Formula 1 Saturday Roundup

There was plenty of action yesterday at the Yeongam circuit, but today it was down to the business of qualifying. Despite some forecast it was dry and relatively sunny in Korea, perfect conditions for final practice. Mercedes dominated practice yesterday, but could they do the same again today?

This is Tom Wilkinson’s Saturday Roundup

FP3

Early on the in the final practice session of the weekend, Lewis Hamilton suffered a vibration from his brakes.. It lost him some time as the team resolved the problem, but once out on track he was continuing from yesterday, setting good lap times. Nico Rosberg also remained competitive as Mercedes looked to be the top car this weekend. But on the super soft tyres they were unlucky as Hamilton found traffic on his optimum lap and could not set a truly representative lap time. The two Red Bulls are much closer together this weekend as Mark Webber was certainly giving Sebastian Vettel a challenge. The Australian was on top form this morning sitting at the top of the time sheets on a number of occasions.

But Red Bull are clearly under pressure from both Mercedes and Ferrari. Alonso was pushing hard meaning it would be game on for Qualifying. Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen were not so fortunate as they were both struggling to make a real impression. Massa in particular was really struggling in the early stages. McLaren had very much the same problem, both cars struggling with understeer and were off the pace. At the end of the final practice session it was a very different result to what we saw yesterday, the Red Bull of Mark Webber was over 4 tenths quicker than Rosberg behind. Overall it was a much more dominant session for the Bulls and not quite as dramatic as yesterday. Jules Bianchi had a spin in the Marussia but carried on without problems. The track was rubbered in.

These are the top 10 results from FP3

1 S Vettel Red Bull 1:37.881
2 M Webber Red Bull +0.137
3 N Rosberg Mercedes + 0.437
4 L Hamilton Mercedes +0.451
5 F Alonso Ferrari + 0.605
6 R Grosjean Lotus + 0.820
7 F Massa Ferrari + 0.935
8 K Raikkonen Lotus +0.976
9 N Hulkenberg Sauber + 1.080
10 J Button McLaren +1.233

After all the buildup and anticipation it was time for Qualifying.

2013 Formula 1 Korean Grand Prix Qualifying Report

It was a very interesting first qualifying session with Ferrari and Mercedes very close on the medium compound tyres. Red Bull joined in late only heading out with only a few minutes remaining. Esteban Gutierrez threw a cat among the pigeons when he opted to run the super soft towards the end of Q1. Many of the midfield pack were forced out again in order to remain in the session. Unfortunately though Williams were caught out and did not make it into Q2. Paul DiResta was lucky to get through after being held up by the Marussia of Jules Bianchi, the Frenchman received a 3 place grid penalty for not allowing the Force India through.

The second session wasn’t quite as dramatic by comparison, the super softs were used on most cars and Mercedes looked to dominate once again. But as usual the Red Bulls came alive and jumped ahead. Force India didn’t make Q3, neither did McLaren. Jenson Button complained on the radio that Kimi Raikkonen blocked him. I analysed this on TV afterwards and the Finn did nothing of the sort and jumped out of Buttons way as soon as he could. Sauber had reason to smile as both their cars made the top ten shootout. It was a brilliant qualifying session for both their drivers.

The final qualifying sadly didn’t have the drama I was expecting. Red Bull headed out unusually early, perhaps they were feeling a little bit of pressure. Ferrari gambled on only a single run towards the end but it didn’t pay off. Lotus had a mixed session with a good performance from Grosjean, but not so good for Raikkonen. Mercedes were pushing hard but Rosberg had a rather scruffy lap, Hamilton just didn’t have the pace. It all died off towards the end as Webber pitted knowing he wasn’t going to improve, Rosberg didn’t improve either and Sebastian Vettel slowed as he realised his provisional pole position wasn’t in danger.

This is the full Qualifying result from the Yeongam circuit.

1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
3 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing
4 Romain Grosjean Lotus
5 Nico Rosberg Mercedes
6 Fernando Alonso Ferrari
7 Felipe Massa Ferrari
8 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber
9 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber
10 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus
11 Sergio Perez McLaren
12 Jenson Button McLaren
13 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso
14 Adrian Sutil Force India
15 Paul di Resta Force India
16 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso
17 Valtteri Bottas Williams
18 Pastor Maldonado Williams
19 Charles Pic Caterham
20 Giedo V.D Garde Caterham
21 Jules Bianchi Marussia
22 Max Chilton Marussia

It was an interesting qualifying session, but one in which I expected more of a battle over pole position. Mercedes had the pace on Friday but it just didn’t quite show up today. A note to the Sauber team on their tremendous performance to get both cars into the top ten. Romain Grosjean also deserved credit for another good show in the Lotus. It was disappointment for McLaren and Force India, but in all honesty they haven’t really had the true pace all weekend so I didn’t expect a great deal from them today.

There are some penalties to consider before tomorrow race, stay logged onto Driving for Pleasure for all the latest news from Korea and all my F1 reports including a full grid report later this evening. It’s been an interesting Saturday of Formula 1 action, join us tomorrow for Live coverage of the 2013 Korean grand Prix.

You can follow me on Twitter @TomWilkinsonF1 for the very latest news and Live updates, plus all my reports throughout

Once again many thanks to Kevin Bennett for allowing us to use his excellent photographs.