Lewis Hamilton is confident McLaren has the pace to challenge Red Bull at this weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix after topping the Friday practice times.

12885 - Hamilton confident he can fight Red Bull

Hamilton won the last race at Abu Dhabi but only after Sebastian Vettel retired with a puncture. The McLaren drivers said his car felt good following the second practice session and he is confident he can take the fight to Red Bull on pure pace.

"The car felt really good today- on both high and low fuel. And degradation on the new Option tyre seems pretty acceptable; I was still doing decent times at the end of my run. I think there's still a bit more to come, but we're looking strong for the rest of the weekend.

"I also felt quite comfortable with the setup changes we made going into this afternoon's session, and our long runs seem to be pretty competitive too. You never know what the Red Bulls are doing, but I'm comfortable that we're there or thereabouts."

In the second practice session Hamilton wore a special helmet as attribute to his childhood hero Ayrton Senna.

"For Brazil this weekend I wanted to create and wear a special helmet utilising Ayrton Senna's design - I asked Ayrton's sister, Viviane, if I could use it, and she said yes," he explained. "It's my helmet design on the front and Ayrton's on the back. I used the green lining that Ayrton used on his helmet too - I had to order that especially. It's a very special edition, it's a real honour to be able to wear it, and hopefully we'll raise some money for the Senna Foundation too."