The final practice session of the Korean Grand Prix (Part 3)
After almost 18 minutes into the practice session, some drivers posted in some valuable timed laps but nothing major took place.
Lucas di Grassi also decided to have a go in his Virgin Racing car while Alguersuari crossed the line to begin his first timed lap of the day. He almost out-braked himself before going into Turn 1. The grip level on Alguersuari’s car was clearly not up to
the mark through the twisty middle section of the track. Hulkenberg was also on the track as Alguersuari came round towards the end of the first timed lap.
Alguersuari posted a 1m45.671s to get the ball rolling. His teammate Buemi was faster than him on the circuit as the Force India drivers joined the fray. Buemi lost some time n the 2nd and 3rd sectors but slotted with a lap time of
1m46.410s.
Di Grassi slotted in as the third quickest driver after his first attempt. Hulkenberg took things a bit too easily as he backed off before the end of the lap to give himself some clear space. Alguersuari lowered the target time to a 1m45.248 as he improved
his pace.
Buemi jumped above his teammate with a 2 second improvement over his teammate’s time and continued the Toro Rosso show. As always, the drivers needed to be careful in the final practice session and not prang their cars particularly through the unforgiving
solid walled section as there is limited time to fix their cars before qualifying.
After almost 25 minutes in the session, Adrian Sutil spun wildly before he exited Turn 11 and slid sideways across the grass and threw up an enormous amount of dust. However, his car looked undamaged. Sutil cleverly ended up in the right way by the exit
of Turn 12 and was able to continue his run.
Heidfeld also joined the early order as he scored a 1m47.952 and finished in sixth place while Buemi lowered the benchmark time to a 1m42.993s and his teammate Jaime Alguersuari improved in a second position. Sutil was now in third place with a 1m44.439s
lap followed by Tonio Liuzzi and Hulkenberg in fourth and fifth places respectively.
Bruno Senna was now on his first timed lap after heading 25 minutes into the session and was clearly mishandling his HRT. Alguersuari was unhappy with the balance of his car but continued his first run as his race engineer asked him to keep pushing.
Force India was now leading the pack as Liuzzi scored the quickest time of the session yet. Nico Hulkenberg took over the front for his team Williams with a lap of 1m41.449s. Buemi could not stand Nico’s name on top of him so he retook the spot a few seconds
later. Glock led the new teams currently as the seventh fastest but all of the leading contenders were waiting for better conditions.
Hulkenberg was now in second place with Liuzzi in third, Sutil fourth, Alguersuari fifth and Nick Heidfeld in sixth position. Alguersuari came into the pits and expressed his annoyance with the balance of his STR 5. Trulli, Kobayashi and Vitaly Petrov were
now on the track for their first run.
Nico Hulkenberg brought his first run of laps to an end as he was in second place after seven laps on the circuit. Kovalainen went wide at Turn 18 and threw a big cloud of dust as he clattered over the revised kerb.
Early pacesetter Buemi decided to return to the pits as Sutil ruined his latest lap because of the fact that Bruno Senna came in his way in the final section. However, after 30 minutes into the session, the drama continued as the teams had just half a session
left to set their cars up for the qualifying session that was set to take place in a couple of hours time.
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