Red Bull on top in Korea F1 practice

Friday 12th October, 2012 6:41pm
Author: SpeedCafe ©

Sebastian Vettel in Korea today

Red Bull Racing has stamped an early claim on the Korean Grand Prix, topping the time sheets in the second practice session at Yeongam today.

A mere 0.032s separated the battling team-mates, with Vettel marginally on top as the pair dominated proceedings on a track that appeared to slow as the session progressed.

Ferrari’s championship leader Fernando Alonso was third fastest, 0.3s behind the rampant Red Bulls with McLaren’s Jenson Button fourth and Michael Schumacher giving Mercedes a boost with the fifth-fastest.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa sat on top of the times initially but was eventually classified sixth.

Schumacher’s team-mate Nico Rosberg was seventh ahead of his 2013 team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who topped the slower first practice session.

Nico Hulkenberg (Force India) was an impressive ninth, considering that he missed the morning session.

Lotus drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean were 10th and 11th as they evaluated their latest aerodynamic upgrade, including the Coanda-effect exhausts. The team will make a decision tonight whether to continue with it for the rest of the weekend.

Practice 1

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Time/Retired	Gap	Laps
1	4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:39.148		23
2	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:39.450	0.302	21
3	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:39.575	0.427	21
4	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:39.854	0.706	23
5	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:40.088	0.940	21
6	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:40.221	1.073	21
7	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:40.396	1.248	24
8	10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:40.422	1.274	22
9	11	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:40.440	1.292	19
10	3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:40.480	1.332	21
11	9	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	1:40.929	1.781	14
12	18	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1:41.048	1.900	25
13	12	Jules Bianchi	Force India-Mercedes	1:41.140	1.992	21
14	14	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:41.220	2.072	19
15	15	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:41.514	2.366	20
16	16	Daniel Ricciardo	STR-Ferrari	1:41.596	2.448	23
17	17	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Ferrari	1:42.021	2.873	25
18	19	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	1:42.027	2.879	23
19	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	1:42.104	2.956	24
20	24	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	1:42.175	3.027	13
21	25	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	1:42.706	3.558	22
22	21	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	1:42.820	3.672	19
23	22	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	1:44.517	5.369	23
24	23	Dani Clos	HRT-Cosworth	1:45.735	6.587	22

Practice 2

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Time/Retired	Gap	Laps
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:38.832		33
2	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:38.864	0.032	33
3	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:39.160	0.328	28
4	3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:39.219	0.387	29
5	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:39.330	0.498	31
6	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:39.422	0.590	30
7	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:39.584	0.752	36
8	4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:39.717	0.885	25
9	12	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:39.739	0.907	33
10	9	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	1:39.839	1.007	26
11	10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:39.957	1.125	28
12	19	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	1:40.089	1.257	32
13	11	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:40.112	1.280	34
14	14	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:40.445	1.613	28
15	15	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:40.745	1.913	11
16	17	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Ferrari	1:40.789	1.957	31
17	16	Daniel Ricciardo	STR-Ferrari	1:40.997	2.165	32
18	18	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1:41.200	2.368	33
19	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	1:41.602	2.770	23
20	24	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	1:42.596	3.764	28
21	25	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	1:43.066	4.234	21
22	21	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault	1:43.067	4.235	22
23	23	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	1:43.869	5.037	36
24	22	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	1:44.533	5.701	24