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

It was reminiscent of his botch🦹ed start at Monza in 2016 when he was swallowed up by the field and dropped 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 Brﷺiton was unable to make any further progress as he finished a frustrating fifth.

Hamilton s🐻uffered wheelspin off the line and admitted his woeful start was caused by a “subtle” mistake he ma💛de with his clutch.

“The start was just broke away traction,” Hamilton﷽ explained. “Subtle, like two millimetres too deep with the clutch paddle and whe🍬elspin – 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 t🅠eam radio.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff conceded the poor start has put Hamilton in a diff❀icult 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 ma🎃rgin,” he said.

“Having too much wheelspin꧅ happeꦗns, to be honest, and that bit us hard today. But there’s everything to play tomorrow.”

Hamilton spent 1ꦡ4 laps stuck behind McLaren’s Norris on his way to fifth but insisted he was not holding back in their battle.

“I was being𓃲🥀 aggressive as I could be,” Hamilton added. “I just couldn’t [pass].

“The McLarens are the quickest on the straights and I just couldn’t get close enough to then capitalise on aꦬ straight line. They wer🦩e just as fast in the straights, if not faster.”

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

“It is highly unlikely but not impossible that we could get the win,” 🙈he said.

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