Formula One: Lewis Hamilton and MercedesGP set blistering pace during testing in Barcelona

Three-time world champion Lewis Hamilton impresses for Mercedes, as does his new teammate Valtteri Bottas, on first day of testing before the new Formula One season begins.

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton at the Circuit de Catalunya on February 27, 2017 during the first day of the first week of tests for the Formula One Grand Prix season. / AFP

Lewis Hamilton started the new Formula One season where he left off as Mercedes-GP set a blistering pace on the opening day of testing in Barcelona on Monday.

Hamilton – winner of the final four grands prix of last year, but who finished runner-up to the now retired Nico Rosberg – had to wait until after lunch to get his first real taste of the car which he hopes will fire him to a fourth world championship.

And it was not long before the 32-year-old Briton was on top of the order in a Mercedes which seems not only fast but bulletproof in its reliability, too.

Indeed while both Red Bull, the team expected to lead the challenge to Mercedes this season, and McLaren encountered a number of technical problems, Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, the Finn who has replaced Rosberg, completed more than two race distances.

Hamilton, fastest at the sun-blazed Circuit de Catalunya on the outskirts of Barcelona, managed 73 laps after Bottas, who began the Mercedes programme on Monday morning, posted 79.

The overhaul of technical regulations over the winter had been hoped to shake up a sport which has been criticised for becoming too predictable but while the cars are different in their appearance – lower, wider and quicker – the pecking order is not.

It was a thoroughly impressive and ominous show from Mercedes, a team which has won 51 of the last 59 races en route to claiming three consecutive driver and constructor titles, which will leave Hamilton confident he can become the first British driver to win a quartet of championships.

The same however, could not be said for McLaren. A disgruntled Fernando Alonso spent the majority of the opening day twiddling his thumbs in the team’s hospitality unit after an engine problem thwarted their progress.

Alonso, the double world champion, who is out of contract with the British team at the end of the year, completed 29 laps - only 84 miles - the fewest of all 11 drivers here on Monday.

There was unwanted drama for former champions Red Bull, too. Daniel Ricciardo stopped on track in the opening moments of the day with a gearbox issue. A battery problem also hampered his running later in the day.

But there were promising signs for Ferrari. The famous Italian team are bidding to bounce back from a disappointing campaign in which they failed to register a single victory and Sebastian Vettel, the four-time world champion, finished second only to Hamilton with an impressive 128 laps under his belt.

Hamilton will be back in his Mercedes car for the second morning of this four-day test on Tuesday before Bottas takes over in the afternoon.

Jolyon Palmer, the only other British driver on the grid this season following Jenson Button’s retirement, will get his first taste of the new Renault tomorrow.

* Press Association

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