Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes enjoyed one of its strongest Fridays so far in 2017 as he led the way during practice for the Belgian Grand Prix.
Hamilton placed second to Kimi Räikkönen in the opening session before emerging quickest during the afternoon, putting a buffer of 0.262s back to the Finn.
Hamilton, who trails Sebastian Vettel by 14 points in the title race, said:” Today felt like one of our strongest Fridays so far this season.
“The car felt strong all-round straight out of the box. We made some good steps with the set-up right from the start of FP1, which is a really encouraging way to kick off the weekend.
“It looks tight at the top on the long-run pace, but we've started the weekend in the best way possible.”
Valtteri Bottas finished third fastest overall, having survived a scare in FP1 when he brushed the tyre wall on the exit of the Pif-Paf complex.
“Overall, it was a tricky day,” said Bottas.
“We had some trouble setting up the car and I didn't feel too comfortable in the beginning.
“But in the end it was getting better, we made quite big steps.
“The performance of our car in general is looking good; however, there is still a lot of margin to optimise the car.
“The long runs in the end were interrupted by the rain, but that was obviously the same for everyone. I'm glad that we at least got a few laps in with high fuel.”
