Toto Wolff says Ferrari 'looked like idiots' over Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc incident

Toto Wolff has opened up on his thoughts about Ferrari's first-lap incident at the recent Italian Grand Prix, which severely compromised Lewis Hamilton's race.

The former Mercedes driver threw a move up the inside of his team-mate Charles Leclerc at the first corner, with the Monegasque fighting back at the next corner and forcing Hamilton onto the gravel, the Brit dropping to tenth place.

Hamilton was clearly unhappy about the rough treatment he was given by his team-mate, with Leclerc admitting later that he had gone 'too far' in fighting for position. The incident has led to calls for 'rules of engagement' at Ferrari, although team principal Fred Vasseur is yet to make any moves in that direction.

Wolff spoke to Sky Sports after the final practice session of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, saying it's 'not on' to shove your own team-mate off the track, but admitting that his own Mercedes team could've looked 'like idiots' too.

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Wolff: We could've looked like idiots too

“I can express my opinion now and say it is not on to push your team-mate off in turn two," the Austrian said, "but three or four laps to the end, we had some scary moments between the two of them that we didn't expect in that way because George had a tyre that was shot and Kimi was a second quicker.

"Did we expect them to fight like they did, which could have ended up in a kind of gravel, but so we could have quickly looked like idiots as well, like the Ferraris looked eventually. So it's a fine margin."

Antonelli and Russell did both end up briefly off track in their own battle later in the race, as Wolff referenced.

The young Italian attempted a very similar move to Hamilton's earlier in the race, with Russell going wide in Turn 1 to accommodate that only for Antonelli himself to wash out wide onto the gravel exactly where the Ferrari had left the track earlier on.

Fortunately for Antonelli, he lost little enough time to Russell that he could get back on track and hunt his team-mate down for a second time, completing the pass for the win clearly two laps later.

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