After scoring further points at the Japanese Grand Prix the Williams F1 team would start their preparations for the 2012 Korean Grand Prix. Once again Valtteri Bottas would replace Bruno Senna for the opening Friday practice. Valtteri would be trialling their new Coanda exhaust system during the session. Drivers would start to leave the pit lane with Vergne first out. Both Valtteri and Pastor Maldonado would leave the Williams pit for their installation laps. Just as quickly they would pit but both Williams cars would complete two laps. Pirelli had brought their soft and super soft tyres for this event. Everyone would complete installation laps with Rosberg and Schumacher remaining out on the track. Schumacher would pit briefly while Vettel would run wide exiting the pits.

Vergne was back out as Rosberg pitted while Vergne would not set a timed lap and would pit leaving the track empty. Valtteri would come back out stopping at the end of the pit lane and carrying out a practice start. Raikkonen was next out followed by Button. Valtteri would set a 1m:45.225 as Hamilton also left the pits. Raikkonen would pit while Valtteri would set an improved 1m:43.745. But Button would go faster with a 1m:41.395. Hamilton was third with a time of 1m:46.655. Valtteri was out collecting aero data for the team. Pastor and Grosjean would also come out as both Valtteri and Hamilton improved their times. Valtteri would set a 1m:43.530 as Pic also came out. Pastor would set a 1m:44.469 while Hamilton had set a 1m:44.003. Valtteri continued to find tenths setting a 1m:43.482.

Button had pitted while Grosjean would set a 1m:43.737 to be third. Both Valtteri and Hamilton would pit after their first runs. Grosjean was now second with a 1m:42.365. Pastor was on an improved lap and would set a 1m:42.120 to be second. Both Ferrari's were now out on the track joined by both the HRT cars of De la Rosa and Clos. Perez was next out followed by Van Der Gar for Caterham. Perez was now fourth, 1m:43.283, but this would become fifth as Massa went second fastest with a time of 1m:41.729. Pastor would also improve with a 1m:41.459 to again be second. Alonso's first lap would see him go straight to the top of the times with a 1m:40.895. Massa would join Alonso at the top going second with a 1m:41.369 seeing Button now third. Pastor would pit after his first run.

With fifty minutes remaining Alonso was fastest from Massa, Button, Pastor, Grosjean, Perez, Valtteri, Vergne, Hamilton, and Pic tenth. Pastor would come back out as Alonso would set a 1m:39.857 to now be 1.5 seconds faster than Massa. The track was now very busy with both Mercedes cars out on the track. We had yet to see either of the Red Bull cars out on the track. Bianchi driving for Force India would go seventh, 1m:43.088. Schumacher was now seventh, 1m:42.332, as Valtteri returned to the track. Pastor would find more time setting a 1m:41.048 to be second. Schumacher was now up to third, 1m:41.064, and Di Resta fourth. Rosberg was now sixth having moved up from sixteenth. Perez was eighth and Kobayashi ninth. Webber was now on the track while both Ferrari's had pitted. Ricciardo had moved into eleventh, 1m:42.586.

Pastor would pit again with Valtteri down in fourteenth but on a quicker lap. He would set a 1m:42.622 to be twelfth. Rosberg was now second with a time of 1m:40.546. Webber's first time was a 1m:41.743 to be tenth. Vettel would join Webber out on the track as both McLaren's also came out. Valtteri would set a 1m:42.092 to be thirteenth. Button would move into second with a 1m:40.480. Raikkonen and Glock had yet to set times as Alonso returned to the track. Webber would show Red Bull's pace with a 1m:40.413 to be second. Vettel's early time would see him fifteenth, 1m:42.394. Valtteri had pitted as Vettel set a 1m:40.893 to be fifth. Alonso was again on the pace going fastest in sector two. he would finish his lap improving with a 1m:39.450, as Webber pitted. Pastor was back out joined by several others. Raikkonen would set a 1m:41.987 to be thirteenth. Hamilton was now second with a 1m:39.475 as Pastor had dropped to eleventh and Valtteri seventeenth.

The track was fairly quite with twenty minutes of the session remaining. Pastor was having ride height adjustments while the team had been hard at work on Valtteri's car making aero changes seeing them removing his floor and rear bodywork. Alonso and Schumacher were back out joined by Hamilton and Webber with fifteen minutes remaining. Button and Vettel would also take to the track. Schumacher was now sixth with a 1m:40.221 followed by Rosberg. With ten minutes remaining the track was now very busy as Valtteri returned to the track. The order was Alonso from Hamilton, Webber, Massa, Vettel, Schumacher, Rosberg, Grosjean, Di Resta, and Button in tenth. Alonso would have a big lockup and would complain about a vibration. He would pit briefly with most of the drivers on longer runs late in the session. As the final five minutes started both Red Bull cars would pit briefly. Both Sauber's were back in their pits joined by Rosberg and Bianchi.

Everyone would return for their final runs as Hamilton went fastest with a 1m:39.280. Webber would set a 1m:39.575 but remained third. The session would come to an end with few changes in the order. Hamilton would improve with a 1m:39.148 to remain fastest from Alonso, Webber, Massa, Vettel, Schumacher, Rosberg, Grosjean, Di Resta, and Button tenth. Pastor was twelfth and Valtteri eighteenth. For Pastor it was an uneventful session but Valtteri had lost a significant amount of time having the changes made to his car. Given the track conditions it was hard to draw any conclusions as to both Williams drivers performances but the team would now be looking at their data prior to the second session.

Pos  Driver         	 Team		       Time      Laps
 1.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      1m39.148s  23
 2.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari               1m39.450s  21
 3.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault      1m39.575s  21
 4.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari               1m39.854s  23
 5.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault      1m40.088s  21
 6.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes              1m40.221s  21
 7.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes              1m40.396s  24
 8.  Romain Grosjean     Lotus-Renault         1m40.422s  22
 9.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes  1m40.440s  19
10.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes      1m40.480s  21
11.  Kimi Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault         1m40.929s  14
12.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Renault      1m41.048s  25
13.  Jules Bianchi       Force India-Mercedes  1m41.140s  21
14.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari        1m41.220s  19
15.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari        1m41.514s  20
16.  Daniel Ricciardo    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m41.596s  23
17.  Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m42.021s  25
18.  Valtteri Bottas     Williams-Renault      1m42.027s  23
19.  Heikki Kovalainen   Caterham-Renault      1m42.104s  24
20.  Timo Glock          Marussia-Cosworth     1m42.175s  13
21.  Charles Pic         Marussia-Cosworth     1m42.706s  22
22.  Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault      1m42.820s  19
23.  Pedro de la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth          1m44.517s  23
24.  Dani Clos           HRT-Cosworth          1m45.735s  22