this event so that he would go into qualifying with a new engine. He was hoping to get a slight advantage
in the race as the competition would be running on their old engines.
The track was a moderate 22 Celsius and the sky was cloudy. Vettel had an indifferent expression on his face back at the Red Bull garage, whereas Webber had a smug smile on his face as he was anticipating the day ahead. Yamamoto joined the starters on the
track and later on Alguersuari, Liuzzi and Buemi.
Kobayashi led Trulli’s Lotus around their first installation lap. The two McLaren drivers also decided to come out and both of them continued using the revised rear wing to set it up for the race. Rosberg Sutil, Senna and Hulkenberg all decided to join the
track as they wanted to gather some data for an installation run.
Button and Hamilton continued for another installation lap while Massa also went through the pits before resuming for another look at the circuit. The bulk field was choosing to just get over with their installation laps while Barrichello, Schumacher and
Webber all came out to check the conditions.
Vettel was the only driver left to join the track while his teammate came down towards the final section where the alterations were made. Webber peeled into the pits to end his installation lap.
McLaren and Ferrari drivers wrapped up their double installation laps before coming back in their garages to check their cars. The data downloaded in the team’s pit garages was evaluated to ensure that all the car's functions were working properly. The Lotus
crew practiced a pitstop on the slippery concrete surface outside the garage.
The data analysts seemed satisfied with their cars by the 7 minute marker as they took the data to the race engineer to begin the morning programme work.
There were no cars on the track during the 8 minute marker with Sebastian Vettel being the only driver yet to complete an installation lap. Routine maintenance was carried out on Webber’s Red Bull 10 minutes after the session began as he waited for track
conditions to improve before heading out for a run.
Meanwhile, his teammate Sebastian Vettel finally came out on the circuit and took a round of Turn 3 on his installation lap. Button told his team that the kerbing fix at Turn 16 was causing a lot of problems for him. Vettel guided his car back into the pits
after just a single tour of the track. The German driver lighted up his rear wheels as he made an attempt to lay down some rubber in the pitbox before the race set to happen on Sunday.
The cooler track temperatures were expected to have an impact on the track conditions with drivers commenting on the reduced grip levels. After 15 minutes in to the session, Rubbens Barrichello discussed the conditions with Patrick Head as he waited for
track conditions to improve before taking making another run on track.
Adrian Sutil stayed in his car as he waited for the go-ahead to continue their morning’s work. There was no support race action on the circuit since the first two practice sessions on Friday but the construction dust finally settled down on the surface overnight.
Alguersuari broke the silence as he launched away from the end of the pitlane to join the racetrack and immediately weaved his Toro Rosso from side to side in order to generate some heat in his tyres. The Spaniard was using hard tyres for this first serious
run of laps and Robert Kubica joined the Toro Rosso pair for some early running as well. He was joined by his teammate Sebastian Buemi as well, as his Toro Rosso seemed to gather some early data with 45 minutes left in the session.
Tags: