F1: Vettel, Webber Set Pace In Korea

Formula 1

F1: Vettel, Webber Set Pace In Korea

Red Bull drivers Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were out front in Friday's second Korea practice...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted October 12, 2012 Yeongam (KOR)

Teammates Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber topped the times in Korea on Friday, suggesting that Red Bull is already well set for a repeat of last weekend in Japan, when the team’s drivers swept the front row.

However, it was close at the front, and long-run pace is less clear cut, and Vettel cautioned that there was still some work to do.

“I think we can be quite happy,” said the German. “It looks extremely tight. I’m not happy with every run we had today; the track was changing quite a lot this morning, so it was better than expected. This afternoon to start with, it was quite slippery, but then I think it got a little better. All-in-all the car felt alright. Now we see what can we do for tomorrow. I think we have to improve ourselves to much the others.”

“We had a pretty good program set out, and most of it managed to get the most out of it,” said Webber. “We have a look at where we can improve tonight, because in areas it’s always a compromise. The track is about top speed in the first sector, and the last bit is twisty in terms of rhythm; it’s a little bit like Budapest, and you need downforce there.”

Regarding the typically dusty surface, he said: “I was surprised that the track was as good as it was; we’ve had worse. The track will change, but it’s not our first Grand Prix, so we’re ready for that. Hopefully, we’ll stay ahead of the game, and have a smooth run again tomorrow. The most important day is a smooth run on Sunday. We had similar runs in Suzuka, but only one of us got the job done.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.