Schumacher heads times after rain-hit first session

2011 Korean GP first practice

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Schumacher was quickest by less than a tenth of a second

Michael Schumacher was fastest in a wet first practice session in Korea.

The Mercedes driver set the quickest time right at the end of the 90 minutes as the track dried out.

With rain still falling at the track as the pitlane exit light turned green, the cars took to the circuit on full wet weather tyres for their installation laps.

After that almost no-one took to the track in the first half of the session, Lewis Hamilton being the exception, doing some exploratory runs in his McLaren.

The track finally started to come to life with half an hour to go. Hamilton was the first to set a time, followed by Sebastien Buemi who headed the times in his Toro Rosso with a lap of 2’03.182.

Buemi’s time remained the fastest until it was beaten by Adrian Sutil with just over a minute remaining.

Schumacher beat his time by three-tenths of a second despite a few off-track moments earlier in his run. He went off again as he turned into the pit lane at the end of his run.

Sutil was poised to improve again but caught up to an HRT during his final run, losing time.

Sebastian Vettel went second fastest despite a spin and another scare when he almost ran into one of the Virgin cars.

Paul di Resta went third quicket on his final run, putting him ahead of Sutil and Buemi.

Jean-Eric Vergne was 13th in his first F1 practice session for Toro Rosso.

Six drivers opted not to set a time including both Ferrari drivers and Jenson Button.

Pos. Car Driver Car Best lap Gap
1 7 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 2’02.784 10
2 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 2’02.840 0.056 8
3 15 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 2’02.912 0.128 12
4 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 2’03.141 0.357 12
5 18 Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 2’03.182 0.398 9
6 16 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 2’03.292 0.508 13
7 3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 2’03.391 0.607 6
8 8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 2’04.311 1.527 12
9 17 Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 2’04.797 2.013 8
10 2 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 2’05.183 2.399 5
11 21 Karun Chandhok Lotus-Renault 2’06.350 3.566 11
12 12 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 2’06.852 4.068 11
13 19 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 2’07.541 4.757 9
14 11 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 2’08.218 5.434 5
15 23 Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 2’08.832 6.048 14
16 22 Daniel Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth 2’09.232 6.448 14
17 25 Jerome D’Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 2’12.658 9.874 7
18 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 2’14.508 11.724 4
19 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari No time 1
20 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari No time 5
21 9 Bruno Senna Renault No time 1
22 10 Vitaly Petrov Renault No time 1
23 20 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault No time 1
24 4 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes No time 1

2011 Korean Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    22 comments on “Schumacher heads times after rain-hit first session”

    1. Rammstein
      14th October 2011, 3:48

      Go Shumi & Vettel.

    2. Profile Photo

      Enigma (@enigma)
      14th October 2011, 3:52

      I’m very glad Vergne didn’t crash. It’s his first practice session and he gets such awful conditions, he’s done a solid job. Hopefully better weather next time!

      1. Profile Photo

        AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
        14th October 2011, 7:56

        @Enigma Yep, fair play to him. It would have been nice to see if he could keep it up but I guess we’ll have to wait.

    3. On Contrary
      14th October 2011, 4:14

      So Karthikeyan faster than the famed budding Australian star.. Helmut Marko not happy I guess

      1. Profile Photo

        AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
        14th October 2011, 7:57

        I doubt Helmut Marko cares that much. Look at the bigger picture, this is practice, remember.

    4. Profile Photo

      Dane. (@dane-1)
      14th October 2011, 4:28

      Since Alonso didnt go out, here’s a lap of his from last year via a slide guitar..

      http://www.videobash.com/video_show/a-lap-in-a-f1-car-played-on-slide-guitar-25167

      1. Profile Photo

        panache (@panache)
        14th October 2011, 4:59

        Hahah nice.

      2. Profile Photo

        ScuderiaVincero (@scuderiavincero)
        14th October 2011, 5:47

        @Dane My jaw just dropped. Permanently. O.O

      3. Profile Photo

        PMccarthy_is_a_legend (@pmccarthy_is_a_legend)
        14th October 2011, 7:41

        Wow that’s just great. Got the gear changes spot on :)

      4. Profile Photo

        AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
        14th October 2011, 8:05

        @same- That’s just crazy! Gotta love slide guitar.

        1. Profile Photo

          AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
          14th October 2011, 8:06

          Damn predictive, I meant @dane-1

    5. Jim8888
      14th October 2011, 5:01

      You can’t take these times as representative. Would you really put Karun in a Lotus above 2 Williams and a Toro Rosso?

      1. Profile Photo

        BasCB (@bascb)
        14th October 2011, 7:45

        you can’t but the STR cars look like their exhaust / diffusor package is working for them now so they should take a step back into contention for a solid race.

    6. nikhil
      14th October 2011, 5:02

      narain is one among the best wet weather driver…. i still remember the way he drive in qualifier of australian gp in 2005… he qualified at 9th position, 3 sec faster then his team mate monteiro in jordan….

    7. NFS
      14th October 2011, 6:37

      Schumacher RainMaster

    8. Profile Photo

      KeeleyObsessed (@keeleyobsessed)
      14th October 2011, 8:11

      I think this only proves that Schumi is getting back into his form. Remember him at Korea last year when he was getting a good ‘sighter’ into the first turn whilst under the safety car, only to overtake Kubica immediately when they started racing?

      I still maintain Schumi has what it takes to win again

    9. Ghey
      14th October 2011, 8:24

      schumi has what it takes , he just needs a great car! In last couple of racez he showedd very high competitive

      1. Profile Photo

        AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
        14th October 2011, 13:07

        Indeed. He has had great races in Spa, Monza and Japan to name but a few late this season.

        Less said about Singapore the better, though ;)

    10. Alfie Widger
      14th October 2011, 16:05

      Typo (:

      Vettel went secodn

      1. Profile Photo

        Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
        14th October 2011, 16:17

        Changed, thanks.

      2. Profile Photo

        Fixy (@)
        14th October 2011, 16:18

        Here also:

        Jean-Eric Vergne with 13th in his first F1 practice session for Toro Rosso.

        1. Profile Photo

          Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
          14th October 2011, 16:36

          @fixy

          Also changed.

    Comments are closed.