Lewis Hamilton kept "a nice amount of fuel" in his McLaren during pre-season testing so as not to reveal its true performance to its rivals.

13694 - Hamilton yet to run McLaren on low fuel

Pre-season preparations stepped up a gear at the final test in Barcelona as teams brought final upgrades to their cars and set the fastest times of the winter. Hamilton clocked the tenth quickest time, 0.400s off the the fastest of all set by Kimi Raikkonen, but hinted there would be more to come from the MP4-27 on low fuel.

"On the final day I did 115 laps, great mileage, so it was a positive way to end the winter testing," he told a selection of UK newspapers. "I think we were one of the top teams for mileage. I also kept a nice amount of fuel in the car for all my tests. I wasn't really bothered with positioning. What matters is when we get to the first race."

He said he was expecting a much closer fight at the top and that the use of exhaust gases to influence aerodynamics would continue to play a big part in the performance of the top cars this year.

"It looks like it could be different to the past couple of years where we've had the Red Bull much quicker than everyone else. A couple of the teams have different exhaust solutions. Ferrari, Red Bull and ourselves have a similar solution. The others, like Lotus, has a different solution, so do Mercedes and they still seem to be quick. So it will be a battle as to which of the designs has the longest road of development and how far ours can go. It's going to be interesting to see who is quick and who is not."