Ferrari’s home race got off to a fraught start when teammates Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton nearly came to blows at the first chicane, an incident that divided opinion among Sky Sports’ F1 analysts and set the mood for a miserable afternoon for the Scuderia.
What happened
Hamilton, starting alongside Leclerc on the second row, made an aggressive dive down the inside of his teammate under braking for the first part of the chicane. Leclerc held his ground, but the corner then swapped direction for the following left-hander, rendering what had been the outside line into the inside. Hamilton was squeezed onto the gravel and dropped down the order, eventually rejoining in eighth place.
On the team radio in the immediate aftermath, Hamilton was heard telling his engineer, “Charles pushed me off.” Race stewards did not investigate the incident.
Charles Leclerc’s response
Speaking after the race, Leclerc played down any suggestion of a deeper rivalry with his teammate. “I don’t really know who is forcing that narrative that we are one against the other,” he said. “Honestly, on the radio there were way too many talks already.”
He did acknowledge the move had gone too far. “It’s true though that we went too far. I think Lewis won that first corner. Then turn two I tried to do the tightest line possible, but that was just not enough, and doing it there is not good.”
Sky Sports pundits disagree
Reviewing the incident on the Sky Sports broadcast, former world champion Nico Rosberg put the blame entirely on Leclerc, citing the sport’s right-of-way convention. “The rules are, if the driver on the outside, which in this case is Lewis, is ahead at some point towards the apex, then the inside must leave room,” Rosberg said. “Lewis was ahead going in, so Charles has to leave room, and he didn’t. So it’s 100 per cent Charles’ fault.”
Martin Brundle saw it differently. “Leclerc was far enough ahead on the inside of the corner there,” he said. “I don’t think Leclerc would have taken a penalty,” Brundle suggested Leclerc’s front tyres may not have been up to temperature at that early stage of the race, causing the Ferrari to run wide regardless of who technically held the racing line. “If Charles had more command over his front tyres, you can say he should have left his teammate more room. I suspect he was pretty underwhelmed with what happened on the way into the first corner.”
The two analysts did agree on one point: Hamilton’s initial move was aggressive. “Lewis was too aggressive,” Rosberg conceded, a view Brundle shared.
Leclerc crashed out of the race two laps later at Parabolica, compounding a difficult afternoon for Ferrari at their home event.
Discussion about this post