'Strongest Friday so far' for Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton was clearly feeling upbeat at Spa-Francorchamps upon his return to Formula 1 duty after the lengthy summer shutdown.

Ominously as far as his rivals were concerned, he dubbed Friday's Belgian Grand Prix practice day his best of the season to date.

"It's great to be back!" beamed the three-time world champion, who set the best time of the day with a lap of 1:44.753s early in FP2.

"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," he added.

Hamilton was 0.262s faster in the afternoon than Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, who had earlier pipped him to the top spot in FP1.

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

• Hamilton finishes Friday fastest in rain-curtailed FP2

Hamilton's team mate Valtteri Bottas was third fastest in second practice, just over four tenths off Hamilton's pace.

"Overall, it was a tricky day," sighed the Finn, who is rumoured to be close to inking a deal to stay at Mercedes in 2018.

"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," he added. "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."

Despite the team's evident Friday pace, a note of caution was sounded by chief engineer Andrew Shovlin.

"The day was obviously affected by the rain at the end of the second session," he pointed out. "That has left us missing a bit of tyre data that we would normally have.

"We had new power units in the car which have been signed off well. And we also brought our low-downforce package for this circuit which has performed in line with expectations

"Overall, the drivers are reasonably pleased with the car but there are a few more unknowns than normal."

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