Leclerc had overtaken Vettel into the first corner but his teammate had the better run onto the following straight and moved back ahead, only to make contact with the sister car as he did so.

While Leclerc had to park immediately with broken suspension, a rear puncture meant Vettel did not get much further.

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Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto suggested "both of them have got at least a small percentage of responsibility" for the clash in an interview with Sky.

"I think the drivers need to feel sorry for the team - because at the end, they were free to fight," added Binotto.

"Free to fight but they know that silly mistakes are something we should avoid for the team itself.

"And today it has been a very small contact I have to say, but there will be time to analyse it, there will be time to look at the video, I don't want to do that in the heat.

"With the drivers, I had already a chat with them and I don't want to judge now, they should not judge now, there will be a time to do it all together."

Both drivers expressed fury about the other over team radio but then calmed by the time they talked to television crews.

"I didn't have much space to the right and obviously had a better run out of Turn 3 and tried to pass, that's it," said Vettel, who called it "a shame for the team obviously".

Leclerc suggested Vettel "started to squeeze me a little bit to the inside, and we were very close. Everything happened very quickly, and as soon as he went to the inside we touched".

But he added: "I'm pretty sure we are mature enough to put that behind us".