Hamilton Confident That New Mclaren Can Keep on Ferrari's Tail

Lewis Hamilton yesterday got to grips with the car he hopes will take him to victory in the 2008 formula one world championship when he sampled the new McLaren-Mercedes MP4-23 for the first time at the Jerez circuit some 65 days before he launches into competitive action at the Australian grand prix in Melbourne on March 16.

Hamilton, who lost out to Kimi Raikkonen by a single point in the battle for the title last year, completed 103 laps of the tight little track in southern Spain, a total distance of 284 miles, and expressed himself satisfied with the new machine.

"It was fantastic to get my hands on the MP4-23 this morning," said Hamilton, who celebrated his 23rd birthday at the official unveiling of the car on Monday. "I saw the completed car for the first time on Monday at the team's launch in Stuttgart and I have been pretty impatient since then. Considering this is only the second day the car has been on track, I am pretty happy with that. We have a lot of work to do, but now we have a real understanding of where we are starting from."

Hamilton joined his new team-mate, Heikki Kovalainen, at the circuit for the first of four days of testing stretching through until next Wednesday. Following this Wednesday's session, which saw the Finn and test driver Pedro de la Rosa take both MP4-23 chassis for their initial runs, work at the test involved Hamilton and Kovalainen continuing to concentrate on familiarizing themselves with the 2008 challenger. It was the first time in the history of the team that they had completed two chassis for the first day of testing.

Before the first race of the season the pair will cover many more thousands of miles in testing across Europe to ensure that their new car is capable of competing with the world champions Ferrari on an even footing from the start of the championship campaign. New recruit Kovalainen echoed Hamilton's confidence. "The car's performance is definitely an encouraging starting point," he said.