The seven-time world champion was shuffled down to sixth heading into Turn 1 after a poor getaway from second on the grid in Saturday afternoon’s sprint q♌ualifying race.

It was reminiscent of his botched start at Monza in 2016 when he w𓄧as swallowed up by the field and droppe🐷d to sixth from pole position.

Hamilton gained a position when Pierre Gasly crashed out on the first lap with damage to his AlphaTauri but the ไBriton was unable to make any further progress as he finished a fru🌃strating fifth.

Hamilton suffered wheelspin off the line and admitted𒁃 his woeful start was caused by a “subtle” mistake he made with his clutch.

“The start was just broke away traction🌠,” Hamilton explained. “Subtle, like two millimetres too deep with the clutch paddle and wheelspin – that’s it.”

Hamilton, who will start the Italian GP from fourth after teammate Valtteri Bottas’ grid penalty for taking a new power unit 🍸is applied, apologised to Mercedes for his error over team radio.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff conceded the poor start has put Hamilܫton in a difficult position heading into Sunday’s race, after main rival Max Verstappen extended his championship advantage to five points with second place behind Bottas.

“Between hero and zero on a start, there’s such🔯 a fine margin,” heꦗ said.

“Having too much wheelspin happens, to be honest, and that bit us hard today. But thereℱ’s everything to play tomꦓorrow.”

Hamilton spent 14 laps stuck behind McLaren’s Norris on his way to fifth bꦡut insisted he was not holding back in 𝓡their battle.

“I was being aggressive as I cou🍰ld be,” Hamilton added. “I just couldn’t [pass].

“The McLaren✃s are the quickest on the straights and I just couldn’t get close enough to then capitalise on a straight line. They were just as fast in the straights, if not faster.”

And Hamilton, who has not won since the▨ British Grand Prix in July, admitted his chances of securing his 100th F1 victory in Italy is now “highly unꦫlikely”.

“It 𒀰is highly unlikely but not impossible that we could get the wiꦉn,” he said.

“It’s da🗹mage limitation at the moment so it generally should be a relatively easy race for Max unless I can get past the two McLarens early on and then challenge.”