Lewis Hamilton was elated with the performance of his car after topping the times as Mercedes enjoyed a strong start to the weekend during Friday practice at the Belgian Grand Prix.

The Briton showed excellent pace throughout the day, pretty much matching Kimi Raikkonen's fastest time in the morning on the Soft compound before setting a near record pace in the afternoon around Spa-Francorchamps. was able to get things right quickly and early during the day enjoying a good feel of the car around Spa.

Analysing his day afterwards, it was how Mercedes and Hamilton were able to get things right quickly and early in the day that most enthused the 32-year-old as he enjoyed a good feeling with the car around the famous circuit.

“Today felt like one of our strongest Friday's so far this season," he claimed, 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.”

However, the triple world champion admitted it will not be an easy ride the rest of the weekend with the long run gap being close at the top.

“It looks tight at the top on the long-run pace, but we've started the weekend in the best way possible.”

Across the garage, Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas admitted he needed some extra work to start enjoying his Mercedes but was confident progress was and will be made heading into qualifying.

“Overall, it was a tricky day. We had some trouble setting up the car and I didn't feel too comfortable in the beginning," he revealed.

“In the end it was getting better, we made quite big steps. The performance in general is looking good; however, there is still a lot of margin to optimize 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.”