Hamilton reveals encouraging take ahead of the Belgian GP: 'That felt great'

The British driver qualified sixth for the Belgian Grand Prix, finishing just 0.002 seconds behind teammate Charles Leclerc. Hamilton will gain one position on the grid following Lando Norris' 10-place grid penalty.

Looking ahead, Hamilton said his latest long run had been encouraging, although his setup has since been adjusted and the car also had to be rebuilt after his FP3 crash.

Speaking to GPblog, among others, after qualifying, he explained: "I hope [we can do better]. In FP3, the car was really, really good. I did a bit of a long run and the car was feeling great."

He added: "It is a slightly different subtly different car and setup wise so I'm so hopeful it's good setup wise, so I'm still hoping it's good as well."

In terms of qualifying, Hamilton also thought that his crash also influenced how the car felt on Saturday.

Hamilton and Carlos Sainz were among the drivers who criticized the current generation of cars once again amid the energy-starving nature of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

"We saw it straight away. I don't know who made the decision, but whoever it is, they're still in their job," Hamilton said.

Sainz added: "I think no one out there is enjoying the qualifying lap as much as we did last year. I think it's clear that we've lost quite a bit with these cars around Spa. Having said that, I don't want to keep belittling my own sport because it's not going to do any good. So I think we all know this is not good enough, it needs to change, it will evolve.