re focusing on. Tonight well be going through all the data

NEW YORK -- The Mets and Governor Andrew Cuomo honored the 2016 Little League World Series champions from Endwell, New York, prior to a game with the Miami Marlins on Wednesday.A group of 29 players, coaches, parents and siblings took the three-hour bus ride from Endwell to Citi Field. The players spent batting practice on the field, meeting the Mets players before Cuomo presented the team with an official New York State proclamation. Rather than read the entire proclamation to a room of 12-year-olds, Cuomo summarized, saying that as governor of the state of New York, we are all very, very proud of you and what you represent in your victory and your character and how you stand for all of the important virtues of this state.Endwell became the first U.S. winner since Huntington Beach, California, in 2011 and gave New York its first championship since 1964.I dont think they understand how big of an accomplishment it was, Endwell coach Scott Rush said. Today, they get to be kids.Rush threw out the games first pitch.Captain David Wright and pitchers Robert Gsellman, Seth Lugo, Logan Verrett and Jacob deGrom -- the five players on the roster that spent time with New Yorks Double-A affiliate in Binghamton -- joined CEO Fred Wilpon and general manager Sandy Alderson for a brief reception before the governor addressed the team.Binghamton is our hometown team, Rush said.Im jealous of you guys, Wright said. Ive never been able to capture that world title. So just know that Im going to shake your hand, but Im going to shake it with a little jealousy because Id like to be where you guys are for sure. Denis Malgin Jersey . Sulaiman, 44, was chosen unanimously Tuesday in a vote by the leadership, the World Boxing Council said. Sulaiman becomes the sixth president of the organization. Colton Sceviour Jersey . "It doesnt get any better than that," Giambi said. "Im speechless." The Indians are roaring toward October. Giambi belted a two-run, pinch-hit homer with two outs in the ninth inning to give Cleveland a shocking 5-4 win over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night, keeping the Indians up with the lead pack in the AL wild-card race. http://www.hockeypanthersofficialonline.com/mark-pysyk-hockey-jersey/ . -- In a span of seven Washington Redskins offensive plays, Justin Tuck sacked Robert Griffin III four times. Evgenii Dadonov Panthers Jersey .ca! Hi Kerry, Heres an interesting one. I know its common knowledge that all players are responsible for their sticks. We witnessed that when Zack Kassian hit Edmontons Sam Gagner in the face after a missed check. Keith Yandle Jersey . -- Jimmie Johnson held off a teammate, passed a pair of Hall of Famers, and dominated once more at Dover. ESPN rounds up all the reaction from up and down the Sepang paddock following Friday practice for the 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix.MercedesLewis Hamilton: That was a good day today. No issues to report and we got through our run plans in both sessions. Theres a lot of data to analyse tonight to make sure we have a good understanding of the tyres and of our position relative to the others. Overall a good building block for tomorrow and the rest of the weekend. A big shout-out to the fans out here today. I saw them waving across in the stands at the end of FP2 and theyve all got banners and caps showing their support, which is great to see.Nico Rosberg: The new track surface is really enjoyable to drive. Challenging, but with good grip. Its tough to get the setup right with such an unknown element as new tarmac, but were on the right track. Turn 15 is interesting, as you can now try several different lines if youre attacking the guy in front, so that will be good for overtaking. Looking at the race, even the soft tyre held on pretty well out there, so we dont expect any big surprises. Strategy-wise we have to run the hard compound, of course, but otherwise its pretty straightforward. Im looking forward now to qualifying.Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical): Very hot conditions here today. Weve been doing our normal race preparation. The strategy is completely open for Sunday between the soft, medium and hard tyres, so we evaluated all three compounds across both cars on high fuel and low fuel. Both drivers were reasonably happy with the balance of the car. No issues save a bit of gravel clearing on Nicos car after his minor excursion this morning. A lot of data to analyse tonight to see where we are competitively and decide whats the best way to run the race. Now we look forward to qualifying tomorrow.FerrariSebastian Vettel: I think we had a decent day. We were testing quite a few things, and our pace didnt look too bad, at least from what I was told inside the car. Mercedes looked again very strong today on long and short runs: as for ourselves, we are pretty happy with the shortruns, but I havent seen much yet of what the other people did for their long runs. I think we can improve, especially to get the car a little bit more together. I am confident that we can find a bit here and there for tomorrow.Our target is to win and nothing less. At the same time, you need to be awake and realize that we are not strong enough to come here and say we will win: but if there is a chance, by any circumstances, then we need to be right there and take it. The new asphalt seems to be a step forward, the last corner is a bit trickier but, all in all, it is a step forward. I havent used the Hard tires in P2, the Soft is the preferred one; now we have to see what strategy we might choose for Sunday.Kimi Raikkonen: It was not a very smooth day. I did not have a good feeling with the car through the sessions and Im surprised that the lap time was not too bad, considering the fact that my feelings were far from what I wanted. The new tarmac feels pretty similar, but its smoother and theres a bit more grip. I havent seen what the others have done, I was concentrating on our program. Now we need to sit down and go through all things. Theres work to be done, but Im sure we can improve for tomorrow.WilliamsValtteri Bottas: Today was a pretty standard Friday. We got plenty of data and it was interesting to understand how the new tarmac would affect this years car. It definitely provided more grip. The tyres were also behaving more consistently than in previous years. The long runs were especially interesting today but the feeling was positive and we got some good data from them. We still need to improve our one lap pace, but the overall feeling is OK.Felipe Massa: Unfortunately, we didnt do what we were supposed to do today. I had to abort a few laps as we had an issue which lost us some time, so it wasnt a straightforward afternoon. The pace also wasnt fantastic compared to others, so we have work to do tonight to hopefully have a better Saturday.Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: It was a fairly normal Friday apart from the fact that we lost some time with Felipe on his set of hard tyres which, in the end, we couldnt run due to an issue on the rim. Apart from that, we got the low fuel work done on the soft tyre which was important, and some running on high fuel for the soft and the medium compounds. Between the two drivers, I think were quite consistent. Clearly the track has changed a lot with the new asphalt. Its a lot smoother, less bumpy and generates more grip.Theres definitely less degradation, which is good -- but its the same for everyone. We need a little more understanding of where the tyre temperatures need to be on this new asphalt as the requirements on the front and the rear are quite different. Weve done all the work we needed to do today and we now just need to look at what were going to do to get a bit more pace out of the car. Were not far away from where we should be.Were expecting the same weather and temperatures for the start of the race, so today is pretty representative of that. It should be a little cooler for qualifying with that being later in the day. It was 60C at the start of FP2 today. That obviously makes it quite difficult to manage the tyres. Our main focus tonight has to be to get the cars balanced to protect the rear tyres and to get reasonable balance for the race.Red BullDaniel Ricciardo: The new asphalt is good, it gives a bit more grip which is always fun, though I dont think I found as much grip as the others. We still have to find a little bit of time on both low and high fuel. We didnt really find a big gain with the soft tyre on low fuel, so thats one thing we want to address. Well do a bit of work tonight and definitely make some improvements for tomorrow. The last corner is not the most attractive on the calendar but its challenging so I guess thats positive.If you take the inside it sort of washes you away with the negative banking, and if you go around the outside you end up doing a lot more distance, so its about trying to find a good compromise and making it mistake free. Track temperature was, I think, recorded at 61 degrees, Ive never heard a number that high before. It was pretty warm and toasty out there. I think Sunday will be good fun, we just have to keep hydrated and it should be a good challenge.Max Verstappen: Formula One is where I always want to be so its nice to spend my birthday here. I can enjoy some birthday cake because its so hot at Sepang Ill lose the kilos anyway. Both sessions were pretty good. The first practice you just had to build up to it, especially with the new tarmac, you have to get to grips with the car. I enjoyed the new surface, it seemed to have quite a bit more grip.Before, in Malaysia, we seemed to struggle with traction but the changes they have made here appear to have helped. I also think it is a lot more fun to drive. Our short runs need to get a bit better but the long runs are looking strong. The pace on the soft tyre felt decent, I feel like that tyre has potential on a long run and it allowed me to throw the car into the corners like I wanted to. Its hard to tell where other drivers are on the first day but Sebastian (Vettel) looks strong, so we need to improve our short run in order to be competitive.Force IndiaNico Hulkenberg: Its been a good day. We didnt have any issues with the car; we ticked all the boxes on our programme and went through all the tyre compounds to collect the necessary information. It has been a straightforward day -- the way you want a Friday to be. The new track surface made driving here a lot smoother because it used to be very bumpy! Its a nice feeling, but with such strong sunshine and high temperatures you can feel the tarmac soaking up all the heat -- it makes it really hot inside the car! The changes to the final corner have made it a real challenge: its the one corner where you can lose a good lap, right at the end, so you need to be very careful when turning in.Sergio Perez: Its a promising start to our weekend. The track is very different compared to last year, so today was all about learning as much as we could. The changes have made this circuit much more fun to drive; I think its a big improvement compared to the past. We had a busy session and, despite the red flag interruption in the morning, we collected a good amount of information. Our short and long-run pace seems good and gives me confidence we will be strong this weekend, especially in qualifying tomorrow. Our focus, though, is on the race: thats when we need to be at our best. We need to make some adjustments tonight, but I think were getting there.Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: Its been a positive day overall. We had a busy testing plan and managed to complete it -- that involved understanding the three tyre compounds on what is a very different circuit compared to the one we raced on last year. The organisers have done a great job resurfacing the track, getting rid of all the big bumps and adding a big challenge in turn 15, with the adverse camber. The tyres are behaving as we expected them to and the drivers were happy with the balance of the car. Of course, there is still plenty of work needed to extract more performance, especially in qualifying trim, and its something we will focus on tonight.RenaultJolyon Palmer: That was a pretty straightforward over my side of the garage; I think all the action was on Kevs side today. We did have a few moments pushing the limits as we learnt the new track surface in the morning but the tracks still very rewarding to drive. We made decent progress for the afternoon session and should be well-placed for further improvement tomorrow.Kevin Magnussen: We expected it to be hot in Sepang but maybe not as hot as that! My crew were great dealing with the fire and getting the car back into action for the afternoon. From my perspective, I heard the call on the radio to jump out and I didnt need to be told twice! In the afternoon we were able to get some laps so the day wasnt a write-off. Theres a bit too much entry oversteer with the initial set-up but we know where we want to improve.Nick Chester, Technical Director: We had a difficult start to the day with Kevins car. There was a problem with a valve on a fuel breather pipe which meant that fuel escaped from the vent, causing a fire. The crew did a great job keeping everything under control so we could address the problemm.dddddddddddd We changed fuel systems for the second session and dont expect any further issues. Jolyon had two clean sessions and was happy with his car balance in the afternoon. Kevin was able to complete half of the afternoon session and has a baseline to work with. Between both drivers we have some good information to progress set-up and tyre performance on the new track surface here in Sepang.Toro RossoDaniil Kvyat: It was a good day today, we were able to complete plenty of laps on a track thats been resurfaced, so it was important to get a lot done. I have to say that its a pleasure to drive on such a smooth surface! Weve collected a lot of useful data which will help us improve for tomorrow. We now need to find a few steps forward overnight, try to make them work and then see where we end up.Carlos Sainz: I think its been a very interesting day for us here today. The fact that the track has been resurfaced means its like being at a new track -- weve been around three seconds quicker already compared to last year and its still only free practice. Its definitely being a new challenge, with faster lap times, and I have to say that the car feels amazing to drive as theres a lot of grip out there, so Im enjoying it! Now we need to work towards tomorrow. As expected, we are not as strong as in Singapore, but also not as bad as in Monza or Spa, so I look forward to the rest of the weekend -- its nice to be battling with the rest of the midfield. We will keep fighting!Phil Charles, Chief Race Engineer: An interesting day today, with the new track surface changing things quite a bit compared to previous years. Most significantly, the drivers felt less bumps and a step more grip in traction. It took us a few runs to optimise the balance around the new tarmac and in fact I think we have probably ended up with the drivers just either side of an ideal balance. Carlos was a bit too neutral and Daniil probably a bit on the understeer side. Daniil has had some floor damage today and so we will need to look into correcting for that tonight.He also had some very slow traffic on his short run so in general he has had a bit of a scrappy day and I think he will look relatively stronger on the time sheets tomorrow. Carlos has had a much smoother day and I think is a fair gauge of our performance: It is a very tight battle in the mid field with the usual suspects, plus Palmer looks quite strong in the Renault as well. In terms of our ranking, we have come back to a track with some long straights so our top speed deficit has dropped us down a bit compared to Singapore. Nonetheless, I think if we can make some good conclusions on how best to make use of the tyres, so I think we can have a decent weekend.SauberFelipe Nasr: It was a normal Friday. Due to the new asphalt, we could see that the track surface is much smoother compared to last year. We had to reassess all the tyre information to understand how the car reacts in order to work on its balance. When we did the long runs in the afternoon we had some cooling issues, because of the engine limitations for the practice sessions. It forced us to reduce our running, but these issues will be sorted out for tomorrow. Otherwise, we need to work on the cars balance for the rest of weekend.Marcus Ericsson: It has been a good first day here in Sepang. It was a typical Friday, preparing for the weekend with short and long runs on different tyre compounds. We also continued our aero measurements in order to get more information out of the aero package. Overall it was a troublefree day on which I was able to run a good amount of laps. Now I need to sit with my engineers to analyse the data in order to improve.McLarenFernando Alonso: We completed a good number of laps today and got through all the tests wed planned to do. We even managed to conduct some experiments aimed at next years car, which was really positive.We still need to see how well we can do tomorrow, especially in FP3, where well be concentrating on long runs. For me, qualifying is going to be pretty short because of my penalties: Ill do a lap to set a time within 107% and then Ill watch it on TV. Then well try to save as many sets of new tyres as possible.The new asphalt is a good improvement: theres a lot more grip. Last year, my best Friday time was a 1m42.5s; this year I set 1.36.2 -- so thats six seconds in one year. If you consider the car has improved by two- to two-and-a-half-seconds, we get a further three seconds from the asphalt. Its a good sensation to have so much grip. The weather forecast for Saturday and Sunday could be rainy -- we still dont know if quali or the race will be affected -- so starting from behind might not be too bad for us.Jenson Button: We were out a bit late in FP2 because some of the set-up changes we made to the car took a little bit longer than we thought. That meant I got out when everybody else was on high-fuel. Then I caught up with Kevin [Magnussen] in Turn 10, and he kept on the racing line, which hurt me in terms of lap-time. So the single-lap pace of the car isnt too bad -- and I even think we can be further up tomorrow. The long-run pace isnt quite there yet -- but we think we know what we can do with the balance to help that. The new asphalt here is very strange -- it feels like theres a lot of grip, then its suddenly taken away from you. Its difficult to read -- it feels a bit like Sochi: the oversteer comes out of nowhere.Eric Boullier, McLaren Racing Director: The re-surfaced and re-profiled Sepang circuit poses a significant challenge to both teams and engineers this weekend. Fortunately, we had a clean day of practice and were able to gather some useful test data as we dialed the cars in during todays practice sessions. Fernando made a positive start to his weekend by immediately dropping into the groove and looking impressively quick at times.Its frustrating that hes facing a significant grid penalty -- for introducing new power unit elements -- but its something wed already factored into our weekend programme, and well work hard to provide him with a car and a strategy to best cope with that setback on Sunday. Jensons 300th grand prix this weekend is a considerable milestone -- and its one that the whole team and many people inside the paddock will be celebrating with him. He hasnt yet got a balance that hes fully satisfied with, but weve got plenty of data to analyse this evening before choosing a set-up path ahead of qualifying tomorrow.Yusuke Hasegawa, Honda R&D Co Ltd Head of F1 Project & Executive Chief Engineer: Todays very hot and humid free practice sessions had some minor interruptions, with an unexpected red flag due to a pit-lane fire, and sensor trouble on our cars, but I am satisfied that we managed to otherwise get through our aero, tyre and set-up confirmations according to our run programme for tomorrows qualifying.The updates that Honda has brought to our power unit for Malaysia are focused on increasing the durability while decreasing overall weight of the surrounding parts around the ICE. This consequently helps performance, but does not lead to an outright increase. Both sessions ran very smoothly, and we were able to gather track running data that we cannot test on the dyno. We will now focus on analysing the data thoroughly to prepare the power unit for future race use.ManorEsteban Ocon: Im pretty happy with all the work that has been done by the team between Singapore and here. Were definitely progressing, which is very positive. Weve made good steps between FP1 and FP2, so its promising for tomorrow. Its a great circuit. Very challenging for the car and driver. The track temperature in particular is pretty interesting! But its all good; we made a good start and more to come, I hope.Pascal Wehrlein: It was a more positive Friday than in Singapore, so I am happy. The track is great but the car is behaving differently than expected so we are looking into that at the moment. We need to analyse all the data tonight to see what we need to do to get on top of that. Were struggling with the tyres here, but were still working on the set-up trying many different things for the car to get it best suited to this track.Dave Ryan, Racing Director: A really difficult couple of sessions for everyone, given the extremely high track temperatures. We did as much running as possible so from our point of view its been a pretty positive days work and the drivers have risen to the challenge very well. We have a lot of work to do tonight to figure out where we go from here, but so far so good.HaasEsteban Gutierrez: It was a very productive day for us. The track is very interesting. Its extremely smooth, which is changing the way the tires are working and the setup of the car. Weve been experimenting a little today to learn everything we can about how the car is performing here. Were progressing well and, hopefully, well be able to extract the maximum from our setup, which is the most important thing were focusing on. Tonight well be going through all the data to see which direction we need to take to perform the best we can during qualifying.Romain Grosjean: It was a difficult practice this afternoon. We just couldnt find a balance in the car. Its frustrating. I wasnt happy with the car, but we just need to put our heads down and come up with a solution before tomorrow. If theres a positive, its that we got some laps in this Friday, but theres a lot of work to do to improve the weekend.Guenther Steiner, Team Principal: FP1 was pretty good. We completed all the work we needed to and both drivers did a good job. FP2 was a little more difficult, especially for Romain. He couldnt find the balance on his car, so well need to look into the reason behind this. Esteban performed well today and did a good job. Now were going to look at the data and see how we can get the cars ready for FP3.PirelliPaul Hembery, Pirelli Motorsport Director: The new asphalt in Malaysia seems to be quicker, and despite the hottest track temperatures seen in recent memory, all three of our compounds here stood up extremely well to the punishment, allowing times that were sometimes nearly five seconds faster than the equivalent sessions last year. But with the chance of different weather conditions for the remainder of the weekend, there are still a number of complex variables left to play out, which makes planning the strategy quite tricky at this point. ' ' '