Lewis Hamilton insists Charles Leclerc relationship “just fine” after post-Mexico talks

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc spoke without the presence of Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur to clear the air between them after their clash at the Mexico City F1 race, Hamilton says.

Leclerc and Hamilton’s relationship became F1’s biggest talking point last weekend, on the same weekend Andrea Kimi Antonelli became the series’ youngest champion after they ran each other off the road on the first lap and arguably cost Ferrari the win, with Max Verstappen taking top spot instead.

It was not the first time incidents between Hamilton and Leclerc had been perceived to have cost Ferrari a result, after Hamilton was put in the Monza gravel by Leclerc on the first lap.

A week after the Mexico incident, the relationship of the Ferrari team-mates remains among F1’s hot topics, but Hamilton insists the “respect” is still there between them after talks that did not involve team principal Fred Vasseur.

“Fred [Vasseur] hasn’t cleared the air in the sense of me and Charles [Leclerc] sat and spoke, and we squashed it and we’re moving on,” said Lewis Hamilton, speaking to Sky Sports after qualifying in Brazil.

“I think we still have a huge amount of respect for each other. I’m glad we had a chat and now we move on. 

“We’ve been getting along just fine, as normal. 

“Sometimes in those scenarios it just takes having a conversation, and there’s been no demands from either side, it’s just been both [of us] giving our points and areas that we can do better and support each other. 

“I’m hoping to have better races moving forwards.”

Qualifying in Brazil was effectively meaningless for Hamilton – who received a back-of-the-grid penalty for taking more new power unit parts after FP3 – in terms of results.

Setting a time in Q2, though, means he will start 20th tomorrow, ahead of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen who received the same back-of-the-grid penalty but did not set a lap time in Q2 (Verstappen through choice, and Perez through his inability to qualify for Q2).

Hamilton qualified 11th (before the penalty is applied) in the end, and said afterwards that the session was important for him to understand the car in wet conditions, as there have been few wet sessions so far this year.

“I love qualifying and getting to drive in the rain – it’s such an amazing track to race in the rain, or in all conditions but in the wet particularly,” the Ferrari driver said.

“I wish I could’ve stayed out and had a bit of a battle with everyone, but we had that problem in P3 and didn’t get in many laps there. 

“So, it was basically a practice session for me to figure out what the car is like in these conditions, just in case tomorrow it’s raining.”