Charles Leclerc's Disappointing Race at Monza
Charles Leclerc cut a lonely figure in the Monza paddock, trying to make sense of a home race that imploded in the space of two laps.
The Ferrari driver, starting third with team mate Lewis Hamilton alongside in fourth, had promised the Tifosi a fight. He delivered one – just not the one they wanted.
“Way too close” with Hamilton
As the lights went out, the two scarlet cars launched together and thundered towards Turn 1. Leclerc held the inside line, Hamilton hung on around the outside, and by the time they flicked left into Turn 2, there was barely a car’s width between them.
Hamilton was forced across the kerb and onto the gravel, tumbling down the order. Over the radio, the seven-time World Champion complained he had been pushed off.
Leclerc, speaking afterwards, didn’t try to dress it up.
“With Lewis it was a way too close into Turn 1 and unfortunately in Turn 2 – I don't know if we had contact or whatsoever,” he said, admitting that this is “never what you want” between team mates.
He described how he had been “quite a lot on the inside curve” as he tried to make the corner. He didn’t manage to tighten the line as much as he needed, and only then, glancing in the mirrors, did he fully register the chaos unfolding behind.
Two Ferraris, wheel-to-wheel at Monza, on lap one. It should have been the stuff of legend. Instead, it left one of them in the gravel and both garages wincing.
Crash at Parabolica ends Leclerc’s race
If that first-lap skirmish raised the tension, what followed silenced the home crowd.
Leclerc’s race ended almost as soon as it had begun. Pushing through the iconic Parabolica on Lap 2, he ran off the circuit and slammed into the barriers, his Ferrari snapping out of control and skidding into the tyre wall. The grandstands fell quiet, disbelief replacing the roar.
He climbed out unhurt, but the damage to Ferrari’s afternoon – and to the mood of the Tifosi – was done.
Leclerc later tried to unpick what had happened inside the cockpit.
“Then for the crash itself, I went on throttle – on the first lap it felt kind of weird, I had to go back off and on throttle,” he explained. “On that second lap, I tried to do the same thing but, I don't know, it just felt a little bit weird, so we'll look into it.”
No excuses. No dramatic theory. Just a driver unsettled by how the car behaved at the very moment he needed trust at high speed.
Ferrari will now dive into the data to understand why their lead car ended its home race in the barriers. The Tifosi will be asking a simpler question: when Monza comes around again, will this team finally give them a Sunday worthy of the noise they bring?
