Charles Leclerc learned an ‘uncomfortable’ Lewis Hamilton lesson at the Monaco Grand Prix

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Charles Leclerc suffered his latest home heartbreak by crashing in the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix, and Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton finishing P2 did not help his despair.

The little Prince of the Principality found the wall into Anthony Noghes on Lap 64 on Sunday, as he went straight on under braking for the final corner. It looked like Leclerc had suffered a similar fate to Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, but the Ferrari ace blamed his crash on his brakes.

Stroll brought out the first safety car period during Sunday’s Monaco GP when he crashed at the final corner after losing control on the marbles from the tarmac breaking up. Leclerc had an almost identical crash at the restart while he ran in third behind his teammate, Hamilton.

Charles Leclerc has realised that his dominance over Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari is over

Leclerc felt his brake issue during the Monaco GP was “borderline dangerous”, as he claimed only one of his four brakes was working. The Monegasque’s claim “surprised” Ferrari’s brake supplier, Brembo, which put out a statement noting it was “premature” to apportion blame.

READ MORE: The five worst moments of Charles Leclerc’s Formula 1 career

But on top of Leclerc crashing out of the Monaco GP as he sought to celebrate signing a new contract for Ferrari with a home podium, Hamilton finishing P2 dealt him an ‘uncomfortable lesson’. That is according to Gazzetta dello Sport, which notes that Leclerc left the streets he calls home realising that his dominance over Hamilton at Ferrari has very much met its end.

Leclerc enjoyed total control over Hamilton in their head-to-head last year, after the Briton struggled to adapt to Ferrari’s ways of working and their car in the final year of the ground-effect era after joining from Mercedes. But Hamilton is now very comfortable in Maranello.

While his first year in red saw Hamilton give Ferrari documents with the changes he wanted the team to make to help him and improve as a squad, the 41-year-old offered the Scuderia ‘constant messages of appreciation’ in Monaco after matching his best result in red to date.

Hamilton has also finished in front of Leclerc in back-to-back Grands Prix for the first time as teammates. The seven-time F1 champion even now looks more at one with the Ferrari SF-26 under braking than Leclerc, who has revealed that he will change his approach in Barcelona.

Leclerc will copy Hamilton’s braking set-up in Barcelona this weekend, as he searches for an answer to his problems after also encountering “inconsistency” in Canada. In particular, the 28-year-old was left questioning his front brakes in Monaco. But it appears that Leclerc also has wider questions about how Hamilton has gained the ascendancy at Ferrari this season.

All of the challenges that Hamilton endured as he changed teams after 12 years at Mercedes helped Leclerc to beat the Briton 19-5 in their Grand Prix qualifying head-to-head and 18-3 for race results when at least one finished. Yet through six rounds in 2026, they are tied 3-3 in qualifying and Hamilton leads Leclerc 4-2 for race results, along with on 90 points to 75.