Hamilton: “Red Bull still hides half a second”

Lewis Hamilton said he is convinced that Red Bull can still be half a second faster than the pace shown in Friday's free practice for the Malaysian F1 Grand Prix. Mark Webber set the fastest time in both sessions but Jenson Button finished second at 5 thousandths while Hamilton in the other McLaren was third at 134 thousandths.

But Hamilton is under no illusions: "I think they said a lot of nonsense, really," said Hamilton when asked to comment on Red Bull's declarations that they see McLaren as closer.

“I'm sure they have at least another half second for tomorrow. Obviously I hope that our car is really closer to theirs in terms of performance but we'll see tomorrow. I think the rehearsals were interesting. We seem reasonably close but I'm sure Red Bull will come up with something for tomorrow in qualifying. However we found good things in terms of the set-up of the car. Jenson was quite happy in free practice 2. We still have time but it was a productive day, I certainly can't complain."

Button also said he was happy with the work done: “I don't know, we don't know how much fuel the Red Bulls had, as always. It's a normal Friday comment, I know, but it's true. We just completed our work and the balance improved a lot today, and that's the important thing. On the positive side, we have made progress."