Lewis Hamilton appears confident the problems of Sepang have been put behind them describing the car as "much better" in all conditions during Friday Practice in Japan.

Going into the weekend, there was concern that the lack of pace in the hot conditions in Malaysia and Singapore prior could indicate a step backwards in the car's development after wins at Spa and Monza.

But after returning to a more favourable environment of the cooler weather and sweeping corners of Suzuka, Hamilton would go as far as claiming it was "back to normal" at the three-time world champions.

"It's been an interesting day, the car is feeling much better than it was in Malaysia," he commented. "I'm glad that we had the dry session for FP1 while 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 the car was not good in the wet in Malaysia. [Now] the car feels back to normal, so I'm ready to race."

Given the horrendous conditions which hit the circuit after Practice 1, the Briton also paid tribute to those at the circuit and had to deal with the dull afternoon of action.

"The fans are pretty special here - to be out there in the rain, waiting for us to go out through the whole of FP2," Lewis said. "That's also another reason I wanted to go out and at least give them a little bit of a show. So hopefully at least they got to see something as not many cars went out."