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Nico Rosberg set the pace as world champions Mercedes continued their ominous form on the first day of the final Formula 1 pre-season test.

The German was 0.207 seconds quicker than Williams driver Valtteri Bottas.

There was encouragement for struggling McLaren-Honda as Fernando Alonso set the third best time, albeit 1.7secs slower than Rosberg on the same tyres.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was fourth, 1.8secs off Rosberg but on a tyre calculated to be 0.8secs a lap slower.

Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat was fifth quickest, on the same ‘soft’ tyre that Rosberg and Alonso used, 0.2secs slower than the McLaren.

World champion Lewis Hamilton drove in the afternoon as Mercedes continued their policy of using both race drivers in one day to avoid over-exerting them, as a result of the high mileage the team are covering.

But Hamilton concentrated on a race-simulation run and did not record a representative one-off flying lap, setting sixth quickest time on the same type of medium tyres used by Raikkonen.

Sauber’s 2016 car ran for the first time and Felipe Nasr was ninth fastest, 2.5secs off the pace.

It is notoriously difficult to predict form from pre-season testing times because the teams do no release crucial data about the specifications in which their cars are running, such as fuel load, engine mode and so on.

But all the indications so far are that Mercedes are again in the best shape ahead of the start of the season in Australia on 18-20 March, with a car that is both fast and running with metronomic consistency.

Ferrari, expected to be their closest rivals, have not showed anything like equivalent pace, and nor have they enjoyed the same level of reliability. Raikkonen lost all but one hour of the afternoon on Tuesday after stopping out on track when the car became stuck in eighth gear.

The best estimates so far suggest the red car is about 0.5secs a lap slower than the Mercedes – although there is always a margin for error involved.

But Rosberg said on Tuesday: “It’s very close between Ferrari and us – and another team might be there as well.”

Raikkonen’s best time was set on the medium tyre – but that still means the Ferrari was a second off the Mercedes’ pace assuming the cars were on similar fuel loads.

The identity of the other team Rosberg is referring to was not clear – but the main candidates are Force India, Williams, Red Bull and Toro Rosso.

Bottas’s flying laps on Tuesday suggested that Williams are there or thereabouts at the head of the mix behind Mercedes, as they have been since they switched to the German engines in 2014. — BBC Sport