Hamilton celebrates 'great' day at Spa

The 23-year-old McLaren driver beat his closest championship rival, Ferrari's Felipe Massa, by over three tenths of a second to set himself perfectly to fight for his fifth victory of the year tomorrow.

Hamilton admitted he was very happy with his performance during the whole session.

"Today has been a great day for me," said Hamilton, who secured his 11th Formula One pole position.

"I was so happy with all three laps I did in qualifying because it is always satisfying when you can do one lap and come back and watch everyone try and get their laps done.

"Today the team made no mistakes and I made no mistakes, I had three great laps, four great laps, at the end of Q3. My first Q3 lap had a bit of a lock-up at turn one, same at the second one but I kept it together, and the rest of the lap I was very happy with.

"I decided to stay with the harder tyre for Q2 and surprisingly the Option, the softer tyre, is quite a bit better. Everyone else was on Option and I was on Prime, so I was comfortable with the pace I had considering I was on that tyre."

The Briton, who had to settle for second place at the European Grand Prix two weeks ago, said he was feeling better than ever ahead of tomorrow's race.

"I feel great, the atmosphere in the team feels great," he said. "I think coming from Valencia we knew we had some work to do and I come here feeling better than ever. I feel comfortable in the car, I have got a big enough smile."

Hamilton's teammate Heikki Kovalainen will start from third position.