Sergio Perez says Force India can fight with Williams for a spot on the podium ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, where he is set to start from fourth.
Perez qualified fifth but was promoted to the second row by Romain Grosjean's gearbox penalty on a weekend Force India has looked strong, particularly through the first sector. While team-mate Nico Hulkenberg surprisingly failed to make it through to Q3 Perez was able to show Force India's potential and he will line up alongside Valtteri Bottas' Williams.
Perez is one of two men to have stood on the podium in Force India colours after third at the 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix and he thinks a repeat is possible on Sunday.
"That was a pretty good qualifying, not just the last lap in Q3, it was just everything," Perez said. "My Q2 laps, my Q1 laps, I have been quite confident with the car this weekend. I think the changes we did definitely helped us and I'm looking forward to tomorrow. I think we have all the reason to dream of the podium, I believe we can fight the Williams."
The Mexican driver said the result is proof he is finally getting to grips with the revised B-spec car Force India introduced at the British Grand Prix.
"It's going to be a bit of a messy start tomorrow but we're confident we can do a good job on that one. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow and trying to get plenty of points. It's been a difficult run up to now - the last three or four races for me - since we brought the new car. For me I've been struggling to dial in to the car a bit with the set-up and so on. I think this weekend we have definitely done a very good step forward.
"I think we have done a good job with the car. If we brought our old car here we would probably be fighting with the McLarens."
With just 0.06s separating him from third-placed man Bottas, Perez thinks his grid position could have been even better.
"When you look at the results and you are a couple of hundredths away from P3, you definitely think P3 was possible. If I had been in P3 I would be saying I took the maximum. But I was P5 and I was a couple of hundredths away, not even a tenth, so I think I could have found another one."