Carlos Sai🌠nz has been ♓ruled out of the Belgian 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 Spa-Francorchamps grid following a strong 𝓀qualifying performance on Saturday, but he will now not take the start.

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

Sainz returned to the McL🌌aren garage but the team quickly discovered the problem in his MCL35 coul♐d not be fixed in time to start the Belgian Grand Prix.

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

"Clarification that C🍌arlos' DNS was due to a PU issue that led to exhaust failure, which we will in🅠vestigate 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 surprise return to F1 with Racing Poin💃t.

Lewis Hamilton has also reported a drinks tube problem in his Mercede🌞s W11, reဣporting “all the liquid went all over my face” on his way to the grid.

He will line-up on pole position with Mercedes teammate Val꧟tteri Bottas alongside him with the Belgian Grand Prix gets underwa꧃y 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 th༒e pits

— Formula 1 (@F1)

Unfortunately, will not 🎃start the after an exhaust failure on the way to the grid.

— McLaren (@McLarenF1)