Lewis Hamilton likes the look of the Red Bull RB8 © Getty Images Enlarge Related Links Drivers:

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McLaren

Lewis Hamilton reckons the Red Bull RB8 looks faster than his McLaren after he was pushed for a prediction on the second day of this week's Barcelona test.

With fuel loads unknown and teams running different programmes, lap times can be misleading at pre-season tests. However, Hamilton was out on track performing a race simulation at a similar time to Vettel on Wednesday and the Red Bull managed to get ahead.

"I was just focusing on my job," Hamilton said after the test. "I think we were always out at the same time doing the runs. I was always on used tyres and I think he started with new tyres in the second couple of stints. But generally I think he looked very, very competitive, perhaps a little bit faster than us. But again, we don't know what fuel loads they were on - it's much too early to say. But when I was behind him his car looked like it was handling quite well."

Asked if he would back himself for pole if there was a qualifying session on Thursday, Hamilton said: "Clearly not, why would I do that? Especially if there was money on it! I would say the Red Bulls are probably quickest at the moment."

But Hamilton still appeared confident in his McLaren and said the MP4-27 was better at this test than Jerez despite no updates. He said its performance in high-speed corners, for which the Circuit de Catalunya is famous, was particularly impressive despite the loss of the blown diffuser.

"It's actually been quite a surprise, the car is handling really well in high-speed corners," he said. "I think the baseline of the car is better than last year's. And the characteristics of the car mean it is actually better than last years.

"We have made some changes to be able to enable that, but it's been performing better in turn three and turn nine than I expected and just as good as it was last year. So knowing at some stage we will have some upgrades, I think that we will be even better in the high-speed [corners]."

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