Leclerc said he saw no upside in defending against his own team-mate during a Brazilian Grand Prix where his Ferrari had nothing to give.

“Lewis was much faster than me. At that time, there was no point for me to fight,” Leclerc told reporters at Interlagos.

The Monegasque blamed heavy rear tyre degradation for a race he described as poor, and warned that cold conditions at next weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix could expose the same weakness.

Hamilton’s spin wiped out the gap

The moment of non-resistance did not survive the afternoon. Hamilton, who had started 20th after engine penalties, spun late on slick tyres as the track suddenly worsened, falling back behind the Ferrari he had just been let past.

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Hamilton pinned the mistake on information he never received from the pit wall.

“They said the previous lap is gonna stay consistent like this, and so I was like, OK, I can stay out in this,” Hamilton told the media after the race.

“And then I get to Turn 1, and it’s drenched, and so I didn’t get that information.”

Hamilton recovered to ninth, a place behind Leclerc, in a race won by Lando Norris and in which Mercedes clinched the constructors’ title.

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Ten days after the collision in Mexico

The Interlagos exchange played out against a backdrop set the previous weekend in Mexico City, where the two Ferrari drivers collided on the opening lap and Leclerc took a five-second penalty that cost the team a likely one-two.

Team principal Fred Vasseur summoned both drivers to an hour-long meeting on the Thursday evening in Brazil.

“I’m not asking them to be best friends. I think that would probably even be a bit negative,” Vasseur said at Interlagos, insisting the drivers must respect the team and the brand.

He called the meeting’s conclusion a clear reminder that Ferrari comes first.

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Leclerc admits tension with Hamilton

Leclerc himself has been unwilling to dress up what is going on inside the garage.

“Everything is fine between us now. Of course there’s tension, of course we want to finish ahead of each other,” he told reporters, adding that both drivers had said what they thought and considered the chapter closed.

The next test comes at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the race Leclerc himself has flagged as a likely struggle for the car.

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