Sebastian Vettel set the pace on Friday in Korea, edging Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso...
Red Bull:
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."
Ferrari:
Fernando Alonso: "It's hard to say where we are compared to the others, because today, we focused mainly on ourselves, working this morning on a comparison of various ideas relating to car configuration and, in the afternoon on the tyres. We must wait til tomorrow to have a more precise picture of the situation. The track improved a great deal from one session to the next: it's a phenomenon that's particularly accentuated here, because there's hardly any racing on this track and this morning, it was particularly dirty. Let's hope the situation improves for tomorrow because it's always more fun driving when the track offers at least some grip. The most demanding part of this circuit is definitely the third sector, the shortest in terms of time, made up almost entirely of corners. The set-up choices are dictated mainly by car behaviour in this third sector, while the other two are definitely easier to deal with."
Felipe Massa: "I'd say this weekend has got off on the right foot, but the important thing is to continue down this path tomorrow on Sunday, when it really counts. Our car seems pretty good on this track, which is cause to be hopeful, even if we will only discover the truth tomorrow in qualifying. From what we could see this afternoon, in the second session, the difference between the Soft and the Supersoft is definitely a big one: we seemed comfortable on the two of them, on both low and high fuel loads. Now we are trying to prepare as well as possible for qualifying, which looks like being very closely contested: there is some very strong opposition and we will have to do everything perfectly if want to be able to match them."
McLaren:
Jenson Button: "It's so tricky to get a good set-up around here. We're still not quite quick enough, but we're heading in the right direction. We've been making progress all day, although this morning's session was more about testing new parts and making sure everything worked correctly and less about choosing the right set-up. At the moment, it doesn't look like we're quite as quick as the Red Bulls - who'll probably be quite difficult to beat in qualifying - but our race lap-times and consistency both look good. I think the track has done most of its evolution already today - it's not going to re-set tomorrow - so the adjustments we've been making are looking positive. And there's still more to come."
Lewis Hamilton: "I struggled a little bit with set-up today. There was quite a big difference in feeling between FP1 and FP2, which we don't fully understand yet. This morning's session was fine, but I made some changes for the afternoon and wasn't quite able to get a good time out of either the Prime or the Option [tyres]. "So now we'll work hard to figure out what direction we want to take. The Red Bulls look pretty quick, but Jenson wasn't that far off their pace this afternoon. So that's good. We'll make some changes to the balance overnight, and hopefully we'll be in better shape for tomorrow. As I say, this afternoon Jenson showed that our car has pace; all we need to do is fully extract it. If we can improve the balance overnight, I think we can be competitive."
Mercedes:
Michael Schumacher: "I was pleased with both sessions today. As expected, it looks like our car is better suited to the circuit. The day went well, so I think we can get into the top ten tomorrow and plan our strategy on that basis. We have made some small changes, nothing major, and we looked ok on our long runs. Of course, I haven't been able to study the times from the other teams yet, but we will try to secure a solid result this weekend."
Nico Rosberg: "It was a good day for us and we made some progress over the two practice sessions. We had some small new things to try on the car which worked quite well, and we seem to be looking better here than in Suzuka. So I'm looking forward to tomorrow and seeing where we are compared to the other cars."
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Vettel Leads Red Bull 1-2 In Practice Two
