Lewis Hamilton has claimed that McLaren are confident that they can challenge for honours at next week's Spanish Grand Prix.

The British driver has never finished on the podium in Spain but expects McLaren to produce an impressive team perfomance in Barcelona next week.

Hamilton said: "Our performance at Barcelona during winter testing looked promising - but the form of the season is still very hard to read, so it's difficult to predict who'll be at the front next weekend.

"Nonetheless, we had a great race there last year - I pushed Sebastian [Vettel] all the way to the finish. I think we have a comparatively stronger car this year, so I hope we can have another strong race."

Hamilton is currently lying second in the world championship standings.