F1 testing – Hamilton: Progress is encouraging

Lewis Hamilton raised the bar in the Barcelona tests with a time of 1'20"558 achieved on soft tires. The 2008 world champion achieved an astonishing performance since Felipe Massa was the closest, falling more than seven tenths behind after putting on the super soft tyres. However, the pilot Mercedes prefers to concentrate on the development of the W04, convinced that its competitors are hiding their game before the first Grand Prix of the season in Melbourne played in two weeks. The Briton therefore endeavored to complete his program for his last day of testing by completing 117 laps, or 545km.

“It was really good to be able to have a dry track today for my last day of testing”, commented on the new benchmark for winter testing at the Catalunya circuit. “ We were able to complete all the points of my program. There is still a lot of work to do to get where we want to be but the team is doing very well. The reliability, the running and the developments made step by step during the last three sessions are all very encouraging. Although we are mainly focused on our performances, we have not yet seen the full potential of our opponents and therefore it is difficult to know where we stand. I will return to the factory (in Brackley) next week to do some final preparation work with the simulator and my engineers and then it will be the trip to Melbourne for my first race of the season with my new team. »

Results ? Day 7 Barcelona

1/ Lewis Hamilton? Mercedes? 1'20"558? 117 rounds
2/ Felipe Massa? Ferrari ? 1'21 »266 (+0 »708)? 94 rounds
3/ Adrian Sutil? Force India? 1'21"627 (+1"609)? 109 rounds
4/ Pastor Maldonado? Williams ? 1'22 »305 (+1 »747)? 34 rounds
5/ Valtteri Bottas ? Williams? 1'22"468 (+1"910)? 31 rounds
6/ Esteban Gutiérrez? Sauber? 1'22"553 (+1"995)? 99 rounds
7/ Mark Webber? Red Bull ? 1'22 »658 (+2 »100)? 59 rounds
8/ Sergio Pérez? McLaren ? 1'22 »694 (+2 »136)? 101 rounds
9/ Jean-Eric Vergne? Toro Rosso ? 1'23 »223 (+2 »665)? 114 rounds
10 / Romain Grosjean ? Lotus? 1'23 »380 (+2 »822)? 46 rounds
11/ Davide Valsecchi? Lotus? 1’23”448 (+2”890)? 16 rounds
12/ Jules Bianchi? Marussia? 1'24"028 (+3"470)? 74 rounds
13/ Giedo van der Garde? Caterham? 1’24”235 (+3”677)? 126 rounds