Nothing is lost for Leclerc: 'Starts now with a clean slate'

Joylon Palmer believes that Charles Leclerc will give everything in the coming period to put pressure on Max Verstappen. Despite a large gap in the standings, everything is still possible according to the Briton.

Due to a grid penalty, Leclerc started the Canadian Grand Prix at the back and it was always going to be about damage control for the Ferrari driver. With a fifth place and ten points, that worked out quite well, but Verstappen did run further away again. The Dutchman is now 49 points ahead of Leclerc, almost equal to two races.

Opportunities for Leclerc.

''It's a nice gap, but Charles has now finished his punishment and will start the British Grand Prix with a clean slate and a fresh engine. He will fight really hard,'' says the former F1 driver to Sky Sports. The question, however, is whether this one penalty will be all that Leclerc gets, or whether he will have to take another one in 2022.

It is notable that teams are suffering from a lot of reliability problems this year. Palmer is surprised that this is happening so early in the season. ''I'm just surprised by how many (reliability) problems there are this early in the season. You would expect that towards the end of the year, but that's pretty early,'' the Brit concludes.