Hamilton: Piastri incident my fault, I apologized to him

Mercedes' seven-time Formula 1 World Champion, the sport's most successful driver who finished sixth despite a five-second penalty imposed by stewards as well as two penalty points, accepted he was at fault.

Piastri had been in eighth place when the pair made contact as Hamilton moved to overtake the McLaren driver 10 laps from the end at the entry to the Variante della Roggia.

"It was a bit unfortunate and I misjudged the gap I had with Piastri right at the end," Hamilton told reporters. "It was totally my fault and I went and apologized to him straight afterwards and we move on."

From his side Piastri commented on the incident on Sky Sports F1: "The incident with Lewis, he probably just creeped over a bit more than he thought.

"The stewards gave out their verdict and he has apologized so there is nothing more I can ask for or do at that point," he added.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff praised Hamilton for accepting his error on an afternoon when some drivers used radio exchanges to try and put the blame on others.

"He's very sportsmanlike of these things. And he is the only one that I see out there admitting and saying 'got this wrong'. We just had a chat (and he said) ‘didn't see him on the right and it goes on me.’

"Pretty much everyone is otherwise complaining and moaning just to try not to get a penalty," the Austrian added.

It was a tough weekend for Mercedes at Monza, their W14 unable to compete on the long straights of the Italian track, with George Russell and Hamilton finishing fifth and sixth despite both getting penalties.

Hamilton said in Mercedes' race report: "Every point and position that we are getting through these races are incredibly hard-fought.

"We started on the hard tyre today [Sunday] and it was nice to be offset but difficult at the beginning and not so easy to follow in the DRS train. I spent a lot of laps following the McLarens, so I knew that I had slightly more pace than them in the first stint, and hoped I could get them on the second one," he explained.

"There was a big gap to catch after the stop, and I was worried my tyres would go off when I caught them, but fortunately theirs did the same. I cleared Alonso immediately after the stop, which opened things up and let me close them down.

"So I think we maximized today, and now I'm looking forward to Singapore in ten days' time," Hamilton concluded.
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Reporting by Alan Baldwin, Additional reporting by GrandPrix247

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