Hamilton sets pace on last day of testing

BARCELONA: Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton fought off cold and wet weather yesterday to clock the quickest time of the final day of Formula One preseason testing.
Hamilton, who left McLaren for the German team this season, recorded a time of 1 minute, 23.282 seconds on the Catalunya Circuit.
Former teammate Jenson Button steered his McLaren to the session’s second best lap, while Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso was next.
Practice was interrupted by eight red-flag stoppages due to the slippery conditions, which gave several drivers problems staying on the track.
Preseason testing returns to northeastern Spain from Feb. 28-March 3 before the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on March 17.
Hamilton has played down his Mercedes team’s chances of challenging for the Formula One title after rivals Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso talked them up.
Hamilton, the 2008 world champion dampened any excessive optimism about his prospects.
“I think that people are talking us up at the moment,” said the Briton, who was top of the timesheets on a day of frequent interruptions and red flags when times were largely meaningless due to the conditions.
Jenson Button, his McLaren teammate last season, was second quickest. Hamilton disagreed with the assessments of Red Bull’s triple world champion Vettel and Ferrari’s Alonso, who had spoken of him and Mercedes as title contenders.
“I really don’t see that happening at the moment,” Hamilton added while pointing out that Mercedes, who won one race last season with Germany’s Nico Rosberg, were more than a second and sometimes two off the pace in 2012.
“We haven’t caught two seconds up and the other teams would have put another second on over the winter, so we’ve not gained three seconds. That’s just a fact,” he said.
“Hopefully by the end of the year, we’ll have gained three seconds — that’s our goal. But definitely not at the beginning.” Hamilton won four races last year with McLaren but has said before that it will be tough to triumph this season and his sights are more on 2014 when the engine rules change.
He said on Friday that he did not want to have any race wins “gifted” to the team because others had tripped up. “We want to do it through hard work,” he declared.
Despite the subdued comments, Mercedes have been doing plenty of laps in Barcelona and Rosberg was the fastest driver on the time sheets on Tuesday. Hamilton did a hefty 121 laps on Wednesday alone.
Over the eight days of testing so far, eight different drivers from four teams — McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari and Lotus — have set the fastest times. The final four-day test is in Barcelona next week.
Champions Red Bull, chasing their fourth successive drivers’ and constructors’ titles with Vettel, have yet to set a fastest lap in any session but still look the team to beat even if all could be closer than ever.
The season starts in Australia on March 17. Last year kicked off with seven different winners in the first seven races.