Hamilton secured fourth in qualifyin✤g at Spa-Francorchamps, over 0.9s off champions✤hip leader Verstappen.

Verstappen wil🎃l start Sunday’s race ♕from sixth of the grid due to a gearbox penalty, promoting Hamilton into the top three.

Speaking after▨ qualifying, Hamilton was pleased with his qualifying performance given the tricky conditions.

• Verstappen 0.8s clear in🌳 Belgian GP qualifying but penalty puts Leclercꦆ on pole

“Firstly, 🐈this track iꦬs incredible to drive,” he said. “It was definitely hectic because it was consistently drying.

“It was slippery at the beginning, and difficult to see. You know that every lap is going to be faster than th🔯e next lap. That’s why we were at 🀅the end of the pitlane early.

“Each session, the team did a great job in getting us out ⛄with great turnarounds.🐈 Head down, I was maximising as much as I could.

“I was still a good chunk off Max! Pretty impressive, but I’m really happy﷽.”

Hamܫilton has his eyes firmly set on a podium on Sunday.

“I gꦛuess I have Max behind, but that will be the goal, of course,” he added.

“P1, no-one got any running. Ge꧂tting the set-up ready for qua𓆉lifying was a big guessing game.

“I’m hoping the car is decent in the🅘 long run tomor♈row in the race.

“It didn’t feel bad today. The car was pret🥀ty decent. But in the middle sector we were losing a second. I have to go and study, to figure♎ out where that is. If there’s any way, with the package I have, that I can close that. We obviously need to work on making improvements.”