Lewis Hamilton admits Mercedes' race pace "doesn't feel very good" after Friday practice but is happy that he feels more comfortable with the balance of his car ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Hamilton and team-mate Nico Rosberg topped a session apiece on Friday at Yas Marina but the reigning world champion is not completely happy with his longer runs from an afternoon session dominated by heavier levels of degradation than expected.
"Race pace doesn't feel very good at the moment but it always changes when we get to the actual race, but I will make some changes hopefully that help with the graining," he said.
Having not scored a pole since Monza Hamilton was asked if he was focused more on qualifying set-up but replied: "It's generally the same every weekend but this weekend so far the long run pace hasn't been so good so that's what we've got to work on."
Hamilton has blamed set-up changes made to the Mercedes in response to its loss of pace in Singapore for his recent struggles, with team-mate Nico Rosberg winning the last two races and taking five consecutive pole positions. Rosberg topped the qualifying simulations again in FP2 but Hamilton is confident he can turn the tables with some set-up changes ahead of Saturday evening.
"I feel good. I made some changes to the car which so far have been relatively good. I might make some more tweaks tonight. It's very hard to overtake here, so like a majority of the tracks it's important to be on pole, but it doesn't mean it's impossible to win."
Asked where on the circuit he could find the two tenths he was lacking to Rosberg in FP2, he replied: "All over. I didn't really get the best out of the tyres."