LEWIS HAMILTON kicked off his Formula One world title defence in style after setting the quickest lap at testing for the new season.
In an ominous warning to the rest of the grid, the world champion racked up a dizzying 94 laps around the circuit in Barcelona on day one.
Lewis Hamilton set the quickest lap at testing for the new seasonCredit: Getty Images
The British F1 star racked up a dizzying 94 laps around the circuit in Barcelona on day oneCredit: AP:Associated Press
Hamilton topped the timesheets ahead of his Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas who was 0.337 seconds behind the Brit.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was fourth quickest in his Red Bull but drove an incredible 168 laps of the track.
That is a total distance of 486 miles the same as driving around the M25 over four times in under four fours.
Williams, who had a disastrous start to the season in 2019, were first out of the garage at 9am with both George Russell and Nicholas Latifi having a trouble-free day.
Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel skipped day one of the new season after complaining of feeling unwell.
The German posed for group photographs but then cried off sick, handing over the keys to his teammate, Charles Leclerc.
A spokeswoman said: “Change of plan: Seb not feeling great this morning so Charles is taking over driving duties for the day.”
The four-time world champion is now due to take over today providing he feels better.
Lewis Hamilton talks about his experience testing the new Mercedes W11 Formula 1 racing car
Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
