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.CarDriverCarBest lapGap
17Michael SchumacherMercedes2’02.78410
21Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault2’02.8400.0568
315Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes2’02.9120.12812
414Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes2’03.1410.35712
518Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari2’03.1820.3989
616Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari2’03.2920.50813
73Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes2’03.3910.6076
88Nico RosbergMercedes2’04.3111.52712
917Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari2’04.7972.0138
102Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault2’05.1832.3995
1121Karun ChandhokLotus-Renault2’06.3503.56611
1212Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth2’06.8524.06811
1319Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari2’07.5414.7579
1411Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth2’08.2185.4345
1523Narain KarthikeyanHRT-Cosworth2’08.8326.04814
1622Daniel RicciardoHRT-Cosworth2’09.2326.44814
1725Jerome D’AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth2’12.6589.8747
1824Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth2’14.50811.7244
196Felipe MassaFerrariNo time1
205Fernando AlonsoFerrariNo time5
219Bruno SennaRenaultNo time1
2210Vitaly PetrovRenaultNo time1
2320Heikki KovalainenLotus-RenaultNo time1
244Jenson ButtonMcLaren-MercedesNo time1

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. Go Shumi & Vettel.

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

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

    4. 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. Hahah nice.

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

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

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

        1. Damn predictive, I meant @dane-1

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

      1. 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. 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. Schumacher RainMaster

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

      1. 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. Typo (:

      Vettel went secodn

      1. Changed, thanks.

      2. Here also:

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

        1. @fixy

          Also changed.

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