HAMILTON FASTEST AS ALONSO TOILS

WHILE Lewis Hamilton appeared to be the driver holding Willy Wonka’s golden ticket in his gloved hand, his old rival Fernando Alonso looked like he had been sucking on lemons. Not much has changed there, then. The first day of Formula One’s pre-season testing at the dawn of the post-Bernie Ecclestone era saw Hamilton’s Mercedes team lead the field in terms of times set and, more importantly at this stage, laps completed. Ferrari were close, Sebastian Vettel finishing one tenth of a second behind Hamilton, but the Italians have a history of their pace in testing later proving illusory. Mercedes banged out 152 laps, 79 through new boy Valtteri Bottas and then 73 when Hamilton replaced the Finn at the wheel, while Vettel notched 127. Meanwhile, Alonso’s McLaren broke down after just one lap due to a problem with the oil in his Honda engine. Alonso returned to the cockpit, only for his engine to blow up almost immediately. The mechanical gremlins which have plagued him in recent seasons show no signs of letting up.