SEBASTIAN Vettel said Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes remain the team to beat despite the Ferrari driver setting the fastest time of pre-season Formula One testing in Barcelona.

Ferrari have been reliable and quick this winter as they bid to bounce back from a disappointing 2016 in which they finished a distant third in the constructors’ championship.

Triple world champion Hamilton claimed earlier this week that Ferrari may have to be considered the favourites for the new campaign, such has been their impressive form over the last fortnight at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Vettel’s lap of one minute and 19.024 seconds yesterday morning eclipsed Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas’s best effort of the winter.

“It is not a surprise that if you win three world championships in a row then it is clear who are the favourites,” Vettel said.

“it is clear they have got good people and a working team so they are the ones to beat.”