Lewis Hamilton set the early pace for Mercedes in free practice 1 at the Korean Grand Prix as Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen suffered a heavy crash. The Finn lost control of his Lotus through the penultimate corner and crashed into the barriers on the outside of the circuit.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel was second and title rival Fernando Alonso sixth. Vettel was just 0.037 seconds slower than Hamilton, with the Ferrari driver 0.744secs off the pace. The Spaniard is 60 points behind Vettel heading into the race with 150 points available in the remaining six races.
Red Bull’s Mark Webber was third fastest ahead of the second Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg, with McLaren’s Jenson Button fifth.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m39.630s 2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m39.667s +0.037s 3. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m39.816s +0.186s 4. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m40.117s +0.487s 5. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m40.215s +0.585s 6. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m40.374s +0.744s 7. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m40.396s +0.766s 8. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m40.677s +1.047s 9. Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes 1m40.860s +1.230s 10. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m40.880s +1.250s 11. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 1m40.899s +1.269s 12. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m41.432s +1.802s 13. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m41.482s +1.852s 14. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1m41.626s +1.996s 15. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m41.924s +2.294s 16. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 1m42.002s +2.372s 17. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m42.043s +2.413s 18. James Calado Force India-Mercedes 1m43.008s +3.378s 19. Charles Pic Caterham-Renault 1m43.660s +4.030s 20. Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 1m43.883s +4.253s 21. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 1m44.100s +4.470s 22. Rodolfo Gonzalez Marussia-Cosworth 1m46.810s +7.180s
Footage of Kimi Raikkonen’s crash: