F1: Hamilton upbeat about "step forward," despite crash

Lewis Hamilton described Mercedes' first day of Formula 1 testing this year as a good step forward for the team, despite ending it in the barriers.

Mercedes was the first team to hit the track at Jerez on Tuesday and had managed to complete more mileage than anyone before a front wing failure at Turn 1 pitched Hamilton into the barrier.

With the W05 needing repairs, Mercedes elected to focus its efforts on getting back on track on Wednesday morning rather than rushing things.

Despite the early end to his running, Hamilton said there were reasons to be happy with Mercedes' day, especially with many rivals hitting trouble.

"Apart from the ending it has been generally quite a positive day," explained Hamilton. "We were the first ones out and, after a tough winter for everyone, to be the first car on track and to do the most laps up until when we finished at least was a huge positive step for us.

"This is testing, and you are going to have hiccups and we will overcome that. We have a great team here."

When asked what happened in the accident, Hamilton said: "The engineers have been asking me lots of questions, but it all happened so quickly. I got to the end of the straight, braked and the front of the car was a bit higher than usual and didn't stop. That was it."

Hamilton said that the early system checks he conducted initially meant he never pushed too hard with the car, which limited what he could say about the new turbo engines.

"I was driving it the same as always, but I didn't do many laps and haven't put the car on the limit," he said.