Lewis Hamilton “really happy” as he looks to challenge for the podium in the F1 Belgium GP after starting P3 on Sunday

Coming off a pole position in Hungary, Lewis Hamilton once again extracted the most out of the Mercedes W14 as he secured a P3 start for the Belgian Grand Prix.

The qualifying session for the Belgian GP on Friday (July 28) witnessed drivers take on the damp track at Spa Francorchamps. Starting out as a wet track, drivers quickly switched to slicks in the second session as times tumbled. However, in the final session, a familiar name topped the charts with a jaw-dropping lap time.

Max Verstappen blew away the entire field qualifying eight-tenths ahead of second place Charles Leclerc and nine-tenths ahead of Lewis Hamilton in P4. Verstappen will start sixth on Sunday's grid as he takes a five-place grid drop.

Hamilton will start on the second row, as he feels it was the best position he could achieve in the W14. He starts four places ahead of his teammate George Russell.

"The team did a great job in getting us around and quick turnarounds. I was just head down, maximizing as much as I could. At the end still a good chunk of Max... umm pretty impressive... but I'm really happy with the result we got," Hamilton said in the post-qualifying interview.

With his old Red Bull rival behind him, Hamilton is focused on chasing down Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc starting ahead of him. But the seven-time world champion has a cautious outlook with no dry running to know the pecking order for the race.

"I have Max behind, but that would be the goal of course to chase those guys down. I think in FP1, no one really got any running... and getting the setup ready for qualifying when it went to dry was a big guessing game. So I'm hoping that the car's decent in the long run tomorrow, in the race... so far it's good start," the Brit added.

After missing out on a podium finish in Hungary, the 38-year-old will put in his best efforts to claim a top-three result on a track he has won four times.

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Lewis Hamilton explains Mercedes' strategy in the qualifying session

Lewis Hamilton in the Belgium GP Qualifying

Changing weather conditions and the quickly evolving track creates exciting qualifying sessions. The same happened in Friday's session, with many drivers vying for pole position until Max Verstappen ruined the party.

Prior to the start of each session, Mercedes drivers were seen queueing up for long periods of time on the pit lane. Lewis Hamilton explained the strategy chosen by the team in the hectic session as he said:

"It was definitely very hectic because it was consistently drying up. Very slippery at the beginning and difficult to see. And just maximizing because you know every lap is gonna be faster than the next lap. That's why we were out of the pitlane early each session."

The qualifying drama repeats again with drivers heading out for the Sprint Shootout on Saturday morning. Lewis Hamilton will be hoping to better his position for the afternoon's sprint race.