Webber ends opening day in Korea on top

After a two and a half hour lunch break, practice for the Korean GP resumed on Friday afternoon.

Most of the field quickly got down to business, trying to make the most of the ever-improving conditions. As the track was cleaned up and rubbered up lap times got better and better.

Having ended the first session down in 15th place, Fernando Alonso put his head down and set the early pace. He ended his first run with a 1’40’’148 – already faster than Hamilton’s morning mark. The Briton was also quick out of the box and immediately reclaimed the lead with a 1’40’’148.

Less than 20 minutes in, Hamilton was leading from Alonso and Webber. Jenson Button was in 10th place while Sebastian Vettel was still to post a time.

Sakon Yamamoto caused the session to be red-flagged minutes later when he span and stalled in the middle of the track at Turn 16. The clock continued to count down during the recovery of the HRT but it took only a few minutes and the session soon resumed.

Shortly before the halfway point, Michael Schumacher made a brief appearance at the front. Jenson Button subsequently demoted him to second, although by the shortest of margins – 0.003s. This is the moment Vettel chose to join in the action.

The Red Bull driver had to abandon his first timed lap after he ran off in the twisty section of the track, but gave it another go and jumped from 23rd to 1st as he completed a lap in 1’39’’204. The German completed a short run on soft tyres and pitted, while his teammate came back on track on the harder tyre.

He set the second fastest time, four hundredths shy off Vettel’s mark. He further improved in the following lap and reclaimed the top spot for Red Bull after Lewis Hamilton briefly usurped it. Both Ferraris of Alonso and Massa then joined in the fun.

With just under 30 minutes remaining, Hamilton was leading from Alonso, Massa, Webber and Vettel.

Confirming the good form of his Renault, Robert Kubica moved up to P3. Alonso then improved his time to take over at the front. Despite some tricky moments and a spin at Turn 12, Red Bull’s Webber managed to improve on his next run and was the first to dip under the 1’38 barrier.

Most of the drivers came back on track in the last ten minutes of the session but none of them was able to match the pace of Webber. The Australian ended the day on top with Alonso 2nd fastest and Hamilton third.

Kubica and Button completed the top five. Vettel was 7th fastest, 1.232s down on his teammate’s best time.

Petrov, Rosberg and Kobayashi featured in the top ten.

Tonio Liuzzi stopped at the side of the road after running wide at Turn 11 in the closing moments of the session.

HRT’s mechanics worked hard on Senna’s car to allow him to complete three laps at the end of the practice session.

Lotus reclaimed its position of ‘best of the new teams’ in the afternoon.