Red Bull lead Mercedes in final practice

2013 Korean Grand Prix third practice

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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.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
11Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’37.88117
22Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’38.0180.13717
39Nico RosbergMercedes1’38.3180.43716
410Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’38.3320.45115
53Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’38.4860.60513
68Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’38.7010.82019
74Felipe MassaFerrari1’38.8160.93514
87Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault1’38.8570.97617
911Nico HulkenbergSauber-Ferrari1’38.9611.08016
105Jenson ButtonMcLaren1’39.1141.23314
1112Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’39.1281.24715
1216Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1’39.1961.31516
1315Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’39.2041.32317
146Sergio PerezMcLaren1’39.2741.39315
1519Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari1’39.3271.44617
1614Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’39.3711.49019
1718Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari1’39.6651.78415
1817Valtteri BottasWilliams-Renault1’40.1282.24717
1920Charles PicCaterham-Renault1’41.3603.47919
2021Giedo van der GardeCaterham-Renault1’41.6143.73320
2122Jules BianchiMarussia-Cosworth1’41.6463.76514
2223Max ChiltonMarussia-Cosworth1’42.2674.38617

Combined practice times

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Fri/Sat diffTotal laps
1Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’39.6671’38.7811’37.881-0.967
2Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’39.8161’38.8441’38.018-0.82671
3Nico RosbergMercedes1’40.1171’38.7971’38.318-0.47968
4Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’39.6301’38.6731’38.332-0.34166
5Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’40.3741’39.4441’38.486-0.95862
6Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’40.3961’39.2261’38.701-0.52572
7Felipe MassaFerrari1’40.8801’39.1141’38.816-0.29857
8Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault1’40.6771’39.7571’38.857-0.965
9Nico HulkenbergSauber-Ferrari1’40.8991’40.2101’38.961-1.24970
10Jenson ButtonMcLaren1’40.2151’39.7741’39.114-0.6665
11Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’41.6261’40.1861’39.128-1.05869
12Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1’41.4821’41.1171’39.196-1.92173
13Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’41.4321’40.0061’39.204-0.80269
14Sergio PerezMcLaren1’40.8601’40.1521’39.274-0.87866
15Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari1’42.0431’40.5521’39.327-1.22561
16Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’40.0071’39.371-0.63653
17Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari1’41.9241’40.4461’39.665-0.78164
18Valtteri BottasWilliams-Renault1’42.0021’41.2891’40.128-1.16171
19Charles PicCaterham-Renault1’43.6601’42.7981’41.360-1.43874
20Giedo van der GardeCaterham-Renault1’43.8831’42.4611’41.614-0.84775
21Jules BianchiMarussia-Cosworth1’43.1081’41.646-1.46245
22Max ChiltonMarussia-Cosworth1’44.1001’43.4411’42.267-1.17460
23James CaladoForce India-Mercedes1’43.00821
24Rodolfo GonzalezMarussia-Cosworth1’46.81010

2013 Korean Grand Prix

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

    1. Hamilton found traffic on his final run on supersofts, otherwise he would have been the fastest

      1. How do you even know?

      2. Actually he didn’t, I watched his final/fastest lap on sky’s onboard feed & he had a completely clean lap.

        1. 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. 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.

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

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