Leclerc takes blame for huge Monza crash

Jamie Woodhouse
Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc said the nasty race-ending crash which he suffered at the Italian Grand Prix was his own fault.

Coming out of the Parabolica, Leclerc lost the back end of his SF1000 as he stepped on the throttle.

From there he slid through the gravel and straight to the scene of the accident as Leclerc’s Ferrari ploughed into the tyre barriers.

Leclerc thankfully climbed out of his car and quickly left the scene, but the race was red flagged due to the damage to the tyre barriers and the debris on-track.

The incident completed a miserable home race weekend for Ferrari after Sebastian Vettel had retired from the Italian Grand Prix earlier on following a brake failure.

“I just lost the car,” said Leclerc as he described the crash.

“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.”

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Ferrari depart Monza with another disappointing display to add to the 2020 collection.

Next up is the Tuscan Grand Prix at Mugello, the circuit owned by Ferrari, but Vettel said his expectations for the weekend were “very low”.

“It’s clear in terms of expectations, you see where we are and that we can’t expect an awful lot,” he said.

“I think in the last races we have struggled a little bit to make the car work at 100%. I hope at Mugello we are in a bit of a better place but that doesn’t mean we are fighting for the podium so you need to be realistic.

“Expectations are very low, but hopefully we have a smooth weekend without trouble, that would be a good start on my side.”

Leclerc it seems is a little more optimistic heading to Mugello than his team-mate.

“We have had two difficult weekends for the team, but it’s like this at the moment and I hope we can bounce back, so I am looking forward to Mugello,” he said.

Leclerc goes into the race P7 in the Drivers’ Championship, whilst Vettel is all the way down in P13.

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