Lewis Hamilton will face an uphill battle to challenge for a top-three finish in today’s Belgian Grand Prix sprint, with the Brit set to start from seventh on the grid. He looked quick at times during this morning’s sprint shootout but was unable to get himself near the front after a late near miss with Mercedes team-mate George Russell.

Russell locked up at the exit of Turn One on his final hot lap, which left the Mercedes duo running nose-to-tail on the run down to Eau Rouge and along the Kemmel Straight. Hamilton initially enjoyed a tow but was ultimately forced to pull off the throttle to avoid colliding with Russell as they approached Turn Seven.

The seven-time champion opted against directly criticising his team-mate when quizzed on the incident after the session, as he said: “We’re not happy about it obviously. It was a really fun session and it was looking great at the end. I had that lap which put me first for the first lap that I’d done and I knew I could go quicker. I reckon I could have been first or second on that last lap.

“Communication was pretty poor, it was difficult to understand. We got to the last corner and there were seven cars trundling around. We thought we didn’t have any more time left which was why we were pushing but it turns out we had plenty of time.”

Follow Express Sport‘s live updates from the Belgian Grand Prix sprint below..