South Korea – Free Practice 2: Hamilton Confirms the Good Form of the Silver Arrows

The conditions are still ideal for testing on this Yeongam circuit, even though the stands remain quite empty, which is not surprising given the track’s distance from the country’s cities.

At the beginning of the session, Jules Bianchi is the first to head out, as the Frenchman needs to make up for the time lost this morning when his seat was occupied by Rodolfo González. He is quickly joined by the other drivers who have their usual program to complete, including option tire tests and race simulation for the end of the session.

Sebastian Vettel sets the first lap under the 1:40 mark with a 1:39.696, just 66 thousandths off Lewis Hamilton’s best time this morning. But it’s Mark Webber who first lowers the reference time with a 1:39.598, before being beaten by Lewis Hamilton. Mercedes and Red Bull occupy the top 4 positions, followed by Ferrari, while the rest of the teams are within 2 seconds, ahead of Caterham and Marussia.

A few small mistakes are noteworthy for the drivers, such as a mistake by Nico Rosberg after entering a corner too quickly.

**After half an hour,** the leading trio remains unchanged: Hamilton, Webber, and Vettel. Rosberg is once again fourth as he was in the morning, along with an impressive Jenson Button who confirms McLaren’s good form on this track. The battle for access to Q3 on Saturday will be tight with 9 drivers within one second from 9th to 16th position. It is at this moment that drivers start fitting the super-soft tires which significantly improve the performance of the cars. As a result, Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, and Mark Webber form the new leading trio while Sebastian Vettel remains on medium tires. The German falls further in the hierarchy when Felipe Massa, Romain Grosjean, and Fernando Alonso improve their times with a first lap on super-softs. The Frenchman records the fifth fastest time despite making two mistakes on the lap.

At mid-session, Esteban Gutierrez stands out with a spin in the double left at the beginning of the lap, the young Mexican having climbed the curb a bit too much, which destabilized his Sauber. As most teams are preparing to start their long runs, Sebastian Vettel finally decides to fit the super-soft tires. With the evolution of the track, the German can expect a fast lap. But it’s not enough, the triple world champion falls short by a tenth of a second to Lewis Hamilton, with signs of tire performance drop in the final sector; something that can often be seen this year.

Half an hour from the end, all the drivers are on long stints, and some of them are losing up to 1 second per lap. The super-soft tires have an extremely fast and high degradation, while the medium tires suffer from front graining. The drivers and teams will have a lot to do to compensate for this, and it can be hypothesized that the super-soft tire will be used in qualifying and at the start of the race before being quickly changed for the more durable medium tires.

**At the end of the session,** lap times are increasing more and more, with tires that are degrading. The teams will have a lot of work to do to last the race duration with their tires while remaining competitive. The fastest were the Mercedes on medium tires, while Sebastian Vettel has the longevity record on super-soft tires.

It’s ultimately Lewis Hamilton who holds the best time of the day ahead of Sebastian Vettel! Both drivers are ahead of their teammates, the Ferraris, and the Lotuses.

Results of Free Practice 2 of the 2013 South Korean Grand Prix: