Lewis Hamilton expressed a high amount of praise for McLaren’s new car in Barcelona on Wednesday, having been able to rack up more mileage on a single day than in the entire pre-season period of 2011. However, the 2008 Champion also forecast that Red Bull still appears to have the best overall package.
As a number of the teams’ programmes overlapped during the day, Hamilton at times found himself running in tandem with Sebastian Vettel on the track.
“I was just focusing on my job,” Hamilton explained to the gathered media, including GPUpdate.net. “I think we were out doing the runs at similar times. I was always on used tyres but I think he started with new tyres on the second couple of stints.
“Generally, he looked very, very competitive – perhaps a little bit faster than us but, again, we don’t know what fuel loads they were on and it’s much too early to say. But when I was behind him, his car looked like it was handling quite well.”
When asked to predict a pole-sitter for Melbourne, the Englishman replied:
“I wouldn’t…(pause)…I think you would say the Red Bull is probably the quickest at the moment .”
Jenson Button has now taken over at McLaren, driving on Thursday and Friday.
Also from Barcelona on Wednesday:
Video interviews with Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel
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Lewis Hamilton
Sebastian Vettel
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| Pos. | Driver | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  N. Hulkenberg | 01:22.608 | 112 |
| 2. | S. Perez | 01:22.648 | 85 |
| 3. | S. Vettel | 01:22.891 | 104 |
| 4. | F. Alonso | 01:23.180 | 87 |
| 5. | D. Ricciardo | 01:23.639 | 50 |
| 6. | L. Hamilton | 01:23.806 | 121 |
| 7. | N. Rosberg | 01:24.555 | 82 |
| 8. | V. Bottas | 01:25.738 | 117 |
| 9. | V. Petrov | 01:26.605 | 69 |
| 10. | C. Pic | 01:27.343 | 109 |
| Full results | |||
| Sebastian Vettel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| More Sebastian Vettel photos | |||
| Lewis Hamilton | |||
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| More Lewis Hamilton photos | |||
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