Charles Leclerc hits back at Lewis Hamilton for 'very much on the limit' driving

Charles Leclerc insists his opening-lap wheel-to-wheel battle with Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton shouldn’t be ‘that much of a talking point’, despite Hamilton demanding serious internal talks following the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Hamilton secured a historic pole position at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, lining up ahead of Leclerc in third. However, high drama struck immediately when the two Ferrari drivers went head-to-head through the opening complex of corners.

Both drivers ran wide and off-track at Turns 4 and 5 while disputing the lead. While Leclerc managed to maintain the position, he was subsequently handed a five-second time penalty by the FIA stewards. 

Max Verstappen ultimately capitalized on the chaos to slice through and snatch victory, leaving Hamilton fuming and calling for ‘serious talks’ behind closed doors.

Addressing the media after the race, Leclerc acknowledged that the incident would be reviewed internally, but defended the closeness of the fight.

"We will talk about it, obviously," Leclerc said. "I don't know if he was very unhappy with what I did, because I felt like it was very much on the limit, also, what he did.

"I think he was maybe more angry with the whole situation, how the situation was dealt in [Turns] 4-5, with the penalty, etc. This is something we'll talk about for sure."

Despite Hamilton's frustration with how the race unfolded, Leclerc believes the incident has been blown out of proportion given the context of fighting at the sharp end of the grid.

"I mean, we are fighting for the win, and so of course there's going to be very little margin left from him and from me," he explained.

"At the end, we both made a mistake going into Turn 4; it's not like we had contact whatsoever. We both went straight, and that gave the opportunity for Max to overtake.

"So I don't think it should be that much of a talking point. Of course, it was close. Turns 1, 2, and 3 were very close, but I was expecting it to be [in the] fight for the lead.

"For Turn 5, we both made a mistake. I paid with a penalty, then you can argue whether it's enough or not, and Lewis then paid out of Turn 5 with Max."