Hamilton Says Ferrari Wants ‘Guidelines of Engagement’ After Turn 2 Conflict Ends Leclerc’s Residence Race Early

Lewis Hamilton mentioned Ferrari ought to undertake formal tips governing on-track battles between its two drivers after a first-lap conflict with teammate Charles Leclerc on the Italian Grand Prix ended with Leclerc crashing out two laps later at his house race.

The two Ferrari drivers ran wheel-to-wheel into Turn 1 at first, with Hamilton compelled onto the gravel at Turn 2 as Leclerc defended the place. Leclerc crashed closely on the Parabolica on lap 2 after shedding the rear of his automobile below energy, ending his race and triggering a purple flag.

The two drivers gave conflicting accounts of the opening-lap incident.

“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,” Leclerc mentioned, in keeping with Formula1.com, calling it “way too close” and including, “I don’t know if we had contact or whatsoever.”

Hamilton disputed that framing.

“I was ahead in Turn 2, by the apex, I was ahead. There was no ‘we’ in it,” he mentioned. He went on to match Ferrari’s strategy unfavorably together with his former workforce, saying Mercedes had “written rules of engagement” for conditions between teammates — an association he urged Ferrari lacks.

Ferrari workforce principal Fred Vasseur mentioned Leclerc went “a little bit on the dirty side of the track” on the Parabolica earlier than shedding management, and that the automobile’s engine was broken within the crash. Leclerc mentioned he hadn’t but reviewed his telemetry from the accident however that the automobile hadn’t felt proper on energy each instances he went by the nook.

Leclerc was taken to the circuit medical middle after the crash, the place no accidents had been discovered, although he reported momentary imaginative and prescient bother in his proper eye. His imaginative and prescient had returned to regular by the point he spoke to reporters, and he mentioned he would endure additional precautionary checks earlier than the subsequent race, in Madrid, “to make sure that I’ll be fully fine.”

The consequence leaves Leclerc fifth within the drivers’ championship with 155 factors, one place and 36 factors behind Hamilton, who completed sixth at Monza.