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Hamilton sets early Korea pace

Lewis Hamilton led the way for McLaren as Formula 1 explored the Korean Grand Prix circuit for the first time in Friday morning practice at the hurriedly-completed Yeongam track

Robert Kubica ended up second for Renault, 0.081 seconds down on Hamilton, with Mercedes' Nico Rosberg third ahead of Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull and Jenson Button in the second McLaren, but the positions and times will prove largely irrelevant as the circuit develops and teams acclimatise.

Track conditions were, if anything, even more dusty and treacherous than expected when practice got underway. It was Lotus' Heikki Kovalainen who had the honour of officially christening the circuit as he left the pitlane first, while Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari set the first flying-lap time in a leisurely 2m20.611s.

That mark would be beaten, but not immediately as most drivers crept around the course extremely tentively until grip levels started to improve.

As times came down, Sakon Yamamoto, Michael Schumacher, Sebastien Buemi, Mark Webber, Nico Hulkenberg, Vettel, Button and Rosberg all had spells at the top of the timing screen before the McLarens came to the fore in the final minutes.

Though he had been one of the first out on track, Hamilton did not go for a flying lap until the closing stages, having spent a while in the McLaren pit changing to the newer rear wing.

He soon got up to speed when he resumed running, and after swapping the top spot with team-mate Button (who was also using the latest wing), he made sure he would end up in front with a blistering 1m40.887s lap - 1.053s faster than the sister McLaren. Hamilton could have gone quicker still, setting an even better time in sector one on his next lap before pitting.

But he did not maintain his one-second cushion, with Kubica getting to within 0.081s with his own last lap. Late improvements from Rosberg and Vettel then pushed Button back to fifth.

Schumacher stayed near the front and took sixth for Mercedes, ahead of points leader Webber's Red Bull. Nick Heidfeld (Sauber) and Williams duo Hulkenberg and Rubens Barrichello completed the top 10, while title contender Fernando Alonso had another quiet Friday morning and was only 15th for Ferrari.

Despite the slippery track and relative lack of run-off, no one made it into the barriers in the opening session. Turns 1 and 11 proved particularly tricky, though, with several drivers kicking up dust in both corners' run-off, while Kamui Kobayashi investigated the grass in the pit entry in his Sauber and Vettel had a very near miss with Yamamoto in the final corners.

Bruno Senna provided the session's main incident when his Hispania arrived at Turn 9 with its left rear suspension already awry. The Brazilian spun to a halt without reaching the barriers.

Also missing out on mileage was Jarno Trulli, whose Lotus was sidelined with gearbox problems.

Pos  Driver              Team                  Time       Gap        Laps
 1.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m40.887s             15
 2.  Robert Kubica       Renault               1m40.968s  + 0.081s   18
 3.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m41.152s  + 0.265s   21
 4.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m41.371s  + 0.484s   18
 5.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m41.940s  + 1.053s   16
 6.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m42.022s  + 1.135s   25
 7.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m42.202s  + 1.315s   23
 8.  Nick Heidfeld       Sauber-Ferrari        1m42.293s  + 1.406s   18
 9.  Nico Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth     1m42.678s  + 1.791s   21
10.  Rubens Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth     1m42.883s  + 1.996s   23
11.  Vitaly Petrov       Renault               1m42.896s  + 2.009s   22
12.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m43.054s  + 2.167s   25
13.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m43.309s  + 2.422s   20
14.  Adrian Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  1m43.602s  + 2.715s   18
15.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m43.928s  + 3.041s   21
16.  Sebastien Buemi     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m43.940s  + 3.053s   23
17.  Vitantonio Liuzzi   Force India-Mercedes  1m44.887s  + 4.000s   21
18.  Jaime Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m45.141s  + 4.254s   26
19.  Timo Glock          Virgin-Cosworth       1m45.588s  + 4.701s   20
20.  Jerome D'Ambrosio   Virgin-Cosworth       1m46.613s  + 5.726s   17
21.  Heikki Kovalainen   Lotus-Cosworth        1m47.115s  + 6.228s   22
22.  Sakon Yamamoto      Hispania-Cosworth     1m50.347s  + 9.460s   29
23.  Bruno Senna         Hispania-Cosworth     1m50.821s  + 9.934s   15
24.  Jarno Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth        1m51.701s  + 10.814s  11

All timing unofficial

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