Hamilton: Mercedes had some 'obstacles' to overcome

Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes concluded its first pre-season test in better than it started, with the Brackley squad forced to overcome "some obstacles" during its three days in Barcelona.

Hamilton and teammate George Russell will return bake to based with bragging rights for setting the fastest times of the first leg of pre-season testing.

But Mercedes, and particularly Hamilton, endured a rather low-key start to their testing programme at the Circuit de Catalunya, with the team dealing among other things with the porpoising issue that was widespread among teams this week at the Circuit de Catalunya.

"It's been an interesting few days," said Hamilton, echoing his teammate's earlier view.

"It's not been the easiest, or the most smooth running. We've definitely had some obstacles to overcome.

"But we've got through a lot and of course we'd always want more laps, but I'm happy with today. I think I almost got 100 laps in today. So for half a day of running, that's not too bad.

"[We were] a little bit behind on the last two days. The car is a lot different to previous years to drive, as are the tyres. But we're working our way through it."

• Read also: Hamilton vaults to the top in final Barcelona session!

Hamilton praised the work done by Mercedes' entire workforce, those at the track this week and the teams back in Brackley and Brixworth.

But for many of those back at the team's bases, the real work is about to begin.

"The whole team have done an amazing job this week, the men and women back at the factory have done an amazing job," said the seven-time world champion.

"So we just need to download all this data and get through it as much as we can next week, and just try to put one foot in front of the other."

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