Leclerc doesn’t blame Ferrari’s strategy, but rues his own mistake in qualifying instead

Having finished the Canadian Grand Prix in a distant fifth place, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was left to rue his own mistake in qualifying for his disappointing result at Montreal.

Despite struggling for pace on Friday, Hamilton displayed a strong performance in qualifying. Although he was unable to challenge for pole position, he managed to secure fifth place on the grid, and hoped to be able to fight for a podium finish at Montreal.

The British driver started on the mediums, and managed to stay with championship leader Oscar Piastri in the early stages of the race. However, he accidentally hit a groundhog which meant that he picked up significant floor damage.

As a result of the incident, Hamilton lost pace as the laps went on, though he was able to cross the line sixth come the chequered flag.
His team-mate Charles Leclerc started only from P8 on the grid after a mistake on his final push lap in Q3.

The Monegasque elected to start the 70-lap race on Pirelli’s hards. Although he found himself second after the frontrunners made their first pit stop, Ferrari elected to call him in for a second set of hards despite the fact that his tyres were in a relatively good shape.

Leclerc ultimately did not have the pace to climb back to the top cars, but he gained a place courtesy of the collision between McLaren team-mates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to finish fifth at Montreal.

Commenting on his race, Leclerc noted: "P5 was the best we could do today. We could maybe have tried to do something different with the strategy, but at the end of the day, it wouldn’t have changed much for the outcome of the race. Most of all, our starting position was what put us at a disadvantage.

"It’s quite a specific track, so I don’t think that too much of what we saw in terms of performance will carry on to the coming races. We will regroup and come back stronger."

Pressed on to reveal whether a one-stop strategy would have completely changed his race, Leclerc stated that the real issue was his mistake in the final qualifying segment.

“I don't know in terms of results. I was kind of I was pretty sure one stop would be better on my side. I thought I had done a good job with the tyres at first and then I was seeing around in the first scene that the medium runners were actually pretty confident to push on those tyres.

"So yeah, I was quite confident that the one stop was the way to go, but then we decided to do otherwise, which I don't have all the informations inside the car.

“So we stick to the two stops, tried my best. P5 is the best we could do eventually. I think we are paying the price of my mistakes in FP1 and of the traffic in qualifying and, I'm probably the first one to blame for these two.

“So, I don't have much to add. I think today strategy maybe could have been better, but eventually I think the starting position is what hold us back today,” commented the Monegasque.