Korean GP: Vettel tops practice 2

Sebastian Vettel

It's looking more and more likely that Sebastian Vettel will win his third straight F1 title. Red Bull took charge in the second Friday practice session for the Korean Grand Prix, as Vettel edged out teammate Mark Webber by 0.032 seconds.

Vettel, coming off back-to-back victories in Singapore and Japan after a poor first half of the season, is now just four points behind Fernando Alonso in the Formula 1 championship fight and Adrian Newey appears to have engineered the Red Bull cars back to the top at just the right time.

Fernando Alonso ended up in third, ahead of Jenson Button's McLaren and Michael Schumacher's Mercedes.

Session 1 leader Lewis Hamilton was only eighth in the second McLaren.

QUOTES

Car 1, Sebastian Vettel
“All in all we can be quite happy, but I think it looks extremely tight. I’m not happy with every run we had today, but I think the track was changing quite a lot this morning, it was better than we expected. This afternoon it was quite slippery to start with, but then I think it got a little bit better so, all in all the car felt alright and now we see what we can do for tomorrow. I think we have to improve ourselves to match the others."

Car 2, Mark Webber
“We had a pretty good program for today and I think both of us managed to get the most out of it. We’ll have a look where we can improve tonight in different areas; it’s always a compromise on a track like this with a bit of top speed in the first sector, then the last sector is pretty twisty in terms of rhythm – it’s a bit like Budapest, so you need a bit of downforce there. So far so good, we have good information and the guys will now get on with the job tonight."

Results

Pos Driver Car Time Behind Laps
1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m38.832s +0.000s 33
2. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m38.864s +0.032 33
3. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m39.160s +0.328 28
4. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m39.219s +0.387 29
5. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m39.330s +0.498 31
6. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m39.422s +0.590 30
7. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m39.584s +0.752 36
8. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m39.717s +0.885 25
9. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m39.739s +0.907 33
10. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m39.839s +1.007 26
11. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m39.957s +1.125 28
12. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1m40.089s +1.257 32
13. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m40.112s +1.280 34
14. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m40.445s +1.613 28
15. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m40.745s +1.913 11
16. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m40.789s +1.957 31
17. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m40.997s +2.165 32
18. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m41.200s +2.368 33
19. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m41.602s +2.770 23
20. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m42.596s +3.764 28
21. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m43.066s +4.234 21
22. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m43.067s +4.235 22
23. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m43.869s +5.037 36
24. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m44.533s +5.701 24