KOREAN GRAND PRIXPos No Driver Team Time/Retired Gap Laps
1 2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:40.887 15 2 11 Robert Kubica Renault 1:40.968 0.081 18 3 4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 1:41.152 0.265 21 4 5 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 1:41.371 0.484 18 5 1 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:41.940 1.053 16 6 3 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 1:42.022 1.135 25 7 6 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 1:42.202 1.315 23 8 22 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber-Ferrari 1:42.293 1.406 18 9 10 Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:42.678 1.791 21 10 9 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:42.883 1.996 23 11 12 Vitaly Petrov Renault 1:42.896 2.009 22 12 7 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:43.054 2.167 25 13 23 Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari 1:43.309 2.422 20 14 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:43.602 2.715 18 15 8 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:43.928 3.041 21 16 16 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 1:43.940 3.053 23 17 15 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:44.887 4.000 21 18 17 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 1:45.141 4.254 26 19 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:45.588 4.701 20 20 25 Jerome d'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1:46.613 5.726 17 21 19 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:47.115 6.228 22 22 20 Sakon Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth 1:50.347 9.460 29 23 21 Bruno Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:50.821 9.934 15 24 18 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:51.701 10.814 11
LEWIS HAMILTON
MP4-25A-02
P1 programme 15 laps 1m40.887s 1st
P2 programme 29 laps 1m37.942s (+0.337s) 3rd
“This morning, the track was extremely dusty, so all the drivers were sliding around quite a lot. But the track evolution throughout the day has been quite dramatic, so the track is looking quite good now, even if there’s still plenty of dust off-line.
“We look to be quick along the straights, and we seem to be competitive in the second and third sectors too, which is encouraging. The track is very fast – and you need a good car around here, which I feel we’ve got.
“Today was spent evaluating some new developments we’d brought to this track. The times suggest we look as competitive as the Red Bulls, but the Renaults and Ferraris also look quick – so qualifying might come down to which driver can pull the most time out of his quick lap.”
JENSON BUTTON
MP4-25A-01
P1 programme 16 laps 1m41.940s (+1.053s) 5th
P2 programme 19 laps 1m38.726s (+0.784s) 5th
“Our car has been performing pretty well here and I’ve been enjoying the circuit – it’s fun and flowing. While the track was pretty tricky initially because it was quite slippery, I felt like we got to grips with it quite quickly. There’s just a lot of dust, that’s the only problem.
“I lost a little bit of time in the afternoon session, which was disappointing because I didn’t get to run with high fuel. The car just overheated – so I jumped out in the pitlane because it started smoking – and we lost a bit of time tidying it up. Apart from that, it’s been a pretty good day.
“We’re very strong in the first sector, which I guess people expected, but we’re also pretty strong in the other sectors, which is encouraging for us. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the weekend, in fact.”
MARTIN WHITMARSH
Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
“Today was an encouraging first day for the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team. First impressions suggest our new upgrades are working, and that we seem to have the performance to match the other world championship front-runners. We’ll be deploying our new rear wing for the remainder of the weekend.
“Following some extremely in-depth preparatory work undertaken back at the McLaren Technology Centre, both Jenson and Lewis were able to very rapidly get to grips with the new track configuration – something that enabled us to focus even more keenly on set-up development.
“The front-running teams appear to be very evenly matched, which bodes well for an extremely exciting qualifying session tomorrow.”
