Formula 1 Racing

Yuki Tsunoda gets Canadian GP grid penalty, Charles Leclerc avoids one…for now

Leclerc pips Sainz to top spot, Ricciardo crashes out

Yuki Tsunoda will serve a grid penalty for taking a fourth power unit of the season at the Canadian Grand Prix.

But Charles Leclerc appears to have avoided a penalty – at least for now – after his failed Azerbaijan Grand Prix engine was deemed “beyond repair” by Ferrari.

Tsunoda was among the six drivers listed on the FIA document listing new power unit parts being taken in Montreal.

The Japanese racer has an entire new power unit in his AlphaTauri and it will be his fourth of the 2022 campaign, which automatically means he will start at the back of the grid.

Esteban Ocon, in his Alpine, has a new internal combustion engine (ICE), turbocharger, MGU-H, MGU-K and exhaust, but they are all only his third of the season and therefore no penalty is incurred.

The same as Ocon applies to Kevin Magnussen’s Haas, except for the MGU-K component, while the exhaust system – of which eight are allowed – is his fourth.

Canadian duo Lance Stroll and Nicholas Latifi, meanwhile, take the first of the two new control electronics they are permitted for the campaign, likewise Leclerc and Tsunoda.

But it is Leclerc who will be the subject of most interest over whether he may yet receive a grid penalty, having started on pole position for the past four races but failed to win any of them.

Two of those defeats, in Spain and Azerbaijan, were due to power unit breakdowns and Ferrari announced before the start of free practice in Montreal that the Baku engine was “beyond repair”.

With that power unit now out of the pool of three another will be required at some stage, almost certainly sooner rather than later, and the FIA have already announced Leclerc will have a third ICE in Canada.

However, a previously-used turbocharger in his car means there will be no penalty as things stand.

The question now is whether Ferrari decide to upgrade that turbocharger to a new one and accept the penalty on a circuit where overtaking is not so difficult as at others.

The Sky Sports F1 commentary team appeared to be in agreement that it would happen at some point later in the weekend, with Jenson Button’s opinion being that it would be the correct thing to do.

“I think so,”…

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