Carlos Sainz has been ruled out of the Belgꦦian Grand Prix before it has even begun after suffering an exhaust failure on his McLaren Formula 1 car.

The Spaniard was due to line-up from seventh on the Sp♋a-Francorchamps grid following a strong qualifying performance on Saturday, but he will now not take the start.

Sainz encountered the problem on his outlap on his wayꦡ to the grid but reported to McLaren over team radio that “there’s smoke coming out of the car”.

Sainz returned to the McLaren garage but the team quickly discovered the problem in hi💜s MCL35 could not be fixed in time to start the Belgian Grand Prix.

“Carlos has exhaust faℱilure and will not start the race,” a McLaren spokesperson confirmed shortly before the start of the race.

"Clarification that Carlos' DNS was due to a PU issue that led to exhaust failure, which we will investigate꧑ further after the race." 

It is the second time this season that a driver has failed to start a grand prix, after a technical🃏 issue prevented Nico Hulkenberg from starting the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on his su✤rprise return to F1 with Racing Point.

Lewis Hamilton has also reportꦬed a drinks tube problem in his Mercedes W11, reporting “all tܫhe liquid went all over my face” on his way to the grid.

He will line-up on pole position with Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas alongside him wiꦫth the Belgian Grand Prix gets underway at 15:10pm local time (14:10pm BST).

"There's smoke coming out of the car" radios back to his engineers 💯on his way to the grid and the🉐 Spaniard returns to the pits

— Formula 1 (@F1)

Unfortunไately, will not start the after an exhaust failure on the wayꩵ to the grid.

— McLaren (@McLarenF1)