Charles Leclerc claims Lewis Hamilton battle at Monza 'went too far'

F1 star Charles Leclerc believes that his battle with Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the early stages of Sunday's Italian Grand Prix went 'too far'.

Leclerc and Hamilton started the race in P3 and P4, respectively, with real hope among the Tifosi that one of the Ferrari drivers could give their team a home victory at Monza.

However, when the lights went out, the pair battled each other hard, with Hamilton throwing his car up the inside heading into turn one, with the two Ferrari cars even gently bumping wheels.

Hamilton being on the inside heading into the chicane meant he was on the outside for turn two, and as the two Ferraris tried to get through the corner, Hamilton was left with no room and forced onto the gravel and kerb, causing him to lose multiple places.

Naturally, Hamilton wasn't happy, declaring 'Charles pushed me off!' over his team radio.

F1 HEADLINES: Hamilton launches Leclerc attack as FIA stewards explain crucial decision

Charles Leclerc addresses Lewis Hamilton Monza battle

Leclerc eventually went on to have a huge crash on lap 2, but the FIA decided his actions did not require being penalised. Meanwhile, the incident also split the Sky Sports F1 commentary booth, with Martin Brundle and Nico Rosberg disagreeing on who was at fault, with the latter feeling it was 100 per cent on Leclerc.

Speaking after the race in Italy, Leclerc did not take full responsibility, but did admit that things went too far between him and his teammate.

"At Zandvoort there were way too many talks already," Leclerc explained to Sky Sports, referring to the team orders debacle that occurred during the Dutch Grand Prix a fortnight earlier.

"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."

Hamilton, though, didn't see things quite the same.

"I was in front, there's no 'we' about it," was his verdict when speaking to the media after coming home in P6.

Major blow for Hamilton's title hopes

If finishing P6 and getting into an on-track altercation with your team-mate wasn't bad enough for Hamilton, Kimi Antonelli also won Sunday's Italian Grand Prix despite having started P19 due to a grid penalty.

Hamilton entered the race 59 points adrift of the Italian in the drivers' standings, and many saw this as a big opportunity for the seven-time world champion to eat into that gap.

However, after a stunning drive from Antonelli, Hamilton now sits 76 points adrift with just 10 scheduled rounds of the season to go. That means that Antonelli could DNF in three grands prix, Hamilton win them all, and the 20-year-old will still be ahead of him by a point.

Hamilton isn't mathematically out of it yet - far from it - but his hopes of title number eight this year are certainly fading.

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Written by

Simmey Hannifin Donaldson - F1 Editor

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