Hamilton: 'No excuses' not to perform in Sepang

Lewis Hamilton says “there’s not really any excuses” to deliver an underwhelming performance like in Singapore, as the Mercedes driver enjoys a smooth opening day at Sepang International Circuit.

Hamilton lost the title lead to Nico Rosberg a fornight ago after being outclassed by his team-mate all weekend long at Marina Bay.

Although the German drew first blood in Malaysia by lapping nearly half a second quicker than the Briton in the morning, Hamilton responsed in FP2 to set the fastest time overall on Friday.

“It wasn’t too bad!” the triple world champion said. “We got through all of our run plans and everything so a pretty decent afternoon.”

“There were no issues with the car and very few mishaps on the track so generally was just able to bank lap after lap after lap after lap, lots of information and it’s generally put us in a good position.

“At the moment there’s a good feeling, putting the building blocks in, we got all the running that we needed today so hopefully that will pay off in qualifying and in the race.”

When asked whether he felt more confident than in Singapore at the same stage, Hamilton replied: “Definitely, definitely. I mean today we had no problems, we got lots of running in. There’s not really any excuses right now.

“We’ve got a lot of data today, a lot of understanding of the different tyres that we’ve run; soft, medium and hard, so fingers crossed we’re in a good position.”

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