Leclerc blames Mexico track layout for Hamilton clash as Vasseur rejects the excuse

Charles Leclerc received a five-second penalty and finished fourth at the Formula 1 Mexico Grand Prix after a lap-one clash with Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, handing Max Verstappen victory and leaving the Scuderia to rue a squandered win.

Hamilton had started from pole with Leclerc third, and the Monegasque quickly moved up to second past George Russell before attacking Hamilton on the outside of Turn 1. He tried to complete the move down the inside of the following corner, but the seven-time world champion held his ground. A second attempt on the outside of Turn 4 ended with both drivers out-braking themselves, Leclerc cutting across the grass at Turn 5 to briefly lead before his penalty was applied. Hamilton recovered to finish second, with Kimi Antonelli third.

Leclerc pointed to the circuit’s characteristics as the root cause, arguing that physical barriers would have made the situation impossible. “If there was, obviously, a wall at the exit of Turn 4, neither Lewis or I would have pushed the braking point that much,” he said. “I think the final solution is to have a track that doesn’t allow you to do that.”

He had raised the issue at Thursday’s drivers’ briefing, where stewards had already agreed — in response to similar chaos at the same venue last year — that stiffer penalties would apply at the start and during restarts if drivers gained an off-track advantage at Turns 1-3 and 4-6.

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur acknowledged that the Mexico layout had contributed to similar incidents in previous seasons, and noted the consequences “would have been worse in Monaco”, but he stopped well short of accepting the track as a justification for what unfolded. “The layout of the track for sure, it’s not helping, because if you have a look the last couple of years we had this kind of issue,” Vasseur said, “but it can’t be an excuse at all.”

The result denied Ferrari what Vasseur described as a third win of the season, with the team having held the two fastest cars on the grid heading into the race.