2010 KOREAN GP: RED BULL SECURED FRONT ROW

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Korean GPSebastian Vettel and Mark Webber secured Red Bull its second successive front row and its eighth of the season during qualifying for the inaugural Korean Grand Prix on Saturday. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was just 0.181 off Vettel's time and lost out in the twisty final sector of the lap where the Red Bulls were peerless. However, Alonso and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, who qualified fourth, were considerably faster in the first sector, suggesting they will be able to attack Vettel and Webber at the start. Hamilton finished 0.5 seconds down on Vettel overall, as both McLarens struggled to maintain tyre temperature and failed to match the expectations they set in practice. Team-mate Button was seventh, behind Nico Rosberg and Felipe Massa on the grid, and will be relying on a good start to get into contention. Crucial to the start will be the side of the grid the drivers are on. The left hand side, where 2nd place and all the even numbers start from, has hardly been used and is expected to offer very little grip as the drivers pull away.

Pos  Driver         Team                   Q1        Q2        Q3
1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1:37.123  1:36.074  1:35.585
2.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1:37.373  1:36.039  1:35.659
3.  Alonso         Ferrari                1:37.144  1:36.287  1:35.766
4.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:37.113  1:36.197  1:36.062
5.  Rosberg        Mercedes               1:37.708  1:36.791  1:36.535
6.  Massa          Ferrari                1:37.515  1:36.169  1:36.571
7.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:38.123  1:37.064  1:36.731
8.  Kubica         Renault                1:37.703  1:37.179  1:36.824
9.  Schumacher     Mercedes               1:37.980  1:37.077  1:36.950
10. Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1:38.257  1:37.511  1:36.998
11. Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth      1:38.115  1:37.620
12. Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         1:38.429  1:37.643
13. Heidfeld       Sauber-Ferrari         1:38.171  1:37.715
14. Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1:38.572  1:37.783
15. Petrov         Renault                1:38.174  1:37.799 *
16. Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:38.583  1:37.853
17. Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:38.621  1:38.594
18. Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes   1:38.955
19. Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth         1:40.521
20. Glock          Virgin-Cosworth        1:40.748
21. Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth         1:41.768
22. di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth        1:42.325
23. Yamamoto       HRT-Cosworth           1:42.444
24. Senna          HRT-Cosworth           1:43.283

* Drops five places for Japan penalty

2010 KOREAN GP: RESULTS FROM FRIDAY SESSIONS

FIRST FREE PRACTICE

First free training was approached with great vigilance by all teams, first to examine the track, later by the end cars made some fast times. Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren car set the fastest time of the first free training of Korean Grand Prix. His car had new rear wing, and it seems that could be even faster, because it was four tenths faster than his time in the next lap, in the first sector, but he did not complete the lap. Robert Kubica again excellent with Renault. Seems to suit the fast tracks. It can be concluded that in the first sector fastest cars are those with good working F-duct system. Sebastian Vettel in fourth position, but with great traffic problems in the last sector, where the Red Bull car should be most fastest. Ferrari drivers poorly placed, but they tested versions of the car with and without F-duct system. From this results we can`t see who is fastest, and which car is not. We can say that McLaren should be good on this track.

P.  DRIVER                 TEAM                 TIME     GAP       LAPS
1.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m40.887s             15
2.  Robert Kubica       Renault               1m40.968s  + 0.081s   18
3.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m41.152s  + 0.265s   21
4.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m41.371s  + 0.484s   18
5.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m41.940s  + 1.053s   16
6.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m42.022s  + 1.135s   25
7.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m42.202s  + 1.315s   23
8.  Nick Heidfeld       Sauber-Ferrari        1m42.293s  + 1.406s   18
9.  Nico Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth     1m42.678s  + 1.791s   21
10. Rubens Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth     1m42.883s  + 1.996s   23
11. Vitaly Petrov       Renault               1m42.896s  + 2.009s   22
12. Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m43.054s  + 2.167s   25
13. Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m43.309s  + 2.422s   20
14. Adrian Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  1m43.602s  + 2.715s   18
15. Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m43.928s  + 3.041s   21
16. Sebastien Buemi     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m43.940s  + 3.053s   23
17. Vitantonio Liuzzi   Force India-Mercedes  1m44.887s  + 4.000s   21
18. Jaime Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m45.141s  + 4.254s   26
19. Timo Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1m45.588s  + 4.701s   20
20. Jerome D'Ambrosio   Virgin-Cosworth       1m46.613s  + 5.726s   17
21. Heikki Kovalainen   Lotus-Cosworth        1m47.115s  + 6.228s   22
22. Sakon Yamamoto      Hispania-Cosworth     1m50.347s  + 9.460s   29
23. Bruno Senna         Hispania-Cosworth     1m50.821s  + 9.934s   15
24. Jarno Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth        1m51.701s  + 10.814s  11

SECOND FREE PRACTICE

Championship leader, Mark Webber, had the fastest pace in the second training, and set the best time today in Yeongam, ahead of his title rivals, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. Champion Jenson Button was fifth, while team-mate of Webber, Sebastian Vetel was 1.2 seconds slower and placed on the seventh position.

The conditions of the track was constantly improving during the session, so it is difficult to "read" the form of drivers.(Webber set the fastest time in the last minutes of session, while Vetel went out first with the soft tires, which cost him some speed). There was lot of traffic in the final sector, and lot of attempts to set a fast time ruined. But the pace of Webber looks real and he had good times and with hard tyres, often so fast as his rivals on the soft tires. Early indications suggest that McLaren has the advantage in a fast first sector, although Robert Kubica was far fastest in that sector. All teams had problems with the tyre degradation on longer stints.

P.  DRIVER            TEAM                   TIME       GAP   LAPS
1.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault        1:37.942            23
2.  Alonso         Ferrari                 1:38.132  + 0.190   30
3.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes        1:38.279  + 0.337   29
4.  Kubica         Renault                 1:38.718  + 0.776   29
5.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1:38.726  + 0.784   19
6.  Massa          Ferrari                 1:38.820  + 0.878   32
7.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault        1:39.204  + 1.262   22
8.  Petrov         Renault                 1:39.267  + 1.325   28
9.  Rosberg        Mercedes                1:39.268  + 1.326   29
10. Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari          1:39.564  + 1.622   26
11. Heidfeld       Sauber-Ferrari          1:39.588  + 1.646   25
12. Schumacher     Mercedes                1:39.598  + 1.656   26
13. Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth       1:39.812  + 1.870   35
14. Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes    1:39.881  + 1.939   27
15. Sutil          Force India-Mercedes    1:39.971  + 2.029   22
16. Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth       1:40.478  + 2.536   30
17. Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:40.578  + 2.636   29
18. Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:40.896  + 2.954   32
19. Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth          1:42.773  + 4.831   29
20. Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth          1:42.801  + 4.859   19
21. Glock          Virgin-Cosworth         1:43.115  + 5.173   26
22. di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth         1:44.039  + 6.097   29
23. Yamamoto       HRT-Cosworth            1:45.166  + 7.224   19
24. Senna          HRT-Cosworth            1:46.649  + 8.707    3

2010 KOREAN GP: MCLAREN DRIVERS NOT GIVING UP

McLaren drivers Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton insist the title is still not beyond them despite the margin of the gap between themselves and championship leader Mark Webber.

Lewis Hamilton:
"This weekend hopefully we will have a little bit more of a fighting chance against the Red Bulls and Ferrari and hopefully a bit more fortunate as well. I think anything is possible and you can tell that us as a team and Ferrari are pushing very hard, I don't think the gap to Red Bull is that big, we have outqualified them in one race maybe, but I think we can close the gap okay."

Jenson Button:
"Every time we go to a race it seems this is the critical race, but it is obviously a lot more difficult for us to win the world championship this year. But we've seen in past seasons that anything is possible, we've all had failures this year and issues, so it is definitely still possible after this event if it is mathematically possible. It's good to still be involved in the title hunt with three races to go. It's more difficult for me as I am 31 points behind but there is still a possibility and I am hopeful. It will be mixed up, if we look at the last few races, Ferrari and RBR had legs on us a little bit but the next three should be closer and that will make an exciting fight until the end of the season."

2010 KOREAN GP: VIRTUAL CIRCUIT GUIDE (HD AVAILABLE)

2010 JAPANESE GP: SUZUKA GIRLS

2010 JAPANESE GP: RACE IN HIGH RESOLUTION PICTURES