“Leclerc on the inside. Hamilton goes on to the gravel and has to take to the escape road. You can hear the cheers from Monza..!” It was an amazing hard-racing moment in 2019 that saw Lewis Hamilton back out of a move in one of the rare occasions. After all, he was fighting Ferrari’s golden boy Charles Leclerc in front of a packed Tifosi at the Italian GP. Perhaps, Leclerc had the mental edge over Lewis in that tense battle. Still, Hamilton had a lot on stake to take that risk against the Ferrari driver.
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In a 2020 interview with Motorsport Magazine, Leclerc relived this jaw-dropping victory in front of the Italian crowd at Monza. The interviewer also referred to what Lewis said about that Della-Roggia chicane moment and how he could have reacted if the world championship was not on the line for him.
SPIELBERG, AUSTRIA: Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain driving the (44) Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team Mercedes W10 leads Charles Leclerc of Monaco driving the (16) Scuderia Ferrari SF90 on track during qualifying for the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images)
The Mercedes man had said after the 2019 Italian GP, “I’d have stayed where I was and we’d [Hamilton and Leclerc] have crashed.” During that moment, Lewis was on faster tires than Leclerc. But, the Monegasque driver did not give him space in his attempted move at the Della-Roggia chicane.
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Now usually, Hamilton does not resort to crashing into drivers in wheel-to-wheel combat. And in reality, he did not do the same with Leclerc at Monza.
But, the way he exposed his willingness to attempt his arch-rival Max Verstappen-like antics doesn’t sound right. In fact, in hindsight of the Hamilton-Verstappen 2021 battles, it also sounds hypocritical. But the intensity of racing battles can be at several levels. So, a Monza 2019 can escalate to a Silverstone 2021 with a higher level of tension.
Regardless, Lewis has been quite happy about Leclerc’s success in F1. Even with their minimal battles to date, it feels like these two can have some entertaining tussles.
The Less-Talked Lewis Hamilton-Charles Leclerc Battle in F1
The duo of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have rarely fought on track. But when they did it gave us some top-class action. The 2019 Italian GP entailed most of the great racing action between this duo. But beyond that, Leclerc never had a car since then to match Lewis’s Mercedes.
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Formula One F1 – Austrian Grand Prix – Red Bull Ring, Spielberg, Austria – July 10, 2022 Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc celebrates on the podium after winning the Austrian Grand Prix as Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton celebrates after placing third REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
Still, in 2021 the duo somehow was fighting for the lead at the British GP. After the controversial crash at Copse on Lap 1, Max Verstappen was out, but Hamilton still was running. The crash handed the lead to Charles and he surprisingly led the Grand Prix for the majority of that afternoon.
While Lewis served his time penalty for the crash and was recovering, it looked like Charles may cruise to victory in his SF21. But it was not meant to be as Hamilton got past the Monegasque at Copse again in the dying laps of the race.
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WATCH THIS STORY: Most Dangerous Crashes in F1 History
It has been a battle that rarely gets the highlight, but Leclerc and Hamilton could be spectacular in a season-long battle, trading blows. Despite that, every time one of them has had one arm tied up with their car performance since Monza 2019. Do you think we will ever see a Lewis Hamilton-Charles Leclerc title fight?
