Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel outgunned reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton to the fastest time as the 2016 Formula One season got underway with the first test in Barcelona on Monday. The Italian giants are expected to pose an even stronger challenge to Hamilton’s Mercedes this season after Vettel showed signs of a Ferrari revival by winning three races last year. The four-time former world champion was nearly half a second faster than Hamilton in a time of 1min 24.939sec. However, after dominating the sport for the past two seasons, Mercedes’ reliability sent another warning shot to the rest of the paddock as Hamilton racked up a huge mileage of 155 laps – nearly twice as much as anyone else. History also favours Hamilton and Mercedes. Ferrari posted the quickest time on day one of testing in each of the last two years.

– AFP