Lewis Hamilton was happy to have no problems with his car on Friday as practice got underway at the Suzuka International Racing Course.
The British driver was forced to finish second best to Mercedes AMG PETRONAS team-mate Nico Rosberg in both sessions, but the gap in the faster second session was just 0.072 seconds, with a promise of a close weekend to come at the Japanese circuit.
Hamilton feels there is work to be done to improve the set-up of his W07 Hybrid ahead of qualifying and the race, but feels the weekend has started in a promising manner as he looks to recover some of the lost ground in the championship to his team-mate following his retirement from Malaysian Grand Prix whilst leading last weekend.
“It’s been a really good day with no problems on the car, which is great,” said Hamilton. “We managed to get plenty of laps in but there’s still some work to be done overnight in order to find more pace.
“That’s a work in progress and hopefully we’ll be going into Sunday in good shape. It’s great to be here in Japan and I’m excited to get out on track again for qualifying tomorrow.”
