Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton approaches the remainder of the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend in a positive frame of mind over his team’s long run pace, with the Briton focusing on race simulations during the pair of Friday practice sessions at Sepang.
Despite the interruption of a rain shower in the second 90 minute session, the 2008 World Champion completed just six laps shy of a full race distance throughout the course of the day and insisted that short run performance was not the focus.
"We made some positive steps with the set-up over the two sessions today," explained Hamilton. "I had a good long run in the dry which has given us a lot of information to look at tonight. We didn't learn too much in the wet this afternoon however as the conditions were quite mixed when I went out.
"We focused mainly on longer runs today so I haven't done a quick lap yet on either set of tyres; that will come tomorrow. I'm happy with the direction that we're going and let's see what the weekend brings."
Nico Rosberg, whose programme was also focused race simulations in the second Mercedes, reiterated that tyre management will be the ‘key to success’ this weekend.
"We worked a lot on our long run pace today, rather than being quick over one lap," said Rosberg. "As we saw in Melbourne, tyre management will be the key to success, so that's our focus. The conditions were tough out there and the heat is unbelievable. We learnt a lot today but we still have some homework to do tonight and tomorrow."
Rosberg finished slightly higher than Hamilton in this afternoon's second practice session, with the pair ending up seventh and ninth respectively on the timesheets.
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  K. Raikkonen | Lotus | 01:36.569 | 28 |
| 2. | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 01:36.588 | 27 |
| 3. | F. Massa | Ferrari | 01:36.661 | 33 |
| 4. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 01:36.985 | 23 |
| 5. | M. Webber | Red Bull | 01:37.026 | 29 |
| 6. | R. Grosjean | Lotus | 01:37.206 | 26 |
| 7. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 01:37.448 | 32 |
| 8. | P. di Resta | Force India | 01:37.571 | 30 |
| 9. | L. Hamilton | Mercedes | 01:37.574 | 32 |
| 10. | A. Sutil | Force India | 01:37.788 | 10 |
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| Nico Rosberg | |||
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| More Nico Rosberg photos | |||
| Lewis Hamilton | |||
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| More Lewis Hamilton photos | |||
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