Lewis Hamilton suffered a crash during practice at the Belgian Grand Prix, which hindered his chances of enjoying a successful qualifying run.
The seven-time world champion damaged the back of his Ferrari n the closing stages of practice on Saturday, which left the mechanics with an uphill task to repair the car with just two hours before qualifying began.
Hamilton was able to get back onto the track at Spa and secured P5 for the race on Sunday, though the car did not feel the same as before the crash.
Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes secured pole, while Max Verstappen will start second on the grid ahead of George Russell in third and Charles Leclerc in fourth.
"The boys did a mega job to fix my damage after FP3," Hamilton said. "The car felt amazing in FP3 and I really felt confident.
"We wouldn't have been fighting for pole, because the Mercedes are just too fast, but we definitely could have been, with the car we had in FP3, we could probably have been third. I was missing a couple of tenths once I got to qualifying. The car wasn't identical to what we ended up having for qualifying, but I did the best I could with what I had."
His efforts earned him sixth on the timesheet, climbing to fifth on Sunday's grid following Lando Norris' penalty. Hamilton is honest about making inroads during the race but held doubts about finding a way past the two Mercedes ahead of him.
