F1: Hamilton Confident Despite Being Only Fifth

Formula 1

F1: Hamilton Confident Despite Being Only Fifth

Lewis Hamilton has won two of the last three races...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted September 21, 2012 Marina Bay (SGP)

Lewis Hamilton (Left) confers with a crew member in Singapore. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Lewis Hamilton appeared to be in a confident mood after practice in Singapore, despite finishing FP2 in fifth place.

The McLaren driver made a mistake at the last corner on what would have been his quickest lap in the session, and said he lost “quite a bit over half a second,” and thus would have been higher up the order.

“I think we’re obviously in the top five,” he said. “It’s going to be very close. Jenson’s (Button, teammate) very fast, Fernando (Alonso) also, and Sebastian’s (Vettel) incredibly quick. It’s going to be tough. We just need to keep working on the route we’re on.”

“I’ve been quite comfortable with the car; the guys have done a great job. It feels a lot different, obviously, to the last race where we had a lot less downforce. It’s great to be able to throw the car around a little bit more without it sliding.”

Hamilton said he wasn’t so happy with the car’s race trim performance: “You know what, it felt pretty poor for me, but I heard it was worse for others.

“We’ve just been trying to work on our setup and our balance and trying to improve our long runs, for sure.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.