Yeongam, 22 October

At the end of the first day of track action at the brand new Korea International Circuit, the Ferrari F10s of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa found themselves in second and sixth places respectively on the time sheet. Quickest was championship leader, Mark Webber in the Red Bull, while Lewis Hamilton was third for McLaren, followed by Robert Kubica fourth in the Renault and reigning world champion Jenson Button fifth in the other McLaren. The one Drivers’ title contender missing from the top six, is Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, who ended the day seventh fastest. What does this order tell us for the rest of the weekend? Possibly even less than usual, because if the normal line is that there are too many unknowns in Friday practice linked to tyre use and fuel loads, in Korea today we saw a huge change in track grip levels from the start of the morning at ten o’clock to the end of the final session at half past three. The track surface was not only very dirty, it had also never seen a field of race cars in action and therefore we witnessed the biggest change in grip levels of the year.



Nevertheless, it seems the F10s are likely to be quite competitive here for the rest of the Korean weekend, as do the McLarens, while the Red Bulls look a bit less all-conquering than they did a fortnight ago in Suzuka. On this first day of a brand new event, the undoubted star was the track itself: maybe not all the surrounding infrastructure is quite ready, possibly a bit more paint is needed here and there, but the actually 5.621 ribbon of tarmac seems to have met with unanimous approval from the drivers, thanks to its interesting mix of corners, the apparent overtaking opportunities and best of all, plenty of fast sections, which, when all is said and done, is what Formula 1 should be all about.