The Monegasque driver, however, stressed that his mission in the race in Montreal will be "a little bit more difficult than I was expecting. Ferraris start from the back of the grid after engine changes
Charles Leclerc will start 19th on the grid for the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix. The Monegasque saw Ferrari change his entire engine for the race in Montreal, which led to the punishment. The same happened to Yuki Tsunoda and AlphaTauri - and it is precisely because of the Japanese that the Ferrari driver will not start from last place.
This is because, as they both received bottom-of-the-grid penalties, the best qualifier will start at the front. Tsunoda was eliminated early in qualifying on Saturday (18) - that is, Leclerc didn't even participate in Q2: he jumped out of his F1-75 and left the garage.
"Yuki has a punishment as well, so we just wanted to be ahead of him - so we participated in Q1. It's one less position to gain in the race. I don't know how much it will help, but it was good to do some laps for real on a wet track - obviously, without taking too many risks, I couldn't damage the car for the race," explained the Monegasque.
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With an eye on Max Verstappen and the World Drivers' Championship table, Leclerc reiterated his confidence in the Italian team to quickly get back to the front row at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. However, there is a warning: the mission will not be as simple as initially thought.
"In general, it was okay. The feeling is good. I have to admit: overtaking was a little bit harder than I was expecting. I hope we can climb the field as fast as possible, and the pace at least gives us a good chance to recover," concluded the Monegasque.
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