Ferrari left Zandvoort with fourth and fifth, and with two drivers who wanted different things from the same pit stop. Lewis Hamilton has since apologised for how he said it. Charles Leclerc has not moved off the call itself. Fred Vasseur has already called the missed undercut his own.
Hamilton and George Russell are level on 183 points for second in the championship. Hamilton finished less than a second behind the Mercedes on Sunday. Leclerc was fifth. Both thought a podium had been sitting in the SF-26.
Hamilton spent laps stuck in the dirty air of Leclerc, who was on older tyres and had not yet stopped. As the wait dragged on the radio went sarcastic - "Great way of wasting time guys, good job" - and Leclerc came in at the end of lap 43.
Monday's Instagram post pulled that temperature down. "I've listened back to some of my radio and TV comments. In the heat of the moment, frustration can come out, especially when you care as deeply as I do. But that wasn't the best version of me. I take responsibility for that, and I'll be better."
The rest of the post kept the fight. "That passion comes from believing in this team, the people in it, and what we're building together. The direction is clear. The belief is there. And the fight is absolutely still on."
Leclerc was arguing about a different problem. He wanted more laps than Russell, not fewer. "I didn't really understand why we had to box so close to George's pitstop," he told Sky Sports. "Because that really was kind of signing to finishing behind George, because with a two or three laps difference, for me there wasn't much I could have done, and I felt like there was a bit more in my tyres."
On the radio, when the first instruction came on lap 42, he pushed back. "What do you mean? This fucks my race if I stop two laps after Russell." He missed the pit entry. The team called him again a lap later.
He was still surprised afterwards. "I was very surprised to box so early when we had done exactly what we wanted," he said. "George was pitting and so that was the time for us to do five, ten laps longer to build a tyre delta and to come back at the end on George. Unfortunately, two laps later I was told to box, which I did I think three laps later."
Vasseur did not hide from the earlier mistake, the undercut on Russell that never happened. "I think it's a lot about execution," he told Sky Germany. "Pace was good and even strong, I think, compared to Mercedes. The issue is that at the second start we lost position on Piastri. We were stuck behind him. We lost a lot of time - and then when we were able to be in front, at one stage we were quite close to the undercut on Russell. But there was a group of cars, a bit of confusion - and we didn't do it. It's our mistake, my mistake."
Alex Brundle, watching it live, judged Hamilton "entirely justified" in leaning on a pit wall that had left him stuck.
Hamilton wanted Leclerc moved. Leclerc wanted the offset Norris used to win. Vasseur wanted an undercut Ferrari never took. The apology is for the tone. The argument is still about the stop. They take both to Monza.