BARCELONA: World champion Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time for the first time this season on the second morning of the second pre-season test in Barcelona on Wednesday.

Hamilton was released onto the faster soft tires after days of piling out huge mileage on the medium compound to register a best time of 1min 23.622 from his 73 laps.

However, the Englishman’s time was six tenths of a second down on the best lap posted by Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg on the soft tires on Tuesday.

Rosberg will take over driving duties for the afternoon with Mercedes choosing to split each of the four days at the Circuit de Catalunya between their two drivers.

Kevin Magnussen was second fastest for Renault, three tenths behind Hamilton despite being on supersoft tires.

Sebastian Vettel posted Ferrari’s best time of testing so far on the medium compound in third.

At the other end of the paddock, both Haas and Sauber suffered reliability problems.

Esteban Gutierrez failed to register a lap time in the Haas due to a turbo charger problem.

Meanwhile, Marcus Ericsson managed just seven laps on his first drive in the new Sauber C35.