Hamilton: Mercedes W09 feels faster than last year's car

Hamilton ended the fourth and final day of testing in Barcelona a half-second quicker than his closest rival with the best time of 1:19.333 around the Circuit de Catalunya, but notably nearly a full second up on his most likely title challenger Sebastian Vettel.

Add to that the fact that Hamilton opted to use only the Pirelli medium tyres, while Vettel with soft tyres bolted on to his Ferrari was still those nine-tenths shy of the Mercedes driver.

At the end of the fourth day in Barcelona, Hamilton spoke enthusiastically about the W09, "It's an evolution of last year's car, we've got better tyres and particularly here we've got a new surface, so that might make things seem even better than they really are."

"So far it's been really good. Normally I'm not someone who likes testing, but today actually I was really keen to get out because we haven't had many laps. "

"It's difficult to say whether the car is that much better, how much of it is the track and the grip and the tyres. Next week we'll get a better understanding, but it definitely feels like a faster car compared to last year's car, so that's positive."

"People ask me how many laps would you have normally had up to today, and obviously the last couple of years it's been something like 300 at least," he said.

"Obviously today I only started with 25 laps [so far]. It is what it is, and I don't think anyone has had massively more time on the track than me."

"I got back in the car and I got straight on it in the first 10 laps, so I'm quite happy, quite comfortable already," revealed Hamilton who will be targeting his fifth F1 world championship title this year.