Hamilton: Ferrari and Mercedes equal on updates

Lewis Hamilton believes Ferrari and Mercedes have brought a similar amount of upgrades to their respective cars so far this season, but that his team "had the edge" in Barcelona.

Mercedes introduced a major update at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with a heavily revised front end featuring a new nose and bargeboards. While the new parts generated great interest, once again Mercedes and Ferrari were closely matched as Hamilton edged out Sebastian Vettel in a race-long battle.

Hamilton was pleased with the progress delivered by the new parts at the last race but says Ferrari's development rate has been similar if not quite as eye-catching.

"I think we delivered what we thought we were bringing in – it just looks fancy," Hamilton said. "It does the job, it works well with our car, it's just that we have... while the rules are the same the cars are fundamentally a lot different and they've been bringing upgrades to the last two races whereas we've just bought one [in Barcelona].

"So, if they brought five pieces in the previous race and five [in Spain], we've brought 10 – but yeah, I think we just made a similar step together.

"We were slightly quicker [in Barcelona], I think, slightly had the edge. And even if it's only half a tenth, it's brought us a little bit... particularly in the race pace. Before I don't think I've really had the pace in the race to keep up with Sebastian. I think [Sunday was] a bit different – so there is an improvement."

While Hamilton claimed Mercedes was quicker than Ferrari, when asked if he felt the Scuderia had been outpaced in Barcelona, Vettel replied: "Definitely not outpaced that is not fair on us.

"We had a very quick car and I think it was a good match and I don't think Mercedes were that much quicker. It was really close with some laps we were quicker and some laps there were quicker."

With five races of the season complete, Hamilton and Vettel have each taken two wins each, with the German leading the drivers' championship by six points having finished every race in the top two.