FORMULA ONE:

Lewis Hamilton claims he doesn’t believe Mercedes have provided him with a car capable of carrying him to an eighth world title. The Briton (right) finished the final pre-season testing in Bahrain three seconds off the pace, with Red Bull seemingly having won the early arms race. After Mercedes revealed their sidepod upgrade on Thursday, Red Bull merely refined their own version yesterday. And, with design guru Adrian Newey inspecting every fraction of bodywork, Red Bull led the running through Sergio Perez before lunch.

With the first race coming in Bahrain a week today, Hamilton said: ‘At the moment, I don’t think we’ll be competing for wins. ‘Ferrari look to be the fastest, and perhaps Red Bull and then maybe us, or McLaren. We are currently not at the top.’