Wolff: Leclerc pushed Hamilton off the track

A coy Toto Wolff hinted that Charles Leclerc should have been given a penalty for the incident which forced Lewis Hamilton off the track at Monza.

The world champion was going wheel-to-wheel with Leclerc, who led from start to finish, and Hamilton was forced to leave the track to avoid direct content with the Ferrari, costing him time.

Hamilton note on team radio that he had been 'pushed' by Leclerc and when speaking to Sky Sports after the race it was clear that he wasn't happy with the move.

Wolff doubled down on his driver's comments, first giving Leclerc praise for his performance but claiming that there would have been 'riots' in Italy had the 21-year-old been penalised for the move.

He said: "He [Leclerc] drove a hard but brilliant race and Ferrari had the strongest package. We threw two of our guys at him and it still wasn't enough.

"I think his driving was a little bit over the edge. But do you want to give him a penalty in Monza? I think we would have had riots here.

"This is another problem we have. We want to see hard racing but how far does the leniency go. He could have had a penalty for that, pushing Lewis off.

"But I want to give them the credit they had the strongest car here."

Sky Sports allowed Wolff to review the footage and he was left with no doubt that Hamilton was hampered, adding "Yeah, he pushed him off. I have no doubt in a different circumstance we are going to play that video and show how it was in Monza back in 2019."

But Wolff remained upbeat about the team perspective, adding that he still felt they had enjoyed a good weekend.

He concluded: "I said before the race if you gave us second and third I would have taken it, but from a global perspective it was great for Ferrari to win."

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