The inaugural Friday practice session of the Korean Grand Prix (Part 1)
Finally, the long awaited inaugural Korean Grand Prix was now officially underway. The track was looking pretty good with the sun shining brightly and small clouds in the sky. The drivers were looking anxious before the practice session began as the green
lights illuminated the pit lane.
The practice session was now underway. Heikki Kovalainen led the cars out onto the Korean International Circuit for the first time and became the first driver to drive on the Korean track in a practice session. Jaime Alguersuari and Sakon Yamamoto followed
Kovalainen out onto the circuit. Lewis Hamilton also joined the early runners for an installation tour. The bright sunshine made it difficult to identify the cars as they came down the longest straight in the Formula 1 calendar.
With just a minute into the session, Sebastien Buemi, Bruno Senna and Tonio Liuzzi joined the racetrack as the installation lap continued for the drivers that were already on the track. Hamilton continued for a second tour to get used to the Korean circuit.
The drivers were understandably being very careful on this first lap around the circuit since this was the first time they were driving on the track, as Alguersuari crossed the line and began his second tour.
Adrian Sutil, Nico Hulkenberg and Mark Webber all came out onto the circuit to check out the conditions. Jerome D'Ambrosio was again in the Virgin car for first practice, with Lucas di Grassi forced to wait for his first chance to sample the track. Alguersuari
continued for another round on his second lap at an anesthetized pace in the Toro Rosso.
By the 4 minute marker, Alguersuari reported on the team radio that the track was very dirty and really slippery.
Fernando Alonso was heading out for his first experience of the slippery Yeongam track. Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher also joined the racetrack, as Sebastian Vettel could not resist following them in his Red Bull and rolled out of the pits
to as well. Massa also decided to come out on the Korean track for his first laps around here in the Ferrari.
Alguersuari completed a lap near the 5minute marker in 2m20.611s to post the first ever lap time at the Yeongam circuit. Nico Rosberg was the last man to come out onto the track to check the conditions as Vettel continued on his installation lap.
The drivers took things extremely carefully in these opening minutes as Vettel returned to the pits, probably for some modifications. Alguersuari completed his second lap in a time of 2m16.178s. While taking a look at the track from the on-board camera with
Alguersuari, it was clear that the Spaniard was braking really early and easing the Toro Rosso into each and every corner. They were probably making some safe runs to find the warmer and more comfortable portions of the track to understand the Korean circuit.
Unsurprisingly, the drivers reported very slippery track conditions as they chatted with the race engineers after completing their first laps here. Alguersuari was just slowly coaxing the car into Turn 12 and almost ran out of road! The Spaniard was able
to continue and has returned to the pits.
After 10 minutes in to the session, Jarno Trulli has told his team Lotus that he has never driven on such a slippery track. Michael Schumacher had clearly seen enough in the early stages and hatched a plan with his race engineer Andrew Shovlin to come back
in a few minutes after the conditions get better. Many of the drivers were now out of their cars ahead of what could be a lengthy wait for further action. Schumacher disappeared out of the back of the Mercedes garage and headed towards the team’s hospitality
unit.
The tracks temperature was 25 Celsius in the morning sunshine and the teams were now taking a closer look at their cars and making some adjustments according to the track’s conditions.
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