• Singapore Grand Prix - FP2

Mistake cost 0.5s - Hamilton

ESPN Staff
September 21, 2012 « Button cautious despite McLaren pace | 'Mercedes offer him much greater freedom on the commercial side' »
Lewis Hamilton is happy with his initial feeling with the car © Press Association
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Lewis Hamilton reckons he could have gone at least 0.5s faster in Friday practice at the Singapore Grand Prix had he not run wide in the final two corners.

Hamilton looked as though he was on the pace throughout both practice sessions, but when it came to his super-soft tyre lap in FP2 he ran wide and ended up 0.746s off Sebastian Vettel's pace. Nevertheless, Hamilton is happy with his car over shorter runs and said it felt good to return to a high-downforce circuit.

"I lost quite a bit, over 0.5s, so it [the pace] is good," he said. "I've been quite comfortable with the car and the guys have done a great job. It feels a lot different to the last race when we had a lot less downforce. So it feels nice to throw the car around without it sliding."

Hamilton said the car didn't feel as good over long runs but is confident it will improve as the track conditions get better.

"It felt pretty poor for me but I heard it was worse for others, so that's comforting. We had the same as everyone and that's always the case here but we're just trying to work on our setup and our balance and trying to improve our long runs for sure, but we did not such a bad long run."

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