The inaugural Friday practice session of the Korean Grand Prix (Part 6)
With just 13 minutes remaining in the session, the teams were now throwing everything on track in order to prepare their cars for this weekend’s Korean Grand Prix.
Adrian Sutil crossed the finish line in 1m44.794s and he moved up to 13th place, as Senna watched the action unfold from the sidelines. Michael Schumacher returned to the pits after his effort that moved him up to fourth position. Massa improved
as the 11th quickest with a 1m44.310s effort on his 22nd tour.
Sebastien Buemi had improved to ninth position in the Toro Rosso. He was 1.288 seconds behind Hulkenberg's benchmark time. Hamilton was heading out for a run on what a relatively fresh pair of tyres, but had completed only eight laps so far. Rosberg was
on a potentially quicker lap but got trapped behind the Ferrari of Felipe Massa. However, he still managed to be the fastest with 1m42.532s.
Ferrari reported a lot of graining on Massa's tyres after the Brazilian had wrapped up his long run. Hamilton finally scored his first time at 1m47.336s with just 8 minutes remaining in the session and followed Yamamoto's HRT for much of the lap. Vettel
moved up to fifth position in the Red Bull RB6 after clocking 1m42.988s. He was the only Red Bull driver in the top five.
Alonso became the 10th fastest with a 1m43.928s effort. Sebastien Buemi improved his time, but was in 11th position in the Toro Rosso after recent improvements from others. Sebastian Vettel was on a very quick lap in the Red Bull near the 84 minute marker,
but had been trapped behind Sakon Yamamoto in the final corner.
Hamilton finally had a clear track this time and moved up further to 16th after a clean lap. Both McLaren drivers were using the rear wing that was expected to be tested for the first time at Suzuka. Vettel scored the fastest second sector time,
but was unable to pass the HRT and therefore failed to improve on fifth.
Hamilton was running for a much better time as he had the fastest first sector. He topped the order with 1m42.208s but was immediately beaten by team-mate Button with his new time of 1m41.940s. Things were now getting quite interesting between the McLaren
drivers.
Both Williams’ drivers Hulkenberg and Barrichello came out for a final run with only under four minutes to go in the session. Kubica sprang up as the second quickest in his Renault, just a fraction off Button's time. Adrian Sutil improved from 16th to 13th
in the classification with a lap of 1m43.602s.
Vettel was caught up with traffic again in the final sector of the lap after recording a personal best in the first section and slipped to eighth in the standings. Almost all the drivers were on track now for a final run whilst times were still improving
with the grip levels.
Hamilton clocked a big improvement, and took a further second out of the target with a 1m40.887s. Mark Webber was on the circuit hoping to beat Lewis but he ran wide on his latest attempt at a lap time and remained down in 10th position.
The chequered flag came out for the first session at Yeongam and it seemed that the McLarens were the strongest team on track. The Red bulls were marginally struggling on the long straight while the McLarens were at their best in the speedy sections of the
track.
The second Friday practice session was expected to take place a couple of hours later as McLaren walked off the track as the fastest team on track in the first session of the Friday practice for the Korean Grand Prix.
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