Lewis Hamilton enjoyed the first day of the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend as he set the pace in the second free practice session as everyone continued to get used to the resurfaced and re-profiled Sepang International Circuit.
The Mercedes AMG PETRONAS driver had been forced to settle for second in the opening session on Friday morning behind team-mate and championship rival Nico Rosberg, but came back fighting in the afternoon to set a best time of 1:34.944, the only driver to get below the 95-second barrier.
Hamilton was happy to get through all the planned running on Friday and is now looking to build on the days performances throughout the weekend as he aims to return to winning ways after watching Rosberg take victory in the last three events.
“That was a good day today,” said Hamilton. “No issues to report and we got through our run plans in both sessions.
“There’s a lot of data to analyse tonight to make sure we have a good understanding of the tyres and of our position relative to the others. Overall a good building block for tomorrow and the rest of the weekend.”
