Jenson Button was fastest in the final practice session in Korea.
Team mate Lewis Hamilton made it a McLaren one-two at the head of the times with Mark Webber third.
The session got off to a very busy start as the teams tried to maximise the only hour of dry running available before qualifying.
Both Red Bulls stayed out on the track after their installation laps and headed the times to begin with.
But the McLarens showed immediate pace when they join the circuit, Hamilton quickly topping the times by over a second and a half.
He remained on top for much of the rest of the session, with only team mate Jenson Button able to get within a second of him.
Bruno Senna made light contact with the barrier when he spun at turn 13 early in the session. He damaged the front wing on his Renault but was able to return to the pits and continue his session.
Daniel Ricciardo lost a lot of time when his HRT stopped at the pit lane entrance and had to be pushed to his garage. But he was able to rejoin the session later.
Most of the drivers waiting until the final ten minutes before doing runs on the super soft tyres. But with almost all the cars on the track at once, traffic became a serious problem.
Sebastian Vettel caught Jaime Alguersuari during his first effort and had to abort his run.
But he caught the Toro Rosso driver again on his next run and was visibly agitated at losing time again, drawing alongside and shaking his hand at Alguersuari.
Hamilton had a similar run-in with Michael Schumacher which cost him an improvement on his final run.
However Button managed to get a clear lap in and crossed the line with a 1’36.910 to go fastest ahead of Hamilton and Webber.
Fernando Alonso was foutrh fastest having run a new front wing on his Ferrari, with team mate Felipe Massa fifth.
Combined practice times
Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Sat/Fri | Laps |
1 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’50.932 | 1’36.910 | -14.022 | 38 | |
2 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 2’03.391 | 1’50.828 | 1’37.199 | -13.629 | 50 |
3 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 2’05.183 | 1’53.049 | 1’37.723 | -15.326 | 55 |
4 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’52.774 | 1’38.029 | -14.745 | 51 | |
5 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1’53.707 | 1’38.434 | -15.273 | 43 | |
6 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 2’02.784 | 1’54.965 | 1’39.559 | -15.406 | 54 |
7 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1’54.200 | 1’39.612 | -14.588 | 47 | |
8 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 2’03.141 | 1’54.392 | 1’39.660 | -14.732 | 60 |
9 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 2’02.840 | 1’52.646 | 1’39.695 | -12.951 | 60 |
10 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 2’04.311 | 1’53.914 | 1’39.743 | -14.171 | 55 |
11 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 2’02.912 | 1’53.957 | 1’39.847 | -14.11 | 66 |
12 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’53.402 | 1’39.851 | -13.551 | 45 | |
13 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 2’03.182 | 1’53.948 | 1’39.964 | -13.984 | 57 |
14 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 2’03.292 | 1’55.544 | 1’40.005 | -15.539 | 53 |
15 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 2’04.797 | 1’55.203 | 1’40.030 | -15.173 | 50 |
16 | Bruno Senna | Renault | 1’55.187 | 1’40.451 | -14.736 | 48 | |
17 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Cosworth | 2’06.852 | 1’56.067 | 1’40.529 | -15.538 | 53 |
18 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 2’08.218 | 1’54.831 | 1’40.711 | -14.12 | 57 |
19 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Renault | 1’56.669 | 1’41.909 | -14.76 | 39 | |
20 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Renault | 1’57.173 | 1’41.945 | -15.228 | 32 | |
21 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 2’14.508 | 1’58.269 | 1’43.275 | -14.994 | 48 |
22 | Jerome d’Ambrosio | Virgin-Cosworth | 2’12.658 | 1’59.458 | 1’44.377 | -15.081 | 49 |
23 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | HRT-Cosworth | 2’00.165 | 1’44.421 | -15.744 | 33 | |
24 | Daniel Ricciardo | HRT-Cosworth | 2’09.232 | 1’59.958 | 1’45.143 | -14.815 | 44 |
25 | Karun Chandhok | Lotus-Renault | 2’06.350 | 11 | |||
26 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 2’07.541 | 9 | |||
27 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 2’08.832 | 14 |
2011 Korean Grand Prix
Image © McLaren
16 comments on “Button keeps McLaren on top in Korea”
Comments are closed.
panache (@panache)
15th October 2011, 4:19
It just occured to me that Red Bull – with Vettel at least – might try to gear their setup more towards qualifying for the remainder of the season to try maintain their 100% pole record now that the drivers title is wrapped up and the constructors title is practically certain.
Theoddkiwi (@theoddkiwi)
15th October 2011, 4:19
Cool, Mclaren looks like they really have the pace.
Dane. (@dane-1)
15th October 2011, 5:54
They want to win their 700th race
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
15th October 2011, 4:21
Button was 0.4s quicker than the fastest time in FP3 last year.
So there’s a good chance last year’s pole position time will be beaten. That was a 1’35.585 by Vettel.
Food for thought for those of you making your predictions – get them in here before qualifiyng starts:
Make your Korean GP predictions now: prizes up for grabs
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
15th October 2011, 5:23
That’s exactly the logic I applied, but I did mine before FP3. So more a stab in the dark (based on last years time)!
Eggry (@eggry)
15th October 2011, 4:34
Button is faster than you…
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
15th October 2011, 4:46
Comments from Panache and Prisoner Monkeys moved here
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
15th October 2011, 5:50
Sorry, Keith. I’m still getting my head around the new format.
Becken Lima (@becken-lima)
15th October 2011, 5:13
Good observations made by Joe Saward regard Schuey’s block on Lewis:
Jim8888
15th October 2011, 5:19
The drivers have absolutely no obligation to let others past in practice.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
15th October 2011, 5:23
@becken-lima I think that’s reading far too much into it.
Schumacher’s got his own session to worry about. He did his super-soft runs earlier on so he was going slower than he might have been at this point. He obviously had a programme to complete and it’s not his job to get out of Hamilton’s way.
In qualifying it’s a different matter because you’re not allowed to impede people, but this was practice.
Keamo
15th October 2011, 5:38
I have a feeling Michael and Lewis will soon become ‘magnetised’
bosyber (@bosyber)
15th October 2011, 8:46
Keith, I certainly can understand you didn’t yet get to analyse FP3, but it would be great if you could find time to do that still. Does anyone have the laptimes?
I haven’t been able to see FP3, but hear that the long run pace was quite interesting between the McLaren’s and Red Bulls, and Ferrari being happy with their tyre wear, it would be great to have more insight before the race, especially with Red Bull seemingly planning some different strategy.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
15th October 2011, 8:48
@bosyber
I always have a look at the numbers before writing the pre-race analysis and obviously they’ll be especially interesting today as there was no dry running yesterday.
bosyber (@bosyber)
15th October 2011, 8:51
Yes, I figured you do, sorry for being impatient.
It’s the combination of not having seen FP3, FP1&2 having been wet, and me still having the rest of the day to wait for the race!
Fixy (@)
15th October 2011, 10:20
McLaren and Red Bull have nearly the same pace, with Ferrari behind.