Lewis Hamilton went from the top of the times in the first practice session to struggling in the second as track conditions changed in Korea.
Things seemed to go better for Ferrari. Although they couldn't match Red Bull's sheer one-lap pace they declared themselves pleased with their race stint performance.
Here's the data from the first two practice sessions for the Korean Grand Prix.
Longest stint comparison
This chart shows all the drivers' lap times (in seconds) during their longest unbroken stint:
Following today's practice sessions Sebastian Vettel said 'I think we have to improve ourselves to match the others'. On the face of it, given his 0.3s advantage over the next non-Red Bull in second practice, that seems a tad pessimistic.
Perhaps Vettel has concerns over Red Bull's race pace. As the graph above shows Ferrari, McLaren and Lotus were quicker during their long runs at the end of second practice.
Of course we don't know how much fuel was in their cars. But Vettel will know how much was in his, and therefore whether he might have cause for concern.
Certainly the other three teams all improved their lap times at a faster rate on the long run: see Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen's time lines, and note Button was still quicker than Vettel after a dozen laps at that pace.
Ferrari have reasons to be positive about their race prospects as sporting director Massimo Rivola explained: 'Today went well and our race pace seems pretty strong on both the soft and the super-soft tyre. But we have to remember that tyre degradation and even blistering can be a problem here. However, it's the same situation for everybody and we look particularly competitive on the soft.
The weather conditions are warmer in Korea than they have been previously on F1's previous two visits, and they are set to stay that way. Warm temperatures plus soft tyres is a combination Lotus have thrived on in previous races.
Trackside operations director Alan Permane indicated his team could be one to watch over a race stint: 'Both drivers reported that they were very happy with the balance of the car when on high fuel loads and degradation levels look manageable from the tyres so it's been a productive first day.'
Meanwhile Sauber discovered their car prefers the harder of the two compounds: 'Generally speaking the soft tyre compound is definitely the better one for us,' said head of track engineering Giampaolo Dall'Ara. 'We have to look deeper into the data to find solutions on how to manage the super-softs.'
However Vitaly Petrov's attempts to compare both types of tyre were compromised: '[Second practice] didn't start as we'd have liked as I could almost immediately feel like we had a right rear puncture.
'We cut run one short and when I got back in the garage we found we did have a puncture so we changed the session plan to avoid using up another set of the soft tyres. On my first run on the super-softs the balance wasn't quite there so we made a couple of mechanical changes and they definitely improved the handling on the long run.'
Sector times and ultimate lap times
Button's sector times suggest McLaren may be closer to Red Bull than it appears, but both he and Hamilton are lacking speed in the first sector.
Complete practice times
Hamilton went from fastest in first practice to eighth in the second session. He had problems with his set-up in Japan due to an undiagnosed problem on his car and is having trouble getting it dialled in again.
'I struggled a little bit with set-up today,' said Hamilton. 'There was quite a big difference in feeling between [first practice] and [second practice], which we don't fully understand yet. This morning's session was fine, but I made some changes for the afternoon and wasn't quite able to get a good time out of either [tyre].'
'So now we'll work hard to figure out what direction we want to take. The Red Bulls look pretty quick, but Jenson wasn't that far off their pace this afternoon. So that's good. We'll make some changes to the balance overnight, and hopefully we'll be in better shape for tomorrow.
'As I say, this afternoon Jenson showed that our car has pace; all we need to do is fully extract it. If we can improve the balance overnight, I think we can be competitive.'
Pastor Maldonado could only manage 18th in the second session following a technical problem on his car.
Another driver who feels there is more to come from his car is Paul di Resta: 'The long run pace looks quite competitive, but I don't think my short run pace was representative because both my runs were compromised by traffic and I didn't get a clean lap.'
Speed trap
Lotus ran their new Coanda exhaust on Kimi Raikkonen's car. The previous version had been designed to extra maximum power from the engine and, in Romain Grosjean's hands, it was quicker in a straight line. However if the Coanda exhaust allows them to generate more than enough downforce to make up for that it will be an upgrade that pays off.
Red Bull continue to show much-improved straight-line speed following the introduction of their much talked-about Double DRS.
The cause of McLaren's poor times through the first sector is revealed to be the lowest top speeds out of all 24 cars. McLaren have already started using their eighth engine this year ' if they use one more they will take an engine change penalty. Perhaps they had their practice units dialled down further to last longer?
2012 Korean Grand Prix
- Hamilton struggling, Ferrari confident in Korea
- Second reprimand for Schumacher for impeding
- Pic to get ten-place penalty for engine change
- Who will win in Korea? Make your predictions
- 2012 Korean Grand Prix practice in pictures
Image © Red Bull/Getty images, McLaren/Hoch Zwei
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