February 28, 2014 – Lewis Hamilton underlined Mercedes’ pace advantage ahead of the 2015 Formula One World Championship by outpacing rivals Williams and Ferrari in Saturday’s test.
Hot on the heels of Nico Rosberg’s 1:22.792 lap yesterday, Hamilton delivered a 1:23.022 on the soft tyre that was a quarter of a second faster than Williams’s Felipe Massa and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, who produced almost identical times on the super-soft tyre in qualifying-simulation-style runs before lunch.
The performance emphasized what many were saying in the paddock in the last 24 hours: that Mercedes has a pace advantage of anything up to a second on the same tyre as rivals.
Romain Grosjean set the fourth fastest time for Lotus, over a second off Hamilton’s pace, ahead of Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson and the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz Jr, who caused a red flag by stopping after setting his fastest lap.
Nico Hulkenberg in the new Force India was seventh, but got through a mammoth 158 laps, ahead of McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen – who had to stop early due to an oil leak and only completed 39 tours all day – and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.
