Race Control noted, although very briefly, Kimi Antonelli and Esteban Ocon’s potential role in what Jenson Button called an “unusual” crash for Lewis Hamilton late in FP3.

With his team-mate Charles Leclerc having just gone fastest in final practice for the Monaco Grand Prix, Hamilton chased a late improvement to join him at the front of the timesheet.

Contributing factors in Lewis Hamilton’s Monaco crash revealed

However, the seven-time World Champion lost the rear of his SF-25 through Massenet and slapped the barrier with the rear-right, before the front-right also hit.

Sliding along the barrier, his Ferrari came to a halt with the red flags out, which brought practice to a premature end.

Hamilton: “Guys, I hit the wall. Damn… Sorry guys.”

Hamilton appeared to be spooked by two cars ahead of him in the traffic, the Mercedes of Antonelli and the Haas of Ocon.

Race Control noted the ‘incident involving cars 12 (ANT), 31 (OCO) and 44 (HAM)’, but quickly cleared the drivers with no further action required.

Jenson Button says it was just a mistake, although an “unusual” one, from Hamilton.

F1 2025: The season’s winners and losers

👉 The results of the F1 2025 championship

👉 The updated Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship standings

“It looked all under control, but it looked to be in mid-corner it gave up,” he told Sky F1, before putting forward the loss of downforce because of the car’s ahead as a contributing factor.

“It was an unusual mistake from Lewis.

“When the car is already on the limit and loses that downforce, you’re into the wall. A shame.”

His fellow pundit Karun Chandhok noted that on the lap that Hamilton crashed, the seven-time World Champion took a slightly different line into Massenet.

“He’s slightly wider,” he said. “Then he gets that snap of oversteer.

“I think, as Jenson was saying, he did lose a bit of downforce perhaps from the cars in front [Antonelli and Ocon]. As he gets that snap, you can see the car just in front of him so a little bit of dirty air so I think that was a factor in there.

“But,” he add, “it’s because he’s gone for a tighter line.

“It’s a tighter angle, you’re loading the tyres, the tyres have done a bit more running as well. And then he gets that snap and at that stage, it’s very hard to recover.

“I do think there was an element of just being on a slightly different trajectory on the way in that was a contributing factor as well as a little bit of the dirty air.

“Lewis put his hands up, he made a mistake, and hopefully the car will be ready for qualifying.”

Ferrari are in a race against time to repair his car, and perhaps change the gearbox, in time for qualifying.

Read next: Monaco GP: Hamilton bins his Ferrari as Leclerc goes P1 and FP3 raises qualy tyre questions