Lewis Hamilton agrees with bold claim on how Charles Leclerc races Ferrari team-mates

Lewis Hamilton has agreed with the claim that Charles Leclerc races him "harder" than he does against other F1 drivers.

Hamilton and Leclerc's partnership at Ferrari has been a hot topic of conversation in the days following the Mexico City Grand Prix, after their clash on the first lap threw away the chance to secure a 1-2 finish.

The post-mortem on the incident started in the immediate wake of the battle at Turn 4 of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, and in the aftermath of the race, some choice words were said, in particular from Hamilton and Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur. 

In that analysis, Leclerc has generally come off worse, but the seven-time F1 drivers' champion is by no means unscathed.

On media day ahead of this weekend's Sao Paulo Grand Prix, he defended his record, but did not stumble over his words on whether he felt his team-mate raced him harder than rivals from different F1 teams.

Asked if it feels that way from where he is sitting, Hamilton bluntly told media, including RacingNews365: "Yes. You can see what you see."

Hamilton: It was the same with Vettel and Sainz

Expanding on his remark, the 41-year-old highlighted how Leclerc backed out of his first corner move on Max Verstappen at the recent Singapore Grand Prix.

The 106-time grand prix winner also pointed to the parallels in how Leclerc fights him, and how he also battled against his previous Ferrari team-mates, Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz.

"Singapore, he was wheel-to-wheel, fully on the inside... he had won the lead into Turn 1, and he backed off. It was definitely different," Hamilton explained.

"But if you look at the team-mates, it's the same with Sebastian. It's the same with Carlos."