"The confidence wasn’t there," admits Antonelli after a tough day at Spa

Having set the third slowest time, with only the two Aston Martins behind him, Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli conceded that he lacked confidence behind the wheel of his W16 which would have been necessary to extract everything from his car.

In Saturday's sprint race, George Russell started from P13 on the grid, whilst his team-mate Kimi Antonelli lined up in P19 after both drivers were hampered in Sprint Qualifying on Friday.

In a quiet race, Russell made up one position to come home P12 with Antonelli advancing two positions to P17, leaving Mercedes with no points to collect.

Qualifying proved a tricky affair too with the car struggling for the pace needed to fight for the front two rows of the grid. In Q1, both drivers improved on their final efforts but Antonelli was knocked out in P18.

The four-time Grand Prix winner meanwhile progressed to Q3 but could only manage P6 on his last run.

Explaining his difficulties at Spa, Antonelli noted: "That was another difficult day in what has been a tricky period for us over the past few races. I was struggling with the car balance on Friday and that continued into Qualifying today.

"The confidence wasn’t there and that showed in the lap time. It is frustrating as we know we have more pace than we showed today," the Italian added.

"We are working hard to improve so we can get back on track and putting in good results. Whilst Qualifying didn’t go the way we want, we have a chance to do that tomorrow.

"The weather forecast is changeable, and we may have rain. That would give us a chance to make up more positions than may be possible in a standard dry race," concluded the Bologna-born driver.