Prac Two: Hamilton does the Friday double

Lewis Hamilton maintained his form in Friday’s second practice where he edged Sebastian Vettel by 0.108s.

Although many arrived in Korean worried that Vettel would run away with it like he did last time out in Singapore, there were signs on Friday that the German would not have it all his own way.

While Hamilton led the way on the medium tyres ahead of a Mercedes – Red Bull lock out of the top four positions, it was the Brit who again set the pace on the supersoft tyres.

Switching the red marked Pirellis, Hamilton posted a 1:38.673 to edge his team-mate Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber.

However, when Vettel came out for his run on the quicker tyres – one of the last to do so – he jumped to second, 0.108s adrift of Hamilton.

Felipe Massa was the best of the rest in fifth place, 0.441s off the pace, while Romain Grosjean was sixth quickest ahead of Fernando Alonso.

Kimi Raikkonen finished eight, 1.084s down, and only missed a few minutes of the session as he team completed the repairs to his E21 from his FP1 shunt.

Jenson Button and Adrian Sutil completed the top ten.

Switching to heavy fuel loads for the final 30 minutes, Hamilton showed good pace with a 1:45.3 on his 18th place with Vettel doing mid 1:45s on the supersofts. Alonso, though, was in the 1:46s. Massa, though, was very consistent with 11 laps in the 1:45s.

Times
01 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:38.673 31 laps
02 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:38.781 +0.108 30 laps
03 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:38.797 +0.124 30 laps
04 Mark Webber Red Bull 1:38.844 +0.171 35 laps
05 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:39.114 +0.441 30 laps
06 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:39.226 +0.553 34 laps
07 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:39.444 +0.771 31 laps
08 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus 1:39.757 +1.084 33 laps
09 Jenson Button McLaren 1:39.774 +1.101 29 laps
10 Adrian Sutil Force India 1:40.006 +1.333 34 laps
11 Paul di Resta Force India 1:40.007 +1.334 34 laps
12 Sergio Perez McLaren 1:40.152 +1.479 31 laps
13 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:40.186 +1.513 33 laps
14 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber 1:40.210 +1.537 34 laps
15 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:40.446 +1.773 30 laps
16 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1:40.552 +1.879 26 laps
17 Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:41.117 +2.444 34 laps
18 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:41.289 +2.616 34 laps
19 Giedo van der Garde Caterham 1:42.461 +3.788 36 laps
20 Charles Pic Caterham 1:42.798 +4.125 35 laps
21 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:43.108 +4.435 31 laps
22 Max Chilton Marussia 1:43.441 +4.768 29 laps