Lewis Hamilton remains confident that McLaren will be able to start the 2012 Formula 1 season in a podium position, possibly challenging for wins by as early as the opening race. After a highly disrupted day of testing in Barcelona on Friday, the 2008 World Champion had completed a total of 65 laps.
“It’s been a great test, a great pre-season test and way better than last year,” Hamilton told gathered journalists including GPUpdate.net. “There were no problems, no issues, so I feel confident. Lotus looks really quick, so it will be interesting to see how they turn out at the first race.”
When viewing the cars trackside today, GPUpdate.net noted how the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso was clearly struggling for traction on the exit of slow corners.
“It didn’t look very good, but he was on an in-lap (at the time),” Hamilton continued, having followed his former team-mate for a short time. When asked if he believes the Spaniard would prefer to be driving the current McLaren, Hamilton paused and replied:
“Yeah. With the fuel loads we were running, we were relatively strong. I’m not saying we’re the fastest, we’ll see that in Melbourne, but I’m confident we’ll be fighting for podiums or victory.”
Hamilton added that McLaren will perform no qualifying simulation laps until Australia.
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| Pos. | Driver | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  R. Grosjean | 01:22.614 | 123 |
| 2. | J. Vergne | 01:23.126 | 31 |
| 3. | S. Vettel | 01:23.361 | 85 |
| 4. | F. Alonso | 01:23.447 | 124 |
| 5. | H. Kovalainen | 01:23.828 | 104 |
| 6. | K. Kobayashi | 01:23.836 | 77 |
| 7. | N. Hulkenberg | 01:23.893 | 33 |
| 8. | M. Schumacher | 01:23.978 | 79 |
| 9. | L. Hamilton | 01:24.111 | 65 |
| 10. | B. Senna | 01:24.925 | 48 |
| Full results | |||
| Lewis Hamilton | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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