Charles Leclerc accepted full responsibility for the enormous accident that curtailed his Italian Grand Prix and red-flagged the race.
Leclerc, who claimed victory from pole position at Monza 12 months ago, started only 13th and made little in-roads during the opening stages of the 53-lap race.
Leclerc had risen into podium contention following the Safety Car period for Kevin Magnussen’s retirement but he lost control of the Ferrari SF1000 through Parabolica.
He suffered a hefty impact with the barriers though was able to walk away unscathed.
“I just lost the car,” said Leclerc. “It’s my fault. It was a very difficult race to be honest, then I thought we were unlucky with the Safety Car but we were lucky.
“With the Hard tyres I struggled massively, I tried to push but lost it in Parabolica and crashed.
“It was just a mistake by my side, it was very difficult to drive prior to the crash but no excuses, it was my mistake.”
Leclerc’s huge crash compounded a miserable day for Ferrari after Sebastian Vettel suffered a brake failure in the early stages.
“It is the worst thing but at least it happened in the best spot,” said Vettel, whose failure occurred at the first chicane.
“If it happens elsewhere it’s not so nice. I completely lost the pressure on the pedal and went straight.
“In the laps before I ran into trouble but we managed the brakes but it was obviously quite bad.
“I was struggling, had a very bad start with the Hard tyres and lost positions. Then we ran into the problems, had to cool the car, and the brakes failed, so a short race.”
Ferrari slipped to sixth position in the Constructors’ Championship as a result.
Hulk only started 1 race and is still just 10 points behind $V. Gasly was ludicrously lucky w/ the red flag tyre loophole and is now just 5 pts behind Albon. VB looked like $V out there: took the fastest car in the field and lost positions, while a real racer took the same car & carved through it. Too bad Merc didn’t put Russell in the butler’s seat (Hammy +47 on VB).
If McL can find consistency, they should finish P3 WCC & get a very tidy financial boon from Ferrari’s epic implosion. Glad RBR has lost pace w/ party mode ban. Good to see mid-field able to defend against Ferrari & RBR.
Go, mid-field!
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