Hamilton ended the day sixth and nearly 1.4s seconds off th🅷e benchmark pace set by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen as Mercedes once again faced tyre warm-up issues amid cool temperatures at Spa-Francorchamps, with rain affe𓂃cting both practice sessions. 

The 💖seven-time world champion said Mercedes’ lack of competitiveness was not unexpected given the team's Friday form so far this season, though he did confirm he wasn't running on heavy fuel in FP2. 

“We’re just not very quick. I🎶 don’t know why,” Hamilton conceded 𒉰after second practice. 

Asked if Mercedes’ pace struggles are related to thꦑe conditions, Hamilton replied: “I really don’t know. We’re going out, giving it everything, everything we’ve got. 

“It could be tyres, could be tyre temps, could be wing level, could 🦋be a multitude of things. 

“It doesn’t🥀 feel disastrous out there, it’s just we’re a l﷽ong way off. But we often find this on a Friday and things change a little bit more on Saturday so I hope that’s the case.”

Mercedes teammate George Russell finish𝕴ed eighth, a couple of tenths behind Hamilton. 

Both Russellꦺ and Hamilton reported problems getting their tyres up to temperature in FP2. 

“I think it's something we're struggling with quite a lot this season to get the temperature into the tyres,” Rus♛sell explained. 

“I struggle𝔉d quite a lot today with that on every compound we used. So in these co⛦nditions it is definitely something we need to work on. 

"But it's something I know that you 💫can find a huge amount of performance when you get in the right wi❀ndow. 

“So there's a little bit of optimism ther☂e. But for sure, the gap to Max and the Ferraris is pretty extravagant.”&n🦩bsp;

But the Briton, who claimed his maidꦆen F1 pole last time ꧒out in Hungary, remains hopeful that Mercedes can find improvements in time for qualifying. 

"We're pretty used to having bad Fridays,” ꦕRussell added. “So let's see if we can turn it around. 

“I don’t think there will be any guarantees we can𒅌 find the performance st🎐ep that we we found in the last race, let's say.

“But we'll all be wꦓorking flat-out tonig🎃ht to try and get on top of it. But totally different day tomorrow conditions will be very different. So let's see what it brings.” 

Mercedes’ chances are set to be boosted by looming grid penalties for Verstappen and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, both of whom are set to drop towards the back of the gr𝓰id for Sun꧃day’s grand prix after taking new engines.