Mercedes car feels massively different to last time out, says Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton has defined Mercedes’ performance as being "in a better direction" following his fastest time in Practice 2 for the Japanese Grand Prix.

Hamilton was positive about the condition of his Mercedes in comparison to the last time out in Malaysia, which bodes well for the weekend ahead for the championship leader.

"It's definitely in a better direction, in the wet and in the dry," he said.

Hamilton was one of only five drivers to post times in Practice 2, due to rain on the track at Suzuka, with his title rival, Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari, not appearing on track having been fastest in Practice 1.  

Hamilton post a time of 1:48.719 in P2, while Vettel clocked 1:29.166 in P1.  However, given the varying conditions it's hard to read deeply into both sessions, with Saturday’s qualifying likely to give more insight into the weekend’s racing.

Speaking of the wet conditions, Hamilton said: "It was important for me [to go out in the wet] because the car felt different in first practice compared to last week - massively, massively different - and in the rain [in practice] in the last race we were, like, 2.5 seconds off and the car was terrible so it was important for me to just go out and double check if that's still the case here.

"It feels so different to the last race."

Vettel didn't clock a time in P2 but did take his Ferrari onto the track in Asia, and commented: "The car was behaving well right from the start so it looks like everything went as planned.

"The results were not the best the last couple of races but we were strong so we have all reason to be confident and I am pretty sure on Sunday we will be able to show what we can do.”

The Japanese Grand Prix is live on eir sport 1 this Sunday, with qualifying also live on Saturday.

Image: Getty/Mark Thomspon.

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