Lewis Hamilton has apologised to Oscar Piastri after initiating a collision during the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has taken full responsibility for causing a collision with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri during the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday, which saw the Mercedes driver penalised. However, as a result of the unfortunate incident, Oscar Piastri was denied a points finish.
Given how difficult overtaking is at Monza, Hamilton knew he had a challenging race ahead of him despite starting tenth. Despite starting on the Hard compound, the seven-time World Champion actually dropped to ninth on the first lap.
The majority of drivers started on the Medium, but Hamilton went with an alternative strategy. The British driver was able to gain ground as a result in the latter stages of the race.
The drivers ahead of Hamilton, notably Piastri, with whom he crashed at the entrance to Turn 4, were substantially slower than him. The pair raced side by side into Curva Grande up until the 103-time winner cut across the McLaren driver.
Hamilton was fortunate to escape the accident unaffected by damage but the contact caused wreckage on Piastri’s front wing as the Mercedes driver almost pushed him into the barrier.
While Piastri was compelled to pit from tenth place for a new front wing, Hamilton was able to finish the race without stopping for repairs.
The incident was immediately investigated by the stewards, who found Hamilton to be at fault and assessed a five-second time penalty.
Hamilton’s time penalty ultimately had little bearing on his final position as his Medium tyres performed better in the closing laps. He proceeded to pass Alex Albon and Lando Norris to take over P6 before securing the position with a lead of well over five seconds.
Piastri ultimately failed to score any points.
As soon as Hamilton got out of his W14 after the Monza race, he was spotted apologising to Piastri, indicating that he acknowledged that the incident with the Australian driver was his responsibility.
In his interview with the media, the 38-year old also publicly acknowledged that he “misjudged the gap” and accepted full responsibility for the collision.
“I think every position we are getting in these races is seeming to be incredibly hard and fought for,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1. “Starting on the hard tyre today, it was nice to be offset but it was difficult at the beginning.
“I enjoyed the battle I had at the end.
“It was a bit unfortunate and I misjudged the gap I had with Piastri right at the end. It was totally my fault and I went and apologised to him straight afterwards and we move on.”
Hamilton then added: “I was right up there behind them for most of the race, so I knew I had slightly more pace with them, but with the deficit of a harder tyre.
“There was a big gap I had to catch, I thought once I caught them up, my tyres would drop off. Fortunately, theirs were going off too, so I was able to clear [them].
“I think what made the race for me, was clearing Fernando immediately, that really opened things up.”
