Ideal first day for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes in Barcelona

Mercedes got over 100 laps of testing in during day one but their expected rivals for the constructors’ crown did not fare so well at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Britain’s three-time F1 world champion, Lewis Hamilton, will find out how good his new Mercedes really is later.

McLaren’s first test runs with its MC32 were cut short by an oil system fault, although the team planned to return in the afternoon. “We’re doing long runs, and always checking something for each run so it was very valuable for me and for the team”.

“When I announced my retirement I said that I was leaving because I didn’t want to race on a small, under-resourced team”, Massa explained.

“These test days are like training”. The wider wheels, the wider body, the wider chassis, I think it does look fantastic – and hopefully it’s great for the fans. It’s faster, more physical… it’s a beast!

Honda has been struggling with its power unit for the last two years and this year provided the opportunity to close the gap to Mercedes and Ferrari. “It is a bigger auto”.

Mercedes’ daunting reliability was underlined by the German constructor’s vehicle completing over 150 laps.

Vettel had to settle for second place, a tenth off Hamilton’s pace, as he racked up 128 laps.

As such, no team begins by trying to set the fastest possible lap times.

But the pre-season testing woes that have haunted McLaren returned, with the once all-conquering British team spending more time in the pits than on the track.

Fernando Alonso has labelled Lewis Hamilton’s opposition to F1 teammates sharing data as “strange”, joking the Englishman would be a four-time world champion if he was better at doing it in 2016.

While Mercedes and Ferrari got down to serious work immediately, Red Bull managed just four laps before Daniel Ricciardo stopped between Turns 3 and 4 towards the end of the first hour with a “sensor issue”, causing the only red flag of the day so far.

Asked whether he felt that the new rules had made a difference, he replied: “It’s a much more beefed up version from the vehicle we’ve had in the previous years”.

The track near Barcelona will host a second round of testing from March 7-10 before the season starts at the Australian Grand Prix on March 26.