Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes seem to be taking the fight to Red Bull this weekend as Hamilton made it a clean sweep of fastest times in both Friday Free Practice sessions.

Hamilton not only set the fastest times during the free practice sessions, but was also very positive about his tyre life over the longer runs while most other drivers were complaining about high degradation.

During the first free practice session, Hamilton posted a 1.39.630 to beat championship leader Sebastian Vettel by 0.037. In the second free practice session Hamilton seemed to up the ante, posting a 1.38.673 to beat Vettel by 0.108.

Hamilton’s Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg also put in a strong performance during the free practice sessions, finishing FP2 in third only a fraction off Vettel’s time and ahead of Mark Webber in the other Red Bull.

The Ferrari’s were a little further off the pace with Felipe Massa finishing the second free practice session in 5th and Fernando Alonso in 7th place.

Kimi Raikkonen, who crashed during FP1 managed to get straight back out for the second free practice session and complete FP2 in 8th place. Click here to see the video footage of Raikkonen’s accident.

Raikkonen’s back has been an issue but reassurances from his physio are that the Iceman is good to race this weekend.

There were no repeats of Raikkonen’s accident during FP2 but both Charles Pic and Esteban Gutierrez had minor spins and Fernando Alonso also made a little trip on to the grass.

It was a little disappointing to see that there were no spectators out in the Korean grand stands during either free practice session. Such a pity that there is not more support for F1 races in Korea as this is a very interesting circuit that delivers interesting races.

Perhaps the threat of bad weather has kept spectators away but we sincerely hope that there will be more of a crowd for tomorrows FP3, qualifying and the race on Sunday.

Time sheets for both Friday free practice sessions are below.

As always we will have live commentary of FP3, qualifying and the race on Sunday on @F1_Madness. See you then!

FP1 Time sheet:

FP2 Time Sheet:

Photo Credits:

Lewis Hamilton – courtesy of Lewis Hamilton, via Twitter @LewisHamilton

Kimi Raikkonen crash – Lotus F1 Twitter Team