Lewis Hamilton's damning radio message to Charles Leclerc emerges after Mexican GP penalty

A furious Lewis Hamilton was left to vent on the team radio after losing out in a scrap with Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc at the start of the Mexico City GP.

A frantic opening to the race saw controversy from the off. Starting from pole, Lewis Hamilton went wheel-to-wheel while under repeated attacks from Charles Leclerc.

The pair went off after scrapping for a few corners, ultimate meaning Leclerc emerged in first and Hamilton fell to third behind Max Verstappen - leaving the Brit furious.

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Lewis Hamilton left furious with Ferrari F1 teammate Charles Leclerc.

After initially preserving his lead into Turn 1 in Mexico, Lewis Hamilton then found Charles Leclerc in his slipstream going down into Turn 4.

Taking the outside line next to Hamilton, the Monegasque braked later and ploughed straight on, with his teammate also sliding off, but not as far.

Leclerc escaped across the grass and became the new leader, while Hamilton came back onto the track sooner, but was immediately overtaken by Verstappen.

The Brit immediately took to the radio, emphasising how unhappy he was by saying “Got pushed out by my own teammate.”

The incident was investigated by the stewards, but in the meantime it became clear Hamilton was stuck on his slower old soft tyres behind Leclerc and Verstappen.

Eventually the stewards gave Leclerc a 5sec penalty but, in a race where free air is key to keep your car cool, Hamilton was less than impressed.

“Problem with the five second penalty is he’s got clean air,” he said. “He doesn’t have to manage like the rest of us.”

From here, the Brit only became more angry, feeling he’d lost his chance at fighting for the race due to his teammate’s driving.

“The stewards are basically handing Charles this win,” he said, before revealing: “We agreed, in the drivers’ briefing.”

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FIA stewards give their verdict on Lewis Hamilton - Charles Leclerc Mexico City GP incident

The stewards the explained their verdict in the decision document:

"The Stewards have determined that both cars entered turn 4 with excessive speed and therefore neither would have been able to make the corner on track, as demonstrated by the fact that car 44 [Hamilton] which was on the inside, had to go off track to make the corner," it said.

"Car 16 was therefore not entitled to claim the corner due to the excessive entry speed. The driver then completed an overtake whilst off track and accordingly this warrants a penalty. The baseline penalty guideline is 10 seconds however in mitigation is the fact that car 44 was also off track on the inside of car 16 and this occurred early in the first lap."

When the race was then stopped on lap 46 due to a huge crash for Valtteri Bottas, Hamilton was clearly still furious.

"We've got big problems," he said on the Ferrari radio. "Big, big problems."