Korean GP: Both Williams in top ten after FP1

With the start of the opening Friday practice session for the 2010 Korean Grand Prix the teams, including the AT&T Williams team, would be venturing into the unknown with Korean International Circuit being used for the first time. Both Williams drivers, Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg, had previously expressed the fact that they were looking forward to this race as the new circuit would level the playing field.

Both Rubens and Nico would join other drivers on the track for their installation laps but it would not be until just after the first half an hour of the session was completed that both Nico and Rubens would return to the track for their first runs.

On their first laps Nico would move into fifth with a lap of 1m:51.372, while Rubens would move into sixth position. ON their next laps Rubens would move up to fourth position with a lap 1m:48.854. Currently the fastest time of the session was Webber's benchmark of 1m:48.229. Nico would be quicker than his team-mate, and would improve to be third with a time of 1m:47.755. Nico would again improve with a 1m:45.910 and was now in second position behind Webber. Schumacher was in third position after a lap of 1m:46.679. So with forty five minutes of the ninety minute session completed it would be Webber quickest with a lap time of 1m:44.837 with Hulkenberg second, Schumacher third, Kobayashi fourth and Buemi fifth.

But Nico would put in an even quicker lap to set the fastest time with a lap of 1m:44.509. This was 0.328 seconds faster than Webber's previous quickest time. Nico would returns to the pits following that short run of laps that saw him set the fastest time. Sutil was now fourth with a lap of 1m:46.442. With just under an hour of the session completed Nico was fastest from Webber with Rubens third. Both Williams drivers were back in their pits allowing further set-up changes to be made. Vettel would set a time of 1m:45.999 and moves was now in fifth place. But his next lap would see him fastest as he set a time of 1m:44.404. Vettel would improve on this with a lap of 1m:43.599. Button was now in second with a 1m:44.367.

Like Vettel Button's next lap would see him move to the top of the times with a 1m:43.096. This would see Nico drop to fourth. Nico would return to the circuit for another series of runs. Rubens would join him and the Williams drivers would run together with Rubens looking to improve on his current eighth place as both drivers continued to learn the new Yeongam circuit. Nico was able to find extra pace and would set a time that would see him move up to third position with a lap of 1m:44.043. Kubica was now fifth with a lap time of 1m:44.374. With an hour and a quarter of the session completed both Rubens and Nico were showing some pace with Rubens set the fastest first sector time on his latest lap, while Nico would go fastest in the second sector. Nico would use this pace to go quickest with a time of 1m:42.678 and Rubens would follow him into second place.

At the top of the order we had the Williams drivers first and second with Button third and Kobayashi fourth. Webber would move up into fifth position with a lap of 1m:43.414. Vettel was now sixth with Schumacher in seventh. Both Williams drivers would pit while at the front it would be Hamilton who would go fastest with a 1m:42.208, but he was quickly beaten by team-mate Button with a 1m:41.940. Both Williams drivers would return to the track with just under four minutes remaining. Kubica would jump up to second quickest in his Renault, just a fraction off Button's time. As the session drew to a close almost all the drivers were back on track for their final runs with times still improving with the grip levels improving. Hamilton was able to find a lot of extra pace, taking a further second out of the quickest time with a 1m:40.887.

With the end of the session Hamilton was fastest ahead of Kubica in second and Rosberg third. Sebastian Vettel was fourth for Red Bull. Button was fifth in the second McLaren with Schumacher in sixth. Webber finished in seventh with Heidfeld eighth, Nico ninth and Rubens in tenth. A positive start to the weekend for the AT&T Williams team.

Pos  Driver`	    Team		   Time       Laps
 1.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m40.887s  15
 2.  Robert Kubica       Renault               1m40.968s  18
 3.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m41.152s  21
 4.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m41.371s  18
 5.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m41.940s  16
 6.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m42.022s  25
 7.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m42.202s  23
 8.  Nick Heidfeld       Sauber-Ferrari        1m42.293s  18
 9.  Nico Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth     1m42.678s  21
10.  Rubens Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth     1m42.883s  23
11.  Vitaly Petrov       Renault               1m42.896s  22
12.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m43.054s  25
13.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m43.309s  20
14.  Adrian Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  1m43.602s  18
15.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m43.928s  21
16.  Sebastien Buemi     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m43.940s  23
17.  Vitantonio Liuzzi   Force India-Mercedes  1m44.887s  21
18.  Jaime Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m45.141s  26
19.  Timo Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1m45.588s  20
20.  Jerome D'Ambrosio   Virgin-Cosworth       1m46.613s  17
21.  Heikki Kovalainen   Lotus-Cosworth        1m47.115s  22
22.  Sakon Yamamoto      Hispania-Cosworth     1m50.347s  29
23.  Bruno Senna         Hispania-Cosworth     1m50.821s  15
24.  Jarno Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth        1m51.701s  11