Lewis Hamilton said Ferrari “definitely have some work to do to improve” as his former Mercedes team-mate George Russell set the pace on the final day of pre-season testing.
Russell pipped Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.021 seconds with a lap just five minutes before the end of the day’s running.
Hamilton ended the day sixth fastest in his Ferrari, 0.8 seconds off Russell.
Williams driver Alex Albon was third fastest, ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.
Hamilton said: “It’s hard to know what fuel loads everyone is running so you have to take everything with a pinch of salt.
“(McLaren) won the constructors’ (title) last year. We expect them to be one of the quickest if not the quickest. As with Red Bull, they dominated for many years. We’ve definitely got some work to do to improve.”
Hamilton, speaking before he drove in the afternoon session, was optimistic about his first pre-season test with his new team.
“I feel like we’ve built a really good foundation but these guys out there look really competitive, it looks very close,” he said.
“This is the most positive feeling I’ve had for a long time.”
But his day ended early when Ferrari curtailed his running prematurely, before he was able to complete a planned race distance.
Hamilton was nearly 0.5secs quicker than team-mate Charles Leclerc but was running a tyre compound one step softer. He also drove in the afternoon session while Leclerc went in the morning.
Pre-season testing is a notoriously unreliable indication of true competitiveness as there are so many factors that can distort the picture.
Teams do not reveal the specification in which they were running their cars, and fuel loads and engine modes have a major impact on performance.
In addition, the weather conditions on Friday were very different from the day before – Friday was sunny and considerably warmer, with a stronger wind, meaning the track was slower than it had been on Thursday.
Despite Verstappen’s pace, the Red Bull looked difficult to drive, and the team were trying out different set-ups and configurations on the car, including swapping between two different front wing specifications.
The four-time world champion had a spin late in the day at Turn One.
Day three times
1. George Russell (Mercedes) 1:29.545
2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.021
3. Alex Albon (Williams) +0.105*
4. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +0.395
5. Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +0.495
6. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.800*
7. Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls) +0.952
8. Esteban Ocon (Haas) +1.183
9. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +1.266
10. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +1.343
11. Lando Norris (McLaren) +1.398
12. Jack Doohan (Alpine) +1.694
13. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +2.154
14. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) +2.181
15. Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) +2.216
16. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +2.539
17. Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) +2.602
18. Oliver Bearman (Haas) +2.816
* = time set on C4 tyres, all others on C3, which is harder and slower