» Korean GP: Button quickest in final practice; Hamilton shafted by Schumacher

Jenson Button has staked his claim for pole position by going quickest in the final practice session for the Korean Grand Prix. Button’s cause was helped by his two main rivals for top honours, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, both being badly held up on their final flying laps.

Hamilton was blocked in no uncertain terms by Michael Schumacher, while a frustrated Vettel had his hot-lap effort ruined by Jaime Alguersuari in the sister Toro Rosso. Neither man was particularly happy at having their laps screwed by slower cars…

Having switched to the team’s spare chassis overnight, Button came out strong and moved to the top of the timesheets with just over 20 minutes of the one-hour session to go, posting a rapid 1:38.005.

Team-mate Hamilton quickly lowered the benchmark into the low-1m37s range before Button fired back, posting a 1:36.910 on his final flying lap to beat Hamilton by 0.289 seconds.

Mark Webber was a distant third-fastest, almost a second adrift of the McLarens’ ultimate pace, followed by the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa in fourth and fifth.

Sixth-fastest went to the wayward Schumacher, who suffered several brake lock-ups during the session, while the top-ten was completed by Vitaly Petrov, Adrian Sutil, Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg.

Aside from the bad track manners of Schumacher and Alguersuari, the session was generally incident-free, with a few drivers exploring the circuit’s limits in their one and only opportunity to get some dry-weather practice mileage after yesterday’s heavy rain.

Daniel Ricciardo was forced to park his HRT towards the end of the session when he suffered a water leak.

Birthday boy Bruno Senna provided the only major moment of note, spinning his Renault at Turn 13 and damaging his front wing when he attempted to turn his car back in the right direction.

————————————————————————————————————-

2011 Korean Grand Prix – Free Practice 2 Session Times:

	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes MP4-26	1:36.910	18
2.	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren Mercedes MP4-26	+ 0.289	18
3.	Mark Webber	Red Bull Renault RB7	+ 0.813	23
4.	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari F150° Italia	+ 1.119	21
5.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari F150° Italia	+ 1.524	18
6.	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes GP W02	+ 2.649	23
7.	Vitaly Petrov	Renault R31	+ 2.702	20
8.	Adrian Sutil	Force India Mercedes VJM04	+ 2.750	22
9.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Renault RB7	+ 2.785	22
10.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP W02	+ 2.833	25
11.	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes VJM04	+ 2.937	22
12.	Sébastien Buemi	Toro Rosso Ferrari STR6	+ 2.941	20
13.	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso Ferrari STR6	+ 3.054	21
14.	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber Ferrari C30	+ 3.095	17
15.	Sergio Pérez	Sauber Ferrari C30	+ 3.120	18
16.	Bruno Senna	Renault R31	+ 3.541	19
17.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Cosworth FW33	+ 3.619	20
18.	Rubens Barrichello	Williams Cosworth FW33	+ 3.801	22
19.	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus Renault T128	+ 4.999	18
20.	Jarno Trulli	Lotus Renault T128	+ 5.035	13
21.	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing Cosworth MVR-02	+ 6.365	19
22.	Jérôme d’Ambrosio	Virgin Racing Cosworth MVR-02	+ 7.467	16
23.	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT F1 Cosworth F111	+ 7.511	22
24.	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT F1 Cosworth F111	+ 8.233	21