Korean GP: Sebastian Vettel leads Lewis Hamilton in final practice

The German, winner of the past two grands prix in Singapore and Japan, has never started off the front row in Korea.

He gave himself the perfect chance to extend that run with a fantastic late run on the super softs, improving his own personal best several times and working his way down to a 1m37.642s.

That put him comfortably clear of the chasing pack, which was led by McLaren's Lewis Hamilton.

The Briton had been more of a match for Vettel on the softs, but was unable to match the German's improvements in the final minutes and on the red super soft compounds.

Jenson Button finished third in the second McLaren, while Lotus's Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen - the latter running with the Coanda-effect exhausts - secured fourth and fifth.

Championship leader Fernando Alonso was sixth fastest ahead of Mark Webber, who was prevented from completing a super soft run by electrical engine issues.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa, Williams's Pastor Maldonado and Force India's Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top 10. Hulkenberg finished 1.2s down on Vettel.

The session began in understated fashion, with a dearth of on-track action once the initial round of installation laps was completed.

That situation was finally remedied 16 minutes in when Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen headed out.

The latter's second flyer, a 1m39.748s, kept him top while Pastor Maldonado, Nico Hulkenberg and Jean-Eric Vergne joined the fray, but he was demoted by Vettel when Red Bull emerged 24 minutes into the running.

Four minutes on Webber confirmed the team's pace by dropping the benchmark to a 1m38.766s, which would keep him top until the final 20 minutes.

At that stage Ferrari and McLaren were both yet to go out, but when they did it was with an instant impact.

The Scuderia was the first to bite, and at the session's halfway mark Alonso shot up into second.

Minutes later McLaren also joined the track, with Hamilton and then Button demoting the Spaniard. Hamilton's second effort was enough to finally relegate Webber and put the Briton top.

He was soon joined by Button, who set the fastest time in sector two en route to making it a McLaren 1-2 at the top of the charts.

That did not last long however, as Vettel shot back to the top with a 1m38.215s, around three tenths of a second faster than Hamilton.

That would be as fast as anyone achieved on the soft compound, with the majority of the field pitting for a switch to super softs shortly after Vettel set his mark.

Aside from Webber's late issue, there were relatively few issues during the 60 minutes.

Bruno Senna was urged to pit for a front wing complaint, although Williams managed to rectify the problem with a minimum of fuss, while Caterham's Vitaly Petrov was warned not to cross pedals late on.

The Russian was still able to edge out team-mate Heikki Kovalainen to finish 19th, just behind Senna.

HRT's Narain Karthikeyan meanwhile felt he had cause for complaint when baulked slightly by Sauber's Sergio Perez, an incident not dissimilar to the one which earned Michael Schumacher a Friday reprimand.

Pos  Driver                Team                  Time               Laps
 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m37.642s            17
 2.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes      1m38.169s  + 0.527s  12
 3.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m38.511s  + 0.869s  13
 4.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1m38.582s  + 0.940s  16
 5.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         1m38.666s  + 1.024s  18
 6.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m38.705s  + 1.063s  12
 7.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m38.766s  + 1.124s   7
 8.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m38.791s  + 1.149s  13
 9.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1m38.833s  + 1.191s  16
10.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes  1m38.932s  + 1.290s  17
11.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari        1m38.954s  + 1.312s  17
12.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m39.010s  + 1.368s  20
13.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes              1m39.150s  + 1.508s  18
14.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m39.156s  + 1.514s  18
15.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari        1m39.345s  + 1.703s  14
16.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m39.448s  + 1.806s  17
17.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m39.537s  + 1.895s  18
18.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault      1m39.706s  + 2.064s  18
19.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault      1m41.114s  + 3.472s  14
20.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault      1m41.437s  + 3.795s  19
21.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth     1m41.684s  + 4.042s  16
22.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth     1m42.062s  + 4.420s  15
23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth          1m42.845s  + 5.203s  15
24.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth          1m42.882s  + 5.240s  14

All Timing Unofficial