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Lewis Hamilton says he would happily keep Formula 1's halo cockpit protection device on his Mercedes in the Singapore Grand Prix, after trying it during practice.

The three-time F1 world champion was one of the strongest critics of the halo when it first appeared, with Ferrari during pre-season testing.

However his stance has softened and after becoming the latest driver to evaluate it, in first practice on Friday, Hamilton says he would have been fine leaving it on the car this weekend, rather than waiting until 2018.

"Apart from getting in, which is a lot different, I don't really notice much difference," he said.

"I could run it this weekend, no problem, if they allowed it.

"[From] my mirrors, I couldn't see the rear wing, so it blocks a little bit of the view in the mirrors, but otherwise in the corners I didn't really notice it.

"I kinda felt like I should've just kept it on.

"It definitely doesn't look good, but when we go back to that 17% [safety improvement], it's still better than nothing."

While team-mate Nico Rosberg led the way in second practice, Hamilton was seventh, having made a mistake on his qualifying simulation.

He also lost time with a small hydraulic issue, which was traced back to a faulty valve.

"The car's fine," Hamilton said.

"Had a fault in [the valve], it's changed and fixed and there should be no problem tomorrow."

NO REPEAT OF 2015

Singapore represented a rare low-point for Mercedes last year, when it struggled with the super-soft tyres and was outpaced by Ferrari and Red Bull.

Hamilton said it was obvious early that Mercedes would not face a repeat of that "disaster".

"We knew straight away when we went out that the car's a lot different compared to last year," he said.

"Last year we were sliding around a lot, had really low downforce.

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"The window in which we had our car set up last year just didn't seem to work here and this year it feels completely different.

"It feels like it's working the tyres and I'm hoping we're going to continue to improve and be in the fight for the front row, for the win this weekend."