Wrong tires cost Ferrari 5,000 euros

Ferrari had previously made an embarrassing mistake: Charles Leclerc was the only driver to be sent out on intermediates in the early stages of FP2. But the Italian team had overlooked an important point: the track had not yet been officially declared as wet, even though light rain had started shortly before the start of the session.

Ferrari makes a mistake in tyre choice: Intermediates illegal

Leclerc left the pits after 1:20 minutes. The “wet track” signal from race control only came about three minutes after the start of the session. According to the sporting regulations, this was a clear violation by Ferrari. Article 30.5 l) states that intermediate and rain tires may only be fitted during practice once this signal has been given.

At the end of the first lap, Leclerc returned to the pits, but by that time the stewards had already identified the green tyres on his car and announced an investigation after the end of the session. A hearing was scheduled, after which the illegal use of the intermediate tyres was confirmed.

Charles Leclerc: Positive training conclusion despite spin

The second training session did not go entirely according to plan either. Leclerc spun in the hairpin, Turn 10, due to the wet conditions. However, nothing was broken. Apart from that, the Monaco winner drew a positive conclusion from the training day: “All in all, I’m happy because we were very competitive in these conditions.”

Leclerc finished fourth in the time table, while his teammate Carlos Sainz was in P13. But due to the constantly changing conditions, the training results are negligible anyway. Ferrari was sometimes considered the favorite before the Canadian GP due to the characteristics of the track and the strong performance in Monaco. But since rain is forecast for qualifying Saturday and race Sunday after the rainy training, that doesn’t necessarily mean much.