Hamilton feels there's more to come despite setting pace

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Lewis Hamilton says there is more to come from him despite topping the times in both Friday practice sessions ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix.

In two close sessions, Hamilton was 0.096s clear of Max Verstappen in FP1 and then saw that advantage trimmed to 0.030s by team-mate Nico Rosberg in the afternoon session. However, Hamilton says he is happy with the balance he has with his car and insists there is more time to come.

"P2, my lap wasn’t really that great but I know for tomorrow it will be stronger," Hamilton said. "Today has generally been very, very strong, as opposed to last year, I feel much happier in the car.

“Today has been a good step in the right direction but we’ve got to do some work tonight to make sure that we stay ahead. I think today I had the pace on everyone so quite happy with that.

"There is definitely [more to come]. P1 was good but then P2 I didn’t get the best out of the lap but I was still quickest so I’m quite excited that there’s more time available and I’ll make sure that I try and bring that out tomorrow."

Having never won in Brazil, Hamilton - who was running a one-off Ayrton Senna tribute helmet - says it would be a "very, very special" to secure victory on Sunday.

“It’s something I’ve been working towards for many, many years and Aryton was my favourite driver and I seem to have a lot of support here in Brazil even though I’m not Brazilian so it’s the one grand prix that I’ve not really won.

"Of course Baku is on the calendar but otherwise I’ve won everywhere else, except for here. This one is definitely a very, very special one. I guess I’ve left the best till last.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.