LEWIS HAMILTON enjoyed an "awesome" day ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix, topping the timesheet in both practice sessions.
The reigning Formula One world champion spoke of his desire to achieve a "perfect weekend" after signing a lucrative three-year deal with Mercedes on Wednesday. Things certainly look promising for Hamilton after impressing during both free practice sessions in the Principality on Thursday.
The 30-year-old's time of one minute 18.750 seconds was the quickest of the morning session in Monte Carlo, while his one minute 17.192 seconds lap saw him again top the timesheet in a rain-affected second session.
Hamilton said on Twitter that this had been an "awesome day" and a "great job by the team" - form he hopes to continue when racing returns on Saturday.
"Every year, it stuns me how fast we have to think out there, with so much information coming at you, and you have to be more reactive and agile than anywhere else," he said.
"The target is always to get on the pace as quick as you can and to be very specific and precise in the set-up changes you make, so you don't go down the wrong path. The balance today was not far off, so we have been tuning that with our programme and there are still some areas to improve on.
"When it rained, we didn't need to take any risks so stayed in the garage, but the lap I did at the end showed that the black paint covering the white lines is even more slippery than the lines themselves! Now, we need to work well tomorrow, make the right steps forward with the car and pick up on Saturday where we left off today."
Hamilton is looking to top the podium in Monaco for the first time since the title-winning season of 2008. The British driver's main competition is likely to come in the form of Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.
The German is looking to win here for a third successive year and recovered from finishing ninth in the first practice session to come home second in the afternoon, 0.740secs behind team-mate Hamilton.
"It's great to be back at this legendary circuit, the car felt great," Rosberg said.
"Monaco is the highlight of the year for me. We are very quick here again so I'm quite confident for this weekend.
"I didn't get it all together today, I had a lot traffic, so the next practice session on Saturday morning will be very important."
Rosberg may have improved during the second session, but it was not much of a spectacle due to the long rain delay.
The morning session was a far more interesting affair, with Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen the main talking point. A fine finish to the 17-year-old's first ever session around Monaco saw the Dutchman secure the second fastest lap, just 0.149s behind Hamilton.
"It was a good day today," Verstappen said.
"I built it up slowly in the first practice because it was all new for me, but I felt really good in the car immediately. This gave me a lot of confidence and to finish the morning session in P2 made me feel great.
"In the afternoon, it was a bit of a shame that it rained as we couldn't complete as many laps as we wanted, but to still finish in P7 is not bad, I can be happy with my first day driving here in Monaco."
