Ferrari “forgot” to tell Leclerc about Vettel’s penalty

Mattia Binotto has admitted that Ferrari “forgot” to inform Charles Leclerc about teammate Sebastian Vettel’s penalty during Formula 1’s Canadian Grand Prix.

Vettel was handed a five-second time penalty for returning to the track in an unsafe manner after running wide at Turn 3 and skating across the grass into the path of Lewis Hamilton, who was forced to slam on his brakes to avoid contact between the pair.

The German retained track position over Hamilton and crossed the line in first place, only to be demoted down to second - one place ahead of Leclerc - once the controversial time penalty had been applied.

“It was a mistake from our side,” Binotto conceded in Ferrari’s post-race media debrief.

“We are very busy on the pit wall. We forgot. We should have done it but we didn’t.”

Leclerc missed out on leapfrogging Vettel into second place by less than two seconds but doubts he would have been able to make up the deficit in the time remaining even if he had been made aware of the situation.

Asked if he would have changed his approach, Leclerc replied: "No. Because anyway I was pushing very hard to try to catch up.

"I saw they were fighting and I saw they were close at least, and I saw also that we were quite quick and catching up.

"I was pushing hard so that if anything happened I had the opportunity to be as close as possible to do so. So no, it would not have changed my approach."