Lewis Hamilton crash sees Monaco GP session called off early as Charles Leclerc swears

Lewis Hamilton swore loudly after he crashed in the dying minutes of final practice at the . His accident brought an early end to the session as the red flags flew with his stricken stranded on track.

It happened as the Brit attempted what was likely to be his final flying lap of the session, with less than two minutes left. But only made it through two corners before, when he came to the third, he lost control and the Ferrari slid into the barriers.

The impact caused a significant amount of damage beyond the obvious, which was two punctured tyres on the right side of the car. But there were also various pieces of shrapnel which broke off the car while Ferrari will also worry about any damage to his gearbox.

Hamilton was unhurt but annoyed as he reacted in real time to his mistake. ""F*** guys, I hit the wall," he reported over the radio, before adding: "Damn, sorry guys," clearly feeling guilty about the error which left his mechanics with work to do before qualifying.

Sign up to our free weekly F1 newsletter, Pit Lane Chronicle, by entering your email address below so that every new edition lands straight in your inbox!

And his team-mate also turned the air blue when he learned who it was who had caused the red flag, which meant no-one could get in a practice start at the end of the session. "Who did you say crashed?" he asked his race engineer, replying: "F***," when told it was Hamilton.

Commenting on the incident live for , 2009 F1 champion said: "It looked all under control on the way in and it seemed to be mid-corner that the rear [tyres] gave up. It's an unusual mistake for Lewis.

READ MORE:

READ MORE:

"It happens in that sort of corner, but he was definitely affected by the cars in front. If you lose downforce that way when the car is already on the limit – and the rear is through there – you just lose that bit of downforce and go into the wall. It's a shame."

But to improve the mood at Ferrari, Leclerc in particular was able to show strong pace again. The Monegasque had warned that his team were likely to struggle on the low-speed street circuit in his homeland, but completed a hat-trick of practice session successes after topping the timesheets at the end of all three one-hour sessions in the lead up to qualifying.

Hamilton ended FP3 fifth on the timesheets, over half-a-second slower than his team-mate. Leclerc had anticipated that Ferrari would struggle in particular in the slow corners, and the data proved him right, though he was dominating enough in the faster sections of the Monte Carlo circuit to more than make up for it.

But there will be plenty of threats in the hunt for pole. was second quickest after typically found much more pace overnight compared to what they managed on Friday, while will also expect to have both their drivers in the hunt with Brit looking to deny everyone else, including team-mate and championship leader .