Vasseur praises Ferrari for "aggressive strategy" at the Belgian Grand Prix

F1 Grand Prix, GP Belgium, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

On the back of a strong weekend for Ferrari at Spa-Francorchamps, the Scuderia's team boss Fred Vasseur was left to praise the Italian outfit for the aggressive strategy that helped Lewis Hamilton recover from a disappointing starting position.

Ferrari endured an up-and-down weekend at Spa-Francorchamps. While Charles Leclerc delivered an absolutely faultless performance all weekend long, his team-mate Lewis Hamilton struggled to put together his laps in both the sprint and standard qualifying session.

The Monegasque started from P3 on the grid, and managed to maintain this spot in the tricky, damp conditions, fending of the attacks of Max Verstappen whose Red Bull was arguably more competitive in the early stages of the 44-lap race.

Leclerc then pitted at the right time, and never lost his concentration, keeping Verstappen at bay despite enormous pressure from the reigning champion.

His team-mate Hamilton started from P18 following a tough qualifying session on Saturday. The Briton was excellent in the damp conditions, picking off five drivers in the opening stages of the race.

The seven-time world champion pitted at absolutely perfect time, gaining a lot thanks to his early stop. He then went on to close in on Alex Albon, but with his aerodynamic configuration he was unable to make any further progress.

Still, it was one of the most successful race weekends with Ferrari for Hamilton, and his sensational comeback drive also saw him earn the title of "Driver of the Day".

"We introduced a new package this weekend that we had to fine-tune and understand, which is not always easy but I think overall, we did a good job.

"We had decent pace today on both sides of the garage and picked up good points. Now we must target getting closer to McLaren race by race.

"Charles did very well in defending from Max to get on the podium and Lewis produced a very strong drive, doing a great job overtaking so many cars in the first ten laps.

"We know what happened in quali was tough but at the end of the day, the pace was good today. We were aggressive on the strategy with the pit-stops and everything went well."