Hamilton "not stressed" about Ferrari pace

Although Hamilton and teammate Nico Rosberg were favourites for victory at Sepang after a dominant display in Australia, it was the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel who took a convincing win.

Although the world champion believes Ferrari's pace is real, he is also convinced Mercedes did not have it all its way in Malaysia.

"I think it's all a big guess, at the moment – we don't really know," Hamilton said of Ferrari's form. "They were very quick, they did a great job.

"We could have done a better job in terms of looking after our tyres. We could have may have been a little bit faster, but it is true pace they have. We'll find out here.

"But we are not stressed or anything. We didn't have the most amazing weekend and I think we'll be stronger this weekend."

No rush for new contract

Hamilton, who is yet to finalise his new deal with Mercedes, said he is in no hurry to sort that out, although he insists there is no doubt the new contract will be signed.

"There's still points to be agreed on," he said. "It's just back and forth. There are no real issues. The last week I haven't been doing too much contract reading.

"I don't really feel particularly rushed.

"I think we've agreed that we want to stay together, so I've got the rest of the year if I want to. Obviously we'll get it done at some stage."