Hamilton expects more competitive field

Toyota have been fastest for the past two days of testing at Jerez, having also compared strongly to Ferrari in Bahrain recently. While Hamilton agreed that Toyota look strong, he reckons many of the teams previously in the 'best of the rest' pack have made gains.

"Just from looking at the times, it looks like (Toyota) are doing quite a good job," he told reporters at the Spanish track this morning.

"But I think a lot of the teams are doing quite good jobs. The Renault doesn't look bad, the BMW doesn't look bad, so there are quite a lot of teams looking pretty impressive at the moment."

When asked if he thought one team in particular would surprise this season, Hamilton replied: "Force India, they look quite good right now."

But the McLaren driver said it was too early to judge how his team compared to their perennial rivals Ferrari. This week's test marks the first time this winter that the two squads have gone head to head.

"This is my first day with Ferrari being at the same track, so for me it looks very similar to every other year - 2007 and 2008," said Hamilton.

"Everyone's times are looking good, some consistently, some not. But I haven't done many laps today so I can't say."

He doesn't believe that any team can claim to be the title favourite at present.

"We're just testing, who knows?" Hamilton said. "We'll find out when we get to the first race."

The world champion was speaking to reporters after a technical failure had interrupted his test session. Hamilton had returned to the pits with flames from the back of his car, and McLaren then removed the engine, but he played down the significance of the problem.

"We had an issue, but I think they're fixing it and we'll be back out as soon as possible," he said.

"But the car was good this morning. I didn't get many laps, but I'm looking forward to getting back out."