Hamilton criticises Leclerc’s approach after Mexico clash

“It’s a mentality thing,” Lewis Hamilton said of Charles Leclerc after their clash at the Mexico Grand Prix. The two Ferrari drivers fought for the lead through the first four corners at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. Starting from pole, Hamilton saw Leclerc move ahead by cutting across the second chicane. Hamilton also ran wide while defending, before Max Verstappen passed him on the exit of Turn 5.

Leclerc was given a five-second penalty by the stewards for leaving the track at Turn 4 and gaining an advantage. When Ferrari served the sanction at its pit stop, Verstappen took the lead. He went on to win. Following the red flag for Valtteri Bottas’s high-speed crash, Hamilton passed Leclerc at the second start and went on to take second.

The win was Verstappen’s third in four races. He moved ahead of Hamilton and Mercedes’ George Russell into second place in the Drivers’ Championship. Hamilton said Ferrari had lost an opportunity because of the battle between its drivers: “Unfortunately the race was lost in the first few corners and it’s a shame because we could have easily finished first and second in this race if we worked together as a team.” He also said he had given everything and finished within one second of Verstappen.

At the post-race press conference, Hamilton was asked whether a different approach was needed when fighting a team-mate for a win. He recalled that before joining Ferrari, while at Mercedes, he had watched Charles and Carlos Sainz battle: “the person ahead just pulled away, and they had the pace to actually win the race.” In his view, a fight for fourth and fifth is not the same as one for first and second when the team loses the victory.

Hamilton said Leclerc’s age, 28, was not the issue. He described an attitude of “either I win or none of us do” and said it should not be that way. He also said Ferrari should have been aiming for a one-two finish and that the team’s interests had not come first on the opening lap. Asked about their plans for the start, he said they had not sat down to discuss it before the race.

The Briton added that team-mate racing had to be balanced against the team’s points and its chance of getting a result. “Today we lost the win for the team, today we lost points, I lost second in the championship and that’s a real shame,” he said, adding that the result affected people at the factory and the tifosi. He called for “serious talks behind the scenes” and said they would address the matter privately.

Leclerc defended his decision in the opening corners: “Turns One, Two there was a gap and when you’re fighting for a win, I will always go for it.” He added that at Turns 4 and 5, he and Hamilton had braked as late as possible but could not both make the corner. He also said that after going off at Turn 4, his first thought had been to give the lead back to Hamilton.

Formula 1 next heads to Brazil for the São Paulo Grand Prix, the next stop on the triple-header.