Lewis Hamilton says the first of Formula 1 pre-season testing was about "getting to know" his new Mercedes.
While main rivals Ferrari dominated proceedings, the German manufacturer split the day between their drivers, with the world champion jumping in for the afternoon and racking up 77 laps albeit with only the ninth best time.
That was enough though for the Briton who admitted he was a little surprised by the W10 in Barcelona.
“It’s good to be back in the car and it's great to see the car is running as smoothly at it is,” Hamilton said initially.
“It feels quite a bit different compared to last year and we're now getting to know it, trying to understand the balance and trying to understand the characteristics we're working with.
“It’s been a positive first day, we got through our running plan and there's lots for us to learn about the new car which we will be working on.”
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Mercedes normally focuses on distance during testing and that was the case again as Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas combining for 150 laps.
“We managed to squeeze quite a lot into this first day of running, finding out both how the 2019 tyres are working and also learning about the way the car responds to set-up changes,” technical director James Allison explained.
“Today was not about absolute pace and we're reasonably pleased with the handling of the car and the way it is behaving.”
