Kubica fastest in final Korean practice

Practice for the Korean Grand Prix ended this morning with a third and final 60-minute session.

It was held in cloudy and cool conditions, in contrast to Friday’s sunny and warm weather.

It got to a slow start with the usual installation laps and the data download back in the garages. Sebastian Vettel was the last one to show up and finally left the pits with ten minutes gone. The track went silent again when he guided his RB6 back into the pits at the end of a single tour.

Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari broke the silence not long after that as he came out for a first serious run of laps. He was joined on track by Kubica, Buemi, di Grassi and Hulkenberg.

The Spaniard made a mistake at Turn One but kept going and completed his lap in 1’45’’671. He improved on the following lap, but so did his teammate Sébastien Buemi. The Swiss posted a 1’43’’802 and a 1’42’’993 to go top of the list.

He was then demoted to second by Adrian Sutil and lost two other positions when Liuzzi and Hulkenberg went faster. He instantly reclaimed P1 with a 1’41’’349. Halfway through the session, Buemi was still leading with Hulkenberg second and Liuzzi third fastest. Only 11 drivers had posted a time on the board.

Fernando Alonso took over at the front as he completed his first flying lap in 1’40’’795. He was joined at the front by his teammate Felipe Massa and the two McLarens of Button and Hamilton. The Ferrari driver had to find more pace to remain faster than his British rivals, while the Red Bulls came in the mix as well.

Button eventually set a 1’38’’939 to overhaul Alonso, but Hamilton did even better with a 1’38’’540. With 18 minutes remaining, it was a McLaren one-two at the front, with Alonso third and Webber fourth. Vettel was fifth ahead of the Renaults of Kubica and Petrov.

The Pole then moved up the order and slotted in 2nd place with Webber hot on his heels. Minutes later, Nico Rosberg took his Mercedes up to P2, just 0.026s shy of Hamilton’s mark.

Everybody, bar Hulkenberg, was back on track in the final part of the session. Kubica made the most of this soft tyre run to take over at the front with a 1’37’’354. Hamilton, Alonso and Webber piled up behind him.

The Renault driver ended the session fastest but the top four was covered by 0.087s!

Rosberg completed the top five, 0.2s down on the pacesetter. Massa was sixth with Button seventh. The McLaren driver was one full second slower than his teammate Hamilton.

Hulkenberg, Schumacher and Sutil rounded up the top ten.

Vettel ended in a low 16th place as he had a near-miss in his flying lap. The German ran wide at Turn 14 and almost lost control of his Red Bull RB6.