Lewis Hamilton says he and Charles Leclerc have “squashed” the fallout from their first-lap clash at Monza, revealing the pair sat down alone to settle a dispute that had spilled from the radio into the gravel across consecutive race weekends.
The Ferrari team-mates went wheel-to-wheel at the Variante del Rettifilo on the opening lap of the Italian Grand Prix. Hamilton went down the inside at Turn 1, which left him on the outside at Turn 2, where Leclerc squeezed him onto the grass and gravel. Hamilton dropped five places to ninth and eventually recovered to sixth. Leclerc never got the chance to make anything of it — he crashed heavily at Parabolica on lap two, bringing out a red flag that stopped the race for around 30 minutes.
“We sat face to face, just him and I, and talked about it,” Hamilton said in Madrid on Thursday. “We were just both open and honest, and we squashed it.”
Two corners, two weekends, one conversation
Immediately after the race, the tone was sharper. Hamilton said simply that “Charles pushed me off,” and pushed back at his team-mate’s framing of the incident as a shared error: “I was ahead in Turn 2, by the apex, I was ahead. There was no ‘we’ in it.”
Leclerc had already conceded ground. “Here it’s true, though, that we went too far, I think, [with] Lewis in Turn 1,” he said. “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.” He has since gone further, telling reporters: “After reviewing, we spoke with Lewis. I obviously know I went too far in Turn 2.”
Hamilton called that admission “maturity from him. I think it’s healthy.” The FIA stewards took no further action, a call backed by Sky’s Martin Brundle, who argued Hamilton had put himself in a position of risk: “You bundle him into the first apex, he’ll bundle you straight back.”
What made Monza combustible was that it was the second flashpoint in two races. At Zandvoort a fortnight earlier, Hamilton — running behind a slower Leclerc while chasing George Russell for the podium — waited for a swap call that never came, and vented over the radio with a sarcastic “great waste of time there, guys.” Ferrari finished fourth and fifth. Leclerc said afterwards he had received no instruction: “I was focusing on my pace.”
Ferrari’s missing rulebook
The more damaging issue for Ferrari is not the contact but what it exposed. Hamilton has been blunt about the absence of a formal framework between the two cars.
“When I was at Mercedes, we had a written rule of engagement,” he said. “Here, there are no rules.”
That is a pointed comparison. Mercedes drew up those rules after Hamilton and Nico Rosberg collided at Spa in 2014, a season-defining feud that cost the team a win and forced Toto Wolff to impose structure on two drivers fighting for the same title. Ferrari have their own history here — Sebastian Vettel and Leclerc traded blows at Interlagos in 2019 and eliminated each other — and team principal Fred Vasseur has preferred to handle it internally, declining to litigate Monza through the media before speaking to his drivers.
Hamilton’s frustration is that clarity has arrived, if at all, too late to matter. “It’s far too late for those decisions to come,” he said of Ferrari backing him. “It’s many, many weeks too late.”
Madrid, and the arithmetic that remains
The numbers explain the temperature. Kimi Antonelli’s remarkable recovery win at Monza — from 19th on the grid, past Russell late — moved the Mercedes driver to 267 points, 66 clear of Russell and 76 clear of Hamilton in third on 191. Leclerc is fifth on 155. In the constructors’ championship, Ferrari sit second on 346, a full 122 behind Mercedes.
With the Spanish Grand Prix at Madrid’s new Madring the 14th of 24 rounds, Hamilton’s title mathematics are not yet dead, but they require Ferrari to stop leaking points to each other. His argument is that cooperation is worth more than pride:
- Zandvoort: fourth and fifth, no swap, no podium
- Monza: sixth and a DNF, with the two cars beaten by both McLarens
- Constructors’ deficit to Mercedes: 122 points and growing
Hamilton insists the relationship is intact and the project still viable. “I think we’ve got a good racing relationship,” he said. “We all sit down and talk afterwards, squash it and move on so nothing lingers.” He also welcomed Leclerc’s clean bill of health after the Parabolica shunt — the Monegasque reported blurred vision in his right eye immediately afterwards, since resolved — adding: “We need him in the fight to challenge Mercedes together.”
“I’m still a believer that Ferrari has absolutely everything we need to win,” Hamilton said.
Madrid will test that belief on unfamiliar ground. The Madring is a hybrid street circuit making its debut, with high-speed corners running close to the walls and abrupt braking zones — Russell has called it “arguably one of the most risky circuits” on the calendar. It is not the place for a third flashpoint in three races.
Sources: [BBC/Yahoo Sports](https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/hamilton-leclerc-squash-monza-controversy-172746447.html), [Formula1.com](https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/nothing-lingers-hamilton-opens-up-on-racing-relationship-with-leclerc-after-monza-clash.6EsZLX5y7cIfWh6oQzkyOQ), [ESPN](https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/49813284/charles-leclerc-reflects-battle-lewis-hamilton-went-too-far-italian-grand-prix-formula-1-monza), [Motorsport Week](https://www.motorsportweek.com/2026/09/10/lewis-hamilton-reveals-how-charles-leclerc-monza-incident-was-squashed/), [PlanetF1](https://www.planetf1.com/news/fia-decision-lewis-hamilton-charles-leclerc-italian-grand-prix), [Crash.net standings](https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1103967/1/2026-formula-1-world-championship-standings-after-italian-grand-prix), [Autosport](https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/hamilton-says-ferrari-has-left-it-too-late-to-back-him-in-f1-title-fight/10853218/)
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
786 articles published
