Mercedes, Red Bull back on top in testing

New rules, same result.

Formula One has debuted its new generation of cars in pre-season testing in Barcelona this week - but in the end, it was still Mercedes and Red Bull dominating.

Lewis Hamilton set the fastest overall time with Mercedes at the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit on Friday, ahead of teammate George Russell and the Red Bulls of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen.

The Mercedes duo set their times on softer - and faster - tires.

Mercedes won seven straight driver titles before Hamilton lost the championship to Verstappen on the last lap of the last race in 2021.

"We're not fully happy with the balance of the car, but we're here to learn and we've made some good experiments," Russell said.

"We are happy with the direction we are heading in."

McLaren and Ferrari were not near the top of the time sheets on Friday but had already shown their strength on the previous days.

Lando Norris was fastest with McLaren on the first day, his Australian teammate Daniel Ricciardo went quickest in the morning on Thursday and Charles Leclerc then topped the timesheets for Ferrari in the afternoon.

"I don't think we're in an amazing place, but I think we're in a good place," Norris said.

"It's been a good start, we've kept things very clean. It's been productive and we have made progress."

All of the top teams showed good reliability, although Red Bull struggled with a gearbox issue on the second day.

Ferrari ran the most overall laps over the three days, followed by Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull.

"What was positive is the car was running smooth, I was happy with the balance," Verstappen said.

"But Bahrain is going to be completely different, so heading into race one the car will be completely different as well.

So for me, I just