Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Hamilton expects ‘good step’ from rivals

Lewis Hamilton says he is expecting Mercedes’ rivals to have taken “a good step” based on the first half of pre-season testing.

Mercedes has yet to set the fastest time on any of the first six days of testing, with Ferrari dominating the first test and Daniel Ricciardo quickest for Red Bull on day two in Barcelona. Hamilton completed 89 laps on Friday afternoon after a driver change at Mercedes and while says he is yet to feel comfortable with the W06 because of a lack of set-up work, he is confident the car will still be a front-runner.

“The first test is kind of just lots and lots of laps, today as well was just lots and lots of laps so we haven’t done anything to the car how I would like to perfect it,” Hamilton said. “But it feels good, it feels very similar to last year but better which is a good sign.

“I think we’ll be in a position to fight others for sure. Where we are I don’t know where everyone else is, but I think others have taken a good step so I guess time will tell.”

Hamilton’s running came after he withdrew on Thursday due to illness, saying he wanted to get back in the car at the first opportunity because “I miss driving”. However, despite the number of laps was keen to point out that his impressive mileage on day two came after a difficult day for Mercedes on Thursday.

“We still had problems yesterday, we’re not without problems. We’re just focusing on ourselves, I don’t know where everyone else was today. We’re just focusing on doing the best job that we can. We’re really just working away, we’ve got an amazing team here and we’re just working away. As long as we keep moving forward that’s the priority.”

Full times and the second day as it happened

Click here for the gallery from day two of the second 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.