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2013 Korean GP Practice Sees Mercedes-AMG F1 Drivers Finish on Top

The two Mercedes-AMG Petronas pilots had a rather strong day of running in today's Korean Grand Prix practice session, with Lewis Hamilton finishing first and Nico Rosberg taking third position.
Lewis Hamilton 11 photos
Photo: Daimler AG
Lewis HamiltonLewis HamiltonLewis HamiltonLewis HamiltonLewis HamiltonNico RosbergNico RosbergNico RosbergLewis HamiltonLewis Hamilton
After a total of 103 laps in the three hours of running time, both pilots were in the top four in both sessions.

Lewis Hamilton: “I was very happy with how the sessions went today and it’s the first time I can remember that second practice has really gone well for me. We haven’t changed anything but the day just went smoothly and all the processes with the team worked well. I love this track: it was clean from the start, it provides good racing on Sunday afternoon and it just gets harder and harder through the lap. You have the first sector which is good for overtaking, then you get more and more corners coming at you and those final two sectors are all about precision. You need a good downforce package, too, and the car is feeling good. We can still make improvements overnight, and I have some things I want to do with the set-up, but it’s been a good start for us.”

Nico Rosberg: “The track is really great and the small changes that have been made this year are good improvements, especially the pit exit which is now much better. Generally it seems that we had a good day but Red Bull is always very hard to beat. We were quite close to them today and I hope this will continue the whole weekend. My only concern after the long runs was graining on the front tires, which is something we need to work on tonight and watch out for. We have brought also some new bits and pieces to Korea which are working well and leaves me optimistic for a strong result this weekend.”

Rosberg also made a single evaluation run of a new passive drag reduction device in the first practice session, but the results weren't made available to the public. Considering he seemed rather optimistic, we can only guess it was pretty good. Since today was just practice, the fuel loads and setup of each car isn't known, so the real pressure will only arrive tomorrow, when whoever gets pole position and has a good strategy is about 99% sure to win the race on Sunday.
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About the author: Alex Oagana
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Alex handled his first real steering wheel at the age of five (on a field) and started practicing "Scandinavian Flicks" at 14 (on non-public gravel roads). Following his time at the University of Journalism, he landed his first real job at the local franchise of Top Gear magazine a few years before Mircea (Panait). Not long after, Alex entered the New Media realm with the autoevolution.com project.
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