Hamilton: We're a good chunk off Max and his lap was impressive

And the seven-time F1 World Champion also had a good word for his one-time nemesis Max Verstappen's pole-winning effort.

Qualifying was tricky, from the wet deluge in the morning things started drying rapidly turning a wet track before the session began to a very fast-drying one by the time the chequered flag waved to end proceedings on Friday.

In conditions such as these, the cream tends to rise to the top. Thus no surprise Max Verstappen blitzed to pole by an astounding eight-tenths of a second, behind him it was super close, with Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez separated by less than a tenth, meaning they will start P1 and P2 respectively, as Verstappen takes a five-place grid drop penalty for a 'tactical' gearbox change.

Hamilton was only shy a tenth of Leclerc's effort and notably eight-tenths faster than George Russell in the other Mercedes down in eighth. The same gap Verstappen enjoyed over Perez in the RBR camp.

After a tense and tricky Friday, Hamilton reported: "I'm happy with today's result. It was a hectic session as it was consistently drying up. It was very slippery at the beginning and visibility was a challenge. You know that every lap you are going to be improving as it dries up, so you need to maximise it.

"That's why we were waiting at the end of the pitlane each session and the Team did a great job of getting us out there and finding clear track. I kept my head down and focused on maximising as much as I could.

"At the end, we were a good chunk off Max and his lap was pretty impressive. We're pleased with where we are starting though. I'll now have Max behind me on Sunday, but the aim is definitely to fight for a podium and chase down the guys ahead.

"No one got any real running in FP1 so I'm hoping that we have decent long-run pace. Setting the car up ahead of qualifying was a bit of a guessing game. The car felt pretty decent, but we lost a lot of time in the middle sector.

"We'll go away, study it, and see where there is time to be found. We will work on making any improvements we can, and we'll be giving it everything we've got for the rest of the weekend. So far though, it's a good start< added Hamilton, who has won the Belgian GP on four occasions.

Looking back on his Qualy, Russell summed up: "It was a dynamic session. We were a bit off the pace for the entire session and struggled throughout; I'm not sure why. I usually love those transitional conditions between wet and dry, but on every lap we were nowhere.

"There's plenty to review and try to understand. We know qualifying isn't everything around here, but we would of course have liked to be higher up the order.

"The lack of running in FP1 wasn't too much of a factor as it's the same for everyone. You always want to do more laps to further your understanding, but the car didn't feel too bad. There's a decent amount for us to try and understand overnight.

Mercedes trackside boss, Andrew Shovlin summed up for the team: "Sprint race weekends are challenging. When you get no useful running in the first session, they become even more difficult. You need to rely entirely on the pre-weekend simulations to set the car up and get it balanced."

Shovlin continued: "Today's qualifying session was tricky with the changing conditions; the long lap doesn't make that any easier as you don't get many attempts in each session.

"Lewis was very close to Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez but unfortunately, we were missing a tenth. George struggled a bit for pace as the track moved to dry. We'll have a look through the data and see what there is to learn ahead of the sprint qualifying tomorrow; hopefully we'll find a bit of speed.

"We've had no real dry running yet, so the sprint race is going to a bit of a long run test ahead of Sunday's Grand Prix. We can't change the car now so hopefully we've got the race balance in the right place," Shovlin concluded.

Last year Hamilton's race at Spa lasted less than a lap, colliding with old foe Fernando Alonso's Alpine as they roared into Le Combes. The Mercedes driver should've known and done better. His record show's a zero lap DNF for the race a year ago. He will be looking to make amends.

Russell, on the other hand, finished fourth last year and will also be seeking to make his own amends, putting his Qualy no-show (relative to Lewis) by heading towards the podium side of things during the race tomorrow.