Lewis Hamilton admitted he was at fault for the collision with Oscar Piastri in the latter stages of Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix and has apologised to the Australian driver.
Hamilton and Piastri were fighting for eighth position on lap 41 of the 51-lap race and, coming out of the Curva Grande, the two cars were side-by-side and touched with the Mercedes squeezing the McLaren on the outside and both having to take to the escape road.
It was an incident which ruined Piastri’s race, having to pit for a new front nose and dropping outside the top-10, with Hamilton promptly receiving a five-second penalty from the stewards.
Ultimately, the penalty did not impact Hamilton – who finished sixth – while Piastri finished 12th.
“I misjudged the gap I had with Piastri right at the end,” Hamilton said. “It was totally my fault.
“I apologised to him straight afterwards and we move on.”
Piastri, though disappointed with the race-impacting clash, seemed satisfied with Hamilton’s apology.
“He creeped over a bit more than he thought,” Piastri said.
“The stewards gave their verdict and Lewis apologised and nothing more I can ask for or do at that point.”
Max Verstappen won a record-breaking 10th race in a row in another Red Bull one-two victory, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz holding off his team-mate for the final podium place.
