Hamilton tops wet Korean Grand Prix practice

By Christian Hollmann Oct 14, 2011, 6:55 GMT

Yeongam, South Korea - McLaren underlined their ambition to finish the Formula One season on a high when Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button led the way from world champion Sebastian Vettel on Friday in soggy practice for the Korean Grand Prix.

The 2008 world champion Hamilton clocked 1 minute 50.828 on the wet 5.615-kilometres course, with Button close behind on 1:50.932.

Vettel, who clinched back-to-back world titles for Red Bull by coming third on Sunday in Japan, was a distant third Friday on 1:52.646 minutes. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso followed on 1:52.774.

Record world champion Michael Schumacher topped the morning session but faded to 14th in the afternoon in 1:54.965 minutes.

Rain marred the first session which saw very little action, but finally ended early in the second round and some teams even used dry- weather slicks towards the end of the 90 minutes - with Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg paying the praice of smashing into the Toro Rosso of Jaime Alguersari.

As a result, the final practice on Saturday will be more important than at other races as teams set their cars up for the qualifying later Saturday and the 55-lap race Sunday on the course some 400 kilometres south of Seoul.

'This was an interesting day. The weather forecast for Saturday and Sunday is dry conditions. So everything we learnt today may not be worth anything on the weekend,' said Vettel, who also named McLaren 'incredibly strong' in the wet..

Hamilton spoke of 'a misearble day' and Button said he hasn't 'got a clue what the car is going to be like in the dry.'

Vettel, who has finished every race this season and placed no worse than fourth, tops the drivers standings with 324 points from Button (210) and Alonso (202).

In the constructors' list, Red Bull have 518 points and can clinch that title on Sunday as McLaren's chances on 388 appear to be purely mathematical. Ferrari are out of contention on 292.

While titles are out of reach for McLaren and Ferraari, they want to finish the season with victories or at least podiums. Button won on Sunday in Japan and Alonso dominated in the inaugural Korean race a year ago.

'I think we are quick, the car feels good and Jenson showed in the last race that we can be competitive,' the two-time season winner Hamilton said.