Lewis Hamilton tops second practice

Lewis Hamilton turned the tables on world championship leader Nico Rosberg, giving himself a badly-needed boost with the fastest lap in second free practice on Friday for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Rosberg has been in dominant form over the past three races, winning them all to turn a 19-point deficit into an eight-point lead in the title race.

But his Mercedes team-mate and the reigning world champion Hamilton returned to top form with a lap of the 5.543km Sepang circuit in 1min 34.944sec on his soft-tyre qualifying simulation run, 0.244sec quicker than the German.

With the sun heating the newly-laid track to a blistering 58 Celsius, Hamilton proved most adept at getting the best from his tyres in the harsh conditions.

Ferrari were the next best in the classification, with last year’s winner Sebastian Vettel third fastest in 1:35.605 followed by Kimi Raikkonen. Raikkonen was less pleased after he struggled with the balance of his car early in the session.