Hamilton looking for “special” Singapore lap repeat

Lewis Hamilton says he is looking for a repeat of his “special” pole lap from last year after topping Friday practice ahead of this weekend’s Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix.

The world championship leader posted the fastest lap of the day – a 1m38.773s – to set the pace across both practice sessions at the Marina Bay Street Circuit on Friday after edging out Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.183s in FP2.

Hamilton said he felt the best he has in his W10 challenger for a while and hopes to reproduce a similar lap to his sensational 2018 pole effort in qualifying.

“I was really happy, I felt much better in the car today than I have for a while,” Hamilton explained.

“I hope that stays over the whole of the weekend. But I think they redid a few patches, a few bits of tarmacs on the circuit, the tyres are working well.

“If you can get into a groove over here then it’s such a beautiful lap. I really enjoyed it. We’ve definitely got some areas we need to improve, which is always good, and nothing is ever perfect.

“So I’ve got to go and kind of study. Areas to improve on the car but various also I could improve, some of the areas like braking and turning points, etc.

“It’s just finding pieces into the puzzle to make it perfect,” he added.

“I’m looking for that special lap that we had obviously last year and I think we got off to a good start, but still putting it altogether tomorrow it’s going to be tough.

“I think also the Red Bull was looking very, very quick. I’m excited for the challenge.”

Asked if he feels Red Bull could be quicker, Hamilton replied: “I’m not sure. I think my guys have a summary now on where we stand.

“I mean I was obviously quickest in that session but they were very, very close behind us.

“We don’t know if they’ve had a perfect lap or whether we will all turn up and then I’ll find out later.”