Lewis Hamilton has slammed his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc’s aggressive racing against him at the Mexico City Grand Prix as a rift threatens to open up at the team

Lewis Hamilton has slammed his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc’s aggressive racing against him at the Mexico City Grand Prix. The seven-time world champion admitted he was “really p*****” and accused Leclerc of working against him during their opening-lap battle.

The two Ferraris were involved in a huge fight in the opening corners of the Grand Prix at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

And their scrap ultimately cost the team the race win as Leclerc and Hamilton both left the track at turn 4 after the Monegasque’s audacious late braking move around the outside allowed Max Verstappen the perfect chance to win the race.

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Verstappen passed Hamilton on track at the exit of turn five and later took the net race lead when Leclerc was given a five second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

Hamilton was incensed by the incident and made clear his anger at Leclerc’s move and the lenient penalty he was given for a move that meant he could race in clean air at the highest track on the F1 calendar.

During a red-flag period caused by Valtteri Bottas’ crash, Hamilton fumed over the team radio: “We’ve got big problems. Big, big problems.”

Speaking to Sky Sports after the race, Hamilton said: “I don’t know what needs to happen now. How we discuss things when we go back – I’m not quite sure how I want to engage in that force of frustrations of today.

“I’m happy because this guy [Antonelli] just won the championship, so I’m really torn because, on one side, I’m happy and, on the other side, I’m really p*****. We lost valuable points. We, as a team, worked so hard. We could have easily had a one-two today. We had the pace to do.

“So we’re going into Turn 4, first and second. If we just held position, I think anything can happen in the race, but when your teammate works against you, and then you lose positions like that, it’s definitely tough.

“So we’ll just talk about it offline, and it’s not really worth saying too much more. We don’t have rules of engagement, and whether or not that will change anything from Charles’ side, I don’t know. We’ve just got to figure it out, but something needs to change, for sure.”

Hamilton was then asked if battling with Leclerc is any different to his previous head-to-heads with George Russell and Nico Rosberg at Mercedes.

He replied: “Not much different, I would say, from any of the others that I’ve been alongside. I think the core thing to remember, which maybe comes with age, is that every decision you make in the car impacts all the people that work in the background, the whole team.

“So working as a team is a part of our job and a part of our contract: we have to work as a team, which we could have easily done today.

“So it’s a shame to see us lose as we did, and that will just continue unless action is taken and a real, deep, serious conversation is had, so it shouldn’t happen moving forward.

“Of course, I’ve had close battles with teammates in the past, and we can’t always get it right. But nine times out of 10, we should be able to.

“So I think we’ll take it offline, and we’ll have some good convos. Hopefully, for sure, it won’t be easy, but it must be done.”

Hamilton also referenced the previous battles that Leclerc had with his former team-mate Carlos Sainz, and suggested that he played more of a team game by not attempting to ‘kamikaze’ Leclerc at Silverstone earlier this season.

He continued: "Before I joined this team, when I was in Mercedes, I watched and witnessed the back and forth between Charles and Carlos [Sainz] for several races where they were battling so much that the person ahead just pulled away, and they had the pace to actually win the race.

"But it's one thing when that's happening for fourth and fifth, as opposed to first and second, and you lose the win. That's significant.

"The guy's 28 years old, so I don't think it's an age thing. I think it's a mentality thing. It's like 'do or die. Like either I win or none of us do', and it shouldn't be that. It should be us getting that one-two because it's still a good feeling.

"Silverstone, I could have gone all kamikaze on him and taken him off and lost us the win but instead it was first and third.

"For me, I'm happy for the team to have experienced that. But I'm hopeful we'll work towards a better working place in the future."

Meanwhile, Leclerc said: "Turns One, Two there was a gap and when you're fighting for a win, I will always go for it. Turns Four, Five I broke as late as I possibly could and I guess Lewis did the same and we didn't both make the corner.

"Then in my head it was about giving the position back but then Lewis got overtaken by Max and I thought it was worth it to kind of try and see what happened because it was a very confusing situation. I asked on the radio but I kept my position."

On what happens next at Ferrari, Leclerc said: "I'm sure Lewis definitely hated those first few laps and we'll discuss."

Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli secured the World Drivers’ Championship with four races to go as he finished third on the podium, one spot behind Hamilton and one ahead of Leclerc.