Ferrari implodes at Monza as Leclerc faces Madrid checks

Ferrari’s home race descended into disaster at Monza, with Charles Leclerc requiring further medical checks after a 50g crash while Lewis Hamilton openly criticised the team’s lack of clear rules for racing each other.

Leclerc and Hamilton had already clashed on the opening lap before the Monegasque suffered an enormous accident at Parabolica.

"My eye is giving me a bit of trouble now, but I’m not injured, so everything’s ok in that respect," Leclerc said afterwards.

"At first it was just a vision problem - I couldn’t see very well out of my right eye. That was my biggest worry when I got out of the car."

Leclerc left the circuit early and said he will undergo more checks before Madrid.

"I still need to do some checks on my end, probably tonight and tomorrow, to make sure I’ll be in perfect condition for Madrid," he said.

"I should be, but it’s better to be safe than sorry."

Team boss Frederic Vasseur revealed the scale of the accident.

"It was a 50g impact, really bad," he said. "I can understand that he wanted to leave as soon as possible."

Another problem for Ferrari is the increasingly tense relationship between its drivers. Hamilton dropped to tenth after their first-lap fight and was visibly unimpressed.

"Look, I don’t race dirty," he said afterwards.

"I’ve always raced clean and fairly and always left space. I’ve come into the team and tried to be respectful of space and definitely not put the team in jeopardy."

Leclerc suggested afterwards that "we went too far", but Hamilton rejected that wording.

"I was ahead at the apex of turn 2. So there’s no ’we’ there."

Hamilton then made a pointed comparison with Mercedes.

"I think it all comes down to the rules of engagement," said the seven time world champion. "When I was at Mercedes, we had written rules."

"There are no rules here."

He also suggested responsibility ultimately rests with Vasseur.

"Ultimately it comes from the top. It starts with Fred," said the Briton.

Vasseur conceded Ferrari may now have to abandon its previous policy of allowing the pair to race freely.

"At a certain point, we have to make a decision," he said. "But before Monza, it was too early for us."

But Hamilton insists it is now too late for Ferrari to use team orders to protect his fading championship challenge against Antonelli and Russell.

"We’re too far past that already," he said.

"I think from today, we’ve just lost so much ground to them on points. It’s many, many weeks too late."

Ralf Schumacher believes the fallout could now extend to Vasseur himself.

"I’m not so sure what this means for Fred Vasseur," he said on Sky Deutschland. "Something like this in Italy, with the big Ferrari boss also present."

"That was a kind of embarrassment that no one likes to see."