Leclerc’s Monza Nightmare: Ferrari Driver Crashes Out Early

Charles Leclerc’s Italian Grand Prix lasted barely two racing laps. At Monza, of all places. In front of the tifosi, in the car they came to see, the Ferrari driver lost it at the fearsome Parabolica and turned a tense home race into a red-flag stoppage.

The Monegasque was fighting to hold fourth place from Oscar Piastri’s McLaren at the end of lap two when it all snapped away from him. Pushing through the high-speed right-hander, Leclerc suffered a sudden burst of oversteer, the rear of the Ferrari stepping out violently. Once it went, there was no saving it.

The car spun off and slammed into the outside barriers at high speed, a sickening sight on a corner that punishes even the smallest mistake. Leclerc climbed out and walked away, clearly winded but upright, a huge relief to the packed grandstands draped in red.

The safety car came out immediately, but the damage told its own story. Marshals and race control quickly upgraded the intervention to a full red flag so the barriers could be repaired properly before racing resumed. The Ferrari, wrecked and silent, was craned away while the home crowd tried to process what they had just seen.

For Ferrari, it was a brutal twist in a home race that had already started badly. Off the line, Leclerc had muscled team-mate Lewis Hamilton wide at Turn 1, a move that dropped Hamilton to eighth and lit up the team radio.

“Charles pushed me off,” Hamilton snapped over the airwaves, his frustration clear.

The stewards chose not to investigate, but the damage to Ferrari’s early rhythm was done. George Russell in the Mercedes seized control, sweeping past surprise polesitter Pierre Gasly’s Alpine to take the lead.

Leclerc, meanwhile, was sent to the medical centre for precautionary checks after the heavy hit. He was later cleared and released without injury, but his race was already over, the dream of a Monza charge evaporating before strategy or tyre management could even come into play.

When the repairs were complete, the field lined up for a standing restart at 15:39 local time. The stoppage allowed teams to change tyres, adding another layer of intrigue to a race that had barely begun yet was already reshaped by chaos.

Russell led the grid back to life, with Gasly alongside and Max Verstappen and Franco Colapinto poised just behind, ready to attack into Turn 1. Further back, championship leader Kimi Antonelli had quietly turned damage limitation into opportunity, climbing from 19th on the grid — after an engine penalty — up to 12th by the time the race hit the pause button.

Ferrari’s day, though, had already taken its decisive blow. At Monza, under their own banners, the red car was out, the noise in the grandstands dipping from roar to murmur as the race restarted without its main attraction.