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Charles Leclerc "thought he had left a car-width" for Lewis Hamilton in Monza

10:19, 11 Sep 2019

byBobby 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."