Lewis Hamilton has taken full responsibility for causing a collision with Oscar Piastri during the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday, which saw the Mercedes driver penalised.
Starting from eighth, Hamilton was always set to have a challenging race ahead of him, given how challenging overtaking is at Monza.
The seven-time World Champion actually fell to ninth on the opening lap, having started on the Hard compound.
Most started on the Medium, but Hamilton opted for a different strategy.
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This worked in Hamilton’s favour in the second half of the race, as he made up several places.
Hamilton was significantly quicker than those directly ahead of him, including Piastri, who he collided with at the entry to Turn 4.
The 38-year-old and the rookie went side-by-side through Curva Grande, before the 103-time race winner cut across the McLaren driver.
This resulted in damage to Piastri’s front wing and nearly sent Hamilton into the barrier, although the Mercedes driver was lucky to come out of the collision unscathed.
Hamilton was able to continue in the race without pitting for repairs, whilst Piastri was forced to pit from ninth for a new front wing.
The stewards quickly reviewed the incident and deemed it as Hamilton’s fault, resulting in a five-second time penalty.
As Hamilton’s Medium tyres were superior in the closing stages, his time penalty ended up having no effect on his finishing position.
He went onto overtake Lando Norris and Alex Albon for P6, before building a gap of well over five seconds to secure the position.
Piastri ended up finishing outside the points.
Hamilton clearly recognised that the collision with Piastri was his fault, as the veteran was seen apologising to the Australian driver immediately after climbing out of his W14.
He also took full responsibility of the collision when speaking to the media, and openly admitted that he “misjudged the gap”.
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“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.”