BARCELONA, Spain -- Nico Hulkenberg beat out three former Formula One champions to set the fastest lap in testing on Friday, good news for the Williams team.
Michael Schumacher and Mercedes wish they could get a few positive vibes themselves.
Hulkenberg set a best time of 1 minute, 20.614 seconds to edge two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Ferrari by two-hundreths of a second at the Circuit de Catalunya. Pedro De la Rosa of Sauber was just over three-tenths back in third.
"Today is nice but means nothing, to be honest," Hulkenberg said. "It's positive for the team, and for me, to know what the car can do."
Tonio Liuzzi of Force India and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel rounded out the top five in testing. Jaime Alguersuari of Toro Rosso was sixth, with seven-time champion Schumacher and 2008 champion Lewis Hamilton more than a second back.
Schumacher, whose best lap was 1:21.689, said Mercedes was unlikely to be in a position to triumph come the season-opener at Bahrain.
"Maybe not," Schumacher said Friday, when asked whether the former Brawn GP team could challenge at the March 14 opener. "At the moment we are not perfectly in the position we would like to be, to be competitive to win the first races straight away."
Schumacher is back after three years in retirement.
"We're working hard, the season is long. The main issue is not to be far off," said the 41-year-old German. "This is very difficult to judge right now, what is the real picture."
Most drivers said it's difficult to draw many conclusions for the season from the testing sessions though Ferrari and Red Bull are expected to be slightly ahead of McLaren and Mercedes.
"Clearly there are some teams which are extremely fast and very competitive," Hamilton said. "We feel we're doing a good job, but we still have work to do."
Alonso, meanwhile, sounded like a third title was his to lose.
"I can say it again: It's the best car I've ever driven, but that doesn't mean that it is the best car on the grid," Alonso said. "What's clear is that we have done a great job. We made a list of things before we began testing and today we checked the final item, so I think we arrive in Bahrain having done all we could have done."
A cold forced Vettel to stop after 125 laps but the German driver said Red Bull had overcome the reliability problems that may have cost him last year's championship to Jenson Button.
"I don't think we have to fear reliability issues yet. It looks good," Vettel said.
Robert Kubica of Renault was ninth in testing, while Jarno Trulli of Lotus and Virgin Racing's Timo Glock completed the field for the 21,200 who watched the session in warm weather.