Russell left frustrated after early Spa retirement: It's not good enough

George Russell endured another frustrating weekend at Spa-Francorchamps after being eliminated from the Belgian Grand Prix on the opening lap following contact with Lewis Hamilton.

The Mercedes driver started the 44-lap race from third on the grid but had struggled with a lack of straight-line speed throughout the weekend compared to his team-mate and championship leader Kimi Antonelli.

While Antonelli battled Max Verstappen for the lead at the front, Russell was quickly overtaken along the Kemmel Straight by both Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Hamilton.

Russell then attempted to go around the outside of Hamilton under braking for Les Combes. The two cars made contact through the right-left sequence, sending Russell into the gravel and ending his race.

Hamilton was able to continue and eventually finished fourth, although he was handed a five-second penalty for causing the collision.

"It all started from the build up. I came out of Turn 1, for whatever reason I was 30% or 40% down on my battery and I just got totally swamped by three cars," Russell said, as quoted by F1.com

Russell admitted that he had not yet fully reviewed the incident with Hamilton but refused to place the blame on his former team-mate.

"The incident with Lewis, I've not really seen it. I thought it was probably a racing incident. I'm not going to blame Lewis. If things were normal, I wouldn't have been battling with Lewis, I would have been battling with Kimi and Max ahead."

The retirement came at a particularly difficult time for Russell, who arrived in Belgium just 25 points behind Antonelli in the Drivers' Championship. With Antonelli going on to claim victory, Russell's deficit has now grown significantly to 50 points.

The Mercedes driver acknowledged that his team needs to find more performance if he is to remain in contention for the title.

"It's one thing after another, after another, after another. Not good enough on all regards. Try and reset again, done it enough times this season and see what we can do," Russell added.