Fit-again Lewis Hamilton super excited to be back

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A happy Lewis Hamilton said he was super excited to be back in action on Friday after he was second-fastest for Mercedes behind his teammate Valtteri Bottas in practice for this weekend's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The seven-time champion, who missed last weekend's action-packed Sakhir Grand Prix due to a bout of COVID-19, admitted he needed a few laps to settle in again. "I was very happy and grateful to be back out there and to finish the season feeling strong," he said.

"I felt super excited like it was my first day back at school. It took a while in the first session to get used to it again, but the second was better so not too bad overall. We got most of our stuff done." He added that it had been a "bit of a messy day with a lot going on, but we came through it like we always do."

Asked by Sky Sports F1 about his reaction to seeing fellow-Briton George Russell in his car last weekend, Hamilton said he had been impressed. "I think George did an amazing job as everyone knows," he said. "He was at home in the car. For me, it was definitely odd because I've never missed a race in my 27 years of racing. One day, I'll write a book about it, but for now I'll leave it at that!"

Mercedes' Bottas tops 2nd practice
Abu Dhabi: Valtteri Bottas bounced back to top the times ahead of his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton in Friday's busy second free practice for the Abu Dhabi GP. Bottas clocked a best lap in 1min 36.276sec to outpace Hamilton by 0.203 seconds. Max Verstappen was third for Red Bull.

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