Lewis Hamilton has admitted that changes must be made if he is to come out on top in this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver was unable to finish this morning's first practice session due to a fault with his car, and by the time the problem was eventually rectified he had missed the opening 30 minutes of the second.

However, Hamilton made up for lost time by finishing top of the standings at the Sepang International Circuit, and he was quick to praise the efforts of his team for allowing him to get back out onto the track at all.

"Firstly it was just an amazing job done by my guys to rebuild the car and get the engine back on, and gearbox and everything, and get me back out," he is quoted as saying by Sky Sports News.

"I'm very grateful for that. Particularly here where it's so hot it's so difficult for the tyres and everything, it was really important to get back out and do some laps. It affects you quite a bit. Fortunately I got a few laps of a longer run at the end, but in terms of my set-up I've not made any changes, so I've just driven what I have.

"It's quite a bit off with where I probably need it. I know my lap wasn't spectacular. As I said I think I've got some improvements I can make with the balance and the settings, they were all kind of brought from the last race. I'm sure we'll tweak it and improve it a little bit."

Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg ended the second practice session in third place, meanwhile, narrowly behind Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen who claimed second.