Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher has topped the opening practice session for this Sunday’s Korean Grand Prix.
In a weather-affected session, the seven-time world champion set the fastest, despite an off-track spin, to edge out countryman Sebastian Vettel.
Vettel, the recently crowned world champ, was second ahead of the Force India pair of Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil.
Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi was fifth fastest, while Australians Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo were down in 10th and 16th respectively.
For the majority of the hour-long session, rain kept most of the cars in their garages. Both of the Ferraris, the Renault and Jenson Button’s McLaren elected to only complete out and in laps.
The second session will finish at 4pm local time.
See below for results from Practice 1 in Korea.
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Time/Retired | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | 7 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 2:02.784 | 10 | |
| 2 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | RBR-Renault | 2:02.840 | 0.056 | 8 |
| 3 | 15 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 2:02.912 | 0.128 | 12 |
| 4 | 14 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 2:03.141 | 0.357 | 12 |
| 5 | 18 | Sebastien Buemi | STR-Ferrari | 2:03.182 | 0.398 | 9 |
| 6 | 16 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 2:03.292 | 0.508 | 13 |
| 7 | 3 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 2:03.391 | 0.607 | 6 |
| 8 | 8 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 2:04.311 | 1.527 | 12 |
| 9 | 17 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 2:04.797 | 2.013 | 8 |
| 10 | 2 | Mark Webber | RBR-Renault | 2:05.183 | 2.399 | 5 |
| 11 | 21 | Karun Chandhok | Lotus-Renault | 2:06.350 | 3.566 | 11 |
| 12 | 12 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Cosworth | 2:06.852 | 4.068 | 11 |
| 13 | 19 | Jean-Eric Vergne | STR-Ferrari | 2:07.541 | 4.757 | 9 |
| 14 | 11 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 2:08.218 | 5.434 | 5 |
| 15 | 23 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 2:08.832 | 6.048 | 14 |
| 16 | 22 | Daniel Ricciardo | HRT-Cosworth | 2:09.232 | 6.448 | 14 |
| 17 | 25 | Jerome d’Ambrosio | Virgin-Cosworth | 2:12.658 | 9.874 | 7 |
| 18 | 24 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 2:14.508 | 11.724 | 4 |
| 19 | 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | No time | 1 | |
| 20 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | No time | 5 | |
| 21 | 9 | Bruno Senna | Renault | No time | 1 | |
| 22 | 10 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | No time | 1 | |
| 23 | 20 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Renault | No time | 1 | |
| 24 | 4 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | No time | 1 |
See below for Speedcafe.com’s F1 Race Guide.
