Hamilton shines as Mercedes impress again in Barcelona

LewisHamilton-Cropped

Lewis Hamilton picked up where Nico Rosberg left on Friday as Mercedes went fastest again during Formula One testing in Barcelona on Saturday.

The defending constructors' champions have been consistently improving ahead of the new F1 season, and they sent out a warning to their rivals in dominating for a second successive day in Spain.

Hamilton's advantage was smaller than Rosberg's 24 hours earlier, but he finished 0.240 seconds clear of Felipe Massa on a productive day for Mercedes ahead of the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 15.

Although the Briton only clocked up 76 laps, he was comfortably fastest with a time of one minute 23.022 seconds, eclipsing Massa's impressive showing in the opening few hours.

Kimi Raikkonen was able to get some valuable time in the Ferrari, too, the Finn completing 136 laps as he finished third fastest with a time of one minute 25.276secs.

He was narrowly behind Massa – as Williams continued to shine in testing – while Carlos Sainz Jr in the Toro Rosso and Lotus' Romain Grosjean completed the top five.

Sauber's progression ahead of the new season was not as clear as it has been earlier in the week, Marcus Ericsson unable to match Felipe Nasr's performance on Friday, as he could only manage the sixth fastest time.

With Fernando Alonso still not clear to drive following last weekend's crash that left him in hospital, test driver Kevin Magnussen took the McLaren out of the garage but he was eighth fastest, just ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull.

 

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