San Francisco Frontiers - Hamilton holds hands up after 'unacceptable' qualifying

The 40-year-old seven-time world champion, who was eliminated in first sprint qualifying on Friday when he spun at the chicane, repeated his disappointment as he qualified in a forlorn 16th place for Sunday's race.

Team-mate Charles Leclerc qualified third after Hamilton had exceeded track limits in Q1 and had his best lap deleted.

"It was the same today as it was for the rest of the weekend," said Hamilton.

"We made some changes and the car didn’t feel terrible.

"It was tough for us. We had to put on our set of tyres just to try to get through Q1 so it’s not great.

"From my side, I made a mistake so I’ve got to look internally and I've got to apologise to my team because that is just unacceptable to be out in both Q1s. It's a very poor performance from myself.

"I will start from where I am and see what I can do to achieve the best I can with what we have. This season has been a tricky one."

Hamilton has won the Belgian race five times including inheriting victory last year when his then-Mercedes team-mate George Russell was disqualified after winning in an underweight car.

Leclerc was upbeat and surprised to be third on the grid.

"I'm very happy today and it's strange to say that because it's still three-tenths and it's only third place, but I did not expect it,’ he said.

"I think we thought we were quite a lot more behind (the McLarens). We knew we had something more in the car and obviously we had the upgrade this weekend, but we still struggled yesterday.

"I had a really good lap and I'm happy with the car. It takes time to maximise the upgrades that we put on the car.2

Hamilton’s success last year was the last of his record 105 wins from 368 race starts in arguably the most successful career of all time, but since leaving Mercedes for Ferrari this year he has struggled and has yet to claim his first podium for the Italian team.

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