Leclerc confident of penalty avoidance after "my mistake" crash

Charles Leclerc has accepted his crash in FP2 at the Mexico City Grand Prix was "my fault" but is confident of avoiding further hurt this weekend.

The Ferrari driver crashed heavily at turn eight after 32 minutes of the Pirelli tyre test in second practice.

But despite the impact causing significant damage to the rear of his car, Leclerc believes the raft of spare power unit components built up across three grid penalties suffered this year will be sufficient to avoid any further pain.

"I don't think any of it will compromise us," said Leclerc.

"I think we have enough pieces now with all of the penalties that we have had in the past, so it should be fine."

READ: Norris sides with Verstappen with F1 crash warning

The Monegasque was second-fastest in the opening session of the weekend and trailed only team-mate, Carlos Sainz.

"To be honest, the feeling is good," added Leclerc. "We were pretty unlucky in FP1 on my side.

"I had a puncture on the out lap so didn't get many laps, but the few that I have done, I was happy with the car.

"In FP2, the same on the short runs. Then I lost the rear at the start of the high-fuel so had a limited amount of laps but that was my mistake. I'm confident it won't hurt our weekend.

"In FP2, we tried something on my car which I didn't particularly like, so I wasn't as much at ease with the car as I was in FP1. But I know what to do so am confident that the performance will be there."

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