Mercedes team still ahead of the pack after showing class in pre-season test

LEWIS Hamilton and his Mercedes team remain the class of the Formula One field after dominating the second morning of pre-season testing in Barcelona.

Hamilton, the three-time former world champion, posted the fastest time and completed more laps than any other driver at an overcast Circuit de Catalunya on Tuesday.

Indeed the 32-year-old Briton’s best lap of one minute and 20.963 seconds was comfortably the quickest time of the week so far. And Mercedes’ ever-impressive reliability enabled Hamilton to complete 66 trouble-free laps – the equivalent length of a race distance.

He will hand over testing duties to his new teammate Valtteri Bottas after lunch.

While Ferrari were second to Mercedes – Kimi Raikkonen managed 47 laps and was 1.8 seconds slower than Hamilton – there was yet more trouble for McLaren.

Fernando Alonso missed the majority of Monday’s running following an oil leak, and Stoffel Vandoorne – the Belgian who has replaced Jenson Button at McLaren this year – encountered further engine woes on Tuesday.

Vandoorne stopped at the entry to the pit lane after completing only a handful of laps early on, and then had to be pushed back to his garage by McLaren mechanics.

Later in the session, Vandoorne, last but one in the timesheets, lost power from his Honda engine which then had to be replaced – more crucial time lost for the British team with just eight days of testing ahead of the new season.

“Everybody is keeping their heads down,” said Vandoorne. “It is not the start we hoped to have but we are a professional team and we are working very hard to solve the issues we have had.”

Jolyon Palmer, the only other British driver beyond Hamilton on the grid this year, was also due to get his first proper taste of the new Renault.

But the 26-year-old completed just one lap after his team spent the morning fitting new parts to his car which arrived in Barcelona overnight.

The opening test of the season concludes on Thursday.