Hamilton sets the pace

Lewis Hamilton remains unconvinced that he can challenge for pole at the Malaysian Grand Prix this weekend despite dominating both sessions of practice yesterday.

The 25-year-old was fastest in the morning and afternoon around a sweltering Sepang circuit, clocking a best time of one minute 34.175 seconds.

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel was just behind Hamilton in the second session and the German has claimed pole in the opening two races of the season, with only reliability issues preventing him from perhaps boasting a 100 per cent record so far.

Vettel reported concerns over a power steering problem before clocking his fastest lap yesterday, while teammate Mark Webber parked his car in the gravel less than 30 minutes due to an engine problem.

The Ferrari duo of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa finished seventh and 15th respectively.
But Hamilton believes it will still be difficult to challenge for a place at the front of the grid tomorrow.
"It has not been a bad day," he said. "It was probably the best feeling I have had in the car around this circuit. We have a good programme and we stuck to it. I am still trying to get an understanding of the tyres but generally it was a good feeling.

"I wouldn't say I was comfortable as I think our qualifying pace has not been great in the last two races. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little better for us but we have to look out for the weather.