'We went too far' - Leclerc on first-lap Hamilton fight
Charles Leclerc admits his scrap with Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton "went too far" during the opening corners of Formula 1's Italian Grand Prix.
From fourth on the grid, seven-time world champion Hamilton went down the inside of third-place starter Leclerc into the first chicane.
They ran side-by-side through the corner, but Hamilton ended up being fed into the gravel on the exit - telling his race engineer shortly afterwards that "Charles pushed me off".
Asked about the incident in the context of talk that the Ferrari drivers need to work together, Leclerc - who crashed out at the end of the second lap - said: "I don't really know who is forcing that narrative that we are one against the other.
"At Zandvoort there were way too many talks already.
"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."
At Zandvoort, Hamilton made some strong team radio comments in frustration at Ferrari not swapping its cars when Hamilton was on fresher tyres, something Hamilton issued an apology for in the week after.
After qualifying at Monza, Hamilton aired his frustration at Ferrari's execution and said "we do have to work as a team" to reverse the trend of its title chances becoming "dimmer".
Crash after-effects and cause
Leclerc visited the medical centre after his crash at the Parabolica (Alboreto), but was quickly released.
"The neck was OK, it was just the vision a little bit at first, the right eye was not showing me great vision, but now it's all good, so that's the thing I was most worried of getting out of the car," Leclerc said when he spoke to media shortly afterwards.
"Then after that, a bit of pain here and there, which is normal after a crash like this, so nothing more."
Asked how he would pick himself up from that disappointment before next weekend’s Spanish GP at the new Madring circuit, Leclerc replied: "Well, first of all, I think I'll have quite a few additional checks that we still have to do on my side probably tonight and tomorrow to make sure that I'll be fully fine for Madrid.
"It should be the case, but better be safe than sorry."
Leclerc did not think McLaren driver Oscar Piastri trying for a move contributed to his crash, saying: "I wouldn't say that this is the issue. I think from lap one to lap two I had a bit of a difference in power delivery.
"We'll look into it, but I don't want to comment too much before checking the data and confirming it 100%."
