Lewis Hamilton put Mercedes on top on the opening day of Formula 1 testing at Barcelona, edging out Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel by a tenth during Monday’s afternoon session.
Taking over from new F1 team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who was second fastest to Vettel in the morning, Hamilton set a best time of 1m21.765s using soft tyres with just under two hours to go in the day’s running.
The Briton started the afternoon using a shark fin engine cover, its first appearance on the W08, but his best time was set once the team had reverted to its launch-specification design.
Shortly after Hamilton set his best time, Vettel put in a lap just 0.113 seconds slower on medium tyres, which was good enough for the German to end the day second-fastest.