rewrite this title Hamilton: Spa qualifying result ‘unacceptable’

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium — Lewis Hamilton labeled his performance at the Belgian Grand Prix “unacceptable,” saying he had to look internally to find answers about a miserable week so far.

For the second time in two days, Hamilton was eliminated in the Q1 session — he had spun during sprint qualifying on Friday and then failed to progress from the proper qualifying session again 24 hours later.

A lap he had set, which was good enough to advance, was deleted for a track limits violation at the top of the famous Eau Rouge.

“I’ve got to look internally and apologize to the team because it’s unacceptable to be out in Q1, it’s [a] very very poor performance,” Hamilton told Sky Sports News after qualifying 16th.

He added: “It’s incredibly painful. It’s turning out to be a pretty bad weekend so far.”

On Thursday, Hamilton had spoken about the lengths he is going to behind the scenes to push Ferrari’s struggling race car forward this year.

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The seven-time world champion said he refused to be like fellow multiple title winners Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel in being unsuccessful as a Ferrari driver.

But he has not looked comfortable at all since track action started — by contrast, teammate Charles Leclerc will start Sunday’s race from third, having qualified as best of the rest behind the McLaren drivers.

Hamilton’s outlook for the race was bleak.

“Anything can happen here,” he said. “I mean, I don’t know. I have no clue about tomorrow. It’s going to be hard from where I am. Definitely a weekend to forget.”