Formula One
KOREAN GRAND PRIX FRIDAY PRACTICE DRIVER QUOTES-
Sebastian Vettel: “All in all we can be quite happy, but I think it looks extremely tight. I’m not happy with every run we had today, but I think the track was changing quite a lot this morning, it was better than we expected. This afternoon it was quite slippery to start with, but then I think it got a little bit better so, all in all the car felt alright and now we see what we can do for tomorrow. I think we have to improve ourselves to match the others.”
Mark Webber : “We had a pretty good program for today and I think both of us managed to get the most out of it. We’ll have a look where we can improve tonight in different areas; it’s always a compromise on a track like this with a bit of top speed in the first sector, then the last sector is pretty twisty in terms of rhythm – it’s a bit like Budapest, so you need a bit of downforce there. So far so good, we have good information and the guys will now get on with the job tonight.”
Kimi Räikkönen :“The circuit is okay; it’s surprisingly bumpy in some parts but it’s quite different from other places we race. It’s difficult for me to say about the exhaust until I’ve sat down with the engineers and gone through the data. We’ll try to improve the car for tomorrow as it wasn’t very easy to drive and get a good lap today. Let’s see if we can get it completely right and maybe we can be in the top five in qualifying.”
Romain Grosjean: “It’s not been the easiest day. I think we still have some work to do with the car to get the best out of the tyres so tomorrow morning will be important. The track is interesting but it’s not been so hard to learn. The trickiest part is definitely Turns 11 & 12 which are not easy to get exactly right but overall it’s not too bad. On the positive side we’ve had a good amount of time learning the circuit and gathered a lot of data, so hopefully we can analyse things overnight and see an improved performance by the time we get to qualifying.”
Paul Di Resta : “It’s always difficult to judge too much from a Friday, but we got through our various programmes and got the data we needed for short and long runs. The long run pace looks quite competitive, but I don’t think my short run pace was representative because both my runs were compromised by traffic and I didn’t get a clean lap. I think we’ve got a reasonable idea of where we are, but there’s a lot of work to be done between now and final practice.”
Nico Hulkenberg : “I’m feeling pretty happy with today. I didn’t drive here last year so I spent the first few laps getting to grips with the circuit again and finding my rhythm. We did our programme, completed all the tests and have all the tyre data to look at tonight. Balance-wise I’m feeling pretty comfortable in the car so we’re in a good position and ready for tomorrow.”
Jules Bianchi : “I got my first experience of the track today so the first few laps were not easy as I tried to get familiar with the track as quickly as possible. Before I came here I watched a lot of videos of the circuit, but it still takes a while to get up to speed. I enjoyed the session and the track is really nice to drive. It’s an interesting lap because there is a bit of everything: big stops, long straights, quick corners and slow sections. The car felt pretty good today and I tuned the set-up a bit more with each run.”
Pos Driver Car Time Gap Laps
1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m38.832s 33
2. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m38.864s + 0.032 33
3. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m39.160s + 0.328 28
4. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m39.219s + 0.387 29
5. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m39.330s + 0.498 31
6. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m39.422s + 0.590 30
7. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m39.584s + 0.752 36
8. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m39.717s + 0.885 25
9. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m39.739s + 0.907 33
10. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m39.839s + 1.007 26
11. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m39.957s + 1.125 28
12. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1m40.089s + 1.257 32
13. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m40.112s + 1.280 34
14. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m40.445s + 1.613 28
15. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m40.745s + 1.913 11
16. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m40.789s + 1.957 31
17. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m40.997s + 2.165 32
18. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m41.200s + 2.368 33
19. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m41.602s + 2.770 23
20. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m42.596s + 3.764 28
21. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m43.066s + 4.234 21
22. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m43.067s + 4.235 22
23. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m43.869s + 5.037 36
24. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m44.533s + 5.701 24