Webber fastest in Koreaposted in F122 | 10 | 2010

FORMULA ONE World Championship leader and title favourite, Aussie Mark Webber, topped the timesheets at the end of second practice ahead of this weekend's inaugural Korean Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver clocked a fastest time of 1min 37.942secs round the 3.49-mile circuit at Yeongam, South Jeolla, 250-miles south of Seoul. Fernando Alonso's Ferrari was second-fastest, just 0.190s back.

Renault's Robert Kubica was fourth-quickest, sandwiched between McLaren duo Lewis Hamilton — who had been fastest in the morning — and fifth-placed Jenson Button. Alonso's Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa was sixth, immediatly ahead of the second Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel. The German was 1.262s behind his team-mate.

Webber (pictured) meanwhile gave his championship hopes a major boost by electing to take a fresh engine for tomorrow's qualifying and Sunday's race. The rest of his title challengers took their eighth and final engine of the season back at Monza for the Italian Grand Prix.

With the long straights of the new Korean track, Webber obviously believes the new power from the Renault unit will give him an advantage.

Webber heads into the weekend with a comfortable 14-point lead over Vettel and knows if he finishes ahead of the German on Sunday he will require only to finish behind his team-mate to be sure of beating him in the title race.

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Jim McGill

(Photo: Getty Images)