Red Bull lead Mercedes in final practice

Sebastian Vettel led the final hour of practice ahead of qualifying for the Korean Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver was the only person to lap the Korea International Circuit in less than 1’38, and team mate Mark Webber made it a one-two for Red Bull.

The pair moved to the top of the times in the final ten minutes of the session when the drivers switched to super-soft tyres. Prior to that Lewis Hamilton had been quickest on the medium compound.

However he was held up in traffic during his final run and ended up fourth-fastest behind team mate Nico Rosberg.

As yesterday the Ferraris and Lotuses were next. Fernando Alonso was fifth-fastest and Felipe Massa improved to seventh on super-softs having been some way off the pace on the medium compound.

Nico Hulkenberg put his Sauber in the top ten ahead of Jenson Button’s McLaren.

Pos.	No.	Driver	Car	Best lap	Gap	Laps
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1’37.881		17
2	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1’38.018	0.137	17
3	9	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1’38.318	0.437	16
4	10	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’38.332	0.451	15
5	3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1’38.486	0.605	13
6	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1’38.701	0.820	19
7	4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1’38.816	0.935	14
8	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus-Renault	1’38.857	0.976	17
9	11	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	1’38.961	1.080	16
10	5	Jenson Button	McLaren	1’39.114	1.233	14
11	12	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1’39.128	1.247	15
12	16	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1’39.196	1.315	16
13	15	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1’39.204	1.323	17
14	6	Sergio Perez	McLaren	1’39.274	1.393	15
15	19	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’39.327	1.446	17
16	14	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1’39.371	1.490	19
17	18	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’39.665	1.784	15
18	17	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	1’40.128	2.247	17
19	20	Charles Pic	Caterham-Renault	1’41.360	3.479	19
20	21	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	1’41.614	3.733	20
21	22	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Cosworth	1’41.646	3.765	14
22	23	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	1’42.267	4.386	17

Combined practice times

Pos	Driver	Car	FP1	FP2	FP3	Fri/Sat diff	Total laps
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1’39.667	1’38.781	1’37.881	-0.9	67
2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1’39.816	1’38.844	1’38.018	-0.826	71
3	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1’40.117	1’38.797	1’38.318	-0.479	68
4	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’39.630	1’38.673	1’38.332	-0.341	66
5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1’40.374	1’39.444	1’38.486	-0.958	62
6	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1’40.396	1’39.226	1’38.701	-0.525	72
7	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1’40.880	1’39.114	1’38.816	-0.298	57
8	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus-Renault	1’40.677	1’39.757	1’38.857	-0.9	65
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	1’40.899	1’40.210	1’38.961	-1.249	70
10	Jenson Button	McLaren	1’40.215	1’39.774	1’39.114	-0.66	65
11	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1’41.626	1’40.186	1’39.128	-1.058	69
12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1’41.482	1’41.117	1’39.196	-1.921	73
13	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1’41.432	1’40.006	1’39.204	-0.802	69
14	Sergio Perez	McLaren	1’40.860	1’40.152	1’39.274	-0.878	66
15	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’42.043	1’40.552	1’39.327	-1.225	61
16	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes		1’40.007	1’39.371	-0.636	53
17	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’41.924	1’40.446	1’39.665	-0.781	64
18	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	1’42.002	1’41.289	1’40.128	-1.161	71
19	Charles Pic	Caterham-Renault	1’43.660	1’42.798	1’41.360	-1.438	74
20	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	1’43.883	1’42.461	1’41.614	-0.847	75
21	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Cosworth		1’43.108	1’41.646	-1.462	45
22	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	1’44.100	1’43.441	1’42.267	-1.174	60
23	James Calado	Force India-Mercedes	1’43.008				21
24	Rodolfo Gonzalez	Marussia-Cosworth	1’46.810				10

2013 Korean Grand Prix

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6 comments on “Red Bull lead Mercedes in final practice”

Malik (@)
5th October 2013, 4:16

Hamilton found traffic on his final run on supersofts, otherwise he would have been the fastest
1. iAltair (@)
  5th October 2013, 4:23
  
  How do you even know?
2. Dizzy
  5th October 2013, 5:03
  
  Actually he didn’t, I watched his final/fastest lap on sky’s onboard feed & he had a completely clean lap.
  1. Dizzy
    5th October 2013, 5:06
    
    To elaborate a bit, He made a small mistake in turn 1 & missed the apex on his 1st lap on the SuperSofts & immediately backed off & coasted round the lap to save tyres.
    On his next lap (which was his final & fastest lap) he made no mistake & encountered no traffic.
  2. BasCB (@bascb)
    5th October 2013, 5:49
    
    Yeah, it was his mistake in the first lap, I guess that in the second lap his tyres were already going off though, so they might be a tad closer to RBR than it looks now.
@HoHum (@hohum)
5th October 2013, 4:22

Webber is looking pretty racy on a low drag/downforce set-up.