By Sam Cooper
February 12 2007

The 22 year old believes that his times are very close to Fernando Alonso’s pace in testing but he insists he isn’t reading too much into the times at the moment. Although Lewis is keeping modest, his efforts have been hailed exceptional by team boss Ron Denis.

Even though Lewis didn’t test alongside Fernando, Lewis managed to set the benchmark time of the week. He says that both Mclaren drivers were working on different development programs with the MP4-22, therefore it is hard to directly compare their times, but he still believes they are close.

“

It is really difficult to compare these things and I do not read into them as we are both working on different programs and focusing on developing these,” he was quoted as saying by the Vodafone Mclaren Mercedes website after the test.

“I covered more than 100 laps on both days, which demonstrates that we are getting there with the reliability, so it is looking pretty good." He also said.

Team Leader Ron Denis has said that Lewis is ready to make his Melbourne debut in just over a months time.

"I am working very hard, and the hard work really shows in the results,” he said.

“I am at the McLaren Technology Centre every day during the week when I am not testing.

“I spend as much time as possible with my engineer really studying the data and learning as much as possible, which all seems to be flowing nicely.

“I am just taking it all step by step and I think that is the best approach."

Who do you think is faster, do you think Lewis is being too modest in his opinion of the times he has set? Or do you think that he is doing the right thing?