Berliner Tageblatt - Hamilton crashes out of Belgian GP on opening lap

Starting from the second row, both drivers slipped past Red Bull's Sergio Perez early. Hamilton, in third, then cut across in front of Alonso who clipped him.

The Mercedes bounced off and appeared to be functioning fine as Hamilton continued to attack.

Moments later, however, he slowed to a halt in the middle of the track with his team telling him: "Stop stop stop".

Alonso's Alpine appeared to have withstood the impact although the double world champion was less than impressed by his former teammate's performance.

"What an idiot closing the door from the outside!" said Alonso over the radio.

Shortly after, Nicholas Latifi (Williams) took out the Alfa Romeo of Hamilton's old Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas, prompting the first safety car of the day.

When they resumed Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, who started in pole position, was still in the lead.

M.Ouellet--BTB