Hamilton happy as his car improves in the rain

Lewis Hamilton is happy that his unpredictable Mercedes is in better shape ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix despite heavy rain severely limiting running in yesterday’s practice.

The Briton leads the world championship by 34 points after he eked everything out of his car to seal second place in Malaysia last weekend despite both Ferrari and Red Bull being faster around Sepang.

Sebastian Vettel is his closest rival and the Ferrari man topped the timesheet ahead of Hamilton after first practice at Suzuka.

Heavy rain fell before and during second practice, half of the 90-minute session written off before five drivers set full lap times.

Hamilton, the quickest of that quintet, was pleased with his Mercedes even with limited running. He said: “It’s been an interesting day, the car is feeling much better than it was in Malaysia.

“I’m glad we had the dry session for FP1. In FP2, there was a lot of rain, but it felt really important to go out and assess the track and see how the car was feeling as it was not good in the wet in Malaysia.

“The car feels back to normal, so I’m ready to race. The fans are pretty special here – to be out there in the rain, waiting for us to go out through the whole of FP2.”