Charles Leclerc sets target after "inevitable" Ferrari grid penalty

Charles Leclerc has revealed he is targeting a top-four finish at the Canadian Grand Prix after being hit with an "inevitable grid penalty.

Leclerc had been set to drop 10 places at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve after a new control electronics unit was fitted to the F1-75 after practice on Friday, the third of the season when only two are permitted under the regulations.

But a full back-of-the-grid penalty was confirmed when Ferrari opted to switch to a new ICE, turbocharger, MGU-H and MGU-K.

Leclerc says P4 possible in Montreal

Leclerc qualified 15th in a token run plan aimed at jumping AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda, who will also take a back-of-the-grid penalty and referring to his race prospects, the Monégasque said: "We will try to make the best out of it tomorrow and then hopefully we can have no more reliability issues any more and focus on ourselves and catch the Red Bulls in the championship.

"It was a bit more difficult to overtake than I initially thought [in practice], but overall I think we've got quite a good pace in the car if we play it smart with the strategy, having some clean air, we can come back to P4 or something, so that is the goal and I'll give it everything."

While the pain in Montreal will be significant for Leclerc and Ferrari, he believes they made the right decision in taking their punishment in one dose.

"We knew it, we got ready straight from FP1 to try to plan things in order to prepare the race as much as possible because we knew we would start last. I think we did the right choice. "It makes it a bit harder for us but it's inevitable. There is disappointment but on the other hand I knew it was coming, I half expected it.

"I don't know if there will be any more penalties other than that. Overall I think it's the best we could have done.

"It's not a good situation to be in but I guess we took the right decision to put it all on one race instead of having multiple races with 10-place grid penalties.

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