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Not only did Charles Leclerc miss all of first practice after crashing early in the session, but he was unable to drive his Ferrari in the second session of the day because of one lesser-known Formula 1 rule
Charles Leclerc is set to miss the second free practice session at the Canadian Grand Prix. That is the unfortunate result of his crash in FP1 earlier on Friday which saw him cause significant damage to his Ferrari.
It damaged both the wheels on the left side of his car and also some of the bodywork. And, crucially, Ferrari mechanics discovered that the impact also damaged the chassis itself, meaning the team’s spare chassis would have been needed if Leclerc was to head out on track in the second session of the day.
But, as team principal Frederic Vasseur said in the press conference held between the two practice sessions, that would be against the rules. And so Leclerc was forced to miss virtually all the running on Friday.
Vasseur said: “When I left the garage, we think that we damaged the chassis and we won’t be able to do FP2, by regulation. We need to do some checks, but I think it’s over for today for Charles.”
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The regulation the Frenchman was referring to is the rule which prevents teams from building up too much of their space chassis before it is needed. As part of that regulation, it is clear that an individual chassis will not be homologated by the FIA until the following day.
And if that scrutineering process is not completed, then the chassis cannot be used. That means Leclerc was forced to sit out the second practice session on Friday and will be playing catch up for the rest of his weekend to his rivals who have had almost two hours more behind the wheel than him.
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Leclerc was fortunately uninjured as a result of the crash and was quick to jump on the radio and accept responsibility for the crash. “I’m in the wall,” he said, before adding: “Yeah, my bad, I should have gone straight. I thought I would just make it but I clipped the wall.”
The crash saw practice stopped immediately as the damaged Ferrari came to rest in the middle of the track after hitting the barrier. There was a brief pause in proceedings as the stricken car was recovered and the circuit cleared of debris before practice was allowed to resume.
Max Verstappen topped the timesheets at the end of that first session of the day. Behind him were the two Williams cars with Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon proving that the layout of the Montreal track is likely to suit them this weekend.
Unusually, both McLaren cars were outside the top six with Lando Norris seventh fastest and Oscar Piastri some way down the timesheets in 14th. But they were testing a new front wing which the team has brought with them this weekend and so their times are unlikely to be representative of their true pace.
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