Lewis Hamilton said he needed to apologise to his Ferrari team after describing his successive early qualifying eliminations at the Belgian Grand Prix as "very poor" and "unacceptable".
Amid a miserable Sprint weekend so far for the seven-time world champion at Spa-Francorchamps, Hamilton has failed to clear the first hurdle in either of the event's two qualifying sessions.
In Friday's Sprint Qualifying, the Ferrari driver spun at the end of his final lap in SQ1 and qualified 18th.
Then, having finished 15th in the short-form Saturday race itself, Hamilton dropped out early again main qualifying for Sunday's Grand Prix - this time after a track limits infringement at the top of Eau Rouge on his final lap saw his seventh-quickest time deleted by Race Control.
A disappointed Hamilton made no excuses for his travails, telling Sky Sports F1 after qualifying, "From my side, another mistake. I really have got to look internally. I have got to apologise to my team because it's just unacceptable to be out in both Q1s.”
Hamilton now faces an uphill battle to even score a handful of points in Sunday's 44-lap race, although the prospect of Sunday rain may help his chances of producing a drive through the field.
