Lewis Hamilton says Ferrari’s pace during the first test at Jerez was down to a “more attacking” run plan than Mercedes.

Ferrari raised eyebrows by completing consistent mileage while also setting the fastest times of the week with Sebastian Vettel top on the first two days and Kimi Raikkonen quickest on day four. However, Hamilton says he didn’t pay attention to Ferrari’s progress during the test but expects the lap times were due to a different approach to the opening week.

"I've not really been looking to be honest, I've just been focusing on doing my own thing,” Hamilton said. "I'm sure they're on different fuel loads to others, and they look like they're doing shorter, more attacking runs which we are not.”

Hamilton also explained that Mercedes had yet to try any set-up work with the new W06 despite comfortably completing the most mileage of any team at Jerez.

“I imagine we would have more parts and more test items [in Barcelona]. Usually the first week is rushed so you don't have all the things you want to test. I'm sure there we'll start working on set-up.”

Click here for the full final day gallery from the Jerez test

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

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