The inaugural Friday practice session of the Korean Grand Prix (Part 3)
After 30 minutes into the first Friday practice session of the Korean Grand Prix, the cars were still testing and evaluating their packages for the weekend ahead.
Webber continued a round for another hot lap but it was visibly hard work for the Australian as he corrected the car at every corner. The championship leader caught some traffic in the form of Yamamoto through the twisty section of the circuit and was unable
to force his way past the Japanese driver.
While the track evolved throughout the session, the conditions were quickly punishing the sole set of tyres allocated to each driver. Kobayashi joined the early order with the fourth fastest time in his Sauber. Webber was the quickest of the six drivers
to have posted a time so far, with Buemi second, Schumacher third, Kobayashi fourth and Yamamoto fifth.
Williams’s drivers Hulkenberg and Barrichello joined the racetrack after a run of laps. Webber found another full second on his way to a time of 1m48.229s. Massa was now heading out to test his Ferrari without an F-duct blown rear wing. Sebastien Buemi improved
with a time of 1m48.648s and is now just 0.413 seconds behind pacesetter Webber by the 35 minute marker.
Webber himself improves and lowers the benchmark to 1m45.723s as we start to get down towards a sensible lap time. Massa began a lap against the clock in his Ferrari. Hulkenberg scored the fifth fastest lap for Williams and his team-mate Barrichello slotted
into sixth position.
Massa fought for grip all the way around his tour and managed to complete a lap despite a bounce over the run-off on the run back towards the pits. Barrichello moved up to the fourth position in his Williams with a lap of a 1m48.854s and was now just over
3.1 seconds off Webber's benchmark. Hulkenberg was again quicker than his team-mate, and moved up to third place with a time of 1m47.755s.
Massa also checked out the run-off at Turn 1 after a major wobble due to some under braking before the first corner. Michael Schumacher was back out on the circuit now for another run of laps in the Mercedes as Webber lowered the target time to 1m44.837s.
Kobayashi scored the second quickest in the early times as grip levels continued to slowly improve. This was a productive run of laps for Mark Webber and he was gaining invaluable data for the Red Bull team. Force India drivers Liuzzi and Sutil came out
onto the circuit to begin their programme of work by the 40 minute marker.
The McLaren pair continued to preserve their rubber for later in the session by completing a number of slow installation laps. Webber crossed the line but was unable to improve on his fastest lap on this occasion. He was 1.983 seconds ahead of Kobayashi.
Nico Hulkenberg posted a 1m45.910s and moved up to second position behind Webber.
Massa was now sixth after finally completing a clean lap. Unsurprisingly, he told engineer Rob Smedley that the surface was very slippery. Michael Schumacher was also on the move and he was up to third position in the Mercedes after a lap of 1m46.679s. After
almost halfway through the first practice session, Mark Webber pitted to bring a nine lap run to an end.
Webber was the quickest driver up until now with a lap time of 1m44.837s with Hulkenberg second, Schumacher third, Kobayashi fourth and Buemi fifth. Adrian Sutil slotted into eighth position with his first timed lap of the weekend. The German managed a 1m50.003s
lap. Petrov was touring slowly as he looked for space to begin a timed lap. His team-mate Tonio Liuzzi was 10th after clocking 1m50.736s.
Nico Rosberg joined the circuit in the Mercedes. The German was looking to score his first timed lap after this run. We were now exactly half way through the session and Massa was now up to fifth quickest in his Ferrari with 1m47.473s.
The practice session was progressing at a very streamlined flow however; the teams were looking satisfied both off and on the track up until now.
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