Hamilton encouraged by Spa qualifying display as Mercedes driver emerges with ‘best we could get’

Lewis Hamilton expressed his satisfaction after posting the fourth-fastest time during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix, describing it as “the best we could get” from the rain-hit session.

Hamilton trailed only Red Bull pair Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in the decisive Q3 phase, with team mate George Russell taking seventh.

READ MORE: Verstappen claims P1 in Belgium qualifying ahead of grid penalty with Leclerc to start race from pole

However, both Silver Arrows machines will gain a spot on Sunday’s starting grid, thanks to Verstappen losing 10 places following an engine change.

“P3 tomorrow? Oh yeah, I hadn’t thought about his penalty!” Hamilton commented, when told of his starting position.

“Hmm, yeah, generally a good session. I think we tried to predict the weather as best we could and tried to be out on the track at the right times.

“Ultimately, you’ll look at it and say there are certain areas where we… Like, for example, the last run we were the first out, we were out too early. And also, we didn’t have another set [of tyres] like [some of] the others did.

“Otherwise, I’m pretty happy with it. I think we worked as hard as we could and it was the best we could get.”

FACTS AND STATS: Perez bags first front row start since China after scraping into Q3 by 0.003s

With weather conditions set to switch back to the dry on Sunday, Hamilton was asked for his thoughts on Mercedes’s potential in race-trim, and how quickly he expects Verstappen to recover from P11.

“Ah, Max will make his way through pretty quick,” said the seven-time world champion. “I think their car is the fastest here this weekend, or at least tied with McLaren.

“For us, we just have to keep our head down and try and hold position. I’ve got to try and see if I can keep up with the guys ahead of me, but I’ll give it everything and I’m hoping the changes we made will make things better for tomorrow.”

As for Russell, who was 0.349s slower than Hamilton in Q3, the younger Briton said: “I think it [seventh] was a fair result, to be honest.

“We’ve not been the quickest this weekend, it’s not been… It’s definitely not been easy predicting what the weather was going to do and finding that sweet spot with the tyres.

“Yeah, in the end, we weren’t as quick as our competitors, and I think that was probably the right result.”

AS IT HAPPENED: Follow all the action from qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix

Asked about his prospects on race day, Russell added: “I think the McLarens will be really quick, I think Max will be really quick.

“But tyre deg seems pretty ginormous around here at the moment, so you know, they may have the quickest car but if you can nurse those tyres properly, I think there is still a lot of opportunities.

“I expect it to be difficult to fight for the podium, but it’s… There are going to be opportunities, so let’s wait and see.”