Charles Leclerc has admitted that his clash with Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton "went too far" in the opening corners of the Italian Grand Prix.
Hamilton, the seven-time world champion, started fourth and went down the inside of Leclerc, who was third, into the first chicane. The two ran side by side through the corner, but Hamilton was pushed onto the gravel on the exit. He told his race engineer shortly afterwards: "Charles pushed me off."
Asked about the incident amid talk that the Ferrari drivers need to work together, Leclerc, who crashed out at the end of the second lap, said: "I don't really know who is forcing that narrative that we are one against the other. At Zandvoort there were way too many talks already. Here it's true, though, that we went too far, I think, [with] Lewis in Turn 1. Then in Turn 2 I tried to do the tightest corner possible, but that was just not enough, and doing it here is not good."
At Zandvoort, Hamilton made strong team radio comments in frustration at Ferrari not swapping cars when he was on fresher tyres. He apologised for that in the week after. After qualifying at Monza, Hamilton aired his frustration at Ferrari's execution and said "we do have to work as a team" to reverse the trend of its title chances becoming "dimmer".
Leclerc visited the medical centre after his crash at the Parabolica (Alboreto) but was quickly released. "The neck was OK, it was just the vision a little bit at first, the right eye was not showing me great vision, but now it's all good, so that's the thing I was most worried of getting out of the car," Leclerc said when he spoke to media shortly afterwards. "Then after that, a bit of pain here and there, which is normal after a crash like this, so nothing more."
Asked how he would pick himself up before next weekend's Spanish GP at the new Madring circuit, Leclerc replied: "Well, first of all, I think I'll have quite a few additional checks that we still have to do on my side probably tonight and tomorrow to make sure that I'll be fully fine for Madrid. It should be the case, but better be safe than sorry."
Leclerc did not think McLaren driver Oscar Piastri trying for a move contributed to his crash. He said: "I wouldn't say that this is the issue. I think from lap one to lap two I had a bit of a difference in power delivery. We'll look into it, but I don't want to comment too much before checking the data and confirming it 100%."
Source: www.the-race.com — Read the original article
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