Charles Leclerc "thought he had left a car-width" for Lewis Hamilton in Monza
- Bobby Vincent
Charles Leclerc believes he "left a car-width" for Lewis Hamilton to get past on Sunday at the Italian Grand Prix, with the incident sparking all kinds of debate.
It was an intense battle between eventual race-winner Leclerc and five-time world champion Hamilton on Sunday at Monza, with the latter doing his absolute best to get past the Ferrari driver.
However, with Hamilton pushing to make a move to get past Leclerc, the Ferrari man was forced to defend with everything he had. The move to keep Hamilton at bay is a highly controversial one and he received a black-and-white flag for it.
Leclerc believes he left enough room for Hamilton to get past: "OK - to be completely honest, obviously I knew he was on the right, he braked a little bit early which I think was probably on purpose because he didn't want to try around the outside.
"I thought I had left a car-width. I haven't seen the images to be honest. But I was pretty sure there was a car-width. As I've said, I think it's good we can race harder. Again, I haven't seen the images so I cannot say particularly in this case but overall I'm happy if we can race harder."
Edge of our seats #ItalianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/um2nUaAZYv
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 8, 2019