Charles Leclerc issued a grovelling apology to team-mate Sebastian Vettel as Ferrari’s crisis-hit campaign took another sorry twist in Austria.
Less than a mile into Sunday’s Styrian Grand Prix, both scarlet cars were effectively eliminated after Leclerc smashed into Vettel on the opening lap.
Leclerc attempted to overtake Vettel at the third corner but instead collided with the German.
The force of the impact ripped off Vettel’s rear wing and the four-time world champion was forced to retire.
Leclerc stopped for repairs and attempted to solider on in his wounded car before he too was forced to park up.
It marked the second time in four appearances that the Ferrari drivers have taken each other out of a race, following last year’s embarrassing coming together in Brazil.
“What happened today is clearly my fault, and there’s nothing else to say,” said Leclerc, 22.
“I take full responsibility. I made a mistake and apologising is not enough.
“I was so eager to do well for the team and I thought I might be able to gain three or four places and I went for it. But in fact the opportunity wasn’t there.
“We are going through a difficult time and we don’t need this. I have apologised to the team and to Seb, who didn’t do anything wrong.
“I let everyone down today and I am very sorry.”
Team principal Mattia Binotto is under enormous pressure at the Scuderia, with this year’s car miles off the pace.
Leclerc started 14th on Sunday, four spots behind Vettel, who is leaving Ferrari at the end of the year after the Italian team chose not to renew his contract.
“It is very painful to see both our cars back in the garage after just a couple of laps,” said Binotto.
“It’s the worst possible end to a weekend that was already very disappointing.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here