Lewis Hamilton has accused Ferrari of having "no rules" after a clash with his team-mate Charles Leclerc during the Italian Grand Prix. Hamilton launched an aggressive move up the inside of his team-mate at the first corner, but was then forced off onto the gravel himself on the exit of the chicane as Leclerc held onto the inside line. Hamilton dropped from his starting position of fourth to 10th, and was left playing catch-up for the rest of the race, as he eventually finished sixth.
Leclerc held onto third after the incident, which featured contact between the pair, but then crashed out of the race on the second lap, leaving Ferrari to suffer a dismal afternoon at their home race. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player "I think it comes down to rules of engagement," said Hamilton, who joined Ferrari from Mercedes in 2025. "When I was at Mercedes, we had written rules of engagement.
"We never really, really had it too bad. There was a moment between me and Nico [Rosberg] a couple of times, but more often not, it was good. "Here, there are no rules.
We need to address that." Championship leader Kimi Antonelli claimed a stunning victory from 19th at the grid to extend his advantage over Hamilton to 76 points, while the Ferrari driver also fell 10 points behind George Russell as the Brit completed a Mercedes one-two. It had been a topic of discussion in the media before the race as to whether Ferrari should prioritise Hamilton over Leclerc given his advantage in the standings, which was extended to 36 points by Sunday's result. Asked by Sky Sports F1 after the race whether he should have priority over Leclerc, Hamilton replied: "We are too far past that already.
It's too late for that now. "I lost a lot of points today to those guys. "We will do our best to keep pushing the rest of the season but they are out now, out ahead of us." Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur insisted that it was too early in the season for the team to prioritise one of their drivers.
Vasseur justified his position by using the example of McLaren's experience last year, when Oscar Piastri led Lando Norris in the standings before being hauled in by both his team-mate and Max Verstappen by the end of the season. "For sure, the outcome of the first corners is not good for the team," Vasseur said. "Now, to see if we have a team order or whatever, I think that the good comparison that I made was that last year, Piastri was leading McLaren at this stage of the season and if McLaren put everything on Piastri, Max Verstappen would have been champion.
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