Lewis Hamilton flies to Los Angeles for a break after racking up nearly 1,000 miles during week of testing in Barcelona 

After getting nearly 1,000 miles underneath his belt during a week of testing, Lewis Hamilton has decided to jet off to Los Angeles for a break ahead of the next round of practice sessions.

The current Formula One champion revealed to his Instagram and Snapchat followers that he was travelling from London Heathrow to the States.

Hamilton uploaded a selfie while en route to California, with the Mercedes driver pictured wearing a camouflage hoodie and quirky glasses.

Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton uploaded a picture of himself on board a plane to Los Angeles 

Hamilton hailed an 'incredible' week of testing after he completed nearly 1,000 miles in Barcelona

The Briton has been earmarked as the favourite to win a third consecutive Formula One championship

Testing in Barcelona is scheduled to get back underway on Tuesday with the first race of the new season taking place in Melbourne, Australia on March 20.

The three-time champion has described this week's testing as 'incredible' after he turned in 99 laps before lunch on Thursday to take his tally for the week to 342 — which equates to more than five race distances.

Hamilton had already been earmarked as the favourite to win a third consecutive championship, and there has been little evidence this week to suggest that Hamilton and his Mercedes team will not be the ones to beat.

'It's been an incredible week of testing for us because we've done more mileage than we ever had before,' said Hamilton.

'Before we came here, the team were talking about doing 800km (497 miles) a day and I was thinking they are crazy. I've never done that in the past.

'Usually you have breakdowns with the car. Not just for us, but for lots of people, there's been no red flags. There's a lot more reliability which I guess you would expect with the third year of this type of power unit.' 

Hamilton turned in 99 laps before lunch on Thursday to take his tally for the week to 342

The three-time world champion drives for Mercedes at the Circuit de Catalunya on Thursday morning