Leclerc accepts penalty but defends Turn 4 call after Hamilton clash at Mexico City GP

Charles Leclerc accepted a time penalty for gaining an advantage off-track during a fierce opening-lap battle with Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton at the Mexico City Grand Prix, but defended his decision to hold position rather than yield the place back.

The two Ferrari drivers traded aggressive moves through the opening sequence of corners, with Hamilton initially forcing Leclerc wide at the Turn 1 complex. The real flashpoint came at Turn 4, where both cars ran deep into the braking zone, missed the apex entirely, and left the circuit. Rather than concede the position to the seven-time world champion, Leclerc held firm — a call that inadvertently allowed Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to slip past a frustrated Hamilton.

“Yes, I mean, the penalty was deserved in a way,” Leclerc said in his post-race media availability. “The thing is that it was a bit confusing because we both didn’t make Turn 4. Then I stayed ahead, and then Max got past Lewis.”

Leclerc revealed that strategic logic — specifically keeping a Red Bull behind him — drove his split-second choice to absorb the sanction rather than hand the position back.

“I asked what should I do, and I kept the position. I took a deserved penalty,” he explained. “I don’t know if Lewis’s point was for me to get P3, but at least having a Red Bull second, I felt it was worth it to kind of keep the position and see what happens.”

The penalty was not the only setback Leclerc faced on the afternoon. A red flag on lap 45 reset the race, and the subsequent standing restart proved costly. Drawn to the dirty, un-rubbered side of the grid, Leclerc struggled for traction and was passed cleanly by Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli, who claimed third place.

“The pace was really good on the first stint, and the pace overall was quite strong, but unfortunately, coming to the second start on the dirty side of the track, we struggled quite a bit,” Leclerc noted. “The track wasn’t so clean, but it’s the way it is.”

The incident underlines the delicate internal dynamics at Ferrari as Hamilton, in his debut season with the Scuderia, begins to assert himself at the front of races — and the team navigates the competing interests of two drivers capable of fighting for victories.